https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/197...uestioned/

They don't just have a problem with this pair of refs as the issues centre on other refs (incl this pair) officiating Rangers matches and being hugely favourable towards them when one compares startlingly different "impartial" performances by UEFA refs at Ibronx. The glaring stats are there for all to scrutinise, cover about 8 months of footie and indicate that somehow Rangers players don't foul opponents to the point where a red card is merited and pk awards are rarely given against them either even in instances where eg I've observed a Hibs player almost getting his head kicked off in their pen box at Ibronx - nothing given and the offending Rangers player's (Hagi) relief clearly visible!! And as for issuing retrospective red cards to Rangers players??? WHYYYYYYYYYY????? Esp when a real time red card would've changed the course of certain footie matches in which they were the unpenalised beneficiary and the ref's viewing position is close by and unimpeded - a step too far for the referee eh!! Re the ref, Nick Walsh, any knowledgeable footie fan would highlight the fact that this particular referee had previously "terrorised" footie fans in the lower leagues for years with many fans from Stranraer to Cowdenbeath to East Fife phoning up the bbc/the "odd couple" of Scot Footie, Tam Cowan and Stuart Crowther, on Saturday afternoon and slating Walsh for spoiling their relative footie match with awful displays of refereeing. As for Madden? He is another category of referee who tries to disguise his bias, but has been "found out" years ago re his affiliation to RFC thereby rendering him to be questionable on the impartiality element of his officiating duties. He certainly wouldn't be given certain matches in England because FA refs must declare any interest or affiliation to identified footie clubs in a signed affidavit and any clash of interest, directly or indirectly, would be avoided/filtered out in match allocations for the "common good of the sport" i.e. it automatically removes the issue from the official. IMO Scottish football lags behind more reputable footie leagues in that regard. It is a known "dinosaur" where the problem is well known, but tolerated/endured by all and sundry. Perhaps the eventual introduction of VAR will provide a "ray of hope" in finally improving standards and identifying poor refs/ARs, replacing accordingly.

MANAGER



Morison earned his first coaching badge at Protec Football Academy during his playing career.[4] He subsequently earned his UEFA Pro Licence and, after retiring as a player in October 2019, began coaching at the academies of former clubs Northampton Town and Millwall.[100][110] He was appointed as the lead coach of the Cardiff City under-23 team on 10 February 2020, joining up with Cardiff manager Neil Harris, who he played alongside and was managed by at Millwall.[110]

Following the sacking of Mick McCarthy in October 2021, Morison was place in temporary charge of the first-team.[111] Morison's first match in temporary charge was a 3–3 draw away at Stoke City with his side having been 3–0 down with just 25 minutes remaining, this result ending Cardiff's club-record run of eight defeats in a row.[112] Morison's third match in charge got Cardiff a first win in ten matches as a late winner from Kieffer Moore defeated Huddersfield Town.[113] On 12 November, Morison was appointed First Team Manager on a deal until the end of the 2021–22 season with the owner stating that he had been impressed by the more attacking brand of football on display in Morison's three matches in charge.[114]

Played under Graham Medals Westley

FORM GUIDE

PNE 11 CARDIFF 5

THE GREATEST PLAYER THE WORLD NEVER SAW

ROBIN FRIDAY


Robin Friday (27 July 1952 – 22 December 1990) was an English footballer who played professionally as a forward for Reading and Cardiff City during a career that lasted four years in the mid-1970s.[n 1] His on-field performances were regarded as excellent, and he won Reading's player of the year award in both of his full seasons there, as well as being the leading goal scorer. However, his habit of unsettling opponents through physical intimidation contributed to a heavily tarnished disciplinary record, and his personal life was one of heavy smoking, drinking, womanising and drug abuse. Despite his short career, he remains prominent in the memory of Reading and Cardiff supporters, both as a player and a personality. He has been voted Reading's best ever player three times.

Born and raised in Acton, west London, Friday was scouted, but not retained, by four professional clubs during his teenage years. He appeared for local semi-professional sides in the Isthmian League until he joined Charlie Hurley's Fourth Division Reading team in 1974; quickly becoming a key player, he helped Reading to win promotion to the Third Division during the 1975–76 season. As his drug habit intensified, Friday's form began to dip in the first half of the 1976–77 season, leading Reading to sell him to Second Division side Cardiff City around the New Year. Friday travelled to join his new team by train without a valid ticket and had to be bailed by the Cardiff manager Jimmy Andrews before he signed for the club. He performed strongly on his debut, but afterwards his form declined and his personal life caused him to repeatedly miss matches altogether. Following a number of incidents, on and off the field—including kicking Mark Lawrenson in the face mid-game[n 2]—Friday retired from football in December 1977, aged 25. He died in Acton in 1990, aged 38, after suffering a heart attack.

The strongest aspects of Friday's game were his ball skills, footballing intelligence and physical and mental strength. Andrews labelled Friday "the complete centre-forward",[12] and, along with numerous contemporaries, retrospectively rated Friday as good enough for the England national team. In a 2004 BBC poll, Friday was voted the top "all-time cult hero" for both Reading and Cardiff City. The Cardiff-based band Super Furry Animals dedicated their 1996 single "The Man Don't Give a xxxx" to his memory.

Steely Dan sample

PNE Team News

North End will be without Ben Whiteman this weekend, with the midfielder having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Nottingham Forest.

Head coach Frankie McAvoy is hopeful of welcoming a few back from injury, though, with Patrick Bauer, Sean Maguire and Alan Browne all back in training after picking up injuries.

Longer-term absentees Matthew Olosunde and Ched Evans have also returned to training recently, while McAvoy said Connor Wickham’s recovery is ahead of schedule, with the striker back out running on grass.

Josh Murphy remains out with an ankle injury, although he would have been unavailable anyway as his loan and parent club come head to head.

The Opposition



Cardiff City announced last week that Steve Morison, who took over as interim boss after the departure of Mick McCarthy, will remain in his position until the end of the season.

Morison enjoyed a quite remarkable first game in charge, with his side scoring three goals in five second half minutes to recover a three-goal deficit away to Stoke City.

The Bluebirds won their last game prior to the international break, too, defeating Huddersfield Town at home thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Kieffer Moore.

Key Stats

Welsh forward Moore has seen an upturn in form since Morison took over, scoring three in his last three, but he’s got some way to go to reach the heights of last season when he netted 20 goals in the Championship.

Cardiff’s main threat so far this term has arguably been young winger Ryan Giles, whose seven assists in the league so far this term make him the division’s joint-second top creator in the Championship.

As mentioned above, PNE could make this their eighth game unbeaten at home in the league, and it would be the first time they have achieved that since 2019, when Alex Neil's side went 11 unbeaten at Deepdale between April and November.

Our Last Meeting


It wasn’t a happy journey to South Wales for North End the last time these sides met, with the hosts coming out 4-0 winners.

Kieffer Moore opened the scoring just two minutes in from the spot, before current PNE loanee Josh Murphy made it two. Goals from Marlon Pack and Mark Harris in the final 20 minutes then made the scoreline more emphatic.

Man In The Middle

Referee Leigh Doughty will take charge of his first ever Preston North End first team game this weekend, but he will be familiar with a few PNE players having overseen last month's Central League victory against Rochdale.

The former PE teacher became an EFL referee in 2019 and quickly moved through the levels, being appointed to the Select Group 2 ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.

Doughty has taken charge of 12 games so far this season, showing 48 yellow cards and one red.

https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/

https://www.not606.com/forums/cardiff-city.36/

Decent folks on the above


MACS VIEW

Which North End will turn up tomorrow is anybodies guess, will it be the Bournemouth team or the ones that played against Hull, Hudersfield, Derby, Forest and at Bloomfield, hopefully the former if not social media will be an un happy place tomorrow night
Doubt whether the club statement released last Monday week may have poured some petrol on the fire however a win my calm things down for a while but things are still bubbling under the surface
As for Cardiff new manager of sorts he's had a couple of game they are a big side Flint.Morrison and Moore so an ariel threat at dead balls will be a concern, need a win we really do

This is what those idiots from the FA are like Dara O’Shea is banned for 3 matches for pushing over a steward at the Peterborough match also fined £7,500 this happened on August 28th, hmmmm what month are we now in. It’s taken 3 months to deliver a ban that starts right away. How many matches will he miss none because he is injured until January. Idiots.  Mind you I think it’s have it in for Albion by the FA no money for Barry, 900,000 for Ferguson, the Egyptian side not paying Hegarzi money and now this. I would love to swear Rolex to them.

The international break is now over and now we are back to domestic footie business with Hibs Hampden semi-final looming ever closer. Hibs sadly "up against it" v a team that we don't seem to beat any more and a Hibs manager who doesn't seem to know how to tackle this kinda match positively. Plus the fact we've been hit by a COVID infection thereby restricting training activities. Lotsa Hibs fans travelling to Hampden and just hoping that Hibs "show up" v this bunch of sectarian bigots. THE RESULT MATTERS MORE THAN MOST TBF!! C'mon Hibs! Lets find a performance and finally beat them!!

GGTTH

After a two-year wait, the A Championships for both Men and Women return on Saturday 20 November and will be played in the Haakons Hall in Lillehammer, Norway. The Round-robin phase will end on Thursday 25 November, the same day as the Women's Semi-finals take place. On Friday 26 November the Men's Semi-finals will be played, followed by the Women's Bronze Medal game. The play on Saturday 27 November consists of the Men's Bronze Medal game, then the Gold/Silver Medal games for both Women and Men.

At these Championships, the top 4 teams will progress to the Semi-finals directly, where 1st plays 4th and then 2nd plays 3rd. Nice and simple, thank goodness!

The Women's Teams are Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Scotland are represented by Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff and Mili Smith, who open their campaign on 20 November against Russia, then Denmark, followed by Sweden on 21 November.

The Men's Teams are Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland. The Scotland Team is Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan and Ross Whyte. Sweden are their first opponents on 20 November, then Finland and Italy on 21 November.

NOT ONLY BUT ALSO

The B Championships are running at the same time as the A Championships at the Lillehammer Youth Hall, not the youth club hut, but a modern purpose-built ice rink.

Men's Teams are coming from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Wales. The teams are split into 2 groups and both England and Wales are in Group A.

The England players are Andrew Woolston, Andrew Reed, Scott Gibson, James Whittle and alternate Thomas Jaeggi. Wales are represented by James Pougher, Rhys Phillips, Garry Coombs, Simon Pougher and alternate Martin Lloyd. On 20 November England play Austria and Wales play France, followed by England v Turkey and Wales v Slovenia on 21 November.

Women's Teams are representing Austria, England, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. England play Lithuania on 20 November and Finland on 21 November and the English players are Hetty Garnier, Anna Fowler, Angharad Ward and Naomi Robinson.

Again the Round-robin games will end on 25 November, with the Men's Qualification and Relegation Games taking place on 26 November alongwith the both the Men's and Women's Semi-finals. Both Finals will be held on 27 November.

By necessity, the results posts will be a hard slog, but with my extraordinary typesetting skills (I've been getting lessons from Snooty) you will hopefully be able to pick and choose what you want and ignore the rest.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 20TH NOVEMBER KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Another game against relegation fodder and more points squandered as the game ended in a draw. We started ok and Paterson struck the post but we were sucker punched (for the millionth time ) when Oliver got on to a simple flick on and finished easily. We huffed & puffed and had chances but as usual the finishing let us down. Onto the 2nd half and the pattern continued with chances not taken. Then finally we equalised, Bannan's shot was parried and Kamberi tucked away from 6 yards. We pushed for a winner but like most recent games couldn't find a winner.

THE MATCH

Not faced them, so here's the 2005 Playoff final

Next up Accrington Stanley, 2 words I thought I would never use on a match thread, as we travel to the Wham Stadium for the first time ever. We have played Accrington before (1892) but not in this current form. They lie in 14th place in the league and will be quite happy to stay there as season rolls on. Hary Pell is there leading score with 5 goals. John Coleman is there manager and has been now for 7 years, not bad for a manager these days, particularly with trigger happy chairman/owners.

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                                     

ACCR               -                       

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

PAUL HOWARD
Steven Rushton and Christopher Ward
Fourth Official : Andy Haines

THE TEAM

Peacock-Farrell
Brennan Dunkley Palmer
Paterson Byers Luongo Corbeanu
Bannan
Kamberi Berahino

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Corbeanu

BML STANDINGS

Kev 6
Pei 6
Wash 4
SCO 4
Wereham 4
Maddix 3
Imre 2
SS 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Portsmouth v AFC Wimbledon
Rotherham United v Cambridge United
Sunderland v Ipswich Town
Wigan Athletic v Oxford United
Wycombe Wanderers v Bolton Wanderers

HHDHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Huddersfield Town v West Bromwich Albion
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday November 20th - 15:00 ko
at the John McAlpharm Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome West Bromwich Albion to Leeds Road on Saturday afternoon for the first home game since.........seems like years ago!

No news yet on the two serious looking injuries picked up at Cardiff by skipper Jonathan Hogg and Duane Holmes. We have had four players away on international duty. Sorba Thomas remained in Cardiff after that shocker of a defeat, to meet up with his Welsh pals. He sat on the bench for both games, so should be nice and fresh to rip those Baggies to pieces. Scottish Highlands went north and made his first start for the u21s. Danel Sinani, fresh from becoming the first ever player from Luxembourg to score in the Championship, played twice for his country over the weekend. And Levi Colwill made his first start for the England u19s. No news on these players fitness yet, which just leaves us to see how many of the players left behind at Canalside that Carlos Corberán has managed to break.

As for West Bromwich, well they have Karlan Grant coming into form. He has 8 goals so far this season. We all know how dangerous he can be. We will also be facing some ex Leeds horrors. Robert Snodgrass is now plying his trade in Baggieland. We all remember what a prick he can be. And then there's Kyle Bartley, who surely won't be allowed back into the stadium, having been given a stadium ban after starting a fight with David Wagner in 2017.

They also have Alex Mowatt, another BellEnder, who they signed from Barnsley. He always scores against us, but was missing from their last game, a draw at home to Boro, so hopefully he won't be around on Saturday.

Everiss's first bit of glory was that 2nd division title just mentioned and they were top of the First Division for a while in the next season, before fading to finish 7th. The following season, they got relegated again. No yo-yo this time though, staying in Div 2 for a while, but then winning the championship once more in 1911. They followed that in the next season with another FA Cup Final, losing to Barnsley in the Final, after a replay. The first Final was played on the 20th of April 1912 at Crystal Palace, just five days after the sinking of the Titanic. The match finished 0-0 and so both teams traipsed up to Brammall Lane, where the Tykes triumphed 1-0. The gate receipts for the match of £2615, were donated to the Titanic Disaster Fund.

Albion were still in the First Division when the war broke out. Post war, they won their one and only Football League title in 1919/20, winning it by a massive 9 points (only 2 pts for a win then) from runners up Burnley. They also beat Spurs to win the Charity Shield. They almost won another title in 1924/25, but fell two points short of Huddersfield Town, who were winning their second title and would go on to be the first team to win three in a row.

Success didn't last though and the club were relegated in 1927. They came back again in 1931, finishing as runners up to Everton. They also won the Cup again, beating local rivals Birmingham City in their first visit to Wembley Stadium. William "Ginger" Richardson scored both the Albion's goals in a 2-1 victory. Earlier in the season, Ginger had scored 4 goals in 5 minutes against West Ham, a record that still stands to this day. Another record that still stands is that they are so far the only team to win promotion and the FA Cup in the same season. We'll be hoping to match that when May comes around again. 

Anyway.....Big Ron got them to their highest League finish for 20 years, finishing 3rd in 78/79, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. They reached the quarter finals, losing to Red Star Belgrade. In that season they won 5-3 at Old Trafford, being the last team to have scored five away at Man Utd, before Liverpool did it the other week.

Albion under Atkinson were one of those teams that neutral fans loved for their style of football. However, Cunningham was transferred to Real Madrid for a club record fee and despite 3rd and 4th finishes in the league and a couple of FA Cup semi finals, Ron didn't think he was getting the backing he deserved and so when Man Utd came calling, he fecked off to Old Trafford in 1981.

Ronnie Allen returned and the Board allowed Big Ron to steal star player Bryan Robson, the Baggies struggled and had to win their last match of the season to stay up. Those neutral fans were all cheering the Albion on again and there were celebrations all over the country as they beat Leeds United 2-0, not just to stay up but also to relegate the White Shite instead. 

The struggles continued though and at the end of 1985/86, they were relegated to the 2nd division with the worst record in the club's history, only 24 points. Ex Villa boss Ron Saunders was in charge and the Board kept faith with him, but soon lost patience and re-appointed Ron Atkinson. Love the Rons there, don't they?

However, it didn't work out for Big Ron this time and by 1989, with Bobby Gould in charge, they slumped to the Third Division for the first time in their history. They had a couple of seasons at the 3rd level and with Argentinian ace, Ossie Ardiles at the helm for the second of those, they won promotion back up with a Wembley win in the Play Offs. They beat Port Vale 3-0 with goals from Andy Hunt, Nicky Reid and ex Town player (and current academy coach) Kevin Donovan.

Well twice to my knowledge, we have beaten the Baggies at home to avoid relegation. This season's game comes around a bit too early for that, but at least us beating them this time won't have the double edged sword of promoting Leeds Urinals at the same time.

Anyway, that match to which I refer was the last time we met and it was behind closed doors during the long forgotten about "Covid 19 pandemic". It was a Friday night match, live on Sky Sports and Chris Willock, on loan from Benfica, gave us an early lead, poking home after a free kick was poorly cleared by the West Bromwich defence. He had, of course been on loan at the Hawthorns earlier that season and never got a game, so that goal would've been sweet for him.

They equalised just before half time through Dara O'Shea, with a blatantly offside goal that VAR would definitely have picked up, but we won't fret about that because, as we know, we went on to win it in the second half. And it was a neatly worked goal with some excellent work from Lewis O'Brien, setting up future Footballer of the Year and England World Cup winning captain, Emile Smith Rowe to pass the ball into the net past the bewildered Baggie keeper Sam Johnstone.

The result meant that we had avoided relegation, but Sky went and spoilt it by making it all about bloody Leeds. West Brom thought they had blown it and it was pleasant viewing for Town fans watching yond prick Charlie Austin blubbing on the pitch afterwards, but Brentford bottled it and so West Brom went up anyway.

Right, back in the Tardis everyone. We're going back to 1910. To Christmas Eve in our first ever Football League season. West Brom were a well established team by now and had appeared in five FA Cup Finals already. Town were bottom of the second division, struggling to adapt to life in the FL when the Baggies came to the West Riding for their first visit to Leeds Road. There were only 4,296 spectators there for this festive fixture and the Board of Directors must've been worrying that election to the League wasn't such a good idea as they might be having to re-apply come the end of the season. West Brom left with the points following a 2-0 win.

By the time we went down there, they were already promoted and just needed to beat us to win the title. We had avoided having to apply for re-election, eventually finishing 13th. A much larger crowd had turned up to see this one, 30,135 cramming into the Hawthorns to see West Brom win 1-0.

So it would be a whole decade before we met again. That would be in Division One in 1920 after we had been promoted. Both matches were played back to back in October and the Baggies were the current League champions, having won it for their one and only time in the previous season. They came up here first and left battered as our brave boys walloped them 5-1. Sammy Taylor, a Frank Mann penalty, two from Ralph Shields and a fifth from Ernie Islip being the scorers.

And then we went down there a week later and lost 0-3. Some things about Town never change. 

Sammy Taylor

They came back up in 1930 and we had eight seasons together in the First Division before they went down again just before WWII started. There were plenty of goals around in that decade, strangely West Brom got their biggest win over us in the season that they got relegated.

They came back up again in 1949 and we had three seasons together before Town got relegated. We were only apart for one season though as we came straight back up. That season, 1953/54 saw us both battling for the title. Both matches between us ended up with Albion winning and our lads didn't even score. It was 4-0 at the Hawthorns and then with Town in 3rd and West Brom at the top in February, they came to Leeds Road and walked away with the points in a 2-0 win. Town faded at the end of the season, mainly due to an injury to Vic Metcalfe, but did manage to beat Wolves in the last game of the season. It wasn't enough though to help the Baggies. They finished 2nd, we finished 3rd and Wolves took the title.

Town struggled in the next couple of seasons though and got relegated in 1956. We did the double over the Albion however in our relegation season, winning 1-0 at home and 2-1 away. That match at the Hawthorns on April 7th 1956, when goals from Dave Hickson and Jimmy Glazzard sparked off a bit of a revival, which ultimately failed to save us, was the last meeting of the two clubs for 14 years.

We totally avoided each other in the 60s and didn't meet up again until Ian Greaves had got the club back into the top flight. Fourteen years outside the first division, in which time, I had been born and had started out on my Huddersfield Town journey. I didn't get to so many of the games in those first division days, as my dad seemed to be working most Saturdays. Thinking back, it may have been an excuse to go with his mates and not his lad, but I have no proof of that. Anyway, I do remember going to Leeds Road to watch us beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 in November.

I think it was my grandad who took me to this one actually. Anyway they had star players like Jeff Astle and Tony Brown. Astle was one of my favourite non Town players, especially when he scored a famous goal to beat Leeds later in the season to deny them the title. 

Jimmy Lawson scored Town's first, but it was an unlikely hero who scored the winner from what I remember was from the halfway line. Probably my memory playing tricks, but when Geoff Hutt hit that ball from miles out, it flew into the net, leaving the keeper no chance. The crowd went wild!

Geoff Hutt

We beat them again at home in 71/72 with a Les Chapman goal, but got relegated at the end of the season, finishing bottom and it would be 14 years again before we met up in the league. That was in 1986 then, when the Baggies had been relegated to Division Two. We'd been down tiddley down down and then up tiddley up up and now we were an established second division team. However, the Mick Buxton glory days were coming to an end and after losing the first game of the season at home to Sunderland, we went down to play the Throstles in the second game. We lost that an all, 0-1.

By the time they came up to Leeds Road for the return fixture, we had landed at the bottom of the table. Steve Smith was now in the manager's seat and goals from Duncan Shearer and David Cork sent the West Brom lads away empty handed and we shot up the table to 18th and we easily avoided relegation.

We went down in the next one though and the Baggies did the double over us.

They themselves got relegated in 91. Their first venture down to the 3rd division. They won 2-1 at theirs but we smashed them 3-0 at ours in March in our push for the Play Offs. Phil Starbuck, Chris Billy and a Gary Strodder own goal gave us that win. We finished in the Play Offs top spot, but the Baggies missed out by one place. Shame that as a Town v WBA Play Off semi would've been much better than a Town v bloody Peterborough semi.

So we met again in the next season, both still in the 3rd tier. They won 1-0 at ours in the second game of the campaign, part of a disastrous start of six straight defeats. The point we won down at theirs in January was only our 15th, but miraculously, we stayed up.

West Brom went up though and so we avoided each other for three seasons. Neil Warnock got us promoted but walked out, so Brian Horton was manager when we did the double over them in 95/96. We won 2-1 down there early on in the season, but when they came up here for their first visit to the shiny new McAlpine Stadium, we got our biggest win of the season with a lovely early Christmas present. Andy Turner, on loan from Spurs, scored his only goal for us. Rocket Ronnie Jepson bagged a brace and of course Andy Booth got one as well.

So we had six seasons together in what was by now known as Division One following the creation of the Premier League. One of those seasons was 1997/98, also known as The Great Escape, when Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath masterminded our Houdini act. It was a 1-0 win at home to West Brom that secured our safety, a famous goal scored by Simon Baldry.

It all ended though when we got relegated in 2001. We went down to the Hawthorns three games from the end of the season and Boothy scored in a 1-1 draw. All seemed well, a good away point and almost guaranteed safety. We bolloxed it up and so wouldn't play each other until we got promoted to the Premier League 16 years later.

And we've already talked about that. There was one more match in between. An FA Cup match at ours in 2010 which the Baggies won 2-0 with goals from Graham Dorrans and an 18 year old lanky streak of piss called Chris Wood, scoring the first of many goals he would get against us over the years.

Lanky streak of piss!

November the 20th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1909: Rotherham Town (h) FA Cup, drew 2-2 (Alonzo Drake, Joe Jee)
1915: Hull City (h) Wartime League, WON 1-0 (Layton)
1920: Arsenal (h) Div 1, lost 0-4
1926: Sheffield United (a) Div 1, drew 3-3 (William Devlin, George Brown 2)
1937: Liverpool (a) Div 1, WON 1-0 (Pat Beasley)
1943: Halifax Town (h) Wartime League, drew 0-0
1948: Middlesbrough (h) Div 1, drew 0-0
1954: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1, drew 3-3 (Jimmy Glazzard, Jimmy Watson, Len Quested)
1965: Derby County (h) Div 2, lost 1-3 (Don Weston)
1971: Ipswich Town (a) Div 1, lost 0-1
1976: Mansfield Town (h) FA Cup, drew 0-0
1982: Mossley (h) FA Cup, WON 1-0 (Malcolm Brown)
1993: Blackpool (a) Division Two (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Iwan Roberts)
1999: West Bromwich Albion (h) Division One (2nd tier), WON 1-0 (Dean Gorré)
2001: Brentford (h) Division Two (3rd tier), drew 1-1 (Leon Knight)
2004: Colchester United (a) League One (3rd tier), drew 0-0
2010: Exeter City (h) League One (3rd tier), lost 0-1

Well, not many wins, but we have beaten West Brom before on this date. Oddly, this match will be the third one against the Baggies on this date.

Alonzo Drake, who scored in 1909 against Rotherham Town, I mentioned in the last match thread. He's the one who also played cricket for Yorkshire. We have nothing on record as to whether he was a racist or not. After leaving Town, he finished his football career with Rotherham Town, who merged with local rivals Rotherham County in 1925 to form Rotherham United.

The 1976 FA Cup match against Mansfield, was our first ever meeting with the Stags. An old bloke I knew, was hoping that this game would end in a draw, as a replay would mean he could complete the 92 Club. Not just having visited the entire 92 League grounds in the FL, but the unique feat of watching Huddersfield Town on all 92. He got his wish, but we lost the replay.

Malcolm Brown, who scored in the FA Cup on this date against Mossley, is a club legend. He is 6th in our all time appearances list with 403 (over two spells). In that amount is a club record of 259 consecutive appearances, a record that will never be broken. Ironically, that record ended when he was transferred to First Division Newcastle Utd, but he missed that entire first season with them through injury.

The 1999 home victory over West Brom was part of a golden run for the team under the management of Steve Bruce. This win took us up to 2nd in what is now known as the Championship and was our sixth consecutive victory in the league. It was also a part of a run of 9 wins out of 10 league games. The only one of those we didn't win? Well after beating Barnsley, Sheffield Utd, Ipswich, Swindon, Forest and the Baggies, we lost 0-2 at bloomin'  Walsall.

1. Refs Revised 
   
2. Byron Town 
   
3. Reggae Show 
   
4. Python Lilt 
   
5. Horny Goods 
   
6. Toyboy Bed Troth 
   
7. Thomson Jeans 
   
8. REM Albion 
   
9. Eleven Airmails 
   
10. Therese Greed 
    

In honour of the official name change of our beloved neighbours, this week's Gamball fixture is:

Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa - Brighton

Others:
Leicester - Chelsea
Burnley - Crystal Palace
Newcastle - Brentford
Wolves - West Ham
Sheff Utd - Coventry
Bristol City - Blackburn
Huddersfield - WBA
Reading - Nottingham Forest
Accrington - Sheff Wed

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 19th November:
Queens Park Rangers v Luton Town

Saturday 20th November:
Town v West Brom
Town scorers:
Baggies scorers:

Sheffield United v Coventry City (12:30)
Bristol City v Blackburn Rovers
Fulham v Barnsley
Hull City v Birmingham City
Middlesbrough v Millwall
Preston North End v Cardiff City
Reading v Nottingham Forest
Stoke City v Peterborough United
Swansea City v Blackpool

Sunday 21st November:
Derby County v AFC Bournemouth (12:00)

Tuesday 23rd November:
Blackpool v West Bromwich Albion
Coventry City v Birmingham City
Middlesbrough v Preston North End
Nottingham Forest v Luton Town
Reading v Sheffield United

Wednesday 24th November:
QPR v Town
Town scorers:
QPR scorers:

Barnsley v Swansea City
Blackburn Rovers v Peterborough United
Bristol City v Stoke City
Cardiff City v Hull City
Fulham v Derby County
Millwall v AFC Bournemouth

Bonus match:
Scottish League Cup semi final:
Sunday:
Rangers v Hibernian (16:00)

Table after Matchday 16:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 442 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 388 pts
   
3. jjamez = 382 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 380 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 368 pts
   
6. neonfoxinthebox = 367 pts
   
7. themaclad = 360 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 345 pts
   
9. WakeyTerrier = 333 pts
   
10. ritchiebaby = 308 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 280 pts