Lotsa call-offs preceding the week of this game as usual and it looks like the runes are not favouring Scotland in the lead up to this very difficult World Cup quali match in Denmark. McGinn quarantined, Forrest, Taylor oot and not great prep.

.....some vg signs that Ange is on the right track to rebuild a strong team and some useful info re tactics and players used v a Rangers team that aint that good. Indeed, the game itself was very poor and not a great advert for Scottish footie. However, they won't care as it is the result that matters in this kinda match. In Celtic's case I think Ange has discovered that Edouard is a consistent "donkey" in this fixture when it comes to striking and taking easy chances - this time a horrendous effort to put Celtic ahead in the 1st half right in front of the Hun goal, an easy "hit" to score, but f##### up big-timel! Another observation is that Turnbull was absolutely "rank rotten" in this match, a real embarrassment and, based on such a dismal performance, should be nowhere near Steve Clarke's Scotland squad for next week's World Cup quali game v Denmark. Then there is Ange's use of Kyoto Furuhashi? Forrest unavailable and so he opted to start the Jap striker on the left wing, a clear mistake esp with a misfiring Edouard in the CF position. As soon as Furuhashi reinstated to his natural striking position in the 2nd half plus Rogic on the pitch, Celtic transformed and could well have won this match outright with some great attacking moves through Furuhashi whose decision-making was questionable this afternoon. In one incisive move, Furuhashi not opting to "square the baw" for Christie to score a certain goal/equaliser - a defining moment in the game. In the striker's defence, he has never played in this kinda derby match and there is no doubt in my mind he'll learn positively from it for future matches v them. I reckon the Hoops will catch and overtake them during a long season to come. We shall see!

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.

Wednesday 1st September:
World Cup Qualifiers:
Denmark v Scotland

Thursday 2nd September:
Hungary v England
England scorers:

Lithuania v Northern Ireland

Saturday 4th September:
Scotland v Moldova (19:45)

Sunday 5th September:
England v Andorra (17:00)
England scorers:

Belarus v Wales (14:00)

Tuesday 7th September:
Austria v Scotland

Wednesday 8th September:
Poland v England
England scorers:

Northern Ireland v Switzerland
Wales v Estonia

Bonus match:
Saturday:
League One:
Sheffield Wednesday v Sunderland

Table after Matchday 5:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 116 pts
   
2. jjamez = 113 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 107 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 105 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 102 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 101 pts
   
7. neonfoxinthebox = 99 pts
   
8. WakeyTerrier = 97 pts
   
9. Amelia Chaffinch = 85 pts
   
10. themaclad = 81 pts
    
11. ritchiebaby = 71 pts

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

Tuesday

Stockport County 2-1 Grimsby Town

League Table After Matchday 2

Amelia = 34
St Charles = 32
Spireitematt = 30
Dancing = 28
Lord Snoots = 18
Devon = 14

How many times when a team scores in the first 5 mins does it end up going wrong? Think there's something psychological gets in their minds as it happens time and time again. This time we didnt let it go but we easily could have done. First half we took control and bossed it but didn't show a lot for it.

Wealdstone upped their game second half and took control of the midfield after Kahn went off. He was excellent first half and covered every blade of grass, We sat back and let them play. We were lucky but after the 2nd went in it was all over. They looked a very useful side with some good young players. If they had had shooting boots on we could well have lost it. Our defence held but we need Oyeleke and Kahn in midfield, McCourt and Weston dont hack it for me.
Our back 3 looked comfortable but were put under a lot of unnecessary pressure.

Our start to the season looks an easy first 6 on paper, if we manage 18 points from them the rest will be playing catch up.

I think this is a good fixture for Hibs to play after that disappointing draw v Dundee last Sunday. I've studied Livy's form up to now and their manager is in a weak position where he has seen a reasonable team from last season effectively being dismantled due to a predominance of expired loan deals plus big Marv is "out of the frame" and now on their coaching staff. The weather is excellent tomorrow, the pitch in great condition, a big Hibs crowd expected and I'm sure Hibs will "show up" for this match. No Doidgy for a few months, Nisbet likely to return up front with Scott alongside him. I think Gogic must return to the subs' bench as we've discovered Hibs have a better midfield contribution with an alternative formation. C'mon Hibs! The target is to win and stay in top SP position for as long as poss.

