THE MATCH

SATURDAY 14TH JANUARY KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Well we upset the odds and saw off Premier League Newcastle. Dawson kept us in it in the first half making a couple of good saves while we had a couple of chances ourselves but didn't trouble the goalkeeper. Onto the 2nd half and we took the lead after Byers did well and fed Palmer, who found Adeniran who found Windass to slot home, We soon made it when 2-0 when Smith fed Windass who finished clinically. Newcastle put the big boys on and quickly pulled one back through Guimaraes. Windass hit the bar from a free kick & Dawson made one or two saves and Chris Wood missed a golden chance to equalize as we advanced to the next round to take on Fleetwood @ Hillsborough

THE MATCH



Back to league play and we travel down to Wycombe. They didn't make the best start to the season but have improved in the last few months and currently lie in 7th place in the table. Anis Mehmeti is there main danger with 8 goals & 4 assists so far, they also have Lewis Wing who was with us last season. They are still managed by Gareth Ainsworth who is now entering his 11th year of being in charge. They are kings of the dark arts/shithousery so don't expect a free flowing game and plenty of free kicks for the home team.

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 5
WYC 2
DRAWS 2

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                     

WYC                -                                                

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

SAM ALLISON
Samuel Ogles and Ravel Cheosiaua
Fourth Official : Alan Young

THE TEAM

Dawson
Palmer Iorfa James
Hunt Adeniran Byers FDB Johnson
Windass Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Smith

ATTENDANCE

N/A

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Imre 19
Owlskev 18
Stateside 18
Wash 16
SCO 15
Peiowl 11
Maddix 9

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Everton v Southampton
Luton v WBA
Ipswich v Plymouth
Carlisle v Newport
Scunthorpe v Woking

AADHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

WEREHAM




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Hull City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday January 14th - 15:00 ko
at the MKM Stadium

Crisis club Huddersfield Town travel to the city of Kingston upon Hull to the KFC Stadium on Saturday afternoon to take on the in form Hull City Tigers. And I must say, it's been years since I've been this apathetic about my beloved club. I've no desire to even listen to this match on Radio Leeds, let alone go all the way to Hull and pay a small fortune for the privelege of watching eleven men in Town shirts pretending to be professional footballers.

Who those eleven players will be at 3pm on Saturday is anybody's guess. News from Wakey Terrier, our correspondent outside the gates of the Millers Oils High Powered Complex, is that England's number one, Lee Nicholls is injured and will be out for a long period of time.

What are Head Coach Mark Fotheringham and Director of Football Leigh Bromby doing to address the situation? Do they stick with the young Aussie keeper Nicholas Bilokapic? Or do we rescue Alex Smithies from his current job of cleaning the bogs at Leicester Forest East Services? Or do we take on a Premier League youngster with half a game's experience in the Papa John's Tinpot Trophy?

With this headache at the forefront of the high level meeting at Canalside, Town have today recalled four players from out on loan, none of whom have ever gone between the sticks. Josh Koroma, once very highly thought of at the club, but more recently banished to the south coast with the Cowley boys. Rarmani Edmonds-Green, who has been on a pie cooking course over in Lancashire. Exciting young prospect Jaheim Headley, a young left back who has been apparently playing well for Harrogate Town in League Two. And magical midfielder Scottish Highlands, has returned from a rousing time at Rotherham.

Whether these four have just been recalled, only to go back out on loan again is anybody's guess.

But just as I'm typing these pessimistic notes, up pops some very exciting news indeed. One of the greatest opposition players ever to grace the field of the John Smith's Stadium has arrived here on loan, to play for us. No, not Harry Kane, but the tricky French winger Anthony Knockaert, who has come to us from Fulham.

He scored two of the best goals scored at the stadium, which were his first goals in England, when he played for Leicester City in 2012. He would've been 20 years old then and his goals were a 35-yard shot into the top corner, and a cheeky trick shot, flicking the ball over his head with his heel into the net.

Here's hoping for some more of that. 

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 26 wins to Hull's 21, with 11 draws.

Those figures have improved recently as we have won our last five matches against Hull City. The last time we lost to them was the opening fixture of the 2015/16 season when Sam Clucas and Chuba Akpom goals gave the Tiggers a 2-0 win.

Since then, we drew at home 2-2 with a Harry Maguire own goal in the last minute giving us a point. We did the double over them in 2019/20 under the Danny Cowley regime, 3-0 at home and 2-1 away. Then in 21/22 with Carlos Corberan as Head Coach, we won 2-0 at home through goals from Tom Lees and Duane Holmes. A Harry Toffolo scrambled goal gave us victory at their place as we closed in on the Play Offs.

It was another 2-0 win this season with another own goal, this time from Lewie Coyle and then Michal Helik getting his first Town goal.

Amy Johnson, a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, was born in Hull in 1903. She set a few flying records during the 1930s and was probably the most famous woman in the country at the time. Sadly, she died during the war whilst working for the Air Ministry, crashing into the Thames Estuary when she "ran out of fuel". It was much later reported that she had actually been shot down by "friendly fire". 

So what's going on down KC/KCOM/MKM Stadium? Managed nowadays by former player, Liam Resenior, who was assistant to Philip Cocu and then Wayne Rooney at Derby County, before taking charge as caretaker when Ronney naffed off. He is the son of Leroy Rosenior, who was the manager of Torquay United when they stole our promotion in 2004. Well, we handed it to them on a plate more like.

When that happened, young Liam was just starting out his playing career, at Bristol City. He went on to play in the Premier League for four different clubs in Fulham, Reading, Hull City and Brighton. He started his coaching career at Brighton in 2018, before the move to Derby in 2019.

He's also a regular pundit on Sky Sports.

1. Perky Afro Throb
   
2. Retro Dylan
   
3. Miracle Willow Fibre
   
4. Anne Marie Plum
   
5. Rest Eight
   
6. Cashmere Jets
   
7. Homemade Maid
   
8. Everest Cub
   
9. Israeli Moron
   
10. Elvis Kurt Longhorns
    

National League

Bromley 1-1 Yeovil
Scunthorpe 0-2 Woking

FA Trophy

Aldershot 0-1 Leiston
Banbury United 0-2 Coalville Town
Bracknell Town 0-1 Bath City
Dag & Red 2-1 Maidenhead United
Dorking 0-1 Kidderminster
Eastleigh 2-0 Braintree
Farsley Celtic 2-1 Marske United
Harrow Borough 0-3 Halifax
Hungerford Town 2-3 Tamworth
Oldham 2-0 Gateshead
Solihull Moors 0-1 Barnet
Southend 0-2 Darlington
Torquay 3-1 Taunton Town
York 0-1 Chelmsford City



League Table After Matchday 31
Devon - 638
Lord Snoots - 549
St Charles Owl - 527
SaltergateBorn - 519
Spireitematt - 516
Amelia - 501
Dancing - 473

Doug King
Doug King's takeover of Coventry City comes with the club 14th in the Championship
Coventry City's new owner Doug King has completed his purchase of a majority 85% share in the Championship club.

The deal, first agreed on 16 November, has now been given approval by the English Football League after the Warwickshire-based businessman passed their owners' and directors' test.

The club have said that the deal will clear all the Sky Blues' debts.

But it came too late to prevent City's stadium, the CBS Arena, passing into the hands of new owners.

Sky Blues Fancast: Long Live The King
Coventry City: The Takeover: The Latest
City sign new CBS Arena rent deal until end of season
King himself made a late £25m bid to also buy the stadium, which was up for sale after Premiership rugby union side Wasps, the ground's owners since 2014, revealed in October that they would have to go into administration.

But, when the Arena formally went into administration, it was ruled that Mike Ashley's reported £17m deal, including a £1.2m exclusivity payment up front to help keep the ground open for the Sky Blues to play home games in, should be allowed to proceed.

City did receive another serious offer to buy the club from energy drink company boss William Storey, but he officially withdrew his interest last Friday.

"I am honoured and excited to be taking this club forward into its next chapter," said King. "To get this deal ratified in just over six weeks and over the Christmas period was a great effort from all involved.

"Already I have been struck by the enthusiasm of Sky Blues fans, with many personally wishing me well and I thank them for those sentiments. I am looking forward to the future of this great club and what we can achieve together."

While King is the now majority shareholder, having taken over from the previous owners, SISU will still have a small stake. But former City chairman Tim Fisher will no longer be involved. The club put out a statement to say that he has resigned as a director after 12 years on the Sky Blues board.

"Tim has been a figurehead at the club for a number of years and offered important advice and counsel to many," said Sky Blues chief executive Dave Boddy. "Having worked through difficult periods for Coventry City, he now leaves with the club in a far better place than he found it."

After successive promotions from the EFL's bottom tier in 2019 and 2020, Mark Robins' Coventry side are 14th in the congested Championship table, just four points outside a play-off place, but nine points clear of trouble - despite going three games without a win.

Coventry City first moved into the Arena in 2005 following the sale of Highfield Road
Coventry City first moved into the CBS Arena in 2005 following the sale of Highfield Road
Who is Doug King?
Former Loughborough University mathematical engineering graduate King has a background in trading grains, non-grain feeds and petroleum.

He is chief executive of Stratford-upon-Avon-based oilseed processing facility Yelo Enterprises, who have invested more than £70m in the region.

He previously co-founded investment firm RCMA Capital LLP - which has overseen investments of more than $400m (£337m) - and of which he remains the owner as majority shareholder.

The SISU years in Coventry
Previous owners SISU, part of the Otium Entertainment Group, will retain a 15% toehold in the Sky Blues - a relationship that first began in 2007.

The London-based hedge fund rescued Coventry from being wound up when they took over the club with 20 minutes to spare.

The past 15 years have not always been the smoothest ride, largely due to the fact that City have not been owners of their own stadium since leaving their old Highfield Road home, when it was sold for housing redevelopment in 2005.

A long-running row over ground rent twice forced the Sky Blues to seek temporary groundshare homes outside the city.

They moved first to Northampton in 2013 for more than a season, prior to Wasps being allowed to move in, later followed by two seasons with Birmingham City, before returning to Coventry again in 2021.

Even this season they were forced to play an EFL Cup home tie at Burton Albion when the CBS Arena surface was ruled unfit to play on following overuse in the summer because of Commonwealth Games rugby and pop concerts.

SISU director Joy Seppala, who remains on the Sky Blues board, said: "Coventry City's future is bright under Doug King's leadership.

"Enthusiasm, determination and commitment are precisely what this great club will have with Doug. I look forward to watching Coventry City go from strength to strength."

New City owner has 'greater willingness' to interact
Analysis from BBC CWR sport producer Clive Eakin

"When Coventry City announced that SISU had agreed to sell 85% of the club's shares it followed months of speculation that they might be ready to hand over to new owners - but the name Doug King had come from nowhere.

"That led to fans turning to search engines to find out who he is - and they will have discovered that he's the CEO of a Stratford-based rapeseed processing company who claim to 'lead the way to a sustainable future through innovation'.

"What concerned more sceptical supporters was the discovery that King is also the chief investment officer for RCMA, a hedge fund that shares a correspondence address with SISU.

"But what has already been apparent about the new owner is his greater willingness to interact than his predecessors.

"He has been seen at a number of matches home and away and spoken to fans. He was even among a crowd of just over 200 on a cold night to watch the Under-21s play a Birmingham Senior cup tie at Coleshill and spoke to more supporters there.

"He's been careful not to promise the earth but he has said he does have bigger resources than the previous owners with which to back up Mark Robins and the recruitment team."

Scott Lindsey has left Swindon Town to take charge of Crawley Town - becoming their third permanent boss this season.

The 50-year-old former Robins assistant manager only took on the Swindon role six months ago, following the departure of Ben Garner to Charlton Athletic.

Promotion hopefuls Swindon are eighth in League Two and only outside the play-offs on goal difference.

Crawley are in the same division and 21st in the league table, with one win from their last five games.

Their most recent manager Matthew Etherington left after just 32 days in the job, with Kevin Betsy and Lewis Young also leading the side this season.

Lindsey has been appointed on a two-and-a-half-year contract. Swindon assistant head coach Jamie Day has also left the club to follow Lindsey to the Red Devils.

"I'm really excited to be here. It has taken a while, but I am delighted to finally get the deal done and over the line. I am straight to work on the training ground tomorrow," Lindsey said.

"They are a great group of lads and I look forward to working with them.

"When Crawley put the approach in to Swindon, I was immediately excited and wanted to see what it was all about. It was clear to see the plan that Chris [Galley] and the owners have in place and how they want to move the club forward."

Lindsey was previously caretaker manager of Lincoln City in 2010 and coached Swindon's under-18s from 2014 to 2018.

He had a brief spell as the assistant manager at Forest Green Rovers before returning to Swindon in 2021 alongside Garner.

Swindon said first-team coach Gavin Gunning and goalkeeping coach Steve Mildenhall have been put in charge of the team on an interim basis while a permanent head coach is appointed.

"Our prime aim is now focused on bringing in a new had coach who shares the same drive, ambition, vision and values as we do in order to drive us forward, with promotion this season very much still our intended target," said Swindon owner Clem Morfuni.

Premier League

Blue Baggie  12pts 2CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Sanjay        11pts 0CS 5CR 0GB 0BB 1SB
Derby            7pts 1CS 5CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Zinman          7pts 0CS 5CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Minizin          6pts 0CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Stairs            6pts 0CS 4CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Snooty          3pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 0BB 0SB
SCO              2pts 0CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB 

Well, once again the FA Cup 3rd round produced lots of shocks - Coventry losing, Wednesday winning and Villa keeping Stevenage down to just 2 goals. For the Premiership predictors, less shocks. Once again the gamball proved to be expensive - just 2 players got the result correct but both of them lacked the conviction to gamble! Bonuses and correct scores were also rare though both Snooty and Sanjay have an extra bonus to play on this week's competition thanks to a bit of rain in Gloucestershire.

Blue Baggie has enjoyed a complete turn around in form in the last few weeks and this continued as he tops the table with 12 points. He has now scored 72 points in the last 6 weeks compared to just 43 in the first 12 weeks of the season. Sanjay came back into the fold after missing last week and takes 2nd place though he could have topped the table if he'd only been braver with the gamball.

Those 2 were the only players reaching double figures. Our overall top 3, Derby, Zinman and Minizin sit in mid-table together with Stairs separated by just a point  - again Zinman should have been braver!

Snooty struggled to just 3 points with the week's lowest total of 3 correct results - we will never know if the absence of his bonus helped or hindered his score. No 3rd round shock to see SCO yet again at the foot of the table with just 2 points thanks to a complete blow out on his balls - expect a late posting again!

Zinman 171
Minizin 155
Derby 154
Snooty 141
Stairs 133
Sanjay 121
Blue Baggie 115
SCO 104

Unsurprisingly given the relatively close scores there are no positional changes in the overall league table though Blue Baggie has now opened up a bit of a gap from SCO at the foot of the table.

Some data on our balls: 3 players remain positive with the gamball, Derby, Zinman and Sanjay though Derby's gamball skills don't translate to his bonus selections where he joins Stairs as the only players with negative bonus totals. Minizin is the bonus king, so far scoring 6 more points from it than anyone else. Snooty leads the scoreball table, scoring from 13 of the 18 weeks played so far.

Zin


Championship

Twerton 16pts 1CS 4CR 5GB NPBB 1SB
BaggieOne 12pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
AAA 11pts 1CS 3CR NPGB 3BB 0SB
BBB 9pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Themaclad 8pts 0CS 4CR 5GB -3BB NPSB
Lady Jane 7pts 1CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Amelia 4pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Dingle 0pts 0CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

Maybe the biggest shocks on the FA Cup 3rd Round weekend is seeing Twerton top this weeks table and Dingle at the bottom!!  Twerton ended with 16 points, his second highest score of the season, got a rare CR on the Gamball and managed this score with his Bonus game being postponed!!  BaggieOne is second with 12 points, he missed on the Gamball but got a spot on Bonus.  AAA is 3rd with 11 points, he would have been second but he did not play the Gamball so missed out on 3 extra points.

BBB is 4th with 9 points, finally he got one of his balls correct!  Themaclad is 5th with 8 points, he and Twerton were the only ones to score positive points on the Gamball.  Lady Jane had a better week with 7 points but scored on just 3 games. Amelia got just 4 points in 7th, not much worked for her this week.

Bottom spot is owned by the league leader Dingle who recorded the proverbial big fat zero in the classic way, get all the balls wrong and add 3 CRs to cancel out the negative points!!  This is Dingles worst week of the season so far, he has a lead to lean on but won't want to repeat this too often going forward!!

189 Dingle
163 Lady Jane
159 BaggieOne
138 BBB
137 AAA
127 Themaclad
105 Amelia
99 Twerton

Again no changes in positions.  The top three close up a little and BBB/AAA close the gap on them in turn.  Themaclad is hanging onto their shirt tails and has now put a 22 point gap between him and Amelia.  Twerton is a single point off the century mark, lets hope he can get it next week.

To follow Zin's lead on the balls, Lady Jane leads the way with 47 total points from them with AAA in second with 35.  Interestingly AAA has achieved this while only playing the Gamball 5 times but to his credit not playing the Gamball has so far cost him zero points overall.  At the other end Twerton is the master of getting his balls wrong with -32 overall and BBB is second worst with -2 points from his 3 balls yet he leads the way on the use of the Scoreball with 12 points gained from that.  Just goes to show how bad he has been on the other two!!

Cheers
SCO

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/hi...f-football

Kensell commenting re the club's frailties on the footie front and announcing HFC's intention to appoint a new Director of Football??? Wasn't George Craig our previous vg (and very enthusiastic!) Director of Footie under the old regime??? Therefore, is this a case of the current management at HFC "reinventing the wheel"??? In other words, they created the problem in the first place by shutting down that function/position in a probable cost-cutting move!!!!

Brentford have signed David Beckham's son. On being introduced to the manager he asked, "What squad number am I getting boss?" Mr Franks replied, "Wear four out there Romeo ..........."

The local shop was dying to use that gag on me this morning. Then when she came to say it, she totally cocked the whole thing up and collapsed in fits of laughter.

Gamball:
Luton - WBA

Others:
Man Utd - Man City
Brighton - Liverpool
Nottingham Forest - Leicester
Bristol City - Birmingham
Hull - Huddersfield
Preston - Norwich
Reading - QPR
Wycombe - Sheff Wed
Spurs - Arsenal

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.

Saturday 14th Janiuary:
Hull v Huddersfield
Town scorers:
Hull scorers:

Rotherham United v Blackburn Rovers (12:30)
Bristol City v Birmingham City
Burnley v Coventry City
Cardiff City v Wigan Athletic
Luton Town v West Bromwich Albion
Middlesbrough v Millwall
Preston North End v Norwich City
Reading v Queens Park Rangers
Sheffield United v Stoke City
Sunderland v Swansea City
Watford v Blackpool

FA Cup:
Tuesday:
3rd round:
Forest Green Rovers v Birmingham City

Replays:
Accrington Stanley v Boreham Wood
Swansea City v Bristol City
West Bromwich Albion v Chesterfield
Wigan Athletic v Luton Town
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Liverpool

Wednesday:
Leeds United v Cardiff City

Table after Matchday 21:

1. jjamez = 488 pts
   
2. themaclad = 432 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 430 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 421 pts
   
5. Baggiebob(BBB) = 407 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 405 pts
   
7. Amelia Chaffinch = 392 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 390 pts
   
9. St Charles Owl = 382 pts
   
10. ritchiebaby = 380 pts
    
11. Devongone = 340 pts
    
12. WakeyTerrier = 171 pts