LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

PNE 8 SWANSEA 11

Manager
Russell Martin

Milton Keynes Dons
On 3 November 2019, following the departure of manager Paul Tisdale, Martin was announced as the new permanent first-team manager of League One club Milton Keynes Dons – the club he had joined as a player earlier in the year.[44] Following his appointment, the club finished 19th in League One, with the season finishing prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[45]

Martin, alongside assistant Luke Williams, installed a possession-based style of play at the club which received widespread plaudits.[46] On 2 March 2021, Martin's side scored after a 56-pass move, a new British record at the time.[47] At the culmination of the 2020–21 season, only Manchester City and Barcelona had a higher average possession percentage in Europe than Martin's MK Dons.[47][48] His team also had the most touches in the opposition box in League One,[49] despite mixed results throughout the season which saw the club finishing 13th in the league.[50]

On 31 July 2021, MK Dons confirmed that Championship club Swansea City had requested to speak to Martin about him becoming their new manager.[51]

Swansea City
On 1 August 2021, Martin was named head coach of Swansea City, signing a three-year contract.[52] He was appointed six days before the first game of the 2021–22 Championship season.[52] He was joined by his assistants Luke Williams, Matthew Gill, and Dean Thornton.[52]

His first game in charge was a 2–1 away loss to Blackburn Rovers, which was followed by a 3–0 away win against Reading in the EFL Cup.[53][54] Martin's first home game was a 0–0 draw with Sheffield United at the Swansea.com Stadium.[55] On 20 August, Martin won his first league game as Swansea beat Bristol City 1–0.[56] In October, Martin led Swansea to a 3–0 win against rivals Cardiff City in the South Wales derby.[57] Later in the season, Swansea beat Cardiff 4–0 in the reverse fixture; Swansea became the first side to complete the league double in the derby's 110-year history.[58] Martin said, "I have not felt as emotional as this after a game... to watch the backroom staff and the players enjoy that with the supporters was the best moment I've had as a manager I'd say."[59]

In his first season at the club, Swansea finished 15th in the league.[60]

FAMOUS SWANSEA PERSON WHO WON'T BE AT THE GAME

Catherine Zeta-Jones CBE (/ˈziːtə/; born 25 September 1969)[a] is a Welsh actress. Known for her versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her film and humanitarian work.

Born and raised in Swansea, Zeta-Jones aspired to be an actress from a young age. As a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals Annie and Bugsy Malone. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London and made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street. Her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film 1001 Nights (1990), and she went on to find greater success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991–1993). Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles. She established herself in Hollywood with roles that highlighted her sex appeal, such as in the action film The Mask of Zorro (1998) and the heist film Entrapment (1999).

Zeta-Jones received critical acclaim for her performances as a vengeful pregnant woman in Traffic (2000) and a murderous singer in the musical Chicago (2002), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She starred in high-profile films for much of the decade, including the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003), the heist film Ocean's Twelve (2004), the comedy The Terminal (2004), and the romantic comedy No Reservations (2007). Parts in smaller-scale features were followed by a decrease in workload, during which she returned to the stage and played an ageing actress in a Broadway production of A Little Night Music (2009), winning a Tony Award. Zeta-Jones continued to work intermittently in the 2010s, starring in the films Side Effects (2013), Red 2 (2013) and Dad's Army (2016), as well as the television miniseries Feud: Bette & Joan (2017), in which she portrayed actress Olivia de Havilland.

Aside from acting, Zeta-Jones is a brand endorser and supports various charitable causes. Her struggle with depression and bipolar II disorder has been well documented by the media. She is married to actor Michael Douglas, with whom she has two children.

To think John Blue Peter Leslie went out with her

In The Dressing Room

There should be no fresh injury concerns for manager Ryan Lowe to worry about, with all of his players seemingly coming through the weekend’s victory over Middlesbrough unscathed.

Andrew Hughes made his return from injury in that fixture, while Alan Browne was also in the starting XI to make his 350th appearance for the club.

Long-term absentee Troy Parrott will miss out, while Patrick Bauer will also be unavailable as he continues to build his fitness following a return to training.

A Look At Our Visitors


After finishing 15th last season during Russell Martin’s first year at the club, Swansea City are now looking to push for a place in the top six come the end of the campaign.

They’re well-placed as things stand going into Tuesday night, currently occupying that final Play-Off spot, and they’ve won seven times in their past ten league games.

It took some time for former MK Dons boss Martin to implement his possession-based style of football, but the Swans are now averaging over 60 per cent each game, and making good use of it too.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 67
PNE wins: 22
Draws: 18
Swansea City wins: 27
Last victory: PNE 3-1 Swansea City, 28th August 2021

One To Watch

After missing the past three games through suspension, Swansea’s top scorer Joël Piroe will be back available to Russell Martin on Tuesday night.

The Dutch striker – who netted 22 league goals in his debut campaign in England last term – has four goals to his name so far this season, but has missed the chance to build on that tally in recent weeks following his red card against Burnley earlier in the month.

Republic of Ireland international Michael Obafemi has been used as the sole striker in Piroe’s absence, but the 23-year-old will be hoping he can slot straight back into the starting XI.

Match Officials

John Busby will referee his second PNE game of the season on Tuesday evening.

Busby took charge of North End’s 1-0 victory away to Coventry City earlier in the campaign, and it was only last season that he first refereed PNE in the Championship.

Busby has shown 47 yellow cards and two reds in 12 matches so far this season, and he will be assisted by Rob Smith and Geoffrey Liddle on Tuesday, with Geoff Eltringham the fourth official.



MACS VIEW

The EFL have a great idea of having local derbies at night matches hopefully the Swans fans making the mammoth round trip will arrive home safely sometime on Wednesday morning pointless but that will depend on whether we get the ball from then and if we can do anything with it. A new found sense of optimism around Deepdale as we actually scored two and doubled our goal tally at home this season. Swans are doing decently this season oin the play off zone and given the nature of the league this season have every chance of going close
Going back years remember Toshack bringing his newly promoted side to Deepdale and spending the entire second half passing back to keeper from the half way line hopefully will not be like that tomorrow

Championship side Coventry City are under a transfer embargo while they repay money owed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The club were forced to postpone their first three home league games this season as the pitch was ruled unsafe.

Chief executive Dave Boddy said that caused a "significant impact" on cashflow, though repayment is scheduled to be completed by December.

"This agreement with HMRC will help us in the running of the club," he said.

"While we are unable to sign players until December, I would like to reassure fans that the timing of this agreement means that we can address this issue now and that any transfer activity in the January window will be unaffected."

The postponement of a further home game in September, following the death of the Queen, meant four of the Sky Blues' first five Championship matches at the Coventry Building Society Arena did not go ahead when scheduled.

Boddy said the club have already paid three of the six instalments owed to HMRC under a 'time to pay' arrangement, agreed last month.

Coventry, 22nd in the second tier, are now looking at alternative venues for home matches, with the company that runs their ground on the brink of administration - although they still hope Tuesday's game with Blackburn can be played at the stadium.

Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) has been given until Monday to secure funding or a new buyer for the stadium or it faces administration - while an offer for Wasps' men's rugby union side was accepted on Sunday, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire understand the prospective takeover does not include the CBS Arena.

"The Wasps/ACL position has presented some serious challenges to the football club and the sporting performance, and distress to our supporters and is continuing to do so," Boddy added.

Former Barrow boss Mark Cooper has been appointed the new First Team Manager of Yeovil Town on a three season deal.
Mark Cooper has extensive management experience in the EFL and National League
Yeovil Town have appointed former Barrow AFC boss Mark Cooper as their manager on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

The 53-year-old has previously managed 10 clubs across the EFL and National League, leading Swindon Town to the League One play-off final in 2015.

He also oversaw Forest Green Rovers' promotion to the EFL in 2017.

"He is a manager I've admired for a long time," said club chairman Scott Priestnall. "Mark has the promotion credentials we are looking for."

Cooper left Barrow by mutual consent in March this year whilst he was serving an eight-match ban for comments he made to a female assistant referee.

The club was sitting just outside the League Two relegation zone at the time.

'This can be a big club'
Yeovil director Stuart Robins had said the club was looking for an 'experienced manager' to replace former boss Chris Hargreaves, who was sacked last week.

"It's good to be here," Cooper, who had a 22-year playing career spanning 17 clubs, told Yeovil's website following his appointment.

"I already know a few of the players and staff so I'm excited and really looking forward to it.

"If you look historically, this can be a big club. We need to unite; the players, the supporters. Everybody needs to come together and that can play such a big part."

The Glovers are currently 21st in the National League and occupy the final relegation place, one point adrift of safety.

They have won just once in their last 10 games in all competitions and scored just twice in their last seven games.

Challenging for promotion 'won't be easy'
Analysis - BBC Radio Somerset's Richard Hoskin

Mark Cooper comes to Huish Park with an encouraging CV for a National League manager.

Short term, his first job will be to get the team up the league table, and scoring goals. No team in the National League has scored fewer goals than Yeovil this season.

Long term, I'm sure his ambition will be to get the club challenging for promotion back into the Football League.

That won't be easy. He joins a football club where many supporters are concerned about issues off the pitch.

Mark Cooper will most likely be aware of those issues - and in his opening comments via the club, he said "we need to unite".

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.

Thirty games to go at this week. Sorry if you think it's too many, but it's FA Cup week and I'm just a big kid and I get excited.

Friday November 4:
Reading v Preston North End

Saturday November 5:
Blackburn v Town
Town scorers:
Blackburn scorers:

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

Tuesday 8th November:
QPR v Town
Town scorers:
QPR scorers:

Birmingham City v Swansea City
Blackpool v Middlesbrough
Cardiff City v Hull City
Coventry City v Wigan Athletic
Sheffield United v Rotherham United
Stoke City v Luton Town
Watford v Reading

Bonus matches:
FA Cup rd 1:
Friday:
Sheffield Wednesday v Morecambe
Hereford v Portsmouth

Saturday:
South Shields v Forest Green Rovers (12:00)
Bradford City v Harrogate Town
Chesterfield v Northampton Town

Sunday:
Wrexham v Oldham Athletic (12:30)
Torquay United v Derby County (15:00)

Monday:
Bracknell Town v Ipswich Town

EFL Cup rd 3:
Tuesday:
Bristol City v Lincoln City

Wednesday:
Southampton v Sheffield Wednesday

Table after Matchday 14:

1. jjamez = 311 pts
   
2. themaclad = 277 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 275 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 274 pts
   
5. ritchiebaby = 264 pts
   
6. neonfoxinthebox = 255 pts
   
7. Baggiebob(BBB) = 251 pts
   
8. Amelia Chaffinch = 243 pts
   
9. St Charles Owl = 243 pts
   
10. SHEP_HTAFC = 223 pts
    
11. Devongone = 215 pts
    
12. WakeyTerrier = 159 pts

It seems to have fallen to me to introduce yet another Tory figure of fun/derision to this section. Rishi Sunak should have trounced Truss in the first contest, but the far-right Tory membership got their say and that was the end of that.

However Liz's decimation of all common sense and mutilation of the nation's pension funds saw Jeremy Hunt riding to the rescue once again (?) and he introduced Rishi's tax policies to steady the bolting horse, although far too late to return it to the stable.

Rishi was coronated (is that really a word?) as the new PM and started off well, revealing un-Tory-like statesmanship, integrity and honesty. However that didn't last very long, as he appointed Suella Braverman as Home Secretary, SB didn't think she should have been Home Sec, resigning after less time in office than her previous boss. No matter, in the spirit of integrity and honesty, Rishi dived back into the cesspit to rescue SB from the depths. Her wet dream is to see British planes flying off to Rwanda with thousands of refugees on board. 

There's not really very much else to say other than, expect more of the same version of "integrity and honesty" from this Rishi government. More of the same ................................................ (I'll let you fill in the blanks as each day brings the same old story).

You know me. Champion of Corinthian football. Friend to those brave enough to referee. Four fouls, that is what we committed against Boreham Wood, an excellent and physical side. I should be proud of us. It's like the second clean sheet of the afternoon, yet within that game we accumulated two yellow cards and a red. What can be the possible justification for that? The foul count could hardly give more telling evidence that we were playing the game the way it OUGHT to be played. But the referee still felt the need to uphold the letter of his law and treat us like a team in need of his discipline and send off one of our players in the closing seconds.

Surely the point of any rule or law has to be to make all our lives better. How did Saturday's referee improve life for anyone? A pointless, idiot gesture by a man who knew he was moments away from being able to hide in the dressing-room?

Mind you, surely even Cookie will remember Loz Maguire has quite a bit of experience at left back. Perhaps he could try giving the invisible man a shirt.

Macclesfield confirmed their aim to become just another shit club by sacking local hero Danny Whitaker as manager yesterday.

They are currently clear at the top of the Western Division of the Northern Premier League. Unfortunately, they've gone on a bit of losing run recently. Despite his legendary performances as a player, despite his success as a manager, despite his having stuck with them when they went out of existence, at the first whiff of a couple of cup defeats they decided to hit the sack the manager button.

I wish a job could be found at Chesterfield for this decent man who knows his football through and through.

SHAME ON YOU MACCLESFIELD! Next time you're down I'll be hoping you are counted out.

I woke up this morning expecting Klopp to have been sacked.

Why has he not been yet?

The disgraceful performances against Nottingham Florist and then last night against Leeds Urinals, surely would see the end of any Premier League manager. But a club the size of Liverpool languishing in 9th after 12 games, behind Brighton, Fulham and even Man Utd, is an absolute disgrace.

But yet the BBC and Sky are not calling him "under pressure" or "looking for a vote of confidence". They're not even speculating who will get his job.

Stevie G's available.  

Time to go Kloppo?

Well at the start of the season, I really didn’t think it was likely but after today’s display I am starting to think that level 3 could actually be a possibility next season. 

Mismanagement in the extreme has caused the present predicament, by basically spun king off money over the last few years, ever since the purchase of anichebe and Chadli, I can’t think of one purchase deal which has been successful. Some may have a better memory than me. 

Zohore 8 million, Grant £15 million, Diangana no one knows but somewhere around 12 to 16 million. Can’t add Dike as not seen him play yet. There may be 10 million worth if you add them all together.

At the moment I am thinking tell some players that their contract will not be renewed next summer and get them out on loan in January as they then have a chance of getting a game next year, as we will not be playing them for the rest of this season. 

Then play some of the under 23’s, some will fail and some not but at least they will try, and will be better players for next year. 

Top of my list of releases are Livermore and Zohore. With more to follow. 

I feel better for that, rant over.