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

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

Cup games: In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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



Division One table after Matchday 10:

1. neonfoxinthebox = 176 pts
   
2. jjamez = 161 pts
   
3. Baggiebob(BBB) = 150 pts
   
4. themaclad = 147 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 138 pts
   
6. St Charles Owl = 128 pts
   

1. ritchiebaby = 182 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 159 pts
   
3. Devongone = 153 pts
   
4. SHEP_HTAFC = 147 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 123 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 109 pts
   

UEFA Nations League Play Offs 1st leg:
Thursday 20th March:
Greece v Scotland

2nd leg on Sunday:
Scotland v Greece (17:00)

World Cup qualifiers:
Friday 21st March:
England v Albania

Saturday 22nd March:
Wales v Kazakhstan (19:45)

Monday 24th March:
England v Latvia

Tuesday 25th March:
North Macedonia v Wales

International friendlies:
Friday:
Northern Ireland v Switzerland

Tuesday:
Sweden v Northern Ireland (18:00)

Saturday:
League One:
Barnsley v Cambridge United
Crawley Town v Bristol Rovers
Lincoln City v Exeter City
Northampton Town v Blackpool
Peterborough United v Charlton Athletic
Wrexham v Stockport County

League Two:
Chesterfield v Harrogate Town


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

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 16TH FEBRUARY KO 12:30PM

v

LAST MATCH



We made it back to back away wins as we came from 2-0 down to beat Norwich. The Canaries took the lead early when Sainz fired in after a flick by Slimane. It was 2-0 twenty minutes later when they waltzed through our defence and Crnac side-footed in from 8 yards. Not looking good at HT. But DR made a few changes and that seemed to do the trick alongside some dodgy Norwich defending. It was Ihiekwe who got us back in the game following a corner, the ball going in slow motion. Another cross got us level as Norwich couldn't clear the ball and Windass fired in. The comeback was complete when Windass got down the right and crossed for Gassama to score from close range. We saw the game out fairly comfortably and passed the 50 point mark at the same time.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and the little matter of the 2nd Steel city derby of the season. The Blunts are having a very good season and currently lie in 2nd place with a very good chance of the automatics, just 2 points off Leeds but only 2 points ahead of Burnley in 3rd place. It is going to be a very interesting finish to the season and we would love to put a spanner in the works on there promotion charge. They are of course managed by Chris Wilder (one of there own of course) and has been in charge since December 2023 and has a 42.4% win rate since taking over. There leading scorers are Cannon and Campbell with 9 goals each although Cannon scored most of those for Stoke

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 48
PIGS 50
DRAW 47

CURRENT FORM

OWLS  W W L L L W                                                                      

PIGS D W W L W W    

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

ANDREW KITCHEN
Blake Antrobus and Daniel Leach
Fourth Official: Josh Smith

THE TEAM

Beadle
Iorfa Ihiekwe M Lowe Hatsuse
Bannan Charles
Gasama Windass Ingelsson
Pato

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Gassama

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A (ITS A SELLOUT)

BML LEAGUE

Imre 27
SCO 22
Maddix 22
Washington 20
Wereham 14

BMPL

Stateside 17
Owlkev 13
Southey 12
Pei 8

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Arsenal v Chelsea
Fulham v Tottenham
Leicester City v Manchester United
Celtic v Rangers
Dundee Utd v Dundee

HHAHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Crewe 2-1 Doncaster
Swindon 3-2 Cheltenham
Accrington 1-0 Gillingham
Bradford 3-0 Tranmere
Carlisle 1-2 Wimbledon
Colchester 1-1 Fleetwood
Grimsby 1-1 Salford
Morecambe 0-2 Barrow
Newport 1-0 Harrogate
Notts C 1-2 Chesterfield
Port Vale 2-2 MKDons

or as I might have called it - The South of The River Dance - Part 1

The John McGaphsmiths Stadium
No Longer in the Shadow of the Big Gasometer
Will they rename Gasworks Street
Lower Fitzwilliam Street East?
Stadium Way West?
Don't forget The Stereophonics - 14th June
Book Early
HD1 6PG

Kick-off 15:00 UK Time
Saturday 15/03/25

Wigan Athletic have appointed Ryan Lowe as their new head coach on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Lowe replaces Shaun Maloney, who left the Latics earlier this month.

The 46-year-old has been out of work since his two-and-a-half-year spell at Preston North End ended in August.

Wigan are 15th in League One in their second season since being relegated from the Championship.

Lowe will have a watching brief for the Latics' match at Charlton Athletic on Saturday while Glenn Whelan, Frankie Bunn and Graham Barrow take interim charge of the team.

They will remain in support of Lowe until the new backroom structure is announced.

Wigan are the fourth English Football League (EFL) club Lowe has taken charge of after Bury, Plymouth Argyle and Preston.

He won promotion out of League Two with Bury and Plymouth and finished 13th, 12th and 10th in the Championship with North End.

But he departed the Lancashire club after just one game this season.

'Get the Brick bouncing'
Following a seven-month break, he now returns to work at the Brick Community Stadium.

"I'm pleased to be here because it's a fantastic football club with history and tradition," Lowe told the club's website., external

"The club has had some good times and some bad times, and I'm here to bring the good times back.

"Hopefully, we can have the Brick bouncing every Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evening."

Lowe arrives with Wigan 10 points above the League One relegation zone and they are the division's lowest scorers with 32 goals.

"Ryan has experienced what we are striving to achieve as a football club, and is someone who is really passionate about our project," said sporting director Gregor Rioch.

"Ryan is aligned with our playing identity and naturally fits within our new structure."

Group A

Twerton 7
A.A.A. 5
Themaclad 3
Minizin 3
Zinman 2
Amelia 0

Dreadful week for Group A, in fact this was the second worse this season with not one player making double figures and every player blowing it on the Bonus. Thankfully one player managed to predict an easy win for the Owls so the Gamball was not quite a whitewash!!

Twerton was top this week with 7 points, he managed 2 CSs which put him ahead of the rest. AAA is second, he didn’t do much but was able to get a CR on the Gamball.

Themaclad seems to have a habit of having bad weeks when others also have bad weeks, so he will not be too perturbed with the 3 points he gained. Minizin is in full on collapse mode, sinking week by week and he needs to find some form quickly if he is to challenge the post season places.

Zinman had a poor week with just 2 points but his recent form allows him this bad one!! Amelia has been a bit resurgent lately, but this week saw her early season form return.

275 Themaclad
253 Zinman
241 Twerton
240 Minizin
190 A.A.A.
189 Amelia

Themaclad extends his lead to 22 points ahead of Zinman. Twerton is now back up to 3rd place with Minizin falling off the proverbial cliff now in 4th. Big 50 point gap to the wooden spoon fight where AAA is now a single point ahead of Amelia.

Cheers
SCO

Group B

SCO 12
BBB 12
Derby 10
Lady Jane 6
Snooty 5
Stairs 4
BaggieOne 2

Another distinctly average week for Group, accumulating the same number of points as last week but with fewer correct predictions but better ball playing. Some strange results meant that just 3 matches provided a double figure return while nobody predicted the Man U - Arsenal draw, a game which also blew 4 bonus predictions.

The previous 3 weeks saw either BBB or SCO at the head of the table - this week sees both of them there, each of them scoring 12 points in an identical manner. They only got 3 results right but as these included both the gamball and bonus, it made for a decent return. Derby made double figures and actually got more correct results than the top 2 but, like everyone else, he missed out on the bonus.

A drop off to the rest of the group - Lady Jane sneaks ahead of the rest thanks to a correct score and gamball. Snooty actually got the equal most correct predictions but no correct scores and missed on both the gamball and bonus. Stairs only scored on 2 games burt was saved from bottom spot by getting the gamball correct while BaggieOne once again occupies bottom spot - he did get a correct score and another correct result but failed on all his balls - the only player not to score on the scoreball this week.

242 Lady Jane
233 SCO
221 Derby
218 Stairs
202 BBB
182 Snooty
156 BaggieOne

Just 1 positional change this week with Derby and Stairs swopping places. Lady Jane's long time lead at the top is now down to just 9 points as SCO continues his recent resurgence - the automatic final play-off position isn't settled yet!

Zin

League One Barnsley have sacked head coach Darrell Clarke after nine months in charge.

The Reds have lost seven of their past 11 matches to drop out of play-off contention and down to 10th place.

Assistant coach and former Barnsley captain Conor Hourihane, 34, has been placed in interim charge for final 10 games, and will be assisted by coaches Jon Stead, Martin Devaney and Tom Harban.

"Darrell has worked extremely hard to try and get the team competitive and pushing for promotion, unfortunately, we find ourselves eight points away from the play-offs and feel that a change is needed," chairman Neerav Parekh told the club website., external

Clarke was appointed in May last year as Neill Collins' replacement.

The Scot had been sacked with one game of the 2023-24 regular season to play and although Devaney helped them secure a top six berth they lost to Bolton in the play-offs.

Former Bristol Rovers, Walsall, Port Vale and Cheltenham boss Clarke made a good start at Oakwell and four successive wins over Christmas and New Year left them in fifth place.

However, they then lost five of their next six and although they were able to put together a run of three straight wins at the end of February and start of this month Saturday's 3-0 reverse at home to Blackpool proved to be his final match.

Sporting director Mladen Sormaz added: "Whilst a list of replacements has been identified, we will take some time to ensure the next appointment is the right one with a focus on playing identity, returning to high pressing and attacking football.

"We believe that Conor can help to create enough bounce to keep us fighting for the top six until the end of the season.

"We will also be working in parallel to have a new head coach in place over the summer."

Barnsley are the 13th League One club to change manager since the season started in August.

Hourihane returned to Barnsley on a player-coach deal last summer.

He had skippered them to EFL Trophy success and promotion from League One during his first spell with the club before leaving for then Championship side Aston Villa in January 2017.

The Republic of Ireland international won promotion to the Premier League with Villa and also captained Derby as they went back up to the Championship last season.

He retired from playing in December to become Clarke's assistant after not featuring for the side since 24 August and now takes on his first lead coaching role, albeit on an interim basis.

"My intention was to play, but a combination of not feeling I could perform to the standard I expected and the amazing coaching opportunity that Barnsley have provided has meant I have come to this decision," he said at the time., external

His first game in charge will be Saturday's trip to out-of-form Mansfield Town.

If Barnsley are to mount a late challenge to reach the play-offs for the third successive season, they will need to improve a home record which has seen them win just five out of 18 games so far - only half the number of victories they have achieved away from Oakwell.


So Barnsley are searching for a new head coach, again.

Darrell Clarke is the ninth permanent boss to have been and gone at Oakwell in the last seven years, since Paul Heckingbottom's departure in February 2018.

Ultimately, with the club's stated minimum aim of being a Championship club, it's not the biggest surprise that Clarke has been sacked with Barnsley sitting 10th in League One.

The Reds' away record has been excellent, but they've struggled at home, themes that have carried across from Neill Collins' tenure last season.

Barnsley supporters have become increasingly disgruntled throughout this campaign, with frustrations aired widely from the club's board and sporting director Sormaz to Clarke, his staff and the club's players.

Recruitment is a key issue for Barnsley fans, but not the only one, with important players departing and not being adequately replaced and actions not being perceived to meet the words and aims from the club's hierarchy.

Hourihane is now charged with providing a bounce to keep fading play-off hopes alive, while the club works on a permanent replacement for Clarke in the summer.

Hartlepool United owner Raj Singh has resigned from his role as the club's chairman with immediate effect.

Singh has promised to fund the wages of the players and staff until the end of the season.

He said in a statement on the club's website , externalthat personal abuse from a section of the club's fan base was behind his reason to quit.

The businessman took over Pools in 2018 and oversaw promotion back to the English Football League in 2021.

But Singh put the club up for sale in April 2023 following relegation back to the National League, but nothing has materialised, with Hartlepool sitting 15th in that division.

Singh's tenure has seen him employ 12 different managers or head coaches, with three this season alone.

And against that backdrop, he has been criticised for the current state of the club.

"I have done my utmost to put Hartlepool United on a more secure footing," he said.

"I have genuinely dedicated my time, funding and energy to help, and always with the best of intentions.

"Regrettably, some supporters, and notably a certain supporter group, have made it clear that they want new ownership, no matter what the consequences, and there comes a point where the personal abuse and misrepresentation of information is untenable.

"In that sense those people are now getting their wish."

Singh insists that there have been no serious offers to take over the club in the past two years but believes that this is the right time for him to step away.

"In doing so at this particular juncture it will hopefully allow a new owner enough time to plan appropriately ahead of next season," he said.

"The team is in a relatively safe position in the league and there is the opportunity to negotiate both existing and new player contracts ahead of the summer."

An interim board will be set up to run the club and liaise with potential interested parties.