Premier League

Stairs 25
Dingle 20
Derby 19
L Jane 12
Zinman 10
Blue B 10
B.B.B. 9
Minizin 6

Best scoring week of the season so far with 111 points in total and 4 players scoring their season high totals.  Stairs leads the way with a top season score of 25 points, he scored on 8 games with 2 CSs including the Bonus and like most a CR on the Gamball.  Not far behind is Dingle with 20 points, he scored on 7 games and managed his first 2 CSs as well.  Just a point back from him is Derby with 19 points, he too scored a maximum on the Bonus.

Bit of a drop to Lady Jane in 4th with 12 points, her best score of the season so far along with a max on the Bonus.  Zinman and Blue shared 5th place with 10 points each.  Zinman continues his good form on the Gamball while Blue became the first player to score the negative point on the Scoreball.

BBB is 7th with 9 points, scored on the Gamball but missed on the Bonus.  Minizin had his worst score of the season and like Blue scored -1 on the Scoreball.

65 Stairs
56 Minizin
50 Derby
47 Zinman
42 Dingle
38 BBB
35 Blue Baggie
32 Lady Jane

Stairs season high score propelled him to the top of the table, 9 points ahead of Minizin.  Derby also gained a place to sit 3rd pushing Zinman down to 4th place.  Dingle jumped 2 spots with his best score of the season, leaving BBB, Blue and Lady Jane in an early relegation fight.

So far in the PL Zinman has scored the most on the Gamball (15), Stairs the most on the Bonus (18) and Dingle the most on the scoreball (4).  BBB (-2) and BlueBaggie (-5) are both negative on their total score from the 3 balls, with Zinman leading the way with 23 points in total. 

Huddersfield v Norwich this week gained the most points of any game so far with 27 while last weeks Gamball, Swansea v Coventry produced the least with -8.  Blue Baggie holds the distinction of the most games scored on with 8 in week 2 (he shares this with Stairs who scored on 8 this week) and the least with just 2 scoring games in week 3.

Cheers
SCO


Championship

BaggieOne  18
Twerton      16
AAA            12
Snooty        11
SCO            11
Themaclad    9
Sanjay          8

This week we have a couple of firsts for the season. Shockingly Twerton fails to claim top spot, pipped by BaggieOne who enjoyed his best week of the season with 18 points from the week's high of 6 correct predictions, including his bonus. Twerton could only (!) manage 2nd place with 16 points. In the first 4 weeks he has scored between 14 and 17 points - great consistency though he also achieved the week's other first for the Championship, losing a point from his scoreball. AAA is another consistent performer with a range of 9 to 12 points so far, this week being his highest.

Snooty and SCO are locked together on 11 points achieved in very different ways. Snooty was one of only 2 players to miss out on the gamball (such faith in Huddersfield) but made up for it with 2 correct scores from 5 correct result predictions. SCO only got 2 predictions correct (he has a bit of an excuse in that he made them some weeks ago) but the 2 he got right were the gamball and a bonus maximum.

Themaclad and Sanjay were the only players not to reach double figures, Sanjay being the only player not to get a correct score this week.

Twerton 62
AAA 43
BaggieOne 38
Themaclad 33
Sanjay 32
SCO 32
Snooty 27

Twerton's strong start continues, now opening up a 19 point gap at the top. The big mover this week is BaggieOne jumping from 6th to 3rd.

Some early season stats:
Unsurprisingly, Twerton heads the gamball scoring having so far collected 19 points with 3 out of 4 correct predictions including 2 maxima. He also has a 100% record on the bonus though hasn't yet gained a maximum - SCO and Themaclad are the only players to have a negative total from this ball.
Nobody has a full set of scoreballs with SCO leading the way with 3 out of 4.

Zin

Gamball:
Brighton - Newcastle

Others:
Sheff Utd - Everton
Birmingham - Millwall
Sunderland - Southampton
Coventry - Watford
Plymouth - Blackburn
Rotherham - Norwich
Bolton - Derby
Crystal Palace - Wolves
Liverpool - Villa

Sadly clashes with the Vuelta and even worse actually have to go to work for two days so will miss a fair bit of it, hopefully also it will get to the last stage due tLiz pegging out last year.
Usually ITV cover this one live

The Villa fans will be looking forward to another goal-fest in the Europa Conference 2nd leg and who could blame them? I hope Unai Emery gives us the same respect as last week and selects a strong team. That way Villa might take their foot off the gas and let us off lightly. If, as I suspect, he treats this game as a trial game for many of his second string players, they will be desperate to show him how good they are. Probably at least half of the Villa first team squad are regular internationalists, so even their second string players will be streets ahead of ours.

As for Hibs, it will be a case of expect the worst and hope for the best. I'd like to think we could get on the scoresheet down there and that would almost be a moral victory. I've never been over-excited about gaining a European place, because the "reward" is being shown how far behind we are in a football sense. Fair enough, the extra revenue helps, but our League form and prospects are much more important.

Thankfully I'll be bowling on Thursday and unable to watch the game.

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

Cup games: In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  

End of season Play Offs: The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.

The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

1. neonfoxinthebox = 63 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 62 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 55 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 54 pts
   
5. themaclad = 49 pts
   
6. jjamez = 43 pts
   

Saturday September 2nd:
West Brom v Town
Town scorers:
WBA scorers:

Sunderland v Southampton (12:30)
Swansea City v Bristol City (12:30)
Coventry City v Watford
Ipswich Town v Cardiff City
Leeds United v Sheffield Wednesday
Stoke City v Preston North End

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Sheffield United v Everton (12:30)

Sunday:
Arsenal v Manchester United (16:30)

Scottish Premiership:
Sunday:
Rangers v Celtic (12:00)

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

1. Lord Snooty = 74 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 59 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 57 pts
   
4. WakeyTerrier = 49 pts
   
5. Devongone = 48 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 43 pts
   

Saturday September 2nd:
West Brom v Town
Town scorers:
WBA scorers:

Birmingham City v Millwall (12:30)
Leicester City v Hull City
Middlesbrough v Queens Park Rangers
Plymouth Argyle v Blackburn Rovers
Rotherham United v Norwich City

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Friday:
Luton Town v West Ham United

Sunday:
Liverpool v Aston Villa (14:00)

Scottish Premiership:
Sunday:
Aberdeen v Hibernian (15:00)

National League:
Saturday:
Aldershot Town v Chesterfield

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

This week's results will be late as me and Chaffers are off for a long weekend in the Midlands, taking in the West Bromwich away game and other Black Country attractions.

Quote:Hibernian have sacked manager Lee Johnson after five defeats in nine games this season.

Is this the right call? Who should Hibs select as a replacement?

Back to Easter Road in the Premiership with a better chance of getting a positive result than against Villa. Main man 0762 has retired, so a suitable replacement is needed quickly. Interim stand-in ritchie is manning the fort manfully, but is he the man for the job?

Tomorrow's visitors are Livingston, who are challenging Hibs for the worst team in the league award. No league goals for them so far, so a game against us looks perfect for them. Joel Nouble seems to be highly thought of by greetin'-faced David Martindale and a definite danger to the Hibs defence. The other big danger to the Hibs defence is themselves, so they'd better get their sleeves rolled up and battle for their places (and possibly futures).

It's virtually impossible to work out what Lee Johnson is thinking, but surely Adam le Fondre (ALF) is worth a start to continue his good scoring form in Scottish football, ready for his saviour act down at Villa Park next week. Youan should also be given a full game so that he can learn to recognise the others in green and white and pass the ball to them before he runs down several blind alleys.