Premier League

Derby          10pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Minizin          9pts 0CS 4CR 0GB 3BB 0SB
Snooty          8pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Stairs            4pts 0CS 3CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
SCO              2pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Sanjay            0pts 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Blue Baggie    0pts 0CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Zinman          0pts 0CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

Well at least nobody got minus points this week, but it was another struggle. Only 2 positive gamballs, 2 bonuses and a single scoreball as the Premiership players continued to have problems with their balls. Fulhams late winner cost a few of us 8 precious points but, hey ho that's life (said through gritted teeth).

Derby finally got his title defence under way and tops this week's table thanks to 4 correct results including the gamball. Minizin continued his good start to the season with 2nd place helped by his usual reluctance to play the gamball. Snooty takes 3rd despite losing points on the gamball - he and Minizin were the only players to pick up points on the bonus keeping them above this week's pack.

Stairs shows Minizin like reluctance to play the gamball and this helped him to midtable but with only 4 points - he did at least get the only scoreball point of the week. SCO just crept above zero, missing out on all his balls but with the consolation of 3 correct results, one of them being spot-on.

Our other 3 players continued their slow start to the season and failed to trouble the scorer - I'm still blaming the idiot choosing the fixtures!

Snooty 30
Minizin 24
SCO 20
Zinman 6
Derby 4
Sanjay 2
Blue Baggie 2
Stairs -1

An early gap has opened up in the overall table with our top 3 pulling away from the rest. Snooty maintains his lead pursued by Minizin and SCO with the rest of the league still waking up. Somehow Zinman remains in 4th place averaging a mighty 2 points per week! Derby's better week sees him move out of the red while Sanjay and Blue's struggles continue. Stairs remains in negative figures after 3 torrid weeks.

Zin


Championship

BaggieOne 16pts 2CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Lady Jane 10pts 1CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Dingle 8pts 1CS 2CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Twerton 6pts 2CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
BBB 4pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia 4pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
AAA 3pts 0CS 3CR NPGB -3BB 0SB
Themaclad 0pts 0CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

Well things seem to be going downhill for the most part!!  This was the lowest scoring week so far in the Championship, only one positive Bonus Ball and a big fat zero on the Scoreball!!  There are a couple of areas of positive consistency, the main one being BaggieOne who again tops the weekly table with 16 points, he scored on 6 games including a CR on the Gamball.  In second place was the improving Lady Jane with 10 points, another recipient of a CR on the Gamball.  Dingle is 3rd with his best start to a season in many years with 8 points.

Twerton, BBB and Amelia were all separated by just 2 points, Twerton and BBB missed on all the balls while Amelia was the sole player to gain points on the Bonus.  Its a big welcome back to AAA although he only just beat his scores from the first two weeks!! !!  Themaclad had a nightmare week and failed to trouble the scorer with a big fat zero!!

46 BaggieOne
35 Dingle
30 Themaclad
23 Lady Jane
20 BBB
9 Twerton
3 AAA
2 Amelia

BaggieOne's consistency so far has now seen him open up an 11 point gap over the chasing pack.  Dingle moved up into second with Themaclad dropping to 3rd.  Lady Jane moved up a spot above BBB in 5th.  A large gap then to the bottom 3, Twerton is slowly improving while AAA jumped ahead of Amelia, who at least now has a positive score.

Cheers
SCO

Danny Rowe has gone out on loan to AFC Fylde.

Could this be our most stupid move since Sheri tried out a nine-year-old Swede in goal at Oldham?

If Danny Rowe is fit he is good enough to make our 16 each week.

I'm not sure I trust James Rowe to keep him fit.

I'm amazed by how poorly Fylde have started and wonder if this move represents managerial desperation.

I'm also not sure it does much for our reputation to continue to deal with Fylde, whilst Mr Rowe is in charge there.

For Danny Rowe this represents back to the cosily familiar. An easy move, a no-brainer, which is exactly the same amount of brain power we've exercised in this instance.

He was ours till January. We should have kept Danny Rowe till then and we'd have known how our challenge, or not, was panning out, or not.

Gamball:
Wolves - Newcastle

Others:
Southampton - Man Utd
Sunderland - Norwich
Blackburn - Stoke
Cardiff - Preston
Huddersfield - WBA
Hull - Coventry
Rotherham - Birmingham
Wigan - Burnley
Villa - West Ham

Lincoln City have suspended striker Chris Maguire after he was charged with breaching betting rules by the Football Association.

It is alleged that the 33-year-old placed 52 bets on football matches between March 2017 and February 2022.

Maguire has until 30 August to respond to the charge of misconduct.

"Chris has been suspended by Lincoln City without prejudice until further notice," a statement on the club website read.

Anyone involved in football from level eight of the pyramid and above cannot place bets on football matches anywhere in the world and can be fined, suspended or banned if found guilty.

Maguire, who won two caps for Scotland in 2011, joined League One side Lincoln from Sunderland in July 2021.

2 points for a correct result
4 points for a correct score
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.

Friday August 26:
Luton Town v Sheffield United

Saturday August 27:
Town v West Brom
Town scorers:
Baggies scorers:

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

Tuesday August 30th:
Birmingham City v Norwich City
Burnley v Millwall
Cardiff City v Luton Town
Queens Park Rangers v Hull City
Sheffield United v Reading
Wigan Athletic v West Bromwich Albion
Watford v Middlesbrough

Wednesday August 31st:
Bristol City v Town
Town scorers:
City scorers:

Coventry City v Preston North End
Stoke City v Swansea City
Sunderland v Rotherham United
Blackpool v Blackburn Rovers

Table after Matchday 4:

1. jjamez = 87 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 84 pts
   
3. themaclad = 83 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 72 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 71 pts
   
6. Baggiebob(BBB) = 69 pts
   
7. WakeyTerrier = 69 pts
   
8. Lord Snooty = 65 pts
   
9. neonfoxinthebox = 59 pts
   
10. St Charles Owl = 59 pts
    
11. Devongone = 58 pts
    
12. SHEP_HTAFC = 57 pts

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62537737
Celtic a tad "out of touch" this afternoon, but still good enough to beat a Hertz side (with seven player changes) that was effectively "punchless" even though they had a decent amount of possession for a change. They emulated the Rangers all the same by being reduced to 9 players albeit with a few mins remaining and not so dramatic re the red cards/second yellow card offences that were rightly issued to the offenders, Cochrane and Sibbick. Kyogo "bagged" his usual goal, an early one on 13 mins, that prob settled them down too much. Giacoumakis finished the contest in the dying mins. Job done, 3 pts "in the bag". Celtic not at their best, just "ticking over" and making sure no goals conceded.

Well, I was impressed. Looked in the Non-League Paper this morning and discovered the reporter had obviously been at a different game.

First, the best player on the pitch by a country mile was Dobra. If he keeps playing like that for us his future should be comparable to Sorba Thomas. Championship clubs should be taking a look. Where Ipswich were looking I don't know. He works, he has skill and he is perceptive. He'll get full Albanian caps as Sorba Thomas has done for Wales.

Apart from about ten minutes I thought we were well the better side in and out of possession. County's star man Rodrigues, who is a very, very good player at our level, didn't really turn up and contrasted starkly with Dobra. Langstaff looked very sharp indeed once he had someone to play with, but Rodrigues gave him nothing and though Kairo Mitchell was okay, there was no sign of a partnership. But my opinion was that in all areas we were superior. Our keeper was sound, better than Mrs Slocombe. Our defence, despite a terrible howler, coped better than theirs, which surprised me. There was a gulf between the sides in midfield, Banks, Mandeville, Oldaker, and Dobra were far more creative than their opposite numbers, so Quigley and Asante up front were able to do well, whilst Notts only became dangerous after making substitutions. At 0-2 the score line was an accurate reflection of the game. I thought 2-2 distorted it and flattered County. It's significant we looked far the more likely to win the game in the closing minutes, despite being the away team.

Notts County are obviously a decent side who will be up there to the end. My disappointment at only drawing is really encouraging. I thought we'd struggle to hold them. Last season it was away form that let them down. At home they were great. Dangers for us were King AGAIN involved himself in an off-the-ball that could have got him sent off. Can't he just be satisfied with being the best full back in the league? AND Horton, looks a nice player, particularly going forward, but his moment of brain fog cost us two points. The first defensive lesson any childhood full back gets is never to let himself knock it across his own box. In one moment of indecision he let that happen. If in doubt shoe it, however bad that looks. A goal against always looks worse.

And Albania won the Women's Steeplechase too.

The Ukrainian Premier League kicks off on Tuesday. It's a morale thing.

I thought we could have a team each and follow their progress... maybe write a short* piece about their history, any tenuous links to Huddersfield (I'll give you the money myself if you can find one... only joking; I'm sure you'll rest at nothing to come up with one!)

You can either pick a team or I could do a random picker, i.e., put our names in one hat, the teams in another and draw them cup draw style. Anyone on any board can join in. Only thing is, we'll have to be quick with it starting on the 23rd.

What do you think? Anyone interested in showing some support for Ukrainians via football?




* I can live in hope! I've just told Snoots that we don't need an 8 page essay. He says that, if it warrants an 8 page essay, it will have one.

.....To Me Participating In The Prediction League