Apologies, it's been a mad week.

Albion v Brighton
Leeds v Villa
Newcastle v Wolves
Bournemouth v Watford
Blues v QPR
Luton v Sheff.Wed
Preston v Huddersfield

Palace v Fulham
Leicester v Arsenal
Chelsea v Man.Utd

Boreham Wood 0-2 Solihull Moors
Bromley 1-0 Altrincham
King's Lynn Town 3-2 Weymouth
Stockport County 0-3 Chesterfield
Wrexham 1-2 Wealdstone
Yeovil Town 0-1 Dagenham & Redbridge
Hartlepool United 4-1 Barnet

League Table After Matchday 31
Lord Snoots = 294
Amelia = 234
Dancing = 234
Spireitematt = 232
Devon = 208
St Charles = 168
BBB = 0

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/article/jo...ay-a-hibee

His contract expiring in the summer, this deal looks like a good piece of business by Hibs to hold on to Newell and hopefully get the best out him in the next couple of seasons.

Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday February 27th - 15:00 ko
at Deepdale

Huddersfield Town travel to deepest, darkest Lancastershire to play Preston North End at Deepdale on Saturday afternoon for another must win game. The game comes just a week after one of our best performances of the season, a 4-1 win at home to Swansea City, but just as we thought the corner had been turned, they go and put on another abject display away at Derby County. The contrast in the two matches was amazing.

We go into this one with more and more absentees. Jaden Brown will be missing after being red carded. Not so much of a big miss, but another less option for Head Coach Carlos Corberán to use in the continued absence of Harry Toffolo. Fraizer Campbell too will be a doubt after coming off at half time with abdominal trouble, whatever that means. Shat him sen?

Let's just hope for some better news on the Jonathan Hogg front. He missed Derby with a calf injury. And boy, didn't the team miss him!

Now you may have noticed that we signed a new striker on Wednesday. Yaya Sanogo says he's very excited about playing for Town, but knowing Carlos, he'll have to wait for a while before he makes it into the team. First he has to train hard, then a couple of weeks in the treatment room, back to training, play a B team game, and another couple of weeks in the physio's and then.......maybe, just maybe, he might get a look in. By which time, the season will be almost over. So yes, we're all excited Yaya.  

So if you're looking for good omens, don't read this. We've just played away at Middlesbrough, a place we haven't won at since 1986. We followed that with a trip to Derby, where we haven't won since 1957. And guess what? Now we go to Preston, where we haven't won since 1969. Never fear though. Our Prestonic pal on Sportsbabble, themaclad says they're shite at home, so that's something to keep our spirits up as we cross the pennines settle on our sofas to enjoy endure another chapter in Huddersfield Town's 2020/21 Championship campaign.

He could be right. They have only won four times at home this season and they haven't done so since December. But then again, we haven't won away since October. You know what, this game's got nil nil written all over it.

A brief history of Preston Noth End: I've done all this already this season. If you would like to read what I wrote then, click the link.    https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726

Programme v Huddersfield Atalanta, 6/5/1921

Same as above. Click the link to read about previous encounters. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726

The game this season was another of those stupid games where we threw the lead away. A good first half performance saw us go for us half time oranges with a 1-0 lead after Fraizer Campbell slotted home from a Lewis O'Brien through ball. But then two goals from Alan Browne just after the interval gave the Lillywhites the lead. To make matters worse, Naby Sarr went and got himself sent off preventing them extending that lead.

That was their first win at the John Smith's Stadium and their first win in Huddersfield since 91/92. We haven't won at Deepdale since 69/70. That's 51 years!  

Wednesday night's line up at home to QPR:
22 Iversen
2 van den Berg
14 Storey
16 Hughes
37 Cunningham
8 Browne
17 Whiteman
31 Sinclair
44 Potts
42 Gordon
26 Evans

Subs
7 Bayliss
11 Johnson
15 Rafferty
19 Riis Jakobsen
21 Molumby
23 Huntington
25 Ripley
29 Barkhuizen
38 Rodwell-Grant


Club connections: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726


Preston in popular culture: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726




Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Derby County v Nottingham Forest

Saturday:
AFC Bournemouth v Watford
Barnsley v Millwall
Birmingham City v Queens Park Rangers
Blackburn Rovers v Coventry City
Brentford v Stoke City
Luton Town v Sheffield Wednesday
Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Rotherham United v Reading
Swansea City v Bristol City

Sunday:
Wycombe Wanderers v Norwich City


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Derby 2-0 Town
Town 4-1 Swansea
Boro 2-1 Town
Town 2-3 Wycombe
Luton 1-1 Town
Town 1-1 Stoke

PNE 0-0 QPR
Cardiff 4-0 PNE
PNE 0-1 Watford
Blackburn 1-2 PNE
PNE 1-2 Rotherham
Sheff Weds 1-0 PNE

Town are 19th with 36 points, Preston are in 14th with 40.

Leading scorers:
Terriers:
Josh Koroma (6)
Frazier Campbell (6)
Isaac Mbenza (5)
Naby Sarr (4)

Lillywhites:
Scott Sinclair (8)
Tom Barkhuizen (6)
Daniel Johnson (4)
Sean Maguire (4)


February the 27th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1909: Spennymoor Utd (h) North Eastern League, drew 1-1 (J.Wallace)
1915: Stockport County (a) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Ralph Shields)
1922: Manchester Utd (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Neil McBain og)
1924: Newcastle Utd (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Clem Stephenson)
1926: Leeds Utd (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (George Cook, George Brown, Joey Williams)
1932: Arsenal (h) FA Cup 6th rd, lost 0-1
1937: Middlesbrough (a) Div 1, lost 0-5
1943: Doncaster Rovers (a) Wartime League North, lost 1-3 (Henry Baird)
1954: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1, lost 0-2
1960: Rotherham Utd (h) Div 2, WON 2-1 (John Coddington pen, Denis Law)
1965: Manchester City (h) Div 2, WON 1-0 (Billy Legg)
1971: Stoke City (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1978: Stockport County (a) Div 4, WON 1-0 (Kevin Johnson)
1979: Doncaster Rovers (a) Div 4, WON 2-0 (Ian Holmes, Peter Howey)
1982: Fulham (h) Div 3, drew 2-2 (Terry Austin, Brian Stanton)
1988: Birmingham City (h) Div 2, drew 2-2 (Ian Banks, Mark Barham)
1993: Reading (a) Div Two (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Iwan Roberts)
1999: Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) Div One (2nd tier), drew 2-2 (Kevin Gray, Des Hamilton)
2001: Tranmere Rovers (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2010: Leeds Utd (h) League One (3rd tier), drew 2-2 (Anthony Pilkington, Gary Roberts)
2016: Ipswich Town (h) Championship, lost 0-1


Not good again. Played 21, won 5, drew 7, lost 9.

Ralph Shields, who scored in the 1915 match against Stockport, I have written about before. He was the one who emigrated to Australia and died in a Prisoner of War camp in the 2nd World War.

Clem Stephenson, who scored in the 1924 match against Newcastle, went on to manage the club as well. I have previously written about him as well. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9416

George Brown, who scored against Leeds on this day in 1926, is our all time leading goal scorer with 159.

The game in 1932 against Arsenal in the FA Cup was the one where 67,037 spectators turned up to watch. A record for Leeds Road. Reports at the time reckon there were another 10,000 outside who couldn't get in.



Henry Baird, who scored in the Wartime League match in 1943, had signed for Town from Man Utd in the season before the war. He signed up for the RAF and played football at the same time, guesting for a few different clubs, including Ipswich Town, who he signed for after the war and went on to have a decent career with.

Denis Law, who scored on this day in 1960 against Rotherham, was a brilliant footballer and went on to become a legend of the game. He came back to Huddersfield in the early 90s to ceremoniously cut the first sod at the start of the building of the McAlpine Stadium.

Billy Legg was still only 16 when he scored on his Town debut on this day in 1965 against Man City. He started on the left wing but made the left back slot his own before sadly, injury ended his career before he was 21. He played 56 times for Town in his short career, scoring four goals.

Kevin Johnson was the current Town Player of the Year when he scored in the 1978 match against Stockport. He was a player who never reached his potential. Kevin Keegan revealed that Johnson was the player who kept him out of the Doncaster Boys team and we all know how far Keegan went in the game.

Our last win on this particular date, back in 1979 at Doncaster, was one of the first games of the Mick Buxton era. It was a midweek game at Belle Vue and was our first away win of the season. I can remember stood freezing cold on the open terrace that night, going absolutely mad when we scored the second goal. We had finally turned that oil tanker around and this was the start of the climb back up the Football League. Happier times were ahead.

Preston related anagrams:

1. Comet Hugger  
   
2. Lena Lexi  
   
3. Orgy Mansions  
   
4. Sick Alfred Dicker  
   
5. Non Mystifier  
   

Here we go again can we add to the magnificent total of two goals scored at home in 2021, next up Huddersfield Town who are one of the few number of clubs who are still below us every week it is an ever decreasing number.
Saying that though a decent point last night against QPR. Town got a great result against those Welshmen from Abertawe but seemed to revert to an inability to defend against Wayne Rooney on Tuesday night.

Our first epic encounter against these lads was 15/2/1913 we won 2-1, Town first won at our gaff in August 1920 1-0 (miles offside apparently) Town's recent record at the home of football is abysmal their last win was 10/11/1969 they won 3-1 we got relegated that season, given our travails at home we all know what is going to happen.

Manager Carlos Coberan is trying to turn them into a Leeds type of club on the pitch at the moment it's a bit hit and miss, or something to take root will need a bit of time but at least he doesn't have to translate for Bielsa these days.
Squad wise just resigned tiny Holmes form Wayne Rooney, also picked up Yaya Sangolo a striker who at one time played for Arsenal. At Derby played 352 Brown a sub in that game was sent off so he will be unavailable, the biggest question re the match is what colour will Bacuna's hair be

FORM GUIDE

PNE 6 TOWN 5

Cannot see much change in the line up from last night Neil will no doubt match up with Town's formation, time to actually win our first home game of the year suspect we will not get a better chance against Town. Need to be more clinical in front of goal and let Gordon run riot, a win and we get closer to the magical 50 points a defeat and those at the bottom could get closer.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 27TH 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Well how can I put that into words, POOR, DOGSHIT, CRAP, PATHETIC, EMBARRASING, GUTLESS, USELESS, PAINFUL (You can pick your own word for Wednesday's performance, been far too many this season particularly against teams around us). Defenders who cant defend, Midfielders who can't tackle, pass or create anything and Forwards who cant shoot anywhere near the intended target. Brentford were average and still won without breaking sweat.

THE MATCH



Next up the mighty Luton Town. They are currently 9 points above the relegation zone and will probably stay out of trouble because the teams below them aren't very good. The only thing you need to know is that they haven't won for 3 games so a guaranteed home win is on the cards

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                             

LUTON              -                                    

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

MICHAEL SALISBURY
Mark Pottage and Mark Jones
Fourth Official : Gavin Ward

THE TEAM

Does it matter, whoever he picks, most don't care anymore.

Wilddmith
Lees Dunkley Urhogide
Reach Pelupessy Bannan Hutch Penney
Rhodes Paterson

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-0 Adebayo

BML STANDINGS

Stateside 10
Owlkev 9
Washington 8
Imre 6
Pei 6
SCO 5
Maddix 4
Wereham 4

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Brentford v Stoke City
Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
Rotherham United v Reading
Swansea City v Bristol City

HAHAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

According to the Daily Mail (take it with a pinch of salt) the club are going to offer Rowe a better and improved contract to fend off interest as he's attracting interest from League 2 clubs.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba...tract.html

The question is is someone stirring the pot? Why would the Daily Mail report on a National League club? It was only a few weeks ago they were slagging the club off. Surely if the club were going to announce a new improved contract then they would have spoken to Rowe first and then made an announcement when it was signed and sealed not tell the media first let alone the Daily Mail.

WEEK             9   10      11     12      13      14     15     16      17    18      19             20
                                                                                                                        PTS
1 BBB        109 129(1)155(1)158(1)163(1)173(1)186(1)196(1)205(1)208(1)215(1)           235       BW 26 20
2 MINIZIN  94  97(3)119(4)124(5)129(5)141(5)164(4)180(2)188(2)193(2)196(3)            213              23 22
3 S/C         93 108(2)121(2)129(3)148(3)158(2)170(3)170(4)181(3)190(3)197(2)           209              23 19

4 SANJAY    74 88(7)110(5)138(2)154(2)156(3)172(2)173(3)178(4)181(4)187(4)             197             28 22
4 BAGGIE1  55 67(16)92(14)94(15)96(16)102(15)125(12)142(11)155(9)170(6)183(5)       197             25 23
6 STAIRS    87 86(10)100(8)111(7)123(7)139(6)154(6)166(6)170(5)171(5)178(6)            189             16 15
7 AAA        74 80(12)97(10)104(10)115(10)117(12)137(10)144(10)158(8)162(10)171(8)   182             20 17
8 SILVER    63 67(15)97(10)110(12)119(9)122(10)147(7)149(8)150(11)156(12)162(11)      181             25 20
9 DD          42 51(20)74(17)85(17)110(11)126(8)141(8)150(7)159(7)164(9)174(7)178(8)  178            25 23
9 ZINMAN 88 92(4) 121(3)127(4)141(4)150(4)158(5)168(5)169(6)169(7)171(8) 178 29 13


11 SOM'T    82 80(11)98 (9)107(8)123(7)129(7)138(9)145(9)155(9)161(11)162(11)          175            18 16
12 BOMBER 73 87(9)97(10)99(13)110(11)122(10)130(11)138(12)146(12)157(8)166 (10)    172           12 11
13 JOKER    86 90(6)94(13)103(11)105(14)113(13)113(14)127(13)131(13)141(13)146(13)  169           23 14 
14 SNOOTY 60 69(13)87(15)98(14)100(15)96(17)98(17)109(16)119(16)131(15)144(14)      158          18 14
15 DERBY    54 69(14)84(16)92(16)94(17)101(16)111(15)127(14)122(15)133(14)137(15)     147          16 15
16 JANE     58 66(17)69(18)72(20)83(18)85(19)96(18)105(18)107(17)115(17)127(16) 138          12 11
17 AMELIA  76 91(5)107(6)117(6)127(6)123(9)123(13)125(14)126(14)125(16)125(17) 133           16 15
18 THEM     53 60(18)67(20)75(18)83(18)92(18)94(19)94(20)94(19)107(19)123(18) 130           13 8
19 TWTON  49 51(19)69(18)73(19)79(20)84(20)89(20)102(19)98(18)112(18)109(19) 113           18 14

BW BEST WEEKS: IF YOU KNOW A BETTER SCORE(s) BEFORE WEEK 9 LET ME KNOW -TA
Minizin takes back 2nd place from StC. Everything very much the same except for Silver moving up 3 places and Bomber dropping 2 places.

After confirmation that Woods' car veered off a freeway and down an embankment in Los Angeles, the golfer badly injured with multiple leg fractures and IMO lucky to survive this accident. He'll hopefully recover to lead a normal lifestyle with his family, never mind playing golf any more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55153378

It wouldn't surprise me if Celtic don't lose another match until season end TBH!! Who will be the next manager? Steve Clarke's name apparently being mooted but my initial perception to that kinda appointment is the fact that he is not associated with the Celtic brand of dynamic footie that Hoops' fans crave rather than opting for the cautious and safe defence methodology that no doubt will win matches but poss at the expense of the "entertainment factor". Anyway there is a lotta other potential candidates out there incl Rafa Benitez who was previously linked to the Celtic manager's job but dismissed any interest.