A huge match for our young Hibees coming up on Tuesday night and Hibs opening up the east stand for this one. These lads have done exceptionally well to get to this play-off final and certainly deserve the fans' support no matter what the outcome is. Hopefully home advantage will be a factor in the boys attaining a historic quali success in this type of Euro tourney. It will be a tough challenge all the same.

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/th...-adventure

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64525412

What a dramatic fightback by a Scotland side that knew it had the attacking prowess to retain the Calcutta Cup on England's home patch and a historic double "back to back" Calcutta Cup win at Twickenham too!! What a relief to see a "worldy" Van der Merwe try, one of the best tries ever scored in a Six Nations Tourney, coupled up to that stunning victory as well, and fitting that the big man scored the winning try. Well done!!!

Alarm bells ring with this one


Morecambe say they are in the process of being taken over by 20-year-old businessman Sarbjot Johal.

The Shrimps, whose owners Bond Group Investments put the club up for sale in September, are 19th in League One.

Co-chairman Graham Howse said Johal's takeover remains reliant on him passing the EFL's owners and directors' test.

It comes after world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, who lives in the town, said he had been offered the chance to buy the club in October.

Howse told the club website that Johal's purchase had not "progressed as quickly as we all would have liked" but "exciting times are ahead both on and off the pitch".

"Sarbjot, through his company Sarb Capital, has recently purchased equity in the club, injecting more than useful income into us," Howse said.

"I am, along with Sarbjot, keen that the process should now move on at pace to come to a positive conclusion."

The Lancashire side were put up for sale by owners Bond Group Investments, with Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring stepping down from the board.

Whittingham and Goldring also owned rugby union side Worcester Warriors, who went into administration in September and were subsequently banned from playing in the Premiership this season and relegated to the second tier.

Morecambe are in just their second-ever season in League One and have won four of their past five games.

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/a-...d-j-gordon

Ron Gordon confirming a lotta rumours that have been circulating for months re his health - disappointing news indeed!. And who cares about 11 guys kicking a footie pitch under such circumstances!! I just hope and pray his fight against this threat is a successful one!! All the best Ron!!

Is anyone out there? A blues post hasn't been posted since 2022

The Prediction League Cup will kick off next week, it was won by Zinman last year who saw a Promotion/Cup Win double. The same set of fixtures and scores from each week will count towards each round of the group stages and knockout stages. League points are not affected, they still count towards the table as they always do.

Group matches will take place during weeks 22, 23 & 24.

The top 2 from each group will then face off against each other in the quarter finals knockout stage over 2 legs using weeks 26 & 28.

The winners of those then meet in 2 legged semi finals in weeks 30 & 32.

The final will be a straight sudden death result using the last weeks league fixtures for scoring.

Guaranteed to be a Premiership & Championship predictor in the final as per usual.

An online random number sequence generator was used to determine the groups for each league based on the current standings, here are the groups:

Group 1
Derby
Snooty
Sanjay
St Charles

Group 2
Blue Baggie
Minizin
Zinman
Stairs

Group 3
BaggieOne
Lady Jane
Themaclad
Amelia

Group 4
AAA
Twerton
BBB
Dingle

In the event of a tie between players, the number of Correct Scores will determine the winner, followed by total points scored on the Bonus Ball.  After that Zinman and I will toss a coin!!!!

Scores will be updated on this thread as we go through the competition.

Premier League

Minizin      23pts 2CS 7CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Snooty      18pts 0CS 7CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Derby        17pts 2CS 4CR 10GB 0BB 1SB
Zinman      17pts 1CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
SCO          15pts 1CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Stairs        12pts 1CS 6CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie 12pts 1CS 5CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Sanjay          1pt  0CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

The highest total points week of the season so far, 15 points more than the previous best set in week 13. Only 1 failure on the gamball and a healthy number of positive bonuses and score balls - I suppose I'll have to select more difficult games in future. Two of the fixtures failed to produce a single point - in fact they both produced negative scores due to some poor bonus ball selections with Albion letting a few people down - for a change!

Minizin equals the best individual score of the season and secures his first 20+ score to sit on top of this week's league and increase his overall lead. He scored on 7 of the games with 2 correct scores and a full set of balls. Snooty matched the 7 results but failed to get a single correct score to leave him 5 points back in 2nd place, just ahead of Derby and Zinman. Derby secured a maximum on the gamball but lost out on one of his two bonuses while Zin was just relieved to recover from last week's mauling.

SCO, Stairs and Blue all had decent weeks, Stairs again missing out on the 3 extra gamball points but Sanjay had a week to forget - no correct scores, the only player not to forecast a Middlesbrough victory and also failing on his bonus to leave him trailing some way in the distance with just a single point.

Minizin 202pts
Derby 189
Zinman 189
Snooty 174
Stairs 165
Blue 156
SCO 137
Sanjay 133

Congrats to Minizin on breaking the 200 barrier and opening up a 13 point gap to Derby and Zinman who once again share 2nd place. Only 1 positional change this week with Sanjay's dreadful week sending him back tot the foot of the table enabling SCO to rise 1 place.

Stats time: Derby and Zinman remain the most consistent gamball players with 29 and 23 points from it respectively with Stairs the only other player to gain on this ball from his very infrequent use of it. After this week, Derby now has 4 gamball maximums, 2 more than Zin with nobody else getting more than 1. Snooty and Stairs are yet to score a maximum - Stairs has the excuse of only playing it twice while Snooty.......In contrast, Derby, Zin and Stairs are the worst scorers with their bonuses!

