Anybody remember him. He was a tall young centre back who was almost permanently fifth sub' for us when we went into the National League. I don't know if he ever got on the field for us.

Now he's playing for Stamford who are top of the Midlands Division of the Northern Premier. On Sunday there was a picture of him in the Non-league Paper, having scored to ensure victory. He has put on some weight. He's a big lad.

If we got him in the gym pre-season maybe he'd scare a few people. Looking at him, if he says its Thursday then I for one won't be arguing.

Almost bat and ball time this thread for four day stuff only

League Two side Tranmere Rovers have sacked manager Micky Mellon.

The 51-year-old Scot had seen his side slip to 14th in League Two after just six wins since mid-October.

It was Mellon's second spell in charge, having returned in June 2021 after leading Rovers to back-to-back promotions to League One in his previous four-year spell.

"From both a personal and a club perspective this hasn't been an easy decision," said chairman Mark Palios.

"Since he returned to the club in 2021 after a year in Scotland, we haven't managed to achieve the success we both wanted and I reluctantly came to the conclusion that a change was needed as we start recruitment preparations for next season."

Ian Dawes will work as caretaker manager, assisted by Andy Parkinson, while Tranmere consider a permanent replacement "in preparation for the new season".

Mellon previously left the Merseyside club in July 2020 - after they were relegated to League Two on a points-per-game basis - to join Scottish Premiership side Dundee United, but came back less than a year later.

Tranmere's next game is at Colchester in League Two on Saturday.

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 21ST MARCH KO 8:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



We kept our unbeaten run going but had to settle for a draw. We started off quick with Gregory forcing a save but he found the net a short while later turning in a Flint header. We continued on the front foot and had a few chances but couldn't find a second goal. Bolton equalized just before HT Adeboyejo shot deflecting past Dawson. Onto the second half where both teams struggled to create much and the game petered out into a draw

THE MATCH



Next up and a short trip to Oakwell. The Dingles are having a good season and currently lie in 4th place but will be looking to gate-crash the top 2 places starting with us. Devante Cole is there leading scorer with 11 goals, with Phillips & Norwood 9 and 8 goals apiece. They are good form, unbeaten in 10 and will want to end our 23 game unbeaten streak. They are managed by Michael Huff who took over in the summer of 2022 and has a 59% win record.

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 37
DING 24
DRAWS 17

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                           

DINGLES         -                                              

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

ROSS JOYCE
Daniel Woodward and Robert Atkin
Fourth Official : Ollie Yates

THE TEAM

Dawson
Palmer Famewo Flint
Hunt Bannan Adeniran Vaulks Johnson
Gregory Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Smith

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Owlskev 25
Stateside 23
Imre 20
Wash 19
SCO 17
Maddix 16
Peiowl 14

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Accrington v Plymouth
Bradford City v Carlisle United
Crawley Town v Doncaster Rovers
Gillingham v Crewe Alexandra
Dundee v Ayr

AHAHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

WEREHAM




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

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.

European Championship Qualifying:
Thursday 23rd March:
Italy v England
England scorers:

San Marino v Northern Ireland

Saturday 25th March:
Scotland v Cyprus (14:00)
Croatia v Wales (19:45)

Sunday 26th March:
England v Ukraine (17:00)
England scorers:

Northern Ireland v Finland (19:45)

Tuesday 28th March:
Scotland v Spain
Wales v Latvia

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
National League:
Chesterfield v FC Halifax Town

Sunday:
League One:
Forest Green Rovers v Sheffield Wednesday (13:00)

Table after Matchday 31:

1. jjamez = 758 pts
   
2. themaclad = 718 pts
   
3. Baggiebob(BBB) = 701 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 698 pts
   
5. neonfoxinthebox = 680 pts
   
6. St Charles Owl = 678 pts
   
7. Lord Snooty = 647 pts
   
8. ritchiebaby = 633 pts
   
9. SHEP_HTAFC = 598 pts
   
10. Amelia Chaffinch = 592 pts
    
11. Devongone = 564 pts
    
12. WakeyTerrier = 171 pts

Reports on newsnow that Sheffield Utd and West Brom are interested in signing England international.

Upon reading the article, Crystal Palace maybe willing to sell Sam Johnstone for £5million, he has barely played this season.

Sam thought he might be playing premier league football, instead Palace played a blinder, sign him on for free, sell him a year on for a sizeable fee.

He has harmed his international career by not playing, damaged our promotion hopes by leaving and the grass was not any greener. No1 at Albion playing every week in clear sight of Southgate or getting splinters at Palace, out of sight out of mind.

He made a poor choice but I would take him back.

Anyone else agree?

Darren Sarll very honestly admitted Woking were beaten by the better side. We might have scored 5. It was the unlikeliest of 0-1 games!

Players who played very well for us

This would usually an empty category, but I'd praise Colclough, Dallas, King and Maguire.

Colclough and Dallas should have scored at least two each, but they were far too hot for Woking to handle throughout.
King was far more cerebral than usual, not launching himself into attack until he thought our dodgy defence had settled.
And Maguire lacks pace, but he can defend and pass and his height was a great advantage when Woking tried to switch to the back post. The bravery he used to show when captain of our Juniors heading in from dead balls was in evidence over our penalty. He stuck his head, took an accidental kick from Kellerman and won us the game.

Decent performers

Mandeville did well in helping our advanced midfield three produce a genuine potent goal threat.
Banks, despite looking ponderous at times, largely did his job and slotted home his penalty with assistance from their over-eager keeper.
Palmer looked laboured when sprinting, but is brave, committed and has positional sense.
Jones does his job, once even made it into a scoring position and was ignored, but is essentially insurance against some shaky defending.


Question marks

Quigley did his job, worked, tried and set some problems, but as ever, wherever he is, you just don't expect him to score and he's a striker.
Grimes, the National League Paper awarded him 7, for me 5 was stretch. He's brave and committed AND clearly a leader, but his reading of the game is poor. In the opening minutes he didn't seem to trust Maguire. First he covered across when Maguire was in position to do the job and when Grimes lost out we were in trouble, and minutes later he appeared to be going to do the same again, Maguire backed off to try and cover, then Grimes himself retreated too, allowing a dangerous cross to be swung in mid height to which our keeper's ejector-seat dive for cover suggested a lone-wolf Lee-Harvey Oswald might be firing from the crowd.
Which leads me to FITZSIMMONS - the window closes in 4 days - going into a play-off final with him between the sticks would be a white flag. Whether he is shaky because he can't read Grimes' random defensive efforts, or whether he is always that flaky I don't know. He does everything in a rush and exudes panic. He grabs at the ball as though it's a chicken's neck in needing of wringing. He looks a wreck. And he came up with a clean sheet ........ there must be a divine presence. Between us, Notts County, Wrexham, Chesterfield and Woking we haven't a reliable keeper. Whatever you do, don't monitor your heart rate when the ball is near our box.

My opinion was that we were very good, especially when going forward. Cookie's formation can work well with these players, especially if McCallum comes in at centre forward. I'd have to exchange Mandeville for Dobra despite the idiot boy rolling around on the floor again pretending to be hurt and having to be told by the ref' to get up, upon which he jumped up and RAN away - roll away the effing stone.

Unfortunately our defence entirely lacks pace, and is not astute enough to cover it in front of a flapping keeper.

But we looked a team and were way better than the team in third place in our league.

National League club Southend United have been put up for sale.

The search for new owners for the Essex side comes two weeks after the club had a winding-up petition against them dismissed after the club paid £1.4m owed to HM Revenue & Customs.

Financial issues Southend, which has been owned by chairman Ron Martin for 25 years, has prompted fans to look at establishing a phoenix club.

"I feel the time is right," said Martin of his decision to search for a buyer.

Martin said the dissatisfaction of the club's supporters did not prompt the move, adding that the "first thought emerged" during the Covid pandemic when football was brought to a halt and financial strains across the game were exacerbated.

A statement from the club said the "introduction of a new custodian or investment partners would not be fast-tracked".

American-based agency General Sports Worldwide LLC had been appointed as advisors to the club.

Martin still maintains the solution to the current financial problems is to relocate from their Roots Hall home, redevelop the site for housing and move to a new stadium at Fossetts Farm.

While those works are yet to begin, Martin said the £2m development of a new training facility was nearing completion and would be available for next season.

"Completion of the club's new training ground represents the first phase of infrastructure, enabling the stadium and residential phases to commence," he said in a statement.

"Tenders for those works, both stadium and residential, have now been received with works programmed to commence later this year."

News of plans to try to sell the club was broken at a press conference with Martin saying players had not been told in advance.

"I don't think they will be affected by it," he said.

"I think players as a whole look to their manager, I don't think they look to the chairman. This increases the club's stability rather than instability, so they should be pleased."

He added that no potential new investors had been spoken to in advance of the announcement.

'Not many saw this coming'
Analysis - BBC Essex sports editor Glenn Speller

Wow! I don't think many Southend United supporters saw this coming.

Having just escaped yet another winding-up petition from HMRC earlier this month, fans were gearing-up for another protest march ahead of tomorrow's National League match at home to Aldershot.

Ron Martin has been a controversial character during his 25 year tenure at the club. He oversaw a rise up to the Championship which has since been followed by a catastrophic drop into the National League.

Players have gone unpaid over the years while office staff have suffered a lack of wages over Christmas and New Year and a season ticket sometimes would not have gone amiss at the High Court with enough winding-up petitions to paper a reasonably sized front room.

But there has always been the promised land of a new stadium in the offing. That is now more important than ever as Roots Hall rots away, offering nothing in the way of comfort on matchdays and standing as a symbol of the club's descent.

While Ron Martin continues with the Fossetts Farm Stadium development, a new owner will be charged with restoring the club's EFL status. Most Blues fans will hope there might be another couple of Hollywood actors who might be interested…

This year's Championship begins on Saturday 18 March and ends on Sunday 26 March, in Sandviken, Sweden in the Göransson Arena - a 10,000-seater facility which opened in 2009. The round robin games will determine the top six ranked teams. The teams ranked first and second will proceed directly to the Semi-finals. For teams ranked third to sixth, qualification games will take place on Saturday 25 March at 10:00 (3v6 and 4v5). The Semi-finals will also take place on 25 March at 16:00, with the Medal games being played on Sunday 26 March.

The competing teams are Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden, Türkiye and United States

Scotland are represented by their European Bronze Medallists - Rebecca Morrison (Skip),  Gina Aitken (Vice-Skip), Sophie Sinclair (2nd), Sophie Jackson (Lead) with Jennifer Dodds (Alternate). For me they might not quite get there this time, but, as they have already proved, they are good enough. The main dangers are definitely Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and United States, leaving the Scots to fight with Canada and Denmark for the remaining 2 places. Let's hope there is no Covid to hinder us this year!

Scotland's first game is on Saturday against Germany at 7pm, followed on Sunday by Denmark at 9am and Japan at 7pm.

Millwall v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday March 18th - 15:00 ko
at The Dirty Den

Quote:Captain Blackadder:
This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you got a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This Is a Large Crisis'. A large crisis requires a large plan. Get me two pencils and a pair of underpants.

Quote:Ahead of our Sky Bet Championship fixture against Millwall on Saturday 18 March, Manager Colin Wanker updated the press before our trip to the capital.

Discussing the point taken against Norwich City, our latest team news, and our upcoming international break taking place after this weekend, our Manager said:

“I think it’s a feeling of what might have been in honest – we could have lost it in the first half and then could have won it in the second half.

“We know we need three points, but we take what we can and move on, it’s just a matter of confidence.

“We hadn’t had much luck, but you have to make your own as well and we did that in the second half last night.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t get a second goal because we had the better chances in the second half.

“There’s nothing concerning in terms of injury after last night, hopefully during the international break we’ll sort one or two of the lads who’ve been missing.

“The lads will have some time off during the international break, come back and have a couple of days focussing on ourselves physically and then prepare for the next game.”

Going on to speak about our next Sky Bet Championship fixture against Millwall, Colin said:

“Millwall is going to be a challenge, it’ll be different to the game against Norwich but still challenging. They will play with a lot of strength and we have to be prepared mentally and physically to match that or it will be extremely difficult.

“They are brilliant when it comes to long throws and set pieces, which we have been a lot more positive about lately, so we need to continue with that.

“The fans will be there on Saturday, even with the train strikes and the obstacles – they will be there. The fans who turned up against West Brom were amazing and we need that again.”

Quote:Usually, the quickest and easiest way to reach The Den is by train via South Bermondsey station, but strike action will mean no services will run to the station on the day.

Match-goers are strongly advised to check their journeys before leaving. Nearby stations include Surrey Quays (which can be reached on London Overground) and London Bridge, from which the Jubilee Line will be available to travel to Bermondsey; a 20-minute walk to The Den. The strike action may mean that some of these stations are out of action, so please check your journey as soon as possible.

There are also numerous bus routes stopping in close proximity to The Den, including the 21, 53 and 172, which will get you to Old Kent Road, the P12 to Ilderton Road, the 1 and 381 to Rotherhithe New Road and the 47, 188 and 225 to Surrey Quays.

The old Den

They joined the Football League in 1920/21 with the newly formed regional Third Division and one of their biggest results in those early years was beating the thrice champions, Huddersfield Town, 3-1 in the 1926/27 FA Cup. And in 1937 they reached the FA Cup semi finals, losing 2-1 to Sunderland at Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road Stadium. Town legend Dave Mangnall leading the line in that famous cup run, the first 3rd division team to reach the semis. Here's some old footage of the cup run. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any footage anywhere on t' internet of the game at Leeds Road.

They were on the brink of the First Division, when the Second World War broke out. The Den took a pounding from the Luftwaffe and when the war was over, so was Millwall's chance of reaching for the sky. By the end of the 1950s they had plummeted down the league and when the third divisions went national, they were in the 4th division. They won promotion in 1964/65 though and have never been back to the 4th tier.

A steady climb upwards led to the eventual promotion to the top flight of English football in 1988/89 under the management of John Docherty and with the goals of Tony Cascarino and Teddy Sheringham. They stayed there for a couple of seasons, finishing 10th in the first one, before finishing bottom in the second.

In 1993 they moved ground, across New Cross to the New Den. After initial success at the new all seater stadium, a slump saw them relegated in 1996, but as a third division club, they reached Wembley for the first time, losing the 1999 Auto Windscreens Trophy Final 1-0 to Wigan, a team who would become their nemesis by beating them again in the following season's Play Offs. They went up as champions in the season after this though, with a club record 93 points.

In 2004 they reached the FA Cup Final, losing to Man Utd 3-0, but as United had already qualified for Europe, this meant that Millwall would play in the following season's UEFA Cup. They lost in the first round to Ferencváros.

Relegated again in 2006, they won promotion back again in 2009/10, via the Play Offs, beating Swindon in the final at Wembley. They did, of course, beat us 2-0 on aggregate on their way there.

In 2013, Millwall once again reached the FA Cup semi finals, losing again to their old nemesis Wigan by two goals to nil.



Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 24 wins to Millwall's 21, with 7 draws.

The programme image shown above was from our first league season together, 56 years ago to the day of this week's match. Town won it 3-1 with two goals from Brian Clark and one from the recently deceased Colin Dobson. That completed a double over the Lions, having won 2-0 at Leeds Road in October 1966. Dobson with a penalty and one from Tony Leighton.

Before that, we'd been drawn to play each other three times in the FA Cup in the 1920s. Millwall were in Division 3 (South) for all those games, while Town were the best team in the country. We beat them in the quarter finals in 1922, on the way to winning the Cup. Two from Clem Stephenson and one from Ernie Islip were the goals scorers for us in a 3-0 win at Leeds Road.

The following season, we drew them away in the 2nd round (modern day 4th round) and played out a goal less draw at the Den before beating them 3-0 again in the replay. Two goals this time from Charlie Wilson and one from George Richardson.

Four years later, as the Thrice Champions, we were giant killed by Millwall at the Den in front of 35,962 spectators. They beat us 3-1 for what must've been the biggest shock of the year.

We've had one FA Cup meeting since then, which they won 4-0 at Leeds Road in 1992.

They beat us a few years later in the League One Play Offs, when they won 2-0 on aggregate at the semi final stage. Danny Schofield played against us as two goals from Steve Morison and Paul Robinson saw our brave lads whimper out, disappointingly.

Since then, we've had 13 meetings in the Championship, with us winning 8 of them and losing 4, with one draw. The most recent one, in October, was won with a spectacular shot (cross?) from Yuta Nakayama in the 9th minute, the only goal of the game.

George Honeymonster (left)