GGTTH

....but Celtic hold on to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League tourney. All looking good for Celtic at about 7.30pm tonight as another Furuhashi goal gave Celtic a 3-0 aggregate score line and then, "out of the blue", two self-inflicted goal concessions made this match a far more difficult proposition than it should've been. Some great saves by Joe Hart and more questions being raised re the ability of Starfelt to cope with Ange's hi-press game plan as this game turned into a siege that the Hoops eventually coped with in the final quarter. In summary, Celtic and Rangers qualify in Euro footie and the rest of the Scot footie participants eliminated AGAIN!!! It's the same old, same old story - in this case 9 men St Johnstone, double cup winners n all, given a footie lesson 0-2 by a fairly average Euro team called LASK and the Dons similarly given a 0-3 (0-4 agg score) footie lesson by seasoned Euro campaigners called Quarabag. Very disappointing, but unsurprising TBF!

Would have looked like this when the Swans got promoted to the top division under Toshack

LAST TIME AT DEEPDALE



LAST TIME OUT



OPPOSITION MANAGER

Managerial career
Milton Keynes Dons
On 3 November 2019, following the departure of manager Paul Tisdale, Martin was announced as the new permanent first-team manager of League One club Milton Keynes Dons – the club he had joined as a player earlier in the year.[43] Following his appointment, the club finished 19th in League One, with the season finishing prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44] In his first full season as manager, Martin led the club to 13th in the league.[45]

Martin, alongside assistant Luke Williams, installed a possession-based style of play at the club which received widespread plaudits.[46] On 2 March 2021, Martin's side scored after a 56-pass move, a new British record at the time.[47] At the culmination of the 2020–21 season, only Manchester City and Barcelona had a higher average possession percentage in Europe than Martin's MK Dons.[47][48] His team also had the most touches in the opposition box in League One.[49] Defender Zak Jules commented on Martin's style of play, stating: "The way we play, we almost demoralise teams. We keep the ball so much that when teams do get the chance to keep possession – they’ve got no legs and, within no time, we’ve got the ball back and they don’t see the ball again for a while."[46]

On 31 July 2021, MK Dons released a statement confirming that Championship club Swansea City had requested to speak to Martin about him becoming their new manager.[50] The approach was made less than 24 hours before MK Dons' first competitive match of the 2021–22 season, an EFL Cup game against Bournemouth.[50]

Swansea City
On 1 August 2021, Martin was named head coach of Swansea City, signing a three-year contract.[51] He was appointed six days before the first game of the 2021–22 Championship season.[51] He was joined by his assistants Luke Williams, Matthew Gill, and Dean Thornton.[51] Swansea coach Alan Tate opined that Martin's "passing style" made him a good fit for the club.[52] In his first interview, Martin said, "I know the fanbase and what they expect in terms of the modern Swansea Way, that started under Roberto Martínez and continued under Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup. We, as a coaching team, are very much aligned with that. It excites me."[53]

His first game in charge was a 2–1 away loss to Blackburn Rovers, which was followed by a 3–0 away win against Reading in the EFL Cup.[54][55] Martin's first home game was a 0–0 draw with Sheffield United at the Swansea.com Stadium.[56] On 20 August, Martin won his first league game as Swansea beat Bristol City 1–0.[57]

Managerial style
"I played in teams who were dominant with the ball and loved it. I also played in teams who didn’t have much of the ball and hated it. My style is probably shaped by that and the teams I’ve enjoyed watching play football like Barcelona, Manchester City and Spain. I’ve tried to replicate that at the level I’m at and with the players I’ve had. If I didn’t do that, I probably wouldn’t have gone into coaching or management."

—Martin on his coaching philosophy, 2021.[58]
Martin began studying for his coaching badges at age 22, and studied for his UEFA Pro Licence at the Scottish FA in 2019.[59][60] His managerial style has been influenced by such managers as Chris Hughton, Daniel Farke, and Pep Guardiola.[47] Inspired by Guardiola's Barcelona and Manchester City teams, Martin prefers his teams to dominate ball possession.[47] Tactically, he prefers the 3–4–2–1 or 3–5–2 formations, with an emphasis on passing the ball and pressing the opposition.[47][61] If his teams suffer a bad result, Martin prefers to improve his game plan, rather than changing the style of play.[62]

After his MK Dons side scored a record-breaking 56-pass goal, Martin said, "People still react to that and say it’s boring, but everyone has a different opinion...the more we have the ball, the more we can control the game and take the fight out of opposition teams. It’s a 90-minute game plan to try and dominate the ball."[58]

OTHER GAMES

BARNSLEY V BIRMINGHAM
CARDIFF V BRIZZLE CITY
WAYNE ROONEY V NOTTS FOREST
FULHAM V STOKE
TERRIERS V READING
HULL V BOURNEMOUTH
LUTON V BLADES
MILLWALL V PLASTICS
POSH V BAGGIES
HOOPS V COVENTRY