It's time to "chill" and enjoy Xmas in the best way that we can esp during these challenging times. Have a good one!! ENJOY!!

MK Dons have named Leeds United coach Mark Jackson as their new boss.

The 45-year-old replaces Liam Manning, who was sacked on 11 December with the team next to bottom of League One.

His first game in charge will be at home to Forest Green Rovers on Boxing Day, followed by trips to Peterborough United and current leaders Plymouth.

"The identity of the club fits with me. They want to dominate the ball and I can continue that but enhance it as well," Jackson said.

"We've got a lot of things to do in a short space of time, we know we have to impact things on the pitch.

"I've got ideas of how to do that and how I can tweak certain things. If we can get little things right then we can start to make progress on the pitch," he told BBC Three Counties Radio.

Of the past seven head coaches appointed by MK Dons, Jackson, who oversaw training on Friday, is the fourth to be given his first post in senior club management by them, following Karl Robinson (2010-2016), Dan Micciche (2018) and Russell Martin (2019-2021).

However, the length of his contract at Stadium: MK has not been disclosed.

The former Leeds and Scunthorpe United defender - who watched the Dons lose to Leicester in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday - was in charge of various age group sides at Elland Road before being promoted to first-team coach in March.

Speaking on Thursday, Leeds head coach Jesse Marsch said: "Jacko has been an absolute asset for me from the first day that I set foot into the building.

"He has done everything and more that I could have hoped, his passion, his commitment and his love of this club made him essential for me and for us in our quest to stay in the [Premier] league [last season]. I fully believe that without him we wouldn't have stayed in the league.

"I value him completely as a person and as a football mind."

Manning guided the Dons to a third-place finish and the League One play-offs last season after joining them from Belgian club Lommel in the summer of 2021, but they missed out on the chance of promotion after losing to Wycombe Wanderers over two legs.

The squad had to be rebuilt following a number of subsequent departures and they lost their first three league games of the season without scoring a goal.

Two wins in the next three pushed them up to 13th in the table by the end of August but they have been in the relegation places since a 2-1 defeat at Shrewsbury on 8 October.

"Whatever industry you're in it's about dealing with people and that's a big part of my leadership [style], I want to connect with people, I want to engage with people, I want to give people responsibility and ownership of what they do. I think I've got a skill-set that can do that," Jackson added.

"Ultimately, I'm judged on getting the team right but I see a process in that of developing each individual and making them better."

Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson played for Scunthorpe against Leeds in a 2003 FA Cup tie
Owner Pete Winkelman had promised that the club would be "brave" in their search for a new head coach, which was led by sporting director Liam Sweeting.

Winkelman told BBC Three Counties Radio: "It's always a traumatic thing, changing a manager. I had huge respect for Liam Manning and what he achieved last year.

"But we need a new voice, we needed a leader, but we also needed to maintain the exceptionally unique style that we have as a football club - it's what sets us apart.

"That was a big part of the process. Mark manages to tick all of those boxes and I gave him the job straight away at the interview."

Winkelman added: "He's very pragmatic about what we've got to do in the here and now. He's got an idea of what he's going to do in the short term that will make us more difficult to beat and hopefully give us more opportunities to score. It's those marginal changes that could make the difference in our results."

As a player, Jackson was given his Leeds first-team debut by then boss Howard Wilkinson in a 10 Premier League home defeat by Middlesbrough in March 1996.

He made 23 appearances for his hometown club but spent most of his career at a lower level, principally with Scunthorpe, where he played almost 160 games between 2000 and 2005.

Jackson 'seems like a good fit' - Analysis
BBC Three Counties Radio sports editor Geoff Doyle

Even though it will be Jackson's first head coach position this seems a good fit in terms of the management/coaching structure at MK Dons.

The comments of Leeds boss Jesse Marsch were interesting, with the American believing Leeds would have been relegated last season without Jackson. That experience is certainly going to help him as he now fights relegation in League One.

The Dons are in the bottom four and have lost 13 of 21 League One games.

Jackson is likely to need reinforcements in the January transfer window and his knowledge of the top academy players in the country - having worked with Leeds Under-23s for two years - could prove to be very handy.

Just wondering why I have a warning level 0, and no one else has?? Can anyone explain.

Coventry City have been given a suspended points deduction after three Championship games had to be postponed because of the state of their pitch.

The problems resulted from the pitch being used for rugby sevens matches during the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The Sky Blues accepted they had breached English Football League ground maintenance regulations.

And the five-point penalty will be implemented if there is a further breach in 2022-23 or next season.

City's August home fixtures against Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town had to be rescheduled because the pitch was not fit to be used.

The problem caused "cashflow imbalances", which meant the club were placed under a transfer embargo because they had to ask HM Revenue & Customs for extra time to pay money owed.

The final instalment under the agreement was paid on Wednesday, with the embargo lifted in time for the January transfer window.

