Premier League

Stairs        16pts 1CS 5CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Blue            7pts 0CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Derby          5pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Minizin        5pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Zinman        4pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Snooty        4pts 0CS 5CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Sanjay        3pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
SCO            3pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB

So we come to the last week of the season and the much anticipated final scramble to secure titles/avoid relegation just didn't happen with the penultimate week failing to deliver much excitement. With one exception it was an ordinary week - just 4 points separating 7 of the players so not much is going to change in the overall table.

The exception was Stairs who scored on a week's high of 5 games and got a maximum on his rarely played gamball - the only player to predict a Huddersfield vistory. He has only chosen to play the gamball 4 times this season but has managed to score on 50% of those, better than the gamball leader, Zinman with 41%.

Not much to say about everybody else, so I won't.

On to the penultimate overall table.

Derby 301
Minizin 294
Zinman 292
Stairs 287
Blue 255
Sanjay 240
SCO 224
Snooty 217

No changes this week. Derby heads into the final set of games having cleared the 300 point barrier but with just a 7 point gap ahead of Minizin who is just 2 points clear in the battle of the Zins. Stairs has lifted himself into contention but will he regret being so conservative in his use of the gamball (though I have a feeling this week may see him play it again)? Blue looks to be safe ahead of Sanjay in the battle to avoid the play-off with both SCO and Snooty staring relegation in the face.

However don't lose heart. I seem to remember Zinman overturning an 18 point gap in the last week of the season a few years ago to secure the title - probably the reason Beefy left us! Through the season the average gap between top and bottom of the weekly table has been 14 points (there's a new stat for you!) so there's still hope.


Amelia 24pts 2CS 4CR 10GB 3BB 1SB
Dingle 22pts 3CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Twerton 8pts 1CS 5CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Lady Jane 6pts 0CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Themaclad 6pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
BaggieOne 2pts 0CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
BBB 1pts 1CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
AAA 0pts 0CS 0CR 0GB 0BB 0SB

Well so much for people making key moves as we head into the last week!!  The top two this week are the book ends of the table, Amelia posted her season high score for the 2nd time in 4 weeks with a fabulous 24 points!!  She got a spot on Gamball, backed it up with the Bonus, the only player to score points on it this week and added 4 more scoring games!  Where has this form been all season, has she secretly brought in Colin to advise her on the run in bearing in mind the job he has done at Huddersfield??  Dingle is second with a fine 22 points, he too got a spot on Gamball but missed on his bonus, big week at the perfect time!!

Big drop to 3rd where we find Twerton with 8 points, story of his season though by missing on both Balls!!  Lady Jane and Themaclad had nondescript weeks with 6 points each, BaggieOne needed better than just the 2 points he got and BBB scored just a single point.

AAA didn't post any predictions so score one less than the lowest score, so that could hurt him in his push for the promotion places!!

341 Dingle
307 Lady Jane
295 AAA
295 BaggieOne
278 BBB
213 Themaclad
205 Twerton
205 Amelia

Dingle has surely secured the title with his great week, it will take a record haul to overtake him now as he has a 34 point lead.  LJ has given herself a good cushion of 12 points in her quest for the second auto promotion spot.  AAA was lucky that BaggieOne had a poor week and he was only able to draw level on points and a final week shoot-out for the PO spot!!

The only other change was Amelia catching back up to Twerton, they too will have a loser take the wooden spoon fight out in the final week.

Cheers
SCO

Gillingham have confirmed club captain Stuart O'Keefe has played his last game for the club.

The 32-year-old former Crystal Palace and Cardiff midfielder has been at Priestfield for the past four years, but has not started a match since February.

Manager Neil Harris still thinks he has got a future in the game.

"He's been a top captain and is still a top player," Harris told BBC Radio Kent.

After 112 appearances since 2019, O'Keefe will not travel to Monday's League Two game at Salford.

"He is going to leave us in the summer for pastures new," Harris added.

"He deserves a special mention, he's my club captain and he's been absolutely outstanding, but it's time for him to have a change.

"He held us together in the first half of the season, when times were tough, off the pitch too. Wherever he goes next year he'll be a credit to them.

"He's a great lad. The first person his new club will phone for a reference is me and he'll get a glowing reference because he's been a top captain and is still a top player."

Gills left-back David Tutonda and winger Alex MacDonald have been offered new contracts at Priestfield while Shaun Williams, Robbie McKenzie and Glenn Morris - voted player of the year - have already agreed new deals.

Swindon Town technical director Sandro di Michele has left the club after less than a year in the role.

Di Michele was appointed in June 2022 to oversee the League Two club's football operations.

His departure was announced less than a day after head coach Jody Morris was sacked following 18 games in charge.

"We would like to place on record our thanks to Sandro for his hard work and contribution during his time with us," Swindon said.

Di Michele was previously head recruitment analyst at Wigan and also worked in the gambling industry in odds compilation and risk management for a bookmaker, before moving into football.

Swindon are 10th in League Two and play Crawley Town at home on 8 May in their final game of this season.

So, we enter the last weekend of the regular prediction season with much to play for (admittedly I haven't looked at last week's scores yet, but I need to keep the hype going). To avoid any possibility of tactical predicting, I would suggest that those involved at the top of the Premiership send their predictions to SCO by private message to SCO, those in the relegation battle to me and those at the top of the Championship to either of us. We will then post them when we have everything - bear in mind that we live in differnt time zones so the posts may be put on this site after the first games have taken place.

Difficult to choose the gamball game but:

Gamball:
Preston -Sunderland

Others:
Bournemouth - Chelsea
Wolves - Villa
Newcastle - Arsenal
West Ham - Man Utd
Nottingham Forest - Southampton
Huddersfield - Reading
Middlesbrough - Coventry
Millwall - Blackburn
Swansea - WBA

It'll be interesting to see if anyone's brave enough to predict Albion getting into the play-offs!

I am sure you have all seen this and it’s not a revelation but I have been proudly watching this programme for many decades enjoying the weekly promotion of West Bromwich Albion and Bobby Taylor

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 7TH MAY KO 12:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Unsurprisingly we won a game that didn't matter as results elsewhere meant it will be the lottery of the playoffs instead of safe automatic promotion. We took the lead when Gregory fed Smith who finished well into the top corner. Bannan nearly made it 2, but saw his effort tipped over the bar. Onto the 2nd half and Smith quickly made it 2, heading in Johnson's cross. We made 3 when Bannan threaded a ball through to Smith who claimed his hat-trick. Shrewsbury didn't offer too much and we saw the game through.

THE MATCH



Our final game and home game of the season as we entertain Derby. Derby need a win to guarantee a playoff spot, if they slip up they could let Peterborough claim that last playoff spot if they win at Barnsley. David McGoldrick is there main threat with 24 goals and 6 assists, not bad for a 35 year old. They are managed by Paul Warne was appointed in September 22 and has a 45% win rate and usually makes it difficult for us when he was Rotherham manager. Be interesting how DM plays this, play the first team and try and knock Derby from the playoffs or rest players for the playoffs.

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 45
DERBY 53  
DRAWS 42

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                                    

DERBY            -                                                        

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

LEIGH DOUGHTY
Daniel Leach and Bhupinder Singh Gill
Fourth Official : Adam Herczeg

THE TEAM

Stockdale
Palmer Iorfa Flint
Adeniran Bakinson Shipston Dele Johnson
Windass Gregory

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Windass

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Owlskev 34
Stateside 27
SCO 25
Imre 22
Wash 21
Maddix 19
Peiowl 16

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Newcastle v Arsenal
West Ham v Manchester Utd
Barnsley v Peterborough
Burton v MK Donuts
Exeter v Morecombe

HAHAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Southend boss Kevin Maher says he needs clarity about the club's future before he can implement plans to improve the playing squad this summer.

The Shrimpers missed out on a place in the National League play-offs despite beating Wealdstone in their last game.

The club is up for sale after a winding-up petition was dismissed in March but non-playing staff have not been paid for the last two months.

"We need to act quickly if we're going to take this on," Maher told BBC Essex.

"We're in a great position as a football department to take it forward and be up at the top end of the table next season.

"That's got to happen quickly, it's a big period coming up now. I know what I need to do, and what we need to do as a staff, but we need clarity on what's happening."

Asked if he was anywhere near getting that clarity, Maher replied: "No."

He was appointed manager in October 2021, having made 386 league appearances for the club between 1998 and 2008.

After finishing 13th last season, Southend were well-placed to secure a play-off spot following an 11-match unbeaten run from mid-September to November.

But they lost all seven games in March and were unable to make up the lost ground, ending up eighth in the table, two points below Bromley.

Maher said he was delighted with the way the team had played for the shirt "despite a lot of stuff they've had to deal with".

And he also paid tribute to supporters after 8,434 turned up at Roots Hall for the Wealdstone game.

"We could have quite easily ended up like [relegated] Scunthorpe and Yeovil and Torquay [given what's happened off the pitch], and that's testament to the people who came in the building 18 months ago and the work that's gone on behind the scenes in terms of recruitment," Maher continued.

"To get eight and a half thousand in Roots Hall, that's what I've had here in the Championship and to do that in National League is unbelievable."

He added: "I work with the players on a day in, day out basis and I know what they're capable of. We need a little help at the right time, which we didn't get, and that's probably why we've come up short."

2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score      
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.

Thursday May 4th:
Town v Sheffield Utd
Town scorers:
United scorers:

Monday May 8th: (all 15:00)
Town v Reading
Town scorers:
Reading scorers:

Birmingham City v Sheffield United
Burnley v Cardiff City
Luton Town v Hull City
Middlesbrough v Coventry City
Millwall v Blackburn Rovers
Norwich City v Blackpool
Preston North End v Sunderland
Queens Park Rangers v Bristol City
Swansea City v West Bromwich Albion
Watford v Stoke City
Wigan Athletic v Rotherham United

Table after Matchday 37:

1. jjamez = 862 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 833 pts
   
3. themaclad = 814 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 809 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 796 pts
   
6. neonfoxinthebox = 778 pts
   
7. Lord Snooty = 742 pts
   
8. ritchiebaby = 711 pts
   
9. SHEP_HTAFC = 704 pts
   
10. Amelia Chaffinch = 690 pts
    
11. Devongone = 656 pts
    
12. WakeyTerrier = 171 pts

Aldershot Town forward Josh McQuoid says he will receive treatment this summer after being diagnosed with a rare cancer in his leg.

The 33-year-old former Northern Ireland international has been diagnosed with sarcoma, which affects the tissues that connect, support and surround other body structures and organs.

McQuoid has continued to play since getting the diagnosis a few weeks ago.

"It's early days but the prognosis so far is positive as it can be," he said.

"It's been a tough few weeks but I'm lucky to have such a great family and group of friends who are supporting me all the way.

"I want to thank my team-mates, the manager and all the staff, who have been supportive at this time."

McQuoid is in his second spell with the Shots, helping them stay in the National League this season, and has previously played for clubs including Bournemouth, Luton and Weymouth.

He added: "Hopefully this message can grow awareness around any lump or bump. It's normally nothing but it's better to be safe than sorry."