Gamball:
Derby - Wrexham

Others:
Wolves - West Ham
Everton - Brentford
Newcastle - Crystal Palace
Spurs - Sunderland
Birmingham - Coventry
Bristol C - Preston
Middlesbrough - Southampton
Norwich - Stoke
Portsmouth - Ipswich

Apparently. Castledine is going to Coventry for £8m. Paid for with the money they're getting off Sunderland for Rudoni.

And we're getting Bailey Cadamarteri from the Wendies.

THE MATCH

MONDAY 