Coventry were eventually cleared to resume playing at the Coventry Building Society Arena at the end of August after repair work was carried out by then landlords, Wasps, following mediation by West Midlands mayor Andy Street.

However, Wasps subsequently went into administration and the ground is now owned by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group.

City chief executive Dave Boddy said: "Our supporters will know that we were left with a pitch at the Arena that was unsafe, dangerous and unplayable for our first games of the season, following the broken promises of a new pitch by Wasps, and the extensive usage at the Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens.

"The debacle they caused - and the cashflow problems, reputational damage and inconvenience they created for the football club, as well as impacting upon our sporting performance and our supporters - should have been an indication to us all of the financial plight they were facing."

Listen to BBC CWR's Sky Blues Fancast
Coventry have also been ordered to pay compensation to the three clubs, and the costs of the EFL investigation.

They also had to switch a Carabao Cup tie against Bristol City to Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium because of the pitch issues.

The relevant regulation states that clubs are "responsible for the maintenance of the pitch and for the general maintenance of the ground, including (but not limited to) ground safety".

They must also ensure that "adequate arrangements are in place" to maintain a pitch in "good order".

The suspended points deduction was imposed on the basis of an "agreed decision" between the club and the league.

"We have accepted the decision of the EFL and the sanctions imposed on us, to minimise the sanctions that would imposed upon us, with the point deduction being suspended," added Boddy.

"We hope that this draws a line under this and that this is a situation that should never be repeated at the arena."

Despite the early season situation, Coventry are eighth in the table, but earlier this month they were served with an eviction notice by Frasers.

They have since signed an agreement to continue playing home games at the Arena until the end of the season.

Looks like the £25 m loan secured against WBA assets has been approved.
If it is confirmed after 55 years I will be binning my scarfs and WBA will be taking a back seat.
I will select a new club. I refuse to support a thieving Chinaman while he kills the club I have supported through thick and thin.

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


League Table After Matchday 27
Devon - 577
Lord Snoots - 488
St Charles Owl - 471
SaltergateBorn - 456
Amelia - 435
Spireitematt - 425
Dancing - 410

Premier League

Sanjay      14pts 2CS 6CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Zinman      13pts 2CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 0SB
Stairs          9pts 1CS 3CR 0GB 0BB 1SB
SCO            7pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 6BB 0SB
Snooty        7pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie 6pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Minizin        4pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Derby          3pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

5 in a row! No, I'm not referring to Albion wins but the number of consecutive weeks that Zinman has been in the top 2 and also the number of weeks that he's hit double figures - what a hero, and modest too. Just one player scored on the gamball - and collected a maximum 10 points for it - no prizes for guessing who that was!

However it isn't Zin sitting at the top of this week's table but Sanjay, who recovered from a loss on his gamball by getting 6 of the other 8 results right including 2 correct scores leaving his early season form as just a distant bad memory. Zin is a point back in 2nd place, let down by his bonus ball. Stairs' policy of avoiding the gamball again paid off to leave him in 3rd place though this was without his bonus which he had placed on the postponed game - whether this helped or hiondered his score will remain unknown!

An average week for the rest. SCO and Snooty are together on 7 points, SCO saved by a maximum on his bonus ball, with Blue Baggie just a further point back. Our long time overall league leaders, Minizin and Derby occupy the bottom 2 places, Minizin being the only player not to get a correct score and Derby losing 6 points from the gam and bonus balls. I wonder what impact this has had on the table......(drum roll please)....


Zinman 134pts
Minizin 130
Derby 128
Snooty 123
Sanjay 106
Stairs 104
SCO 92
Blue 74

Zinman's continuing good form takes him 2 places higher to head the table for the first time this season, though I promise not to mention this too much. Mini and Derby drop a place with the only other positional change seeing Sanjay edge ahead of Stairs, both of them crossing the 100point mark. The table looks a bit tighter than last week with Snooty now just 5 points behind third place though SCO and Blue have some work ahead if they are to avoid the drop.

Zin


Championship

Lady Jane 17pts 1CS 3CR 10GB 3BB 0SB
Themaclad 6pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 2SB
Dingle 5pts 2CS 0CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
BBB 3pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
AAA 3pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Amelia 3pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
BaggieOne -3pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Twerton -6pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -6BB 1SB

Worst scoring week of the season in the Championship with just 28 points in total scored.  For the second week in a row Lady Jane is way ahead in the scoring, this time with 17 points!!  This means for the past two weeks she has scored 39 points which equals 46% of the total points scored in those weeks - that's called domination!!  Again her score was led by a spot on Gamball along with CR Bonus. In a distant second place we see Themaclad with 6 points, a CR on the Bonus and picking up 2 scoreball points helped him to his best place finish in a while.  Dingle is in third with 5 points, he got 2 of the 3 CSs this week, one on one of his 2 Bonus balls but not much else.

