Bristol City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday December 18th - 15:00 ko
at Ashton Gate

Huddersfield Town travel to Bristol to the Ashton Gate Stadium on Saturday afternoon for a must win game. Will head coach Carlos Corberán make many changes to the team that were unlucky to drop a couple of points to a late Coventry equaliser on Saturday? Will Jordan Rhodes get a game? Will Danny Grant make his long awaited debut after almost a year at the club? Will we have an exciting football feast for the Town fans making the long trip down south to a ground where we have been properly thrashed in the last few seasons?

Bristol City manager, Nigel Pearson has been complaining about the lack of goal scorers in his squad, with two players Andreas Weimann and Chris Martin scoring more than half of their league goals between them. Yet he keeps leaving proven goal scorer and Town legend, Nahki Wells on the bench. Well, surely a visit from Huddersfield Town will be the tonic they need. 

Town lead the head to head with 26 wins to City's 24, with 11 draws.

But Ashton Gate has not been a happy hunting ground for the Terriers lately, not having won there since 2013 when a James Vaughan hat trick gave us a 3-1 win. Overall, we have only won 8 of our 30 visits there, even getting hammered 4-0 there on a freezing cold Friday night game in our promotion season of 2016/17.

The first meetings came back in 1911/12, when in our second season of our Football League life, recently relegated Bristol City did the double over our brave boys. The lads did much better in the next season though, earning a point in a goal less draw, but then thrashing them 5-0 at Leeds Road with goals from a Frank Mann hat trick and one each from Thomas Elliott and Joe Jee.

City did the double over us in the next season, but we did it over them in 1959/60 with those two defeats for City helping to send them down. The game at Leeds Road on the 12th of December 1959 was our biggest win in the series of games against Bristol City. We won 6-1 with two more goals from Massie, one each from Peter Dinsdale, Denis Law, Ken Taylor and a penalty from John Coddington, who old geezers used to tell me took his run up to penalties from the halfway line. How true that is, I've no idea. 

We won down there as well, by a 3-2 scoreline this time. Massie again and Kevin McHale scoring as well as an own goal. They went down and came back up five years later, by which time, we were still a 2nd division team. We had another five seasons in the same division before we won promotion and we did the double over them in that 2nd division championship winning season of 1969/70. We beat them 3-0 at home in August, Bobby Hoy and Colin Dobson scored as well as an own goal. Then down at theirs in December, Steve Smith and Frank Worthington scored in a 2-1 win which took us to the top of the league, a position we held, apart from one week, right to the end of the season.

Viva Bobby Hoy

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 1-1 Coventry
Barnsley 1-1 Town
Town 1-2 Middlesbrough
QPR 1-0 Town
Twon 1-0 WBA
Cardiff 2-1 Town

Hull 2-2 Brizzle
Brizzle 1-0 Derby
Sheff Utd 2-0 Brizzle
Brizzle 1-0 Stoke
Brizzle 1-1 Blackburn
Coventry 3-2 Brizzle

Town are 10th in the Championship table with 30 points. City are 18th with 27. If they beat us 4-0, they will overtake us.

1. Cowan Toddlers
   
2. Inkwell Ash
   
3. Marianna Sweden
   
4. Canal Kids
   
5. Deja Snot
   
6. Algernon Pies
   
7. Testicle Revolt
   
8. Mr Christian
   
9. Johnny Argos
   
10. Doha Priest
    

So another cup final looming ever closer and it is turnig out to be a strange confrontation in the facts we have one team misfiring on the "goals front" and the opposing team riddled with injuries to key players - Kyogo, Jota, Forrest and Ajeti all out and Johnston a big doubt. On that basis, Hibs have a reasonable chance of winning this final. However, they must "keep a close eye on" Tom Rogic who has had an impressive season so far and will pose a threat to Hibs goal. I'd personally consider a man-marking tactic on him for this particular game. Hibs strategy? Well it's a one-off match that we wanna win. Therefore, we wanna see a hi-press lineup with a decent defensive line to back it up. I can see this final culminating in a pk decider after extra time unless certain Hibs players "find their scoring boots" and make it a game to remember - grab a victory v a weakened side! C'mon Hibs, I'm not travelling to Hampden for fun!!!

GGTTH

Gamball Game:

Coventry - Stoke

Others:
Southampton - Brentford
Watford - Crystal Palace
Leeds - Arsenal
Middlesbrough - Bournemouth
Bristol City - Huddersfield
Millwall - Preston
Everton - Leicester
Spurs - Liverpool
Wolves - Chelsea

Ever since my worst experience following Chesterfield away at Grimsby when I was 17 .... and we lost 2-0, never had a shot, then got chased by trawlermen wielding gaff hooks I've thought winning at Cleethorpes was impossible. All my mates were slower runners than me, so I couldn't even run as fast as I wanted ........... And it snowed and was fffffinn freezin'. Dire.

Much as I've disagreed with a number of things James Rowe has done, especially his high-player-turnover last season, I've got to say he and the players are doing wonders to be top at this stage. We've had 11 or 12 out injured, yet we keep picking up the points. Then we get Asante and Jack Clarke back within two weeks, so now I start worrying will supposed improvements improve the team? I imagine Asante and Tshimanga up front with Danny Rowe coming from a bit deeper, hitting the occasional rocket and think we'd be unstoppable, either at this level, or back in EFL2, but what if, like Wrexham, the team didn't quite gel?

I watched Wrexham again and I'm convinced their players are as good as anyone's but their style of play doesn't bring the best out of them. Mullin is really good, but he should have scored at least as many as Tshimanga. Tozer's throw should be a real weapon, but it so over-used that keepers like Ross Fitzsimmons just come out and catch them in six yard box. In midfield they've got a real dead-ball specialist, but is everybody running scared of him? If they get their shit together I'm sure Wrexham are more than a script written in Hollywood awaiting more professional actors and further investment. They're good now!

Saturday it's Guiseley in a trophy even I don't think we should really be going for, but then my experience both playing and watching the game tells me just keep winning, make it a habit and Saturday will be tough. They only went down 1-0 at Brackley who are top! Bencherif always could play, despite a lack of pace, and Prince Ekpolo will be trying to show, but last week their keeper was making his debut. so if he is facing us he might be nervous. But there it is. When we are the bottom I worry in case we never improve. When we are up top I worry whether it can continue.

And what if someone pinches our manager, or we sell Tshimanga? The last time anyone scored this many goals we sold him for £500,000. Christmas terrors!

Premier League

SCO          19pts 1CS 5CR 10GB 3BB 0SB
Derby        17pts 2CS 2CR 10GB 6BB 1SB
Silver          14pts 2CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
AAA            11pts 1CS 4CR 0GB 3BB 0SB
BaggieOne    9pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Snooty        6pts 2CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Minizin          5pts 1CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
BBB              4pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Sanjay          0pts 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

I wondered why SCO was so quick with his scores this week.

A resonable week for the Premiership players though a couple of matches proved tough with nobody scoring  (at least positively) on the Peterborough and Burnley games. Lots of moaning about late goals though for everyone moaning there was someone very happy so I won't lose any sleep over it!

This week's top 3 were the same as last week though in a different order. SCO heads the table with a week's best of 5 correct results and a correct score on the gamball, his second 10 pointer in a row and his best score for 6 weeks. Derby followed up his great score last week with another fine performance - at least fine in terms of total points! He actually only got 2 results correct, the same as this week's bottom placed Sanjay, but both of them happened to be correct scores and they also happened to be the gamball and bonus! Talk about picking your matches. Silver was another beneficiary of Zinman's kind gamball selection with the week's third maximum backed up by a second correct score to give him 3rd spot.

AAA equalled his highest weekly score (though in truth this doesn't say much) to take 4th place with a decent return of 11 points. Once again he chose not to gamble and this proved to be a wise decision. BaggieOne had an ok week with a rare positive score from his bonus. Snooty and Minizin are both on a bad run - together they have amassed a total of 8 points in the last 5 weeks!- and this run continued though at least Snooty halted a run of 3 consecutive minus weeks. BBB was bemoaning Coventry's last minute equaliser which cost both him and Minizin 13 points (such a shame  ) but at least he added to his overall score - unlike Sanjay.

Derby 191
Silver 162
SCO 159
BBB 153
Minizin 130
Sanjay 116
Snooty 116
BaggieOne 106
AAA 68 

Derby increased his lead to 29 points after yet another good week. Silver and SCO both rose a place at BBB's expense while a gap has now opened up between the chasing 3 and Minzin whose dismal recent run (have I mentioned that already?) has him looking at a possible relegation battle. Sanjay climbed level with Snooty but both of them must be anxious at the slow...I mean very slow...rise of BaggieOne, now only 10 points from safety. AAA is still marooned at the foot of the table but with more than half of the season to go, some Derby like form (the participant, not Wayne Rooney's Derby) might see him rise a place or 2.

Zin


Championship

Themaclad  18pts 2CS 3CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Lady Jane    10pts 1CS 1CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Salop              7pts 2CS 1CR NPGB -3BB 0SB
Zinman          7pts 0CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Stairs              6pts 0CS 2CR NPGB 3BB 1SB
Twerton        3pts 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Dingle            1pts 1CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie    0pts 1CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia          -1pts 0CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

Not a great week in the Championship, just 51 points scored in total. Themaclad's excellent form continues and once again leads the way with 18 points. He got a spot on Gamball and backed that up by scoring on 4 other games as well. Lady Jane is in 2nd with 10 points, like Themaclad she too got a spot on Gamball but only scored a CR on on other game. Joint third are Salop and Zinman with 7 points, Zinman scored on more games and got a CR on the Bonus but Salop got 2 CSs to keep up with him.

After last weeks no show Stairs comes in 5th this week with 6 points, not much going on here but he did get a CR on the Bonus so avoided that negative. Twerton had a better week than late in 6th place but still only scored 3 points.

The bottom three were Dingle on 1 point, Blue with a zero and Amelia on -1. They all missed on the Gamball and Bonus and scored on 2 games but DD and Blue were able to get 1 CS each to keep them off the bottom.

161 - Blue Baggie
148 - Lady Jane
146 - Stairs
141 - Salop
134 - Zinman
129 - Themaclad
121 - Dingle
102 - Amelia
66 - Twerton

Only a few movers this week but they were significant. Blue had better get his tossing motion back because now in 2nd spot is Lady Jane and she is only 13 points behind!! The lead a couple of weeks ago was 25 points!! Stairs drops out of the auto spots for the first time in weeks and now has Salop just 5 points behind him. Zinman is now looking over his shoulder at Themaclad and the way Themaclad is playing those above Zinman had better keep an eye on him as well!! While TML is moving up the table, Dingle is slowly dropping down it and now sits in 7th. Amelia is now somewhat adrift and Twerton seems determined to do a Derby (The Wayne Rooney version not the prediction league participant) in terms of points this season!!

Cheers
SCO

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/pr...-vs-dundee
Well this fixture has become a massive game where I'd say it is now a "must win" fixture in which Hibs must win it and propel themselves right behind the sixth placed Dons v a Dundee side that has suddenly hit a "barren spell": lost their last two league matches, but IMO still playing reasonably well and competing with enthusiasm. My main concern is how many Hibs players decide to "save themselves" for an upcoming Premier Sports cup final - highly unprofessional and dishonest when one bears in mind our league predicament, but I've "read this book" before re Hibs players doing this and seen it practised in the same way at other Scot footie clubs outwith Celtic and Rangers. IMO unacceptable, the wrong approach to take and the impetus of a proper accountable footie club is to seriously try to win footie matches and try to continue "in that vein" i.e. keep up the momentum. None of this shit allowed re the avoidance of injury or conserving energy!!! I pray this unacceptable behaviour does not materialise and Hibs pick up a valuable 3 pts that could well play a part in Hibs season being "turned around" v a team that Hibs can beat and do it with a lot to spare. C'mon Hibs!

GGTTH

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.


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.  

NEW FOR THIS SEASON: 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.
So last season's matches would've been Baggiebob(BBB) v theo_luddite and jjamez v St Charles Owl and would've given a bit more to play for towards the back end of the season.
The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

We now have an Appeals Committee set up, consisting of me, myself and I. All appeals must be made before the next Matchday kicks off.

Friday 17th December:
Barnsley v West Bromwich Albion

Saturday 18th December:
Bristol City v Town
Town scorers:
City scorers:

Cardiff City OFF Derby County (12:30)
Middlesbrough v AFC Bournemouth (12:30)
Blackburn Rovers v Birmingham City
Blackpool v Peterborough United
Coventry City OFF Stoke City
Millwall OFF Preston North End
Nottingham Forest v Hull City
Queens Park Rangers OFF Swansea City
Reading OFF Luton Town

Monday 20th December:
Fulham v Sheffield United

Bonus matches:
Sunday:
Scottish League Cup Final:
Hibernian v Celtic (15:00)

EFL Cup quarter finals:
Tuesday:
Arsenal v Sunderland

Wednesday:
Brentford v Chelsea
Liverpool v Leicester City
Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United

Table after Matchday 20:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 510 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 455 pts
   
3. jjamez = 450 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 434 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 432 pts
   
6. themaclad = 430 pts
   
7. neonfoxinthebox = 425 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 405 pts
   
9. WakeyTerrier = 391 pts
   
10. ritchiebaby = 374 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 334 pts

Deceptive in the fact Celtic fully deserving of the victory v a Motherwell side that remained passive for most of the match. Celtic/Ange forced to play a system deploying a "false number nine" - no recognised CF available after Kyogo bizarrely risked by Ange in a "dead rubber" Europa league match v Real Betis on Thursday night and unluckily injured! However, lotsa scoring opps created and scorned by various players. Rogic a chief sinner, but scoring the all-important winning goal seconds before HT and a good goal at that. It looks like the Hoops' next three fixtures will present a "key period" in their challenge for the Scot Prem title as they are all away from home while Rangers have three consecutive home fixtures. IMO still too many injuries to key players, bizarrely no CF, and I think they will drop points while Rangers will not do likewise at home. They need to somehow "hang in there" until the transfer window "opens up" and key injured players return to the fold.

Well, HMFC welcome a somewhat reduced Sevco support to Tynecastle tomorrow for what should be , hopefully, a decent game of football with Hearts, obviously biased opinion, coming out victorious. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than watching their hoardes scuttling off into the Edinburgh horizon with their tails well and truly planted right up their erchy.

MANAGER

Poya Asbaghi (Persian: پویا اسبقی‎, [puːjɒː æsbæɣiː]; born 17 July 1985) is a Swedish Iranian football manager who is head coach of English Championship side Barnsley.

IFK Göteborg
Asbaghi was appointed as manager of Swedish Allsvenskan side IFK Göteborg before the start of the 2018 Allsvenskan season.[1][2][3] On 25 July 2019, IFK extended his contract until 2022.[4] After the 2019 season, Poya Asbaghi was nominated as the manager of the year in Allsvenskan.[5] He was subsequently offered the manager role at English Championship side Barnsley which he turned down.[6]

Asbaghi led Göteborg to the 2019–20 Swedish Cup final after a win over IF Elfsborg on 9 July 2020.[7] On 30 July 2020, Asbaghi and Göteborg won the 2020 Swedish Cup Final after a 2–1 extra time win over Malmö FF, qualifying the team to the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds.[8]

Asbaghi was relieved of his duties on 3 September 2020 during the 2020 season.[9]

Sweden U21
On 24 November 2020, Asbaghi was appointed as manager of the Sweden national under-21 football team, with his contract running until summer 2023. He left in November 2021 to join Barnsley as their new head coach.[10]

Barnsley
In November 2021, Asbaghi was appointed head coach of Barnsley after the sacking of former head coach Markus Schopp. Ferran Sibila became his assistant.[11]

LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

PNE  6 BARNSLEY 3

PNE Team News

In his pre-match press conference, manager Ryan Lowe said there were a few knocks within the team, with Ched Evans, Andrew Hughes and Sepp van den Berg all struggling.

Lowe also told the media that Tom Barkhuizen, who missed last weekend's defeat through injury, and Josh Murphy are both being checked out to see when they can return.

The Opposition

Barnsley have endured a difficult season so far, having picked up just two victories from their 21 Championship games.

After last season’s remarkable push for the Play-Offs, Valérien Ismaël left for West Brom, and in came Markus Schopp, but he lost his job and was replaced by former Sweden U21 boss Poya Asbaghi in November.

He is yet to experience the feeling of victory in his short time in charge and if he’s to do that on Saturday afternoon, it would be Barnsley’s first away win of the season in league action.

Key Stats

woodrow_c_barnsley_2122_16x9.jpg

In Cauley Woodrow, Barnsley have a striker who they have relied on for double figures in terms of goals in their past two Championship campaigns, however he’s netted only three so far this term heading into Saturday.

PNE have had a good record over the Tykes in recent years, having come out on top in three of the last four meetings, with the first of those being a 5-1 victory at Deepdale in October 2019.

The overall head-to-head record between the two sides sees PNE just about edge it, having won 25 times compared to Barnsley’s 20. The first time they faced each other was all the way back in September 1901.

Our Last Meeting


North End came out 2-0 winners the last time they came up against the Tykes in the penultimate game of the 2020/21 season.

Jordan Storey and Ched Evans were on the scoresheet that afternoon, with close-range finishes sealing a third consecutive victory.

Man In The middle

Experienced EFL referee Keith Stroud will take the whistle this weekend to take charge of his first PNE fixture this season.

He’s certainly no stranger to North End, having regularly officiated their matches over the years, dating back to 2005.

Stroud has been the main official of 15 games so far this term, the majority of those games being in the Championship.

MACS VIEW
Firstly a word or two about Frankie Mc, sad for him that it didn't work out, probably too nice a bloke do not think he was helped by the fact we played games behind closed doors totally different scenario to playing in front of a baying mob at Bloomfield and that was just the away fans wish him the best for the future
Good look to Mr Lowe apparently there are health warnings from Argyle fans if it does go a bit tits up but he has a very good assistant in Mike Marsh who worked under Cooper at Swansea.
Let's see what happens