THE MATCH

SATURDAY 7TH MARCH KO 3PM

v

LAST MATCH



Another game and another defeat but a spirited display especially in the 2nd half. Southampton controlled most of the first half and numerous chances while we had one or two chances, McNeill firing wide of the mark. The Saints took the lead when Bree toe poked one in from the edge of the 6 yard box after we didn't deal with a cross. It was 0-2 when Manning scored directly from a free kick although the keeper probably should have done better. Onto the 2nd half and we upped it a bit and we pulled one back when Yates headed in from close range, We looked like we might grab something, a shot was blocked and Lowe fired at there keeper. But it was the Saints who got a third when the ball fell in the box and Harwood Bellis fired in from close range. We nearly made it 2-3 late on but there keeper made a good save and Yates messed up the rebound.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and the short trip south to Derby. Derby have had a decent season and are currently in 8th place in the Championship, 6 points off the playoffs with 11 games remaining. They do have a shout of making the end of season party but with some of the teams above them in good form it could be a challenge to make those playoffs. They are managed by John Eustace who took over in February 2025, and he managed to keep the Rams up on the final day of the season. There leading scorer this season is Agyemang who has 10 goals and 3 assists so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 48
DERBY 54
DRAW 42

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L L L L L L                                                                

DERBY W L L W L W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Oliver Langford
Conor Brown and Natalie Aspinall
Fourth Official : Samuel Allison

THE TEAM

Dieng
Palmer Otegbayo Iorfa
Fusire Thornton Ingelsson Adaramola
McNeill J Lowe
Yates

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 McNeill

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 19
Imre 16
Washington 16
SCO 12
Maddix 9

BMPL

Stateside 18
Pei 1
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Bristol City v Coventry
Charlton v Birmingham
Luton v Reading
Walsall v Notts Co
Carlisle v Southend

ADHDH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

... till the end of the season, + another chap I don't know anything about.
Fingers tightly crossed ; GOOD LUCK!!

https://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/1305795049?-11200:789

Matt Taylor says it is unlikely he will take charge of Exeter City in the long term.

The 44-year-old returned as interim manager until the end of the season on Tuesday, leading the Grecians to a 1-1 draw with Burton Albion.

Taylor, who managed the side for more than four years from 2018, has come in after his successor Gary Caldwell left to take on the vacant head coach job at Wigan Athletic.

"It suits all parties," Taylor told BBC Radio Devon

"Any longer then the wife might have divorced me. I've got three young children, and they are young and they're a handful, and we've got a life in the south of Sheffield.

"But there's a lot of people in the club who I care about, and if I can help in any way for two months I will do.

"When I left I thought I left the club in a strong position and I'd like to leave it in a strong position when I go this time, if I do go."


He moved on in October that year to join then-Championship side Rotherham United but was sacked after 13 months with the Millers in the relegation places.

He went on to spend a year in charge at Bristol Rovers before losing his job in mid-December 2024.

In that time Exeter have established themselves as a League One side - should they stay up this season their fifth successive campaign in the third tier would be their longest stint at that level of football since the late 1970's and early 1980's.

The club's off-field infrastructure has also changed drastically in that time - a new training facility has been built while a new stand at St James Park was officially opened days after Taylor left.

"This club means an awful lot to me. The staff who are here mean an awful lot to me," he added.

"It wasn't on my radar, I've watched from afar and admired from afar in terms of what Exeter have done for a period of time.

"But I got a phone call from someone I really rate and someone I really trust and someone who felt I was the person to come in and help the team, which is the most important thing, until the end of the season.

"I was at the training ground yesterday and that was surreal, because I had left before that was in place.

"So to go into a facility like that and to see it first-hand was just incredible, because I know that the hard work which went into to getting that even planned, let alone built, and now it's in in product, so it was absolutely incredible.

"The provision the players have got is second to none for League One, let alone Exeter City, and I'm looking forward to you know working well in that environment for next two months."


Exeter have not won in eight games - drawing six of those matches - and they have slipped to 15th in League One, six points above the relegation zone.

It comes as the fan-owned club deals with financial issues caused by a major overspend last season - the Exeter City Supporters' Trust has lent the club around £600,000 and the playing budget could be slashed by as much as £1.5m in the summer.

But Taylor is hopeful he can leave the club in the best possible shape come the end of the season - they travel to Barnsley on Saturday before back-to-back home games against the top two in Cardiff City and Lincoln City.

"I'm a little bit in the dark in terms of why we're in the situation we are," he said.

"It always seems to be a such a well-run club in terms of a financial aspect, it's had to be because of the trust ownership

"The key is what's next and what next season looks like, but we can only concentrate on next season once we get through this season."

Tranmere Rovers have sacked manager Andy Crosby, 10 months after he was appointed on a permanent basis.

Crosby leaves Prenton Park off the back of 10 losses from 11 League Two games, which has left Tranmere 19th in the table.

The club are eight points off the relegation places with 11 games of the season remaining following Tuesday's defeat by relegation-threatened Newport County.

"Andy did a great job for us last year and has undoubtedly been dealt a tough hand this season with the exceptionally high level of injuries we have experienced," said chairman Mark Palios.

"However, I felt a change was unfortunately necessary to try to address the poor run of results.

"I have no doubt that Andy has put his all into the role over the last 12 months in difficult circumstances, and I wish him all the best for the future."

Andy Parkinson will take over on an interim basis for Saturday's visit of Oldham Athletic, with Connor Jennings and Joe Murphy assisting.

Crosby initially led the club on an interim basis after former boss Nigel Adkins was dismissed in February 2025 before being appointed on a permanent deal in May.

He earned six wins and five draws from 13 games in charge of Tranmere at the tail end of last season as they avoided relegation by finishing 20th and nine points clear of the drop zone.

Their recent form has taken a drastic turn in comparison to their finish last term, however, with the club winning just twice since the turn of the year.

Following their 2-0 victory at Harrogate on New Year's Day, Tranmere have picked up three points from a possible 33.

During that period, the gap between themselves and the bottom two has decreased from 15 to eight points, while they have conceded 10 goals in their past three games, including a 5-0 hammering by Notts County on 21 February.

Prior to his sacking, Tranmere Rovers' Official Supporters' Club had called, external for an "immediate change" to the managerial team, saying Crosby's position was "untenable".

Group A

Twerton 23
Stairs 18
BaggieOne 16
A.A.A. 15
Zimnan 15
BaggieVicar 13
Minizin 6
B.B.B. 6

Very good week for Group A this week, the fifth time that over 100 points have been scored in total. Fulham's win over Spurs also produced the highest points total for a non-Gamball game with 25 points, but the total points could have been higher had we not ended with 2 negative games as well. One of those negative games was this week's Gamball where only one player scored positive points and the rest scored it with the heart and not the head!!

Leading the way this week is Twerton with a season's high for him of 23 points!! He scored on 8 games including the Bonus and 3 CSs and finally found some form after weeks of struggle. Stairs is 2nd with 18 points, his 3rd double digit week in a row. BaggieOne rounds out the podium with 16 points, he was the only one to score positive points on the Gamball, although I think he was hoping to get it wrong!!

AAA, Zinman and The Vicar all scored in double digits, AAA scored on 7 games but failed to get any CSs, whereas Zinman added 2 to his total and The Vicar had one with both them scoring a max with scoreball on the Fulham win. Bit of a gap down to the bottom 2, Minizin and BBB, who both finished on just 6 points. The both missed the Bonus by predicting a Bournemouth home win!

289 Minizin
288 Stairs
274 A.A.A.
255 BaggieOne
254 Zinman
247 B.B.B.
238 BaggieVicar
218 Twerton

So as we start the run into the end of the season the table is closer than it has been for a while. Our longtime league leader Minizin has seen his lead cut to just a single point over Stairs. AAA is still in touch with the top 2. The next three swapped places a bit with BaggieOne now in 4th place but he is just one point ahead of Zinman who in turn is 7 points ahead of BBB as these three chase that final playoff spot. Baggievicar isn't out of it yet but must put in some solid weeks. Twerton is still adrift in last place but he has now passed the double century along with everyone else in Group A and the Group as a whole passed the 2000 point mark.

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Snooty 20
SCO 14
4eva 14
Amelia 14
Lady Jane 11
Derby 10
Salop 10
Themaclad 5

A better week for Group B, just 1 player failing to make double figures. The gamball however was a different story. I recognise that those of us who are Albion supporters may be forgiven for being marginally over-optimistic about our fortunes (though, based on recent evidence, such optimism looks severely misplaced) but the rest of you? So a complete set of failures on the gamball and just 2 scoreball points meant that the higher scores came from the bonus and a higher than normal number of correct scores. Just 1 fixture joined the gamball in generating a negative return, only 1 player scoring on the Bournemouth/Sunderland draw while 2 players blew their bonus balls on it.

Snooty was the week's standout performer - 3 correct scores from his 7 correct results to give him his highest score of the season and a decent gap to 2nd place. 3 players, SCO, 4Eva and Amelia all scored 14 points from the same breakdown, 1 correct score from 6 correct results including their bonuses.

Lady Jane stands alone on 11 points, her scoreball point lifting her above the next 2 players, Derby and Salop. For the first time this season Derby got 2 correct scores from his 5 correct predictions but missed out on all his balls. Salop exactly matched Derby's performance leaving Themaclad trailing with just 5 points. Themac was the only player not to nail a correct score though he did at least have the minimal satisfaction of being the second player with a scoreball point.

284 4Eva
267 SCO
239 Lady Jane
221 Themaclad
218 Snooty
210 Derby
207 Amelia
197 Salop

Just 1 positional change this week as Snooty's fine week sees him edge ahead of Derby.

Scratching around for some stats this week but one thing that appears to be a trend is a recent improvement in Group B's scoring. the last 5 weeks have seen an average total of just over 83 points compared to 68 from week 4 (when Amelia joined) Similar improvements can be seen in the number of correct results and scores, so either Group B are getting better at this or I'm failing to pick hard enough fixtures.

Zin

No Easter football next season due to International also appears there will be a break from 19/9/2026 to 10/10/2026

Woking have sacked manager Neal Ardley after a run of six defeats in their past nine National League matches.

The Cards were four points off the play-off places in mid-December, but have slipped to 17th, just five points above the relegation zone.

Former AFC Wimbledon and Notts County boss Ardley joined Woking in December 2024 with the club 19th in the National League.

He improved results as they finished 15th in the division last season, and led them to a promising first half to the current campaign.

But just two league wins since mid-December - including an unconvincing late victory at bottom-of-the-table Truro City earlier this month - had seen the club stutter.

His final game in charge was a 1-0 loss at National League North side Marine on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy.

Assistant manager Simon Bassey has also been relieved of his duties by the club with Craig Ross, Jake Hyde and Dale Gorman taking interim charge of the team.

"We've reached the conclusion that it's time to make a change," chairman Todd Johnson told the club website., external

"Ultimately, this is a results-oriented business, and the results did not match our ambitions.

"Our focus is on building a positive, club-oriented, winning culture.

"We believe in this group of players and in creating the right environment for them to play with confidence, intent and ambition."

Warnock now manager after they pot Wootton

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Badger gives you 2 points

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. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

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.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830

Division One table after Matchday 8:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 134 pts
   
2. jjamez = 129 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 122 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 116 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 115 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 109 pts
   

Friday 6th March:
FA Cup 5th round:
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Liverpool (20:00)

Saturday 7th March:
League One:
Town v Rotherham (12:30)
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Burton Albion v Stevenage
Luton Town v Reading
Peterborough United OFF Port Vale
Plymouth Argyle v Doncaster Rovers

Championship:
Sheffield United v West Bromwich Albion

Sunday 8th March:
League One:
AFC Wimbledon v Northampton Town (12:00)

FA Cup 5th round:
Fulham v Southampton (12:00)

Scottish Cup quarter finals:
Rangers v Celtic (13:00)

Monday 9th March:
FA Cup 5th round:
West Ham United v Brentford (19:30)

Tuesday 10th March:
League One:
Barnsley v Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers v Luton Town
Exeter City v Lincoln City
Mansfield Town v Reading

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

1. themaclad = 156 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 154 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 132 pts
   
4. Devongone = 121 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 106 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 86 pts
   

Friday 6th March:
Championship:
Preston North End v Oxford United (20:00)

Saturday 7th March:
League One:
Town v Rotherham (12:30)
Town scorers:
Rotherham scorers:

Cardiff City v Lincoln City (12:30)
Barnsley v Exeter City
Blackpool v Wigan Athletic
Bolton Wanderers v Wycombe Wanderers
Bradford City v Leyton Orient

League Two:
Chesterfield v Shrewsbury Town

FA Cup 5th round:
Wrexham v Chelsea (17:45)
Newcastle United v Manchester City (20:00)

Sunday 8th March:
Leeds United v Norwich City (16:30)

Tuesday 10th March:
Championship:
Sheffield Wednesday v Watford

League One:
Port Vale v Bradford City
Stevenage v Leyton Orient
Wigan Athletic v Plymouth Argyle


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***