Zin


Championship

Dingle 22pts 2CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Lady Jane 22pts 2CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
AAA 20pts 2CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
BBB 18pts 1CS 4CR 5GB 6BB 1SB
BaggieOne 14pts 0CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Themaclad 10pts 1CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Twerton 3pts 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Amelia -1pts 0CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

Like in the PL, this weeks total score was the highest so far this season and for the first time broke the century mark for an individual week with 108 points!!  Interesting that the weekly scores almost mirrored the same order as the league positions with just a couple of exceptions.  Dingle and Lady Jane lead the way with 22 points, this is Dingles highest score of the season and Lady Jane matched her week 14 total.  They got there in the same way as well, scoring on 7 games with 2 CSs, a CR on the Gamball and Bonus but both missing on the scoreball.  AAA is 3rd with 20 points, he was just one CR behind the top two and his decision to play a fairly rare Gamball paid off as well.

BBB is 4th with 18 points, he finally got positive points on his two key balls with a maximum on the Bonus Ball and CR on the Gamball.  BaggieOne is 5th with 14 points, he got 4 CRs but his inability to turn any into CSs is what kept his score down.  Themaclad rounds out the players in double figures this week with 10 points, like all those above him he got a CR on the Gamball but unlike all of them he missed on his Bonus.

The bottom 2 are the same bottom 2 in the league table, Twerton and Amelia.  Twerton managed just 3 points and Amelia went backwards with a -1.  Both missed on both major balls and in the end it was Twerton's ability to at least get one CS that kept his score positive.

227 Dingle
204 Lady Jane
193 BaggieOne
183 AAA
176 BBB
142 Themaclad
122 Amelia
119 Twerton

No positional changes this week but as I said above, with the weekly table pretty much mirroring the league table, the gaps stretched or shrunk a little in places.  Dingle and LJ now have opened a bit of a gap on BaggieOne and AAA & BBB have in turn moved a little closer again to that PO spot.  The bottom 3 are now well adrift.  AAA joined us late this season and if he had hit his average score in the weeks he missed he would have been right up with LJ in 2nd spot, so note to AAA - don't do that next season, get in from the start!!

Its interesting that the week after I mentioned that Dingle had yet to score 20 points, he shoves in his best score of the season.  I don't track maximums on the balls (note to self for next season maybe!!) but I can say that the player who has achieved the most points on the Gamball is AAA with 22 points, yet he has played it the least times by far!!  Lady Jane is second in this category with 19 points and everyone else bar Twerton has a positive return from the Gamball.  Interestingly the Bonus, a ball we get to choose which game to play on so likely we use it on our most confident prediction, has scored far fewer points in total!!  LJ leads the way with 27 points followed by BaggieOne (18), AAA (15) and Dingle (3) but half the players are currently sat on negative points from it - Twerton (-33), Amelia (-9), BBB and Themaclad (both -3).  In total the Gamball has seen 73 points awarded, with the Bonus on just 18 in total!!  In fact the Scoreball has seen 82 points awarded so beats both!!

Cheers
SCO

Friday

Scunthorpe 0-4 Barnet

Saturday

Aldershot 2-0 Dorking
Boreham Wood 1-2 Chesterfield
Bromley 1-1 Maidenhead United
Eastleigh 1-1 Woking
Oldham 2-1 Halifax
Solihull Moors 1-0 Gateshead
Southend 0-2 York
Torquay 1-1 Notts County
Wealdstone 2-3 Dag & Red
Yeovil 2-0 Maidstone United
Altrincham 1-0 Wrexham

League Table After Matchday 37
Devon - 723
SaltergateBorn - 611
St Charles Owl - 609
Lord Snoots - 604
Spireitematt - 586
Amelia - 571
Dancing - 535

LAST TIME OUT



Nigel speaks



FORM GUIDE

PNE 10 BRIZZLE 8

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/

https://www.not606.com/forums/bristol-city.34/

In The Dressing Room

Deadline day addition Josh Onomah will be eligible to feature, but manager Ryan Lowe is aware he will need to get up to match speed, having not played many minutes so far this season.

The gaffer will have pretty much a fully-fit squad to choose from this weekend, aside from long-term absentee Emil Riis.

Greg Cunningham – coming up against his former side – would reach 150 league appearances in a PNE shirt if he is to feature this weekend.

A Look At Our Visitors


There could be a couple of debuts handed out by Bristol City this weekend, with the Robins bringing attackers Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick to the club on deadline day.

22-year-old Mehmeti has joined from Wycombe Wanderers, having scored nine times in the first half of their League One campaign, while Cornick has made the move from Luton Town, where he made over 235 appearances.

Manager Nigel Pearson will be hopeful the duo can help to fill the gap left by the departure of Antoine Semenyo to AFC Bournemouth, as they look to push up the table from 17th position.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 96
PNE wins: 34
Draws: 34
Bristol City wins: 28
Last victory: PNE 1-0 Bristol City, 18th December 2020

One To Watch


There could well be debuts for deadline day signings Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick, but striker Nahki Wells will be hoping to hold on to his starting spot.

He’s been the key man up top for the Robins so far this season, featuring in all-but-one Championship fixtures, with a return of nine goals.

The experienced Championship centre forward has previous against North End, too, having put four past PNE for Huddersfield Town earlier in his career.

Match Officials

Leigh Doughty will referee the fourth Preston North End fixture of his career this weekend.

Doughty first took charge of a PNE game in November 2021, while his most recent experience of officiating a Lilywhites match was in January earlier this year, when Ryan Lowe’s side won 1-0 away to Stoke City.

So far this season, Doughty has shown 92 yellow cards and five reds in his 20 matches as referee.

MACS VIEW

Another attempt too improve our woeful home record, more attacking options than last week against Spuds plus our new Josh, if only we could win at home we would be in a great top six position but hope springs eternal