3 players tied for 4th spot, BBB, AAA and Amelia.  The alphabet twins got identical results but Amelia introduced a new strategy of all 2-1 home win predictions!!  I seem to remember a few years ago that Wakey Terrier gave us a stat that the most common score in football was 2-1 so maybe this is where she got that idea from, I feel that tactic may disappear for a few more years though!!

BaggieOne had a week to forget finishing on -3 points, his lowest score of the season and Twerton had a complete mare and ended on -6!!  He has the chance to score some big points as he had 2 Bonus Balls to play but he missed on both of them as well as his Gamball!!

170 Dingle
156 Lady Jane
143 BaggieOne
116 BBB
103 AAA
101 Themaclad
90 Amelia
66 Twerton

Only one change in the table but it's a significant one.  After Lady Jane's superb form for the past couple of weeks she has now broken into the top two, relegating BaggieOne down to third.  She is now only 14 points behind long term leader Dingle!!  Nothing else changed but worth mentioning that Themaclad becomes the 6th player in the Championship to reach the century mark. The Championship is still outscoring the PL by over 50 points.

Cheers
SCO

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/ni...-available

And Hibs producing a special inhouse documentary of that historical event all these years ago when nobody would've guessed that Turnbull's Tornadoes were gonna cross the city to really "show up" and hand out such an unexpected thrashing of epic proportions on New Year's Day 1972 and subsequently "top the league" going into the new year.

LAST TIME OUT



DANGER MAN

Benjamin Sorba William Thomas (born 25 January 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Huddersfield Town and the Wales national team.

In The Dressing Room

Manager Ryan Lowe will provide a team news update in his pre-match press conference.

A Look At Our Visitors


While PNE have already faced the Terriers twice this season, only one of those meetings was after Mark Fotheringham’s appointment, and even then it was during the early stages of his time as boss.

This time around, he’s three months into the job, however he probably hasn’t quite yet made the impact in terms of results that he’d have hoped for when he walked through the door for his first managerial role.

His side arrive at Deepdale bottom of the Championship table and with just one win in their last six league matches, and that’s a run of form they won’t want to encounter again during the second half of the campaign.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 98
PNE wins: 38
Draws: 24
Huddersfield Town wins: 36
Last meeting: Huddersfield Town 0-1 PNE, 18th October 2022

One To Watch


Huddersfield Town have spread their 19 league goals – the lowest amount in the division – throughout nine players so far this season, with Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes sitting as joint-top scorers with three.

Like Rhodes, Ward is a vastly experienced striker at this level, and more often than not leads the line for the Terriers, with former Blackburn Rovers striker Rhodes used mostly off the bench.

Having scored 14 in the league last season, Ward will be looking for more to add to this campaign’s tally, but he has interestingly not scored in any of his 11 games versus the Lilywhites.

Match Officials

Geoff Eltringham will referee his second Championship game of the season on Monday.

The experienced EFL ref has officiated in the second, third, fourth and fifth tiers of English football so far this campaign, and his most recent PNE fixture was last season’s 1-0 defeat away to Derby County.

At this point of the campaign, he’s shown 31 yellow cards and one red in his nine games as the main official.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11898

Macs View

The first home game in front of fans on a Boxing Day since 2018 when we played Hull. Going to be used to playing the Terriers due again at Deepdale in the cup.
Classic meeting of side who are crap at home against a side who appear to be crap at home and away. Last seasons play off final seems a distant memory as they are going through managers at a rate of knots.
If we had a decent home record we could be close to the Dingles but we don't and we aren't
Anyway enjoy Christmas but always remember the real reason for a holiday at this time of the year is to watch footy

THE MATCH

MONDAY 26TH DECEMBER KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



A third draw in a row and we were lucky to get that as Oxford missed an open goal & a penalty. Dawson was picked instead of Stockdale & Bannan was missing through injury. We didn't trouble there keeper enough throughout the game while Dawson had to make several saves the most important one coming in the last minute of injury time after a McGuiness foul, Dawson diving to his right to preserve a point.

THE MATCH



Another crap Boxing Day fixture as we travel to Fleetwood. They are languishing in 16th place and will look to avoid the relegation dog fight come the end of the season. Carlos Mendes Gomes is there main threat with 5 goals and they have several on 3. Scott Brown is there manager, who previously played for Celtic and won trophies galore, was an interesting choice to say the least, but you have to start somewhere.

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 2
FLEET 0
DRAWS 0

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                     

FLEET              -                       

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

DARREN HANDLEY
Peter Gooch and Simon Clayton
Fourth Official : Joe Simpson

THE TEAM

Stockdale
Palmer Ihikwe McGuiness Johnson
Bannan Byers FDB
Windass
Gregory Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Smith

ATTENDANCE

N/A

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Stateside 15
Imre 15
Wash 12
Owlskev 12
Maddix 9
Pieowl 6
SCO 6

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Leicester v Newcastle
Rotherham v Stoke
Exeter v Portsmouth
Mansfield v Northampton
Scunthorpe v Chesterfield

AAAAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

WEREHAM




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC