What a great game last night. We were unplayable. Made them look very ordinary.

Every player deserved mom. Fitzsimmons had little to do but what he needed to he did well. I wasn't sure about the re signing of Banks but he's been a revelation. Everyone stepped up and our fitness levels especially after Saturday were extraordinary.

Notts away next. More of the same please.

Hereford visit the Deva Stadium tonight for a National League North league game. A second long trip for the Bulls in 4 days after being beaten by Scarborough on Saturday. Hopefully Tyrone Barnett and Miles Storey will have their shooting boots on tonight!

Chester have started well with a win and a draw in their first two games whereas we have just scrambled a 3.3 draw in our first game at home to Spennymoor. Get your tactics right Gowling...........

COYB

Hi there!

I'm looking to get down to the game tomorrow night, but its been a fair while since I've been to the Hawthrones!

I used to always park on the Dual carriageway by the motorway but believe that may not be an option anymore.

I will be struggling to get down to the area before 7.00pm so looking for somewhere to park up easily that will allow me to jump back on the motorway after the match to head back to Leeds.

Can anyone suggest/ advise best parking options.

Premier League

Snooty        19pts 2CS 7CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
SCO            14pts 2CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie  4pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Zinman        4pts 1CS 2CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Minizin          2pts 1CS 1CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Sanjay          -1pt 0CS 1CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Stairs            -1pt 0CS 1CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Derby            -4pts 0Cs 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB


Well. in overall terms it was better than last week with 2 people managing to hit double figures and the total league score improving by 20 points. A complete blow out on bonus balls didn't help though it would have been much worse had 4 competitors chosen not to avoid playing the gamball - one reason why I don't normally like to select Albion games for this poison chalice.

Shout out to Snooty for an exceptional week, scoring on 7 games when 4 players only managed to score on one! His gamball helped and he was also the only player to predict Manchester Utd's joyous implosion. SCO also had a good week - it helps when one of your correct scores is the gamball.

After that, not much positive to say. Blue and Zinman were level on just 4points, Blue scoring on 4 games but losing points on the gamball, Zin helped by knowing better than to rely on Albion. Minizin crawled above zero points with his only score coming from one game, a correct score and scoreball. And then.....

Just like last week, 3 players managed to rack up negative scores. Sanjay and Stairs at least avoided losing from the gamball keeping them just ahead of Derby who hasn't exactly started his defence of the title like a train!*

*Unless it's a train in the UK during the strikes.

Snooty 22
SCO 18
Minizin 15
Zinman 6
Sanjay 2
Blue Baggie 2
Stairs -5
Derby -6

Early days obviously but after just 2 weeks we only have 4 players yet to suffer a negative score. Last year it took 10 weeks to achieve this milestone. By week 2 last year we'd scored 301 points compared to just 54 this year - I blame me for the fixture selections!

Zin


Championship

Themaclad 14pts 1CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Dingle 14pts 2CS 1CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
BaggieOne 11pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 6BB 0SB
Lady Jane 11pts 1CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
BBB 5pts 0CS 2CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Twerton 0pts 1CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia -2pts 0CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

Slightly lower scoring than week 1 but then putting the Baggies game as the Gamball always produces some interesting scores!!  2 players managed to predict a CS on it and no surprises they ended up joint top.  Both Themaclad and Dingle finished on 14 points courtesy of the Gamball even though both missed on the Bonus.  BaggieOne is in joint 3rd with Lady Jane on 11 points. BagieOne managed that by being the only player to score positive points on the Bonus and in his case it was his one CS!!  Lady Jane got there with a CR Gamball plus scoring on three other games.

Bit of a drop to the bottom three this week, BBB is 5th with 5 points, he too got a CR on the Gamball but couldn't back it up with much else.  Twerton didn't bother the totals in 6th spot scoring a zero and missed all his balls.  Amelia, after missing last week, would have been better off missing this week as well as she ended up on -2 and missed on all her balls!!

30 BaggieOne
30 Themaclad
27 Dingle
16 BBB
13 Lady Jane
3 Twerton
-2 Amelia

BaggieOne stays in first place but is now joined by Themaclad with Dingle just 3 points behind.  Big drop down to BBB in 4th, with Lady Jane now just 3 points behind him.  Twerton and Amelia are a bit adrift in the bottom two.

We seem to be following last years pattern with the balls, 40 points scored on the Gamball so far whereas the Bonus is sat at -3 overall.  Zin definitely takes the blame for the Gamball but all of us take the full blame for the poor showing on the Bonus!!

Cheers
SCO

Gamball:
Fulham - Brentford

Others:
Crystal Palace - Aston Villa
Everton - Nottingham Forest
Swansea - Luton
Preston - Watford
Reading - Middlesbrough
Sheff Utd - Blackburn
Stoke - Sunderland
Bolton - Sheff Wed
Bristol City - Cardiff

Coventry chief executive Dave Boddy has urged the Coventry Building Society Arena's landlords, Wasps, to lay a new pitch as soon as possible.

Boddy says it is the best solution to fix the problems with the surface.

Coventry have been unable to play a home match so far this season with the pitch deemed unsafe to use.

"There is little chance of playing Saturday and unless we get a new pitch installed quickly, there is no chance anytime soon," Boddy told BBC CWR.

"It's not in our hands, it's in the hands of our landlords."

The CBS Arena is owned by Wasps, who released a statement last week to say they had told the Sky Blues that matches at the start of this season would need to be moved.

But Boddy feels unless they replace the pitch, the club will have a "serious problem".

"I spoke with our landlords last week and they have said they are not going to put a new pitch down," he said.

"They have to do something about it and they have to do it now."

Saturday's match against Huddersfield is Coventry's latest fixture to be affected with the club hoping to switch the match to their opponent's John Smith's Stadium.

Tuesday's home game against Wigan has already been postponed after an independent assessor appointed by the EFL deemed the CBS Arena pitch unplayable.

"We've talked to Wasps about helping to try and fund a new pitch," Boddy said. "But the relationship we have with them is that they have to provide us with a pitch that is fit for purpose."

Boddy said Wasps had not given him a reason why they would not lay a new surface.

"We've triggered the disputes mechanism in our agreement so it will now be taken to a third party for resolution," he said.

"We're all frustrated and it's not helping anyone at the club."

Coventry lost 3-2 at Millwall on Saturday and drew their opening Championship match at Sunderland before losing 4-1 to Bristol City in a Carabao Cup tie that was switched to Burton's Pirelli Stadium.

The background to the ongoing Arena issues
The stadium, which began life as the Ricoh Arena, was jointly owned by Arena Coventry Ltd, set up partially from a trust fund left by a Sky Blues fan when City first moved there in 2005 after the controversial sale of their previous home, Highfield Road, for housing development.

The Sky Blues then spent 14 months in exile at Sixfields, Northampton, following a dispute over rent, before returning to the city in September 2014.

Wasps became City's landlords when they left their then home at High Wycombe to buy the ground, with financial help from Coventry City Council, in December 2014.

A further dispute with Wasps led to City playing in Birmingham at St Andrew's for two seasons, before returning to Coventry last year.

Wasps have been under a financial strain, especially since the Covid pandemic, and in June requested millions of pounds of public money from the West Midlands Combined Authority.

But Wasps owner Derek Richardson told The Times on Friday that growing rumours that the club is set to go into administration are not true.

LAST TIME OUT



Manager

Paul Warne

Coaching career
He joined the coaching staff at Rotherham in May 2012 upon his retirement from professional football.[10]

In November 2012, Warne was granted a testimonial by Rotherham United for giving the club many years of service including as player, coach and joint caretaker-manager.[11]

On 28 November 2016, after the resignation of Kenny Jackett, Warne was appointed caretaker manager of Rotherham United.[12] On 13 January 2017, Warne was appointed Rotherham United manager until the end of the 2016–17 season.[13] On 5 April 2017, with Rotherham's relegation from the Championship confirmed Warne was appointed permanent manager of the club on a one-year rolling contract.[14]

Preston North End host Rotherham United on Tuesday evening for the first home game under the Deepdale lights this season.

In The Dressing Room

Ched Evans will come back in to contention for PNE, after serving his three-game suspension following his opening day red card against Wigan Athletic.

Ryan Lowe will be hoping he can call upon Manchester United loanee Álvaro Fernández, who missed the weekend’s trip to Luton Town through an ankle injury which he picked up at Huddersfield last Tuesday.

Bambo Diaby and Sean Maguire are both expected to miss out through injury.

A Look At Our Visitors

Rotherham United come in to this fixture full of confidence after an emphatic 4-0 victory over Reading at the weekend, with all four goals coming in the first half.

The Millers have only played two games so far this term – due to the postponement of their trip to Coventry City – with their opening game of the Championship campaign being a 1-1 draw at home to Swansea City.

Rotherham’s three previous Championship seasons have resulted in relegation, so Paul Warne will certainly be satisfied with their start to the campaign and he’ll be looking for that form to continue at Deepdale on Tuesday evening.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 60
PNE wins: 16
Draws: 22
Rotherham wins: 22
Last victory: Rotherham Utd 1-3 PNE, 5th November 2016

One To Watch

Winger Chiedozie Ogbene has reportedly received plenty of interest so far this summer, but for now he remains a Rotherham United player.

The 25-year-old, who joined the club in 2019 from Brentford, was a crucial part of the Millers’ success last season, and he’s had a positive start to this campaign too, scoring in both of Rotherham’s opening two fixtures.

His stock has also risen due to his impressive performances playing for the Republic of Ireland national team, appearing ten times since his debut in August 2021.

Match Officials

lOliver Langford will take charge of his first PNE fixture in 17 months on Tuesday evening.

North End were on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline against Middlesbrough in March 2021 the last time Langford refereed a PNE match, while the Lilywhites' last victory with Langford in charge was an away win at Ewood Park in 2019.

Langford will be assisted by Richard Wild and Geoffrey Liddle, with Sebastian Stockbridge on fourth official duties.

https://www.themillers.co.uk/

https://millersbanter.activeboard.com/

INS AND OUTS

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11392

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11338

MACS VIEW

The relentless August schedule continues with the first competitve game under the Deepdale lights this season with both sides hoping to build on wins on Saturday although hopefully Woodman will save more than Lumley did on Saturday. Last time the Millers rocked up we scored an own goal in 15 seconds, would much prefer the result that we got on 4/5/1971 a sultry Monday night when we won the Division 3 title
Won't be easy against a side who are still on a high from last season

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.

I'm posting these now, but it's still very unclear whether our game at Coventry will take place, in Coventry, Huddersfield, Burton, Birmingham, Northampton or will be just called off.

Friday 19th August:
Norwich City v Millwall

Saturday 20th August:
Coventry OFF Town
Town scorers:
Coventry scorers:

Birmingham City v Wigan Athletic
Burnley v Blackpool
Preston North End v Watford
Queens Park Rangers v Rotherham United
Reading v Middlesbrough
Sheffield United v Blackburn Rovers
Stoke City v Sunderland
Swansea City v Luton Town
West Bromwich Albion v Hull City

Sunday 21st August:
Bristol City v Cardiff City (12:00)

EFL Cup rd 2:
Tuesday 23rd August:
Bradford City v Blackburn Rovers
Derby County v West Bromwich Albion
Sheffield Wednesday v Rochdale
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Preston North End

Table after Matchday 3:

1. jjamez = 71 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 60 pts
   
3. themaclad = 59 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 58 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 51 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 51 pts
   
7. Baggiebob(BBB) = 49 pts
   
8. Devongone = 46 pts
   
9. SHEP_HTAFC = 45 pts
   
10. St Charles Owl = 45 pts
    
11. Lord Snooty = 41 pts
    
12. neonfoxinthebox = 39 pts

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 16TH AUGUST KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



We made it 2 wins in a row as we huffed and puffed to beat a spirited Charlton team. Charlton bossed the first half and had nearly al the chances, the closest they came to scoring was when Palmer had to make a block with the goal gaping. Our only effort was a blocked shot. Onto the 2nd and the pattern continued and they has a few chances. We made some subs and we finally showed signs of life and eventually it paid off when Bakinson headed in a Windass cross. We had a few chances to increase our lead but didn't but we hung out for the 3 points.

THE MATCH



Next up and a tough trip to Peterborough. The Posh had made a good start to the season with 3 straight wins (2 league, 1 cup) but then came unstuck at Plymouth losing 2-0. They usually do well in League One and should be up there at the end of the season. They are managed by Grant McCann, who played for the the Posh 160 times, he has managed them before (2016-2018). Jonson Clarke-Harris is there main threat and has a couple of goals this season, the last time he played in League One he scored 31 times so our defenders need to be on there toes

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 9
POSH 6
DRAWS 4

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                    

POSH               -                                          

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

JAMES OLDHAM
Michael George and Stephen Finch
Fourth Official : Oliver Bickle

THE TEAM

Stockdale
Heneghan Iorfa Ihikwe
Hunt Byers Bannan FDB Johnson
Gregory Windass

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-2 Windass

ATTENDANCE

N/A

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Imre 3
Wash 2
Maddix 1
Pieowl 1
Owlskev 1
SCO 1
Stateside
Wereham

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Burnley v Hull City
Charlton v Plymouth
Doncaster v Stockport
Chesterfield v Wrexham
FC Halifax v Southend

HDADH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC