Anderson signs one year deal

The women’s team lost 7-0 to Man U on Saturday. Up until the 77th minute they were only losing 1-0 but fitness clearly set in as they were overrun by a team made up of internationals.

BBC reported it in their usual style of glorifying Man U and hardly mentioning West Brom they didn’t even get a ‘plucky’ which is the usual go to phrase. What really annoyed me however was the report couldn’t even be bothered to put the Albion crest up adjacent to the scoreline substituting it with a grey shield as though we weren’t important enough to bother with.

See for yourself https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cx26rqer55nt

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 1:

1. jjamez = 13 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 12 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 10 pts
   
4. neonfoxinthebox = 10 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 10 pts
   
6. themaclad = 9 pts
   

Thursday 16th January:
Shrewsbury Town v Wrexham (20:00)

Saturday 18th January:
Blackpool v Town (12:30)
Town scorers:
Blackpool scorers:

Northampton Town v Lincoln City (14:00)
Crawley Town v Burton Albion
Reading v Stockport County
Stevenage v Wigan Athletic

Tuesday 21st January:
Bolton Wanderers v Charlton Athletic
Peterborough United v Exeter City

Bonus matches:
Premier League:
Saturday:
Arsenal v Aston Villa (17:30)

Championship:
Sunday:
Leeds United v Sheffield Wednesday (12:00)

Tuesday:
Middlesbrough v West Bromwich Albion
Watford v Preston North End

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

1. ritchiebaby = 19 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 18 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 15 pts
   
4. Devongone = 12 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 10 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 10 pts
   

Thursday 16th January:
Shrewsbury Town v Wrexham (20:00)

Saturday 18th January:
Blackpool v Town (12:30)
Town scorers:
Blackpool scorers:

Peterborough United v Leyton Orient (12:30)
Birmingham City v Exeter City
Bolton Wanderers v Cambridge United
Bristol Rovers v Barnsley
Mansfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers
Rotherham United v Charlton Athletic

Tuesday 21st January:
Wigan Athletic v Burton Albion

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Premier League:
Newcastle United v AFC Bournemouth (12:30)

Scottish Cup 4th round:
Hibernian v Clydebank

League Two:
Grimsby Town v Chesterfield


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

Gamball:
Cardiff - Swansea

Others:
Leicester - Fulham
Plymouth - QPR
Coventry - Bristol City
Derby - Watford
Oxford - Blackburn
Portsmouth - Middlesbrough
Blackpool - Huddersfield
Everton - Spurs
Man Utd - Brighton

Plymouth Argyle have appointed Miron Muslic as their new head coach.

The 42-year-old Austrian succeeds Wayne Rooney at the Championship's bottom club and has signed a three-and-a-half year deal.

Muslic was most recently the manager of Belgian side Cercle Brugge from September 2022 until his sacking last month.

The Bosnian-born former forward - who played much of his career in Austria - is the first-ever foreign manager or head coach to be employed by Argyle.

"Miron had a clear vision of how he wanted to take Argyle forward and showed a depth of tactical awareness that made it clear exactly how he wanted the team to set up and play," chairman Simon Hallett told the club website

"He comes with glowing reviews from his time at Cercle Brugge where he took a team from a lowly league position to European football which is no mean feat.

"I want to welcome him to the club and look forward to seeing him have an immediate impact on the team."

Argyle's interim manager Kevin Nancekivell will be part of Muslic's backroom team, with other coaching roles to be announced at a later date.

He will be in the stands for Saturday's FA Cup third round tie at Brentford before taking charge of his first game on Tuesday night when the Pilgrims host Oxford United in the Championship.

Miron Muslic
Image source,Getty Images
Image caption,
Miron Muslic takes over a Plymouth Argyle side on a run of one win in 16 games and three points adrift at the bottom of the Championship

Muslic led Cercle Brugge to an eighth-placed finish in Belgium's top flight in his first season in charge.

Last season he improved on that as they finished fifth in the regular season before guiding them to fourth place in the end-of-season play-offs.

That saw them reach this season's Uefa Europa League qualifying rounds in which they beat Kilmarnock over two legs before being knocked out by Norwegian side Molde and dropping into the Conference League.

He was sacked at the start of last month with Cercle in the relegation play-off places following a loss at bottom-of-the-table Beerschot.

Muslic is the fourth permanent manager of Argyle in 13 months.

Steven Schumacher, who led the Pilgrims to the League One title in 2023, left the club in December of that year to take over as Stoke City boss.

He was replaced by former England youth coach Ian Foster, but his three-month tenure saw the Pilgrims drop into the relegation zone, and it was director of football Neil Dewsnip and Nancekivell who guided the side to safety on the final day of the season.

