Oxford United have appointed Des Buckingham as their head coach.

The 38-year-old was born in Oxford and played for the U's youth sides before joining the coaching staff aged 18.

He progressed to first-team coach under Chris Wilder a decade ago before coaching overseas and leaves his role as boss of Indian side Mumbai City.

Buckingham has signed what the club describe as a "long-term contract" and replaces Liam Manning, who left to join Bristol City last week.

"There was a huge amount of interest in the role but, from the moment we met Des, he became our number one choice," chief executive Tim Williams told the club website.

"We had a very clearly defined set of criteria to ensure we found the right cultural fit for Oxford United.

"Des knows the club and city already, understands what we are trying to achieve, and we feel is the right person to build on the club's progress to date."

Saturday's 3-2 win at Leyton Orient left Oxford second in League One, one point behind leaders Portsmouth after 16 matches.

After last leaving the Kassam Stadium in 2014, Buckingham joined A-League side Wellington Phoenix as assistant manager before taking over as manager in 2017 aged 31.

A short spell coaching Stoke City's under-23 side followed in 2017 but he returned to New Zealand the following year to coach the national side's under-20s and under-23s, and act as assistant manager for the senior team.

In 2020 he was appointed assistant manager of Melbourne City, helping them land the double in his first season, before moving to another City Group club, Mumbai, in October 2021, winning the Indian Super League for the first time in February and leading the side in the Asian Champions League.

"I couldn't be happier that Des has agreed to become our new head coach," chairman Grant Ferguson added.

"His approach to coaching and developing players is a perfect match for the vision we have for the club."

A prodigal son returns home after leaving to make a name for himself in the world.

Since realising he wasn't making the grade as a player at his hometown club, he's been a teacher, an academy coach at Oxford United - who worked his way up to first team coach under Chris Wilder. He coached in New Zealand - guiding the nation's under-23 side to the Olympic Games - in Australia and then India, where he won the Super League. He's got himself a Master's degree and even a pilot's licence.

Once Liam Manning departed as head coach, Buckingham was the continuity candidate from the off. Part of the City Football Group, where Manning cut his teeth, Buckingham's work in Melbourne and Mumbai may not have provided him EFL experience, but did showcase his style of play and proved him a winner. He is also the same age as Manning.

Buckingham has never stopped caring about his hometown club. Oxford fans will have one of their own as manager. That, of course, is not a guarantee of success. It does mean they will be desperate for it to work - for him, as much as for the club in general.

Scunthorpe United have exchanged contracts with former owner Peter Swann to buy back their Glanford Park home.

Former board member Michelle Harness took over the National League North side last month after David Hilton, who bought the club from Swann in January, withdrew all funding.

There was some uncertainty over where the Iron would play their home matches before a deal was agreed with Swann.

They hope to have the deal for the ground complete by the end of November.

"As a board of directors, we are ecstatic to announce that we have exchanged contracts for the purchase of Glanford Park," the club said in a statement.

"The monumental effort from all involved, both in this process, and to keep the club running on a day-to-day basis, has not gone unnoticed, and we express our unwavering gratitude for the support which has been a driving force behind these positive outcomes."

Scunthorpe, who have suffered successive relegations in the past two seasons, are third in the sixth tier, one point off league leaders Tamworth.

Aberdeen, Scotland is the venue for these championships for both Men and Women from 18 to 25 November. Teams in the A-Division can qualify for the World Curling Championships and two teams are relegated from the A-Division each season.

The Women's teams are Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye. The Scots gained a merited Bronze Medal last year  probably exceeding expectations, due to their relative inexperience. This year they will be challenging for a medal once again, more than likely  against their main rivals Italy, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden.

The Men's teams are Czechia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye. Defending Champions Scotland, again skipped by Bruce Mouat, will be seriously challenged by Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Scotland are represented by
WOMEN Rebecca Morrison (Skip), Jennifer Dodds (Third), Gina Aitken (Second), Sophie Jackson (Lead) and Sophie Sinclair (Alternate).
MEN Bruce Mouat (Skip), Grant Hardie (Third), Bobby Lammie (Second), Hammy McMillan (Lead) and Kyle Waddell (Alternate).

The Dewars Centre, Perth, Scotland is hosting the B Division Championships for both Men and Women from 18 to 25 November. Two teams are promoted to the A Division and two are relegated to the C Division.

The 10 Women's teams are Austria, Belgium, England, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. England should be good enough to comfortably stay in the B Division and might, just might, win a medal.
England are represented by regulars Anna Fowler (Skip), Hetty Garnier (Third), Angharad Ward (Second), Naomi Robinson (Lead) and Lisa Farnell (Alternate).

The 16 Men's teams are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine and Wales. The three Home Nations should be able to stay in this Division and I'd say that Ireland would be more likely to reach the later stages.
England's team are Rob Retchless (Skip), Jotham Sugden (Third), Scott Gibson (Second), Jonathan Havercroft (Lead) and Felix Price (Alternate).
Ireland have their usual team of John Wilson (Skip), Kyle Paradis (Third), James Russell (Second), Craig Whyte (Lead) and Eoin McCrossan (Alternate).
Wales' team is James Pougher (Skip), Rhys Phillips (Third), Garry Coombs (Second), Simon Pougher and Martin Lloyd (Alternate).

Lincoln City have appointed Leeds United Under-21 boss Michael Skubala as their head coach.

Skubala led Leeds' first team for three games last season after Jesse Marsch was sacked, but this is his first managerial role in senior football.

The 41-year-old, who has worked in various coaching jobs spanning over 20 years, replaces Mark Kennedy, who left the club last month.

The Imps are ninth in League One, four points adrift of the play-offs.

Skubala's first game in charge will be away to Stevenage on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

Imps chief executive Liam Scully said that results were not the reason for Kennedy leaving the club and under interim head coach Tom Shaw, Lincoln collected eight points from five games.

Before joining Leeds in the summer of 2022 Skubala had worked in a variety of roles, including as England Under-18 coach and head coach of the England futsal team.

Lincoln chairman Clive Nates described Skubala as a "progressive appointment" who matches the Imps' ethos on developing players and a style of play.

"We are confident Michael will develop our talented squad and evolve our identity in the direction set by the club, while delivering winning football," he told the club's website.

"Together our ambition is to challenge at the top of League One."

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. St Charles Owl = 314 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 294 pts
   
3. jjamez = 273 pts
   
4. themaclad = 263 pts
   
5. neonfoxinthebox = 259 pts
   
6. theo_luddite = 252 pts
   

Saturday 25th November:
Town v Southampton
Town scorers:
Southampton scorers:
(have to insist if putting Armstrong to score, you have to say whether it's Adam or Stuart)

Tuesday 28th November:
Cardiff City v West Bromwich Albion
Coventry City v Plymouth Argyle
Hull City v Rotherham United
Middlesbrough v Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers v Stoke City
Watford v Norwich City

Wednesday 29th November:
Sunderland v Town
Town scorers:
Sunderland scorers:

Blackburn Rovers v Birmingham City
Leeds United v Swansea City
Sheffield Wednesday v Leicester City
Southampton v Bristol City
Ipswich Town v Millwall

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Manchester City v Liverpool (12:30)

Monday:
Fulham v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Champions League:
Tuesday:
Paris Saint Germain v Newcastle United

Wednesday:
Galatasaray v Manchester United (17:45)



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

1. Lord Snooty = 285 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 261 pts
   
3. WakeyTerrier = 251 pts
   
4. Devongone = 242 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 220 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 200 pts
   

Friday 24th November:
Rotherham United v Leeds United

Saturday 25th November:
Town v Southampton
Town scorers:
Southampton scorers:
(have to insist if putting Armstrong to score, you have to say whether it's Adam or Stuart)

Birmingham City v Sheffield Wednesday
Bristol City v Middlesbrough
Leicester City v Watford
Millwall v Coventry City
Norwich City v Queens Park Rangers
Plymouth Argyle v Sunderland
Preston North End v Cardiff City
Stoke City v Blackburn Rovers
Swansea City v Hull City
West Bromwich Albion v Ipswich Town (17:30)

Wednesday 29th November:
Sunderland v Town
Town scorers:
Sunderland scorers:

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Newcastle United v Chelsea

Sunday:
Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa (14:00)

Champions League:
Tuesday:
Lazio v Celtic (17:45)

Wednesday:
Arsenal v Lens


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

Woking have sacked manager Darren Sarll following eight defeats in their last 10 games.

The National League side are 14th in the table after Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Oxford City.

Sarll, 40, was appointed in March 2022 and guided Woking to fourth last year.

"The club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Darren for one of the club's most successful seasons in recent history," Woking said in a statement.

"We wish him well in his future endeavours both on and off the pitch."

Sarll, who spent his entire playing days in non-league football, previously managed in the English Football League with Stevenage and was in charge of fellow non-league side Yeovil before moving to Woking.

The Cardinals' poor run comes after they only lost twice in their opening 10 games this season.

Assistant manager Ian Dyer, who also had temporary charge following the departure of Alan Dowson in 2022, will lead the side for the next two fixtures which are both at home to Oldham and Chesterfield.

Chester's players had a day to remember - and forget - in Saturday's National League North game at Darlington.

On the pitch, it did not go too well as the Seals were 3-0 down at half-time, had six booked and one sent off as their four-game winning league run came to an end.

But it was hardly a surprise after such an eventful motorway journey to the north-east.

The Chester team bus suffered a tyre blowout just past Birch Services on the M62 but the fans' coach was travelling behind them - and the supporters came to the rescue.

The players got off the team bus, boarded the coach with the fans - and were then transported 24 miles on to the next services at Hartshead Moor, while the team bus driver waited behind to attend to the puncture.


The team bus, duly repaired, then reappeared to cart the players the remaining 82 miles to Blackwell Meadow, Darlington.

Having arrived in time for the scheduled 15:00 GMT kick-off, Callum McIntyre's side were then caught cold by strugglers Darlo in a nightmare first half.

But they made up for it with a second-half revival, including 10 minutes of added time, in which Chester nearly grabbed a draw.

And they hope they will be fully back on track when they make the same journey up the M62 for their next game this Tuesday night - the FA Cup first round replay with York City, after drawing 0-0 at the Deva Stadium a week ago.

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. St Charles Owl = 304 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 290 pts
   
3. jjamez = 255 pts
   
4. neonfoxinthebox = 247 pts
   
5. themaclad = 247 pts
   
6. theo_luddite = 236 pts
   

European Championship Qualifying:
Thursday 16th November:
Georgia v Scotland (17:00)

Friday 17th November:
England v Malta
Poland v Czech Republic

Saturday 18th November:
Armenia v Wales (14:00)

Sunday 19th November:
Liechtenstein v Luxembourg (19:45)

Monday 20th November:
North Macedonia v England
Northern Ireland v Denmark

Tuesday 21st November:
Greece v France
Wales v Turkey

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
League Two:
Milton Keynes Dons v AFC Wimbledon (12:30)
Notts County v Bradford City (12:30)
Accrington Stanley v Wrexham



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

1. Lord Snooty = 267 pts
   
2. ritchiebaby = 243 pts
   
3. WakeyTerrier = 235 pts
   
4. Devongone = 224 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 214 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 182 pts
   

European Championship Qualifying:
Thursday 16th November:
Georgia v Scotland (17:00)
Cyprus v Spain (17:00)

Friday 17th November:
England v Malta
Finland v Northern Ireland (17:00)

Saturday 18th November:
Netherlands v Republic of Ireland (19:45)

Sunday 19th November:
Scotland v Norway (19:45)

Monday 20th November:
North Macedonia v England
Ukraine v Italy

Tuesday 21st November:
Wales v Turkey

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
League Two:
Harrogate Town v Swindon Town

National League:
Southend United v Chesterfield

Scottish Championship:
Dunfermline v Inverness Caledonian Thistle


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

Here is the Christmas thread in rememberance of our old friend and avid poster Madsteve R.I.P .

Last Xmas saw us take 9pts from 3 away games and 2 home games and we went unbeaten for the first time i can remember    although it was in the pub league against poor teams it was quite good by our standards  

This season looks a hell of alot harder on paper and very congested with 4 away games and 3 home games against teams we hardly ever win against even when we where a good performing club back in the day   

The future looks very unstable with the owner we have for the coming year as he could blow away any positive steps forward with 10 steps backwards      so i dont think its even worth contemplating till hes sold up 


So on to the games! Stoke and Norwich Away stick out as the hardest with Qpr and Cardiff at home the easiest although we know it never works out like what the paper its written on 

Post Birmingham and Leicester still to play before this period but we are chasing 9pts at the moment and i dont think it will be any better when these fixtures do start  meaning we will have to take at least 13pts from 21 pts to be anywhere near bothering about investing in the transfer market anything less now and it will just be a waste of more time and money because i just cant get my head around building a team in the championship that will be a complete and utter waste of time on the pub leagues sunday parks 


We went into an xmas period a few years back and saved ourselfs from relegation but we wasnt 9pts a drift at the bottom    i think the writings on the wall its over im afraid zipper head has made us into a pub league team 


FIXTURES


H. Blackburn Dec 2nd Sat 3pm Result 3-1 Cads, Johnson,Windass 2 yellow cards 2pts

A. Stoke Dec 9th Sat 3pm Result 0-1 musaba 3 yellows 3pts

A. Norwich Dec 13th Wed 7.45pm Result 3-1 Cads 1yellow card 1pt

H. QPR Dec 16th Sat 3pm Result 2-1 Cads, Musaba 5 yellow cards 5pts

H. Cardiff Dec 23rd Sat 3pm Result 1-2 Musaba 3 Yellow cards 3 pts

A. Coventry Boxing Day Tues 3pmResult 2-01 yellow 1 pt1Red 3pts

A. PNE Dec 29th Fri 7.45pmResult 0-1 Johnson 2 yellows 2 pts1 Red 3pts


Rules: Only the correct results win points there are no nearest and the results predictions are the same as usual ....copying is allowed 

1. Total points from the matches     

2. Total Goals we will end up with using for and against GD     

3. Total amount of cards picked up as a team Red counts as 3pts and Yellow as 1pt     

4. Top goal scorer     

5.Predictions for the 7 matches HOME AWAY DRAW etc     


Predict as following please dont be smart arses or dickheads 

1.+1
2.12pts
3.23pts
4. Cads & Musaba
5. HAHHAHA



I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year enjoy the holidays 

Predictions need to be in or modified before Nov 30th this is basically a day after the leicester game!... All points will be moved over to the leagues predictions in the new year 

Note no christmas emojis where used as i couldnt find the f@ckers