...... and.... WE'RE OFF!!

Group A

Minizin 9
Themaclad 7
Zinman 5
Twerton 1
Amelia 1
A.A.A. 1

Third lowest score of the season for Group A amassing just 24 points in total!! No one reached double figures and three games had zero correct scores or results, including the Gamball, with a 4th game getting just one CS!! If it wasn't for Burnley's promotion winning win this would have been the lowest score of the season!!

For what its worth Minizin tops the table this week with 9 points, like everyone else he missed on the Gamball but unlike everyone else he at least managed a CR on the Bonus!! Themaclad is 2nd with 7 points, he managed to score on half the games but couldn't get any CSs to boost his return. Zinman also scored on half the games but had one less CR so ended with just 5 points.

Twerton, Amelia and AAA all ended with just a single point each. Each of them got just enough points to wipe out the negatives on the Bonus and Gamball and each of them scored on the Scoreball to get that single point. Amelia did manage one CS, unfortunately it was her only positive score game!!

326 Themaclad
283 Twerton
282 Zinman
274 Minizin
226 Amelia
219 A.A.A.

No positional changes this week but with Themaclad extending his lead to 43 points the Group A title is surely heading to Preston!! The next three playoff chasers are now only separated by 9 points but with Group B gaining more points most weeks its not so clear that all three of them will even make the playoffs now!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

SCO 22
BaggieOne 14
Derby 13
BBB 12
Stairs 11
Snooty 10
Lady Jane -1

A momentous week for Group B. For the first time this season, all but one player reached double figures, we saw the highest number of correct result predictions and the 2nd highest individual score. There was one other noteworthy event, but more of that later.

SCO's been on a great run recently and he tops the table for the 4th time in the last 7 weeks with 22 points, his highest score of the year and only bettered by Stairs back in week 15. SCO scored on 7 games with 4 correct scores though he did fail on his bonus. The next 5 players create a neat pattern with each of them one point ahead of the next. I've been generous to BaggieOne - he forgot to play any of his balls but given his league position I don't have the heart to deduct 3 points - so he takes 2nd place. He matched SCO's 7 correct predictions but failed to get any of the scores right. Derby is a point further back, 5 correct results and 1 correct score, then comes BBB, a correct gamball and bonus but minus 1 on his scoreball. Stairs and Snooty also make double figures, Stairs with 5 correct results, including his bonus, but no correct scores, Snooty turning one of his correct predictions into a maximum, getting the gamball right but missing out on the bonus.

And then we have the week's outlier.....and how! While everyone was collecting points, Lady Jane chose to give them away - just one correct prediction, the last match of the weekend, and a scoreball as she returned her 2nd negative score in he last 3 weeks.

289 SCO
279 Lady Jane
266 Derby
257 Stairs
232 BBB
222 Snooty
215 BaggieOne

Just the one positional change this week. Lady Jane moved to the top of the table in week 2 and stayed there for the next 29 weeks but she has finally been caught! SCO moves into the final couple of weeks of the regular season with a 10 point cushion and in great form. Lady Jane should have enough to get into the play-offs but 2 more weeks like this one may change things. Derby and Stairs haven't done their play-off hopes any harm with solid performances this week.

Zin

Playoff Update

With only 2 weeks left to go I thought it would be good to take a look at where we are with who's in and who's out.

League Leaders - First week Bye
1. Themaclad - 326
2. St Charles Owl - 289

Playoff Places
3. Twerton - 283
4. Zinman - 282
5. Lady Jane - 279
6. Minizin - 274

Chasing pack
7. Derby - 266 (8 points behind)
8. Stairs - 257 (17 points behind)

Not quite done but almost
9. BBB - 232
10. Amelia - 226
11. Lord Snooty - 222
12. AAA - 219
13. BaggieOne - 215

So Themaclad looks like a cert for the Group A title and SCO is probably definitely in the POs at least. Derby could still catch the 4 current PO players with him being only 17 points behind 3rd place, but he needs to find some form now!! Stairs is a longshot to make the POs but if any of those above him tank like we keep seeing some do each week he could still get there. I am pretty much ruling the rest out but with 47 points available each week the points are there to be had. 24 points is the highest score seen this season so two weeks like that would maybe put them in contention but its a stretch!!

http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=71fe213...ts/6686091

The last time I saw a Lancashire League match Sherwin Campbell was pro for Accrington, he is now 54. Actually surprised at how big the playing surface was as well.
Originally the Lancashire league had 14 founder clubs, the league now has two divisions in which nine of the founder clubs are now in, including once powerhouse East Lancashire, how things have changed over the years.
Both Churchh and Enfield had spinners as pros suspect neither will score many with the willow and both are spinners, Maduwatha right arm and Ngoepe left arm.
Church batted first struggled Lia Jackson took the first four wickets thanks to some not great shots whilst Madu had countless shouts for LBW turned down did sem to question a few decisions but the phrase you have just been aquaited with a league umpire who gives nothing.
Taking out the need for referral, he bowled the next two and Church were staggering along at 38-6
Hussain batted sensibly and correctly to make 41 not out and steered the home side to 93 all out.





Enfield looked to finish the game in double quick time racing to 77-1 in very quick time heled by some distincly average fielding and Wright and Basarahat sending everything to the boundary.
Then came a period of play which is the reason why the game is great. Ngoepe took three wickets in an over, game on so to speak, the home side further reduced Enfield to 88-6 but they just about squeezed over the line





Estimated about 150 were on the ground and out of the wind it was warm

Norwich City have sacked head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup and placed ex-Arsenal and England midfielder Jack Wilshere in charge for their two remaining games of the season.

Thorup, 36, was appointed in May 2024 as the replacement for David Wagner, who had been dismissed following the Canaries' play-off defeat by Leeds United.

But the Dane leaves Carrow Road following a run of six defeats in eight Championship matches.

"While we made this appointment with a long-term focus and in line with our wider club strategy and direction, unfortunately recent results and performances have deemed it necessary for us make a change," said sporting director Ben Knapper.

Norwich won 14 out of 47 games under Thorup, who was previously in charge of FC Nordsjaelland. His assistant Glen Riddersholm has also left the club.

Knapper added: "They are both fantastic people who worked tirelessly to help improve and move our football club forward. We all wish the two of them the best in the next stage of their respective careers."

Norwich lost both games over the Easter weekend, to Portsmouth and Millwall, conceding eight goals in the process and are 14th in the table, 13 points outside the play-off places.

"There is no short-term solution here, it's long-term and hopefully with all the decisions we have taken and are going to take we'll build an even stronger team, a team that is better suited to the way we want to play," Thorup had told BBC Radio Norfolk following Monday's 3-1 defeat by Millwall.

Wilshere, who will be assisted by Tony Roberts and Nick Stanley, will take charge of Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough and the Canaries' final-day game at home to Cardiff on 3 May.

He was appointed as a first-team coach last October, having previously been manager of Arsenal's under-18 team.

Wilshere takes over a Norwich team who have scored more Championship goals (67) than any team other than leaders Leeds, but have conceded 66, a total exceeded only by Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth, Cardiff City and Plymouth Argyle.

Thorup's departure means 14 of the 24 Championship clubs have changed managers this season - and he is the third boss to lose his job since the start of the Easter weekend following Cardiff's Omer Riza and Tony Mowbray of West Bromwich Albion.

He was appointed on a three-year contract but had to manage without two leading members of last season's team, Jonathan Rowe and Gabriel Sara, who had both been sold by the club and his plans have been hit by a number of injuries during the season.

Norwich lost their opening game at Oxford United but remained unbeaten at home until a 2-0 defeat by Bristol City on 9 November.

They only managed one point from four games in December but took 10 points from the next four following a 2-1 Boxing Day home win over Millwall.

The experienced Emiliano Marcondes and Anis Ben Slimane were added to a squad containing Borja Sainz, one of the most exciting players in the division, and US international striker Josh Sargent, who scored twice in a 5-1 win over Swansea in January as the Canaries stayed on the fringes of the play-off picture.

But Sainz served a six-match ban for spitting at Sunderland's Chris Mepham and a 3-2 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday on 11 March began the poor eight-match run which ultimately led to Thorup's downfall.

Their only win in that period was a 1-0 success against West Brom, courtesy of an added-time goal by Sargent.

The club has been owned by American Mark Attanasio's Norfolk FB Holdings since March, replacing long-term majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones.

Thorup visited Attanasio in the US during last month's international break and afterwards said: "We discussed everything from strategy to player development, from how we do things now to how we should do them in the future, and (it was useful) also just to get some inspiration from each other and get a feeling of where we are as a team.

"We refer to a team - the USA team and the British team over here - because we do things together. It was a good way of just aligning everything."

Recent results, though, mean the playing department and boardroom are now out of alignment and Norwich have begun the search for a new head coach in the hope of a big improvement next season.

Attanasio stated an ambition last November for Norwich to become a Premier League team again in three to five years.

The club have won promotion from the Championship three times in the past 10 years, under Alex Neil - now Millwall boss - in 2015 and Daniel Farke in 2020 and 2022 but each of those successes was followed by single-season stays in the top flight.

One win in 10 - the worst performing team in the Championship since the start of March. Not many head coaches survive that.

Only Leeds have scored more Championship goals than Norwich City this season.

However, encouragement from the attacking statistics has been undermined by a lack of defensive resilience. Thorup himself recently told me he was "tired" of watching his side fail to deal with balls into the penalty area.

The eight goals shipped to Portsmouth and Millwall over Easter suggest lessons were not being learned.

With just two games to go, most supporters expected JHT to be given a chance to go again after a tough first season in the Championship.

Parallels with Daniel Farke's first season in English football in 2017-18 have regularly been drawn.

But patience is in shorter supply at Carrow Road these days with new American owners keen to make their mark.

Gamball:
Luton - Coventry

Others:
Crystal Palace - Villa (FAC)
Blackburn - Watford
Cardiff - WBA
Hull - Derby
Millwall - Swansea
Oxford - Sunderland
Preston - Plymouth
Orient - Wycombe
Forest - Man City (FAC)

A day late but ....

Planes, no Trains (on Monday) but some half decent pubs and maybe some Automobiles
Edgley Park
Smogport-on-Mersey
Not a Train nor a Tram in Sight on the day
Not that there's a tram in Smogport anyway
SK3 9DD


Kick-off 15:00 UK Time
Monday 20/04/25

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 Badger gives you 2 points

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. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

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.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


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

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830



Division One table after Matchday 15:

1. neonfoxinthebox = 271 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 266 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 261 pts
   
4. jjamez = 249 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 242 pts
   
6. themaclad = 224 pts
   

Saturday 26th April:
Exeter v Town
Town scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Bristol Rovers v Reading (12:30)
Peterborough United v Bolton Wanderers
Stockport County v Lincoln City
Wigan Athletic v Blackpool
Wrexham v Charlton Athletic (17:30)

Sunday 27th April:
Stevenage v Rotherham United (14:00)

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Championship:
Cardiff City v West Bromwich Albion
Preston North End v Plymouth Argyle
Sheffield Wednesday v Portsmouth

Sunday:
Premier League
AFC Bournemouth v Manchester United (14:00)

FA Cup semi finals:
Nottingham Forest v Manchester City (16:30)

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

1. ritchiebaby = 261 pts
   
2. SHEP_HTAFC = 256 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 254 pts
   
4. Devongone = 238 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 184 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 179 pts
   

Saturday 26th April:
Exeter v Town
Town scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Leyton Orient v Wycombe Wanderers (12:30)
Barnsley v Shrewsbury Town
Burton Albion v Cambridge United
Crawley Town v Northampton Town

Sunday 27th April:
Birmingham City v Mansfield Town (15:00)

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Premier League:
Chelsea v Everton (12:30)
Brighton & Hove Albion v West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City

League Two:
Chesterfield v Morecambe

Scottish Premiership:
Aberdeen v Hibernian

FA Cup semi finals:
Crystal Palace v Aston Villa (17:15)


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

Wales captain Aaron Ramsey will take charge of Cardiff City for the remainder of the Championship season after the Bluebirds parted company with Omer Riza.

Riza was told of the decision on Saturday after defeat at Sheffield United left the Bluebirds one point from safety in the Championship relegation places.

Ramsey, 34, will lead the side for the first time during Monday's game against Oxford United at Cardiff City Stadium (15:00 BST).

He will be assisted by former Wales team-mate and current Wales Under-19s manager Chris Gunter, as well as Bluebirds midfielder Joe Ralls.

Gavin Ward, who is expected to continue in his role as goalkeeping coach, makes up the remainder of the technical staff alongside under-21s coach Matt Bloxham and under-18s manager Tom Hutton.

A club statement read: "We'd like to thank Omer for his passion and effort during his time as Cardiff City manager and wish him the very best for his next steps in the game."

Ramsey has no frontline managerial experience but has harboured coaching ambitions for some time, being tipped by Wales boss Craig Bellamy as someone who could work at a high level at the end of his playing career.

The 86-cap international will be the third man in the Cardiff dugout this season, one that began with Erol Bulut at the helm before he was sacked after picking up just one point from their opening six games as the club endured its worst ever start to a season.

Former Watford coach Riza - drafted in to assist Bulut last summer - was initially appointed on a caretaker basis before being handed a contract until the end of the season in December after an upturn in form.

However, he has come under increasing pressure with Cardiff unable to pull away from trouble. It is believed some of the club hierarchy had considered a change last month - with former manager Neil Warnock considered as a replacement - only for Riza to retain the support of owner Vincent Tan.

But with fans calling for Riza to be removed after Friday's 2-0 loss at Bramall Lane – their fifth game without a win - the club have taken action in a late bid to avoid dropping into the third tier for the first time since 2002.

Cardiff will hope the appointment of Ramsey - one of the club's most decorated youth products - will at least galvanise supporters ahead of final games against Oxford, West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City.

The midfielder became the club's youngest ever player after breaking into the first-team at the age of 16 in 2007 before moving to Premier League Arsenal, where he twice won the FA Cup.

He returned to his boyhood club in 2023 following spells at Juventus and Nice, although his impact on the field had been limited because of injury.

Ramsey had been ruled out from any playing involvement during the Championship run-in after having surgery on a hamstring injury sustained in defeat against Luton Town last month.

He has worked at the club's academy during his time back in south Wales while has also provided tactical analysis for Riza from games during a previous injury lay-off earlier in the season.