Former England skipper Rooney took over in the summer, but he could only manage four league wins in his half-season in charge which ended on New Year's Eve with the club bottom of the Championship and with the worst defensive record in the English Football League.

Muslic chosen ahead of former favourite - analysis
Brent Pilnick, BBC Sport, Plymouth.

This is a historic move from Plymouth Argyle. A club who have never appointed a non-British manager - and for the past five years have only appointed bosses from Liverpool - opt for a relatively unknown Austrian who has been managing in the Belgian top flight.

They had three final candidates, one of which was former manager Steven Schumacher.

The ex-Stoke City boss is still immensely popular in the city after leading the Pilgrims to a club-record 101-point tally when they won League One in 2023.

But owner Simon Hallett and his team are very data-driven and will have crunched the numbers - both sporting and financial - before coming to this decision.

They clearly feel Muslic is the right man for the job - and what a job he has on his hands - no wins in two months, a lack of goals and the most porous defence in the entire English Football League.

Argyle have brought in club-record signing forward Michael Baidoo and Poland left-back Tymoteusz Puchacz this month with the aim of boosting both ends of the field, but more signings will be needed.

The Championship's history is littered with relatively unknown foreign coaches coming in - some doing excellent jobs such as Daniel Farke and Slavisa Jokanovic, while others like Andre Breitenreiter and fellow Austrian Markus Schopp - who had one win in 16 games in a spell at Barnsley in 2021 - prove that it is not an exact science.

Saturday 11th Jan and matches all over the country postponed. How the hell is Buxton at home to Chorley being played? On ice?

Grimsby 1-1 Notts C
Walsall 3-1 Tranmere
Wmbldon 2-1 Cheltnam
Carlisle 2-2 MKDons
Gillingham 1-0 Fleetwood
Port Vale 0-1 Barrow
Swindon 1-3 Crewe

Tamworth manager Andy Peaks has signed a new full-time contract to run until 2027, three days before their FA Cup third-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.

Peaks has been in charge since February 2022 and led them to back-to-back promotions, including winning last season's National League North title.

They reached round three by knocking out Huddersfield Town and Burton Albion, both League One clubs.

The 53-year-old former AFC Rushden & Diamonds boss will leave his job as a support worker at Tresham College in Kettering, Northamptonshire, in February to focus full-time on The Lambs.

"I am delighted to have accepted the offer to go full-time with the club, which will allow me to focus and concentrate on securing the clubs position within the National League," Peaks said.

The sold-out tie against Spurs - which kicks off at 12:30 GMT on Sunday - is the club's biggest since facing Everton in the third round in 2011-12.

Tamworth are 16th in the National League table and go into the game after being knocked out of the FA Trophy by Sutton United last weekend.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 11TH JANUARY KO 6PM

v

LAST MATCH



We threw 3 points away thanks to a missed penalty, hitting the woodwork 3 times and poor defending again. We got off to a great start, Valery firing home after good work by Charles & Musaba. We then had a great chance to make 2 when we awarded a penalty, but Ugbo ballooned his effort over the bar after the players asked him to take it. Onto the 2nd half and we had chances to make it 2 but were denied by the woodwork twice. We then decided to let Millwall score after we did our usual when defending a set piece and Honeyman scored. Musaba then hit the woodwork and Millwall then took the lead when Wintle fired in from the edge of the box. But we managed to get a point when youngster Otegbayo fired in at the back post from a cross.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



A break from the league as we travel down to Coventry in the FA Cup. The Sky Blues have had a disappointing season and currently lie in 16th place in the league, which led to Mark Robins getting sacked and to be replaced by Frank Lampard. He has had a mixed start to his reign, won 3, drew 3 and lost 3. I think Coventry should have enough to stay away from a relegation dogfight. We won here earlier in the season, Charles with an injury time winner and we still owe them for that quarter final defeat at Hillsborough back in 1987, the year they went on to win the Cup. There leading scorer is Wright with 7 goals and 1 assist.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 30
COVE 35
DRAW 24

CURRENT FORM

OWLS  D W L D W W                                                                      

COVE L D D W L W                         

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Referee: Thomas Kirk
Lee Venamore and Alistair Nelson
Fourth official: Dale Baines

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Musaba Ingelsson Gasama
Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Musaba

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Imre 19
SCO 17
Washington 16
Maddix 14
Wereham 10

BMPL

Stateside 14
Owlkev 12
Southey 12
Pei 7

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Tamworth v Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal v Manchester United
Crystal Palace v Stockport County
Ipswich Town v Bristol Rovers
Southampton v Swansea City

AHHHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

PEIOWL




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC