Aldershot Town 1-2 Wrexham
Barnet 1-3 FC Halifax Town
Dagenham & Redbridge 2-0 Altrincham
Grimsby Town 4-0 Dover Athletic
Maidenhead United 2-2 King's Lynn Town
Notts County 1-1 Woking
Solihull Moors 0-1 Southend United
Torquay United 1-2 Wealdstone
Weymouth 0-2 Stockport County
Eastleigh 3-3 Boreham Wood


League Table After Matchday 9

Amelia = 118
Lord Snoots = 100
St Charles = 100
Spireitematt = 96
Devon = 88
Dancing = 84

Being reported that Roger Hunt who played in all of England's 1966 World Cup games has died at the age of 83.

Just a few days after Jimmy Greaves; I wonder just how many of that famous squad are still with us.

R.I.P Roger. My sincere condolences to your family.

MYSTIC MACS FORM GUIDE

PNE 10 STOKE 7

MANAGER

MICHAEL O'NEILL

Brechin City
O'Neill became manager of Scottish side Brechin City in April 2006. He won the Second Division Manager of the Month award in both December 2007[15] and October 2008.[16] O'Neill was released by Brechin City to join Shamrock Rovers on 13 December 2008.[17]

Shamrock Rovers
At the press conference when unveiled as Rovers manager, he cited Gordon Strachan as his main managerial influence.[18] He was awarded the Irish Soccer Writers Manager of the Month award for July 2009 and eventually guided The Hoops to second place in the 2009 League of Ireland.

In October 2010, he guided Shamrock Rovers to win the 2010 League of Ireland title, their first league championship since 1994.[19] O'Neill led Rovers to the 2011 Setanta Sports Cup and then made history by being the first manager of a League of Ireland team to reach the group stages of a European competition.[20] Rovers defeated Partizan Belgrade in the play-off round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.[20] Shamrock Rovers retained their league title in the 2011 season.[21][22] New contract talks between O'Neill and Shamrock Rovers stalled[23] and he left the club in December 2011.[24] O'Neill won the Soccer Writers Association Personality of the Year award for 2011.[25]

Northern Ireland
O'Neill was appointed manager of Northern Ireland on 28 December 2011, with one report stating he was "the first Catholic in 50 years to manage Northern Ireland".[5][26][2] However, this is almost certainly untrue, since previous managers Lawrie Sanchez (2004–07) and Lawrie McMenemy (1998–99) were both educated in Roman Catholic schools.[27][28] O'Neill's first game in charge ended in defeat with a 3–0 loss to Norway.[29] In his next game an inexperienced Northern Ireland team were beaten 6–0 by the Netherlands in Amsterdam.[30] During their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, Northern Ireland earned some creditable results, including a 1–1 draw away to Portugal and a 1–0 home win against Russia.[31]

In November 2013, O'Neill agreed a new two-year deal with Irish Football Association to remain as Northern Ireland manager.[32]

Northern Ireland qualified for their first ever European Championship, Euro 2016 in France after beating Greece 3–1 at Windsor Park on 8 October 2015.[33] It was the first time in 30 years that Northern Ireland had qualified for a major tournament. At the tournament itself he led the side to the second round, losing narrowly to Wales[34] but recorded a surprise victory over Ukraine in the group stages.[35]

In January 2018, O'Neill turned down an offer to become manager of Scotland following discussions with the Scottish Football Association.[36]

O'Neill initially continued as Northern Ireland manager after his appointment by Stoke City in November 2019.[37] He had intended to stay on for UEFA Euro 2020 playoffs, which had been scheduled for March 2020, but these were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[38] With the Euro 2020 playoffs delayed at least until the autumn of 2020, O'Neill resigned as Northern Ireland manager on 22 April.[38]

Stoke City
O'Neill was appointed manager of EFL Championship club Stoke City on 8 November 2019.[37] He joined Stoke with the side bottom of the 2019–20 EFL Championship table after struggling under the management of Nathan Jones.[39] O'Neill won his first match in charge of Stoke, 4–2 away at Barnsley on 9 November.[40] Stoke began to improve and secured vital victories over Wigan Athletic, Luton Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town, helping the team move out of the relegation zone at the turn of the year.[41] In the January transfer window O'Neill cancelled the loans of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Mark Duffy and Scott Hogan, whilst also letting Peter Etebo, Badou Ndiaye and Ryan Woods leave on loan. Into the team came Northern Irish midfielder Jordan Thompson from Blackpool, center-back James Chester on loan from Aston Villa and young midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe from Tottenham Hotspur.[42] Stoke beat Hull City 5–1 on 7 March 2020 moving the team three points above the drop with nine remaining matches.[43] The Championship was suspended on 13 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44]

Championship squads returned to training on 25 May with the intention to finish the season behind closed doors.[45] Stoke's preparations for the season restart were disrupted after O'Neill tested positive for coronavirus on 9 June which caused a training match against Manchester United to be cancelled.[46] Stoke won four of the remaining nine matches to avoid relegation and finish in 15th position, finishing eight points clear of the relegation zone.[47]

Due to the ongoing pandemic the 2020–21 season began later in September with matches continuing to played behind closed doors. O'Neill brought in a number of free transfers including James Chester, Morgan Fox, Steven Fletcher and Mikel John Obi with Jacob Brown the only arrival to have been bought.[48] Stoke began the season well with Tyrese Campbell in decent form, winning eight of their first 16 matches and were just outside the play-off places at the beginning of December.[49] However a number of injuries to key players most notably to Tyrese Campbell saw goals dry up and the team went nine games without a win at the turn of the year.[50] Stoke were unable to put a sustained run of results together in March and April and ended the season in mid-table.[51]

LAST TIME OUT



MACS VIEW

8 games undefeated need to turn some of those legue draws into wins, another tough one against an very much improved Stoke side with very decent players Powell being one.
They have lost their last two away league games so we have a chance, thing Frankie may make some changes tonight, would not be surprised if the impressive McCann starts, hopefully this will be a more open game than Saturday at Birmingham likely to be good conditions for football a fast wet pitch. Also should be a good tmosphere as a sizeable turn out from the Potteries should be there.
A match under the lights is always a great occasion this is the first league match with fans in attendance under the lights since we beat Fulham 2-1 on 10/12/2019
Over the years we have played on Monday night when I fist started used to kick off at 7.30 now it's 7.45 or occasionally 8 pm remember when the club had problems with the floodlights and half the pitch was in darkness, happy days

Premier League

BBB 18pts 2CS 5CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Silver 15pts 3CS 5CR -3GB 6BB 0SB
AAA 10pts 1CS 5CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Snooty 7pts 2CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
BaggieOne 7pts 2CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Derby 5pts 2CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Minizin 5pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Sanjay 1pt 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
SCO 1pt 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

Just a single correct gamball - which was a maximum - just a single correct bonus - which was a maximum, but just one shy of a full house of scoreballs. This was certainly a week where the balls played a major role in the league placings and may just have shaken things up at the top of the overall table. We were able to welcome back AAA, beamed back to the real world after his alien abduction, and I will forgive him for a slight balls up with his balls, not that it made a difference to his score.

Not surprisingly it's the player with the spot on gamball who heads the table. BBB has hit some form with his 3rd consecutive double figure score aided by a second correct score and a week's high of 5 correct results. Like many of us, he lost points from playing his bonus on the Scousers. Silver only came up via the play offs but he is certainly holding his own with the big boys and is in second place this week. He got 3 correct scores, including his bonus though he was the only player to fail on his scoreball. AAA was the other player to reach double figures, again with 5 correct results, but, after his 3 week absence, will still have a lot of catching up to do.

Snooty and BaggieOne had identical records to sit in mid-table. Derby and Minizin also scored the same number of points but from different routes, Minizin falling for the gamball trap and having a rare miss on his bonus.

At the foot of this week's table are Sanjay and SCO with just a single, measly point. Normally after such a performance from SCO I would be extracting the urine, but, for reasons that will become obvious, I can only console him on what was clearly a very difficult set of matches.

BBB 87
Silver 86
SCO 84
Minizin 81
Derby 78
Sanjay 60
BaggieOne 56
Snooty 56
AAA 26

All change at the top where BBB's high scoring week sees him hit the top for the first time this season. Silver jumps from 4th to 2nd dropping SCO and Minizin to 3rd and 4th repectively. This week has really closed things up at the top with now just 9 points separating the top 5. A bit of a gap is opening up between the top 5 and the rest but a couple of decent weeks can soon change that.

Zin


Championship

Stairs 23pts 5CS 0CR NPGB 6BB 1SB
Lady Jane 18pts 4CS 1CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Blue Baggie 10pts 2CS 1CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Salop 10pts 2CS 2CR NPGB -3BB 1SB
Amelia 6pts 1CS 2CR NPGB -3BB 1SB
Twerton 5pts 1CS 3CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Themaclad 2pts 1CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Dingle 1pts 1CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Zinman -3pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB

Well that was an interesting week, a couple of great scores, some mediocrity in the middle and then some utter crapness!!!  The Championship this week had a perfect result on the Gamball - everyone got it wrong!! Also for the first time ever I think, the 9 players managed to get more Correct Scores than Correct Results!!  Leading the way with 23 points is Stairs, his good start to the season continues and he had a remarkable record this week of 5 CSs, including the Bonus, and zero CRs, another first I think!!  In second place is Lady Jane on 18 points, she really is a true Baggie with her scores going "boing, boing" week by week!! Like Stairs she scored more CSs than CRs and also got a spot on Bonus.

Mediocrity starts with our leader Blue Baggie in 3rd with 10 points, a spot he shares with Salop.  Blue got a spot on Bonus with Salop scoring on one more game but missing his Bonus.  Amelia is 5th with 6 points, followed by Twerton with 5 points, not much to say here, misses on the Gamball and Bonus and only scoring on a few games.

Now for the crapness, Themaclad is 7th with 2 points, he was the only player to miss on all three balls, that will keep your score low!!  Dingle follows his highest score last week with his lowest score this week and ended on just a solitary point in 8th place.  He missed both the scoring balls and only scored on 2 games.  Zinman sent me a message just before the games started and declared that he was indeed using his mulligan this week, so move on, nothing to see here!! Well actually there is less than nothing to see here with his score!!

98 - Blue Baggie
91 - Stairs
71 - Salop
70 - Dingle
62 - Twerton
53 - Themaclad
52 - Lady Jane
44 - Zinman
43 - Amelia

Another week with a lot of movement in the table. Blue retains top spot but his lead is now down to just 7 points ahead of Stairs in 2nd place. Big 20 point gap down to Salop in 3rd, with Dingle dropping 2 places to 4th. Twerton and Themaclad stay in 5th and 6th but Lady Jane jumps 2 places and is now just a single point behind Mac. Zinman's mare of a week sees him drop to 8th and he is now just one point ahead of Amelia who drops back to the bottom of the table.

Note: I have lived in the US for 20 years and am not sure if many of you will know what a mulligan is or whether its just an American phrase??  Just in case you can view the Wiki page here.

Cheers
SCO

So Hibs travel along the M8 to take on Rangers in a tasty "top of the table" clash at Ibronx. Hibs still unbeaten and in decent shape leading in to this game on Sunday. It will still be a tough challenge for the guys who have a decent away record, one of the best in the Scot Prem. One disadvantage is the fact there will be no Hibs fans present at Ibronx, a position that I don't understand why it is being allowed compared with the way other Scot Prem clubs are doing it. From a Hibs perspective, I'd luv to see Hibs "respond in kind" by not allowing any of their fans into Hibs home games v them. But, of course, there is a money element attached to this debate where Hibs would incur a loss in ticket revenue. A case of principle v financial gain. Or try to fill up the South Stand with as many Hibs fans as poss!!

GGTTH

Gamball Game
Liverpool - Man City

Others
Stoke - WBA
Brighton - Arsenal
Coventry - Fulham
Blackpool - Blackburn
Derby - Swansea
Hull - Middlesbrough
Luton - Huddersfield
Palace - Leicester
Spurs - Villa


A reminder that the only ball that can be played on the gamball match is the gamball!

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



Well in true Wednesday fashion, we find another way to throw points away. Ipswich started the better and BPF saved well  from Bonne and the home side had a goal disallowed for offside. We took the lead against the run of play when the ball fell to Adeniran who finished well from the edge of the box. We went in 1 up. Onto the 2nd half, we had a penalty turned down and BPF saved from Bonne. Just as we thought we might take all 3 points, BPF dropped a right clanger to say the least, as he failed to take in his surroundings as an Ipswich player nicked the ball and crossed for Chaplin to equalize from 6 yards.

THE MATCH



Next up and a trip to league leaders Wigan. Wigan are the form team in the division having won 5 games in a row. They have Will Keane & Charlie Wyke up top scoring 7 goals between them so far. Leam Richardson is there manager/coach after being caretaker last season. If they can keep up there momentum they will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                                          

WIGAN            -                                                                                                  

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

SAMUEL BARROTT
Ollie Williams and Billy Smallwood
Fourth Official : Scott Oldham

THE TEAM

Peacock-Farrell
Hunt Hutch Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Byers Adeniran
Berahino Gregory Shodipo

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Berahino

BML STANDINGS

Pei 2
Kev 2
Wash 2
SCO 1
SS 1
Wereham 1

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Oxford United v Accrington Stanley
Plymouth Argyle v Crewe Alexandra
Rotherham United v AFC Wimbledon
Shrewsbury Town v Wycombe Wanderers
Sunderland v Cheltenham Town

HHHAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

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 1st October:
Stoke City v West Bromwich Albion

Saturday 2nd October:
Luton v Town
Town scorers:
Luton scorers:

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

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
League One:
Sheffield Wednesday v Oxford United

Sunday:
Scottish Premiership:
Rangers v Hibernian (15:00)

Premier League:
Liverpool v Manchester City (16:30)

Table after Matchday 9:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 233 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 222 pts
   
3. jjamez = 220 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 208 pts
   
5. neonfoxinthebox = 199 pts
   
6. theo_luddite = 199 pts
   
7. WakeyTerrier = 197 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 195 pts
   
9. themaclad = 190 pts
   
10. Amelia Chaffinch = 168 pts
    
11. ritchiebaby = 166 pts

Huddersfield Town v Blackburn Rovers
The Sky Bet Championship
Tuesday September 28th - 19:45 ko
at Leeds Road

They did the double over us in the next season as we got relegated. We did meet up again in the League Cup in 2005 and they beat us 3-1. And then when we came back up to the Championship, with the goals of Jordan Rhodes firing us up there, the naughty boy went and signed for them for a huge fee, which he immediately started to pay back. Over the next three seasons, he scored six goals against us. 

In the 2016/17 season, which saw us go up and them go down, both games were 1-1 draws. Both matches were played in December, so the significance of the dropped points wasn't obvious. Kasey Palmer scored at theirs and Nahki Wells got an injury time equaliser at ours, his fourth for us against Rovers.

One of Amelia's heroes, Barbara Castle was MP for Blackburn for 34 years (1945–1979). So much of a hero, she's named her car Barbara in her honour. 

September the 28th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1912: Leicester Fosse (h) Div 2, WON 3-0 (James Howie, James Macauley 2)
1918: Bradford Park Avenue (h) Wartime League, drew 0-0
1929: Newcastle Utd (a) Div 1, lost 2-5 (Johnny Dent, Harry Davies)
1935: Bolton Wanderers (h) Div 1, drew 0-0
1940: Halifax Town (a) Wartime League, drew 1-1 (Neil)
1946: Everton (h) Div 1, WON 1-0 (Jimmy Glazzard)
1957: Stoke City (h) Div 2, WON 1-0 (Jack Connor)
1963: Preston North End (a) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Len White)
1968: Bury (h) Div 2, WON 4-1 (Trevor Cherry, Brian Hill 2, Roy Ellam)
1974: Crystal Palace (h) Div 3, lost 0-1
1979: Stockport County (a) Div 4, WON 2-1 (Mick Laverick, Peter Hart)
1982: Orient (h) Div 3, WON 6-0 (Colin Russell, Mark Lillis, Daral Pugh, Dave Sutton, Brian Stanton 2)
1985: Sunderland (a) Div 2, lost 0-1
1991: Leyton Orient (a) Div 3, lost 0-1
1993: Doncaster Rovers (h) FL Trophy, WON 3-1 (Phil Starbuck, Iain Dunn 2)
1996: Reading (h) Division One (2nd tier), WON 1-0 (Andy Payton)
2002: Oldham Athletic (a) Division Two (3rd tier), lost 0-4
2004: Morecambe (h) FL Trophy, WON 3-0 (David Mirfin, Junior Mendes, Lee Fowler)
2010: Rochdale (a) League One (3rd tier), lost 0-3
2019: Millwall (h) 1-1 Championship, drew 1-1 (Fraizer Campbell)


The goal scored by Johnny Dent in the defeat at Newcastle in 1929 was his 22nd and final goal for Town in his last match for us. He made his debut for Nottingham Forest the week after, scoring on his debut away at Spurs. He went on to become one of only six Forest players to score over a hundred goals. He scored 122 for them, putting him 4th in their all time scoring chart. Earlier in his career, he scored twice on his Town debut in a 2-0 win down at Arsenal after signing for us from Durham City.

Going one better, Len White, who scored on this day at Preston in 1963, is Newcastle's 3rd highest scorer. He scored 153 for them and is only behind legends of the game Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer. One of his Newcastle goals came at Leeds Road, an equaliser in the last minute of the 1955 FA Cup quarter final, with Town being denied a place in the semi final. We lost the replay. He scored 39 goals over a four season period for us, before moving to Stockport.

The 2004 win against Morecambe in the Autoglass Windscreen Paints Pizza Trophy was the only meeting we have ever had with them. They were in the Conference as well at the time, when the League included a few top non league teams in the competition. Isn't it much better now with Premier League u23's in? The goal scored by Lee Fowler in that match was his only Town goal, apart from his winning penalty in the shoot out at the Millennium Stadium.

The goal by Fraizer Campbell against Millwall in 2019 was his first for the club and the point gained in the match was the first of the new but short lived Danny Cowley era.

1. Hear Arsenal 
   
2. Anna Chimes 
   
3. Pelt Ambulances 
   
4. Kingly Handles 
   
5. JR Cakewalk 
   
6. Mel Cake 
   
7. Oak Powder 
   
8. Cody Lane 
   
9. Ron Josh Adder 
   
10. Definitely Aha 
    

Altrincham 3-0 King's Lynn Town
Bromley 2-2 Grimsby Town
Woking 0-2 Chesterfield


League Table After Matchday 8

Amelia = 116
Lord Snoots = 100
St Charles = 98
Spireitematt = 94
Devon = 84
Dancing = 82