Cheltenham have appointed former Port Vale, Bristol Rovers and Walsall boss Darrell Clarke as their new head coach on a two-year contract.

Clarke was most recently sacked by Port Vale in April, having guided the club to promotion to League One in 2021-22.

The 45-year-old succeeds Wade Elliott who left the Robins last week following a winless start to the season.

Cheltenham are bottom of League One and have yet to score a goal in their first nine league games this season.

Clarke takes over the Gloucestershire club in the midst of a poor run that has seen them take only one point this season so far and go more than 13-and-a-half hours without scoring a goal, setting a new English Football League record.

Assistant manager Kevin Russell, who has been in caretaker charge, will remain in place for the trip to Lincoln on Saturday.

Clarke spent four-and-a-half years at Bristol Rovers, with the club winning successive promotions from the National League to League One.

He joined the Saddlers in May 2019 before leaving to join Port Vale in May 2021.

Eastleigh have appointed Richard Hill as their manager for a third time following his interim spell in charge.

Hill was placed in temporary charge alongside Jason Bristow following the sacking of Lee Bradbury on 26 August.

The Spitfires have taken 11 points from their seven National League games since, with three wins and two draws.

The 60-year-old managed the club between 2012-2015 and led them to the fifth tier for the first time, before returning in 2017.

A club statement said the process took longer than hoped due to "the volume of interviews" but that Hill gives "the best chance of success".

"Having assembled a team that won promotion to the National League he subsequently led Eastleigh to their highest ever league finish.

"The team played some of the most exciting football ever witnessed at the Silverlake and his team gave us many memorable matches.

"A vital part of this success was the fans and the unity between the players, staff and fans alike. Future success will undoubtedly require the same unity and feeling of togetherness which as a board we are committed to deliver."

Eastleigh, who were winless this season under Bradbury, are now up to 15th in the table and face FC Halifax Town away on Saturday.

After a good result at Kilmarnock on the sh*te pitch the draw paired up the JT's with favourites sevco at Hampdump.

I quite fancy Hearts in this one to cause an upset. I take it that the match winner against Killie, Alex Lowry, will not be eligible to play against his parent club which is a shame?

In the other semi, Aberdeen and Hibs are drawn together which, with both sides striding to get to better form, should be a tight game.

Still leaves the possibility of a re run of the 2012 Scottish Cup Final with Hearts and Hibs meeting at the National Stadium............a game that either makes you feel ecstatic or gives you nightmares depending which side of the City your club is based.

Games are due to take place on the weekend of November 4th / 5th where I expect the Hearts v sevco game to take place on the Sunday.

Good luck to both Edinburgh Clubs.

Premier League

B.B.B. 6
Stairs 5
Lady Jane 5
Minizin 3
Dingle 3
Derby 1
Zinman 1
Blue B -1

Well it would certainly appear that after lasts week points fest Zinman absolutely ****** us with this set of fixtures!!!  Last week the PL amassed 152 points, this week that dropped to a measly 23!!!  For the accountants out there that is a staggering 85% drop!!  And it didn't stop with just the total score, of the 8 players in the PL, 5 of them recorded their lowest score of the season, including the first negative score.  The Rotherham v PNE match recorded the lowest scoring game of the season with a -9 total on it, courtesy of three incorrect Bonus Balls, and no other players scoring on it on that one, plus we also saw negative points on 3 other games as well!! And lets not get started on the balls, 7 incorrect Gamballs, 7 incorrect Bonus Balls and only 3 correct scores across the 80 predictions, and they were all on one game!! 

Not much to say about the individual performances but lets highlight BBB being top for the first time this season, albeit with just 6 points!!  He was the only one to score positive points on the Gamball but not much else to add to this score.  Stairs and Lady Jane were a point behind, with Minizin and Dingle a further 2 points back.  Lady Jane would have ended joint top this week but she put her scoreball on the 0-0 draw at Palace!! Dingle deserves a mention as the only player to score points on the Bonus by picking a L**ds win. 

Derby and Zinman ended with 1 solitary point (I would have liked to have given Zin a negative score after these games but couldn't bring myself to do it!!) and after a good recent run Blue Baggie recorded the first negative score this season in the PL with -1!!

106 Stairs
92 Minizin
89 Derby
77 Blue Baggie
77 Zinman
70 BBB
61 Lady Jane
56 Dingle

No real changes in position except for Zinman going joint 4th.  No movement due to only a 7 point spread in the scores and those at the top suffering as much as those in the bottom half.

The total points from balls in the PL now stands at 164.  No surprise that Stairs, Derby and Minizin occupy the top three spots in the table and are in the top 4 in terms of points gained from balls, Stairs has 34 points, Derby 33, Zinman 26 and Minizin 24.  Down the other end the one with the fewest points from the balls is BBB with just 8 in total, Dingle has 16 and LJ has 21. 

The outlier with ball play is Blue Baggie, he is sitting ok in 4th in the league but is down near the bottom when it comes to ball play with only 14% of his points coming from balls compared to 32% for Stairs, 33% for Zinman, 34% for LJ and even 28% for the bottom of the table Dingle!  To me that maybe shows he is a better predictor overall but those bonus points do add up and make a difference, and this is shown when you look at who scores on the most games where we see Blue top of that with a record 10 games scoring points last week and he was the one who held the previous record at 8 games, he just needs to choose his games better to play his balls on. Of course I could be wrong especially when you take into account that Blue also has the lowest scoring games/week record with 2 positive scores in weeks 3 and 7, a record he shares with Dingle who only had 2 scoring games in weeks 5 and 7.

In terms of the individual balls Zinman leads the way on the Gamball with 17 points, Stairs is best on the Bonus with 21 points and he is joint top with Dingle on the Scoreball with 5 points.  No surprise either that Stairs is second only to Derby with correct scores, Derby has 9 and Stairs has 8, this equates to 13% of games predicted for Derby and 11% for Stairs.

Cheers
SCO

Championship

AAA          9pts
Themaclad  8
Snooty      6
BaggieOne  6
Twerton      5
SCO          3
Sanjay      3

After last week's easy set of fixtures, it seems I reverted to type by choosing some rather less predictable games. Surprisingly, nobody scored a maximum on the gamball(!), the bonus ball was a complete wipe out and 3 fixtures returned negative totals; Albion's draw blew 2 bonus balls with only 1 player predicting a draw, nobody saw Everton winning at Brentford and Wolves draw at Luton got 1 correct score but blew 2 more bonuses. Unsurprisingly this was the lowest scoring week so far with, for the first time this season, nobody reaching double figures.

AAA heads the table despite losing a gamball point thanks to 2 correct scores from his 4orrect predictions.Themaclad had the samescores/predictions breakdown as AAA but sits a point back as he lost out on his scoreball, the only player to get zero points from that ball.

Snooty and BaggieOne are together on 6 points with both of them also the only players to gain from the gamball which was one of Snooty's only 2 correct predictions. Apoint further back is Twerton while SCO and Sanjay sit at the foot of the table with just 3 points. The last 2 both played their scoreball on a nil nil draw meaning that their balls managed to lose them 5 points each.

Twerton 77
AAA 75
SCO 71
BaggieOne 69
Snooty 68
Themaclad 59
Sanjay 43

Given the relatively small spread of scores there isn't mach positional change in the table this week with just AAA climbing into 2nd ahead of SCO. Twerton's early season form has deserted him, collecting just 15 points in the last 3 weeks, and his lead is down to just 2 points as the pack closes in. Sanjay remains some way behind the rest of the league and the reason lies in some stats.....

Our bottom 2 are really suffering with their balls - Sanjay now has a total of zero points from the 3 balls, with Themaclad gaining 2. In contrast Twerton still leads this particular table with 32 points. Sanjay also stands out in terms of correct scores. While he's in line with everyone for correct result predictions, he has 25 so far with everyone between 25 and 30, his failure to land correct results stands out. Sanjay has turned just 8% of his correct predictions in to correct scores, half the percentage of the next lowest and a clear contrast to Snooty who is up to 32%.

Zin lays down the gauntlet to SCO for some Premiership statting!

Zin

(28-09-2023, 21:46)St Charles Owl Wrote: Zin lays down the gauntlet to SCO for some Premiership statting!

Hibs have another home game and could complete an unbeaten September with a win over Dundee. Maybe I'm getting carried away with the Montgomery Effect, but the noticeable improvement is all down to him, plus the players' new found enthusiasm, commitment and belief.

Not only has he instilled his own work ethic into his players, but also his positive style and attitude. He's also shown he's willing to promote younger players into the first team squad, making them believe that he's starting with an open mind about them. Now the team is looking more confident and the bench is looking stronger.

As for Dundee, Josh Mulligan lost his red card appeal and will miss the game. But Dundee have already proved they will fight on to the bitter end, so they should not be discounted. Let's not give them a chance to do the Edinburgh double.

I expect a hard game, but surely (hopefully) Hibs' attacking flair will win the day.

Owner David Hilton has withdrawn funding for Scunthorpe United, who will play games away from Glanford Park because of a land dispute.

Having already put the club up for sale, a statement said Hilton feels his position is "untenable", and is "actively seeking a way out".

The National League North club say they will leave Glanford Park after hosting Brackley on 7 October.

They said they will play home games 16 miles away at Gainsborough Trinity.

However, Gainsborough have since said Scunthorpe's statement was issued "without the knowledge or consent" of the club.

"Whilst the club has always been clear that any requests from Scunthorpe United to play fixtures at the KAL Group Stadium would be considered, this would always have to be done by due process which would involve both clubs and the ground owner," they said.

Glanford Park remains the property of former owner Peter Swann through land owners Coolsilk, while a trial is currently scheduled for January which will look at the validity of a sub-tenancy to use the venue.

"We can confirm that numerous parties have made contact with the club with a view to taking over, but faced with stadium issues, numerous litigation proceedings and winding up petitions no potential purchasers are looking to move forward," the Scunthorpe statement continued in relation to new ownership.

"This includes the consortium of local business people and supporters. The chairman and remaining board members have now set out a plan in order to very quickly make the club sustainable.

"An outside company will be bought in to work closely with the club's creditors to try and ensure all are paid in a timely and professional manner."

Hilton, who only took over from Swann in January, has developed a difficult relationship with supporters since taking on the ownership.

He sought to move training to Ilkeston as a cost-cutting measure, only to backtrack after supporter complaints.

It was also confirmed earlier this month that a winding-up petition was to be issued by His Majesty's Revenue & Customs.


Apparently the owner has called the fans Spastics, ain't going to end well

Fylde 0-1 Woking
Aldershot 1-1 Dag & Red
Bromley 1-2 Gateshead
Ebbsfleet 0-1 Boreham Wood
Halifax 2-0 Eastleigh
Hartlepool 0-1 Dorking
Kidderminster 0-3 Barnet
Maidenhead United 1-1 Chesterfield
Rochdale 2-1 Southend
Wealdstone 1-0 Oldham
York 1-2 Solihull Moors
Oxford City 1-3 Altrincham

League Table After Matchday 12

Amelia - 282
Spireitematt - 277
SaltergateBorn - 247
St Charles - 218
Dancing - 196
Lord Snoots - 193
Devon - 128

Huddersfield Town v Ipswich Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday September 30th - 15:00 ko
at the Kevin M. Nagle Arena

Huddersfield Town welcome Ipswich Town to Leeds Road on Saturday afternoon for the first home match for our new manager, Darren Moore.

Riding on the crest of a wave after that brilliant injury time equaliser on Monday night at Coventry, he'll be expected to deliver the full three points in this one, especially as it's against one of the teams who came up from League One. He should know all about Ipswich. They were the ones who pipped his Hillsborough Hillbillies to the second automatic spot. But let's not dwell on that.

Of the three promoted teams, the Tractor Boyz have started the best. Started better than their most optimistic of fans would expect as well. I was surprised when the pre season bookies had them down as something like 4th favourite for promotion, but they're certainly living up to Bet Fred's expectations.

They are second in the table, level with Leicester but just behind on goal difference, having won seven out of eight and just losing once. That one defeat came at home to the Leeds Urinals, but already this season they have beaten Sunderland, Stoke, QPR, Cardiff, Wednesday, Southampton and Blackburn, with the icing on the cake coming on Tuesday night, knocking Prima Donna League Wolverhampton Wanderers out of the Carabooboo Cup at Portman Road.

And they did that despite making ten team changes to the team that beat Blackburn on Saturday.

Well we're on a four match unbeaten run ourselves after wins against West Brom and Rotherham, followed by draws with Stoke and Coventry. This could be a classic.

No team news yet as I'm posting this early to give you all time to do the antigrams that you all missed out on from the Coventry match thread. Sorry about that, normal service has returned.

Ipswich represented England in the 62/63 European Cup (now the Champions League). It was champions only back then and having beaten Maltese champions Floriana in the first round, they were beaten by AC Milan in the 2nd round.

Alf Ramsey left soon afterwards, tempted away by the lure of managing the England national team. Not sure how that went. You'll have to look it up yourselves.

Ipswich replaced him with another footballing legend, Jackie Milburn of Newcastle United fame. It wasn't a success and two years after winning the title, they were relegated back to Division Two. Milburn quit to be replaced by ex Huddersfield Town star, Bill McGarry.

Bill had them finishing in 5th, 15th and then 5th again before in 67/68 winning the Division Two title. They won it by a single point from runners up Blackpool. They finished their first season back at the top level in 12th, but McGarry was to leave them in the lurch in January, by joining Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He was replaced by the recently fired Fulham manager, some bloke called Bobby Robson. He stuck around for the next 13 years, which went rather well actually.

They had earlier finished the league season as runners up to Aston Villa, their highest ever finish, which they matched the following season as runners up to Liverpool. Europe wasn't a success this time though, losing two seasons on the trot in the first round. The first of those was against Aberdeen, the second was Roma.

That was the boom years over though as history repeated itself. The FA poached their manager again as Bobby Robson left to manage England, just like Alf Ramsey before him. And just like before, they were relegated shortly afterwards.

They made it to the first ever Football League Play Offs in 86/87, but lost to Charlton Athletic at the semi final stage. It was a six year stay in the 2nd Division this time, which ended in 91/92 by winning the title again and so arriving in the top tier in time to become original members of the Premier League.

That was a struggle, getting relegated eventually after three seasons, with a humiliating 9-0 defeat at Old Trafford just before the drop was confirmed.

Chairman Patrick Cobbold, who had shared all that success with Robson, suddenly died in 1994 and so for the first time the club was without a Cobbold family member on board. That was soon sorted though when Major Philip William Hope-Cobbold joined the board in 1995. David Sheepshanks became chairman.

They kept reaching the Play Offs and kept failing. Losing to Sheffield Utd in the 1997 semis, Charlton again in the 1998 semis and Bolton in 1999 once again at the semi final stage. They did reach the Final in 2000, beating Bolton 7-5 on aggregate in the semis after extra time at Portman Road. It was Barnsley in the Final, the last one at the old Wembley Stadium. It was 1-1 at half time, but then Ipswich went 3-1 up with new signing from Huddersfield Town, Marcus Stewart getting the third. ( ) Barnsley pulled one back, but Martijn Reuser finished it off in the last minute to give the Tractor Boys the win and a return to the Prima Donna League.

Head to Head



Ipswich lead the head to head with 22 wins to Town's 14, with 9 draws.

As mentioned above, Ipswich Town were a non league team during our glory years, so that's probably why we don't lead this Head to Head, so our first ever meeting didn't arrive until 1957 after they had won promotion to Division Two under the leadership of Alf Ramsey. He wasn't a legend of the game yet and neither was the Town manager at the time of this first game which took place at Leeds Road, Bill Shankly. It was Shank's boys who won it 3-0 in October, with an own goal from Dave Deacon opening the scoring. Eighteen year old Kevin McHale was next on the score sheet, with Alex Bain, a recent signing from Motherwell, rounding off the win. Ipswich won the return match in the following April 4-0 as we finished the season in 9th, one place behind the Blues.

We had another 3-0 win in the next season, as well as our one and only ever meeting in a Cup competition, which was a 1-0 defeat at Portman Road in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

We had our first win down there on the opening day of the 59/60 season, Derek Hawksworth grabbing two of the goals in a 4-1 win. Shankly had left for Liverpool by the time the return match came around and it was Eddie Boot in the caretaker's seat as we completed the double with a 3-1 win at Leeds Road. Hawksworth scored his third goal of the season, all of them against Ipswich and he didn't score any more all season.

They beat us 5-1 at theirs in the next season, the one we know as The Great Escape. We struggled against them in 98/99 as well, but then when Peter Jackson had been replaced by the great Steve Bruce in 1999, he put together a brilliant team and the home win against Ipswich was the third game in a six match winning run that took us up to 2nd in the league. Goals that day came from Jon Dyson, Chris Beech and the superb Stewart. Matt Holland scored theirs.

By the time we met up again in February, the club was in turmoil, the fans were angry, but the team were still in 5th. What was the anger all about? Bruce, chairman Iain Ayre and owner Barry Rubery had colluded between each other to sell Marcus Stewart to Ipswich. He'd already scored on his Tractors debut the week before we played them, a 2-0 win at Barnsley, so when we went down to Portman Road on the 12th of February, we dreaded the worst. And it happened. Jamie Scowcroft gave them the lead. Dean Gorre equalised and then late on in the game the inevitable happened as Stewie got the winner. What a kick in the teeth that was.

Club connections:

Marcus Stewart: Was one of the best players ever to pull on a Huddersfield Town shirt. By all accounts a thoroughly decent bloke as well and it's such a damn rotten shame that he's now been diagnosed with this horrible condition called Motor Neurone Disease. The life lottery sucks!

Some of you will be going on the Miles For Marcus sponsored walk, if so, feel free to drop your Just Giving link on here or whatever it is we're using these days.

Marcus was born 50 years ago in Bristol and first came to our attention playing for Bristol Rovers. We knew all about him by the time we played Rovers at Wembley in 1995, but he still managed to score against us, a minute after Andy Booth had given us the lead.

Although Boothy was and always will be a Town legend, I was well chuffed when a small portion of the money received for his transfer to The Wednesday went on bringing Stewie up to Huddersfield in the summer of 1996. He made his debut in a 2-0 league win over Charlton, but his first three goals came in the form of a hat trick the following Tuesday night in a home win over Wrexham in the League Cup.

His first league goal came in the fourth game of the season, a brilliant 3-1 win at, of all places, Portman Road. A week later, he had another couple. It was a Friday night Sky game against Oldham, 2-1 down with five minutes to go, he was presented with a chance in front of goal, instead of blasting it, he did what became regular thing for him, shimmying to wrong foot the defenders and goalkeeper, he took it to one side, opening up the goal to fire home. A classy finish made all the better when Kevin Gray scored an injury time winner.

Sadly, he got injured shortly after this and after goals at Stoke and then Colchester in the Cup, his next goal didn't come until Grimsby away in February, which is why he only made 19 appearances that season and why we struggled at the wrong end of the table.

The next season, the one where Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath came in to save us from relegation, Stewie was the only one scoring in the first part of the campaign, but when Andy Payton went off to play for Burnley, Marcus formed a great striking partnership with Wayne Allison.

He scored a brilliant goal in the famous win at home to Stoke, the one where Jacko was charging up the touchline shouting at Paul Dalton in injury time.

He bagged another one down at Stoke in the return game later in the season, a six pointer against relegation rivals that eventually saw Chris Kamara sacked at the Britannia Stadium.

Marcus was our top scorer with 16 that season and bettered that with 26 as Jacko and his boys went top of the league in the early stages of the next one. He scored in the 3-2 win at Tranmere on a Friday night in September to go top of the league during a five match winning streak.

One of his best goals was a magical back heel finish in a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland which kept us top before the wheels started to come off. The wheels had really fallen off after a shock 7-1 defeat at Barnsley, but Marcus had us back on course the following weekend when he bagged a brilliant hat trick at home to Crystal Palace as we gave the Eagles one of these nights by winning 4-0 with us being able to take it easy after Marcus's third goal. Delroy Facey added the fourth.

The following season saw Steve Bruce replace Jacko and he brought in Clyde Wijnhard to partner Marcus up front. What a dynamic duo they turned out to be in what I think was the best team I've seen whilst watching the Town. Shame it didn't last. 

Stewie got his account open for the new season with a double over Blackburn Rovers in a 3-2 home win, though the first of his brace was officially given as a Simon Grayson own goal. That was followed by a disappointing 1-0 reverse at Tranmere, but the next visitors to the McAlpine were them there Eagles again (please no more song titles).

The new kid in town, Clyde, got a hat trick to add to two more from Stewie and one each from Chris Beech and Kenny Irons as Town won 7-1. Probably the best Town performance I've seen. We were like Brazil that day.

His next goal was a "Panenka" style penalty in a 1-0 win at Wolverhampton, which apparently annoyed Bruce. Meanwhile we actually had a League Cup run going on, including a famous win down at Chelsea where Bruce had Marcus playing at left back for most of the game.

Just after that game, we went on another brilliant run in the league, winning nine games out of ten to go top of the league. Things were looking good. But the rumours of a big money transfer away from the club would not go away. He kept on scoring though but sadly the two he scored in a 2-2 draw down at Crystal Palace would turn out to be his last in the bright blue n white as the next week saw the dastardly trio of Bruce, Ayre and Rubery sell him to Ipswich.

He scored 67 goals for us (68 if you count that Grayson og), which has him 14th in our all time goal scorers chart, level with the great Ian Robins. Here's a compilation of all his goals on YouTube, courtesy of those guys from the And He Takes That Chance podcast.

Ipswich in popular culture: Struggling to find much here. There's the actor Richard Ayoade who was brought up there. As was the British tennis player, the late Elena Baltacha, who moved to Ipswich aged two when her footballer dad, Sergei Baltacha came to play for Ipswich Town. Darts players Keith Deller and Mervyn King. That's about it. No YouTube videos for this one.

Moving on to after the war when Town were struggling in the First Division and a record defeat at Division One level. It was the actual heaviest club loss until Man City in 1987 in Div 2. Clem's younger brother, George Stephenson was now Town manager and on this date in 1950, he took his downward spiraling Town side up to Ayresome Park and they got hammered 8-0 by Middlesbrough.

This came after a pretty decent start and we were actually top after four matches. But a 6-0 reversal at Newcastle and a 6-2 defeat down at the Arsenal really put a dampener on the Town's red hot start. The week after Arsenal, saw the team lose 4-3 at home to Sheffield Wednesday and this Boro debacle was three defeats in a row.

There were some Town players in the team that I've written about on here before. Jeff Taylor the opera singer, Conway Smith the son of Town legend Billy Smith, Eddie Boot the future Town manager and Vic Metcalfe, who my auntie used to catch the bus from Mirfield with. I wonder if she gave him some stick on Monday morning.

Boro were managed by one of Chapman's Arsenal legends, David Jack and had the Golden Boy of England at inside forward, Wilf Mannion, who now has a statue at the Riverside Stadium, based solely on this performance against the mighty Huddersfield Town. He scored a hat trick in this match, as did Alex McCrae, with Johnny Spuhler and Geoff Walker getting one each.

On this date in 1967, we beat Blackburn Rovers at home 2-1. Brian Clark got the first, before going on to Cardiff later in the season, where he would become a European Cup Winners Cup scoring hero. Our winning goal came from John Coddington. He's 13th in our all time appearances chart, having played 356 matches for the blue n white stripes. Sadly for him though, by this stage of his career he wore the blue n white quarters of Blackburn and this was an own goal.


On this date in 1995, we beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at the Hawthorns. It was our first season back in the 2nd tier, with Brian Horton taking over from Neil Warnock, who had walked out on us after winning promotion to join south west giants Plymouth Argyle.

It was our first away win of the season and new signing Tom Cowan scored the first. Andy Booth got the second and Bob Taylor scored for the Baggies.


And in 2003/04, we had been relegated to the bottom tier again for the last time ever and the first time since we were promoted in 1980. Since we were last down there, automatic promotion and relegation had been introduced between the Football League and the Conference and so on this date in 2003 we had our first ever meeting with Kidderminster Harriers.

The game was played at the McAlpine Stadium and we won it 1-0. It was young scoring sensation Jon Stead who got the goal, his ninth so far in the season which would see him transferred to the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers and the team, managed by returning hero Peter Jackson, promoted via the Play Offs.

1. Acts Swarm True 
   
2. Trapdoor Man 
   
3. Teach Anabella 
   
4. Barry McGill 
   
5. Erroneous Borg 
   
6. Nickname Karen 
   
7. TV Worker Myrah 
   
8. Bad Clot Bonds 
   
9. Daycare Hairdo 
   
10. False Army 
    

We have a full back. He is consistently rated as the best at our level, and as being capable of holding down a place in the EFL.

Last night he was on the bench for us. Sometimes recently he hasn't even achieved those heights. In his place we chose an attacking midfield player, who in terms of goals and assists has been one of our most important forward players this season.

Our manager Paul Cook knows football. He was a top player and he has proved himself as a manager. He hasn't just forgotten to pick Jeff King. So when did King piss on Cookie's shoes, and will he ever be forgiven? Because we can't afford to waste Mandeville at the back whilst Jacobs misplaces passes in midfield and King, who could improve us both at the back and going forward, just sits down all night?

But then, if Kairo Mitchell can so readily locate the channel that always exists between our centre backs, why aren't we making any move to plug it? My suggestion is three at the back with Naylor sealing the Lewis Carroll sized magical black hole.

My other question, whilst we are riding high and winning every week, is what do we gain by playing out from the back so inefficiently? Mostly we manage two or three passes, look as though we are in danger of surrendering the ball in a dangerous position, and decide to lay it back to Tyrer, who then has no option but to hoof it long.

My suggestion would be, if we want to play out in that way, giving the ball to a King or a Mandeville might have a future. Never give it to Grimes, its like giving a lap top to an anteater.

I know this is a very cruel assessment of a currently successful and potentially league-winning team, but if no-one has the courage to say it now that potential will again go unrealised. We aren't so good that we can mess about and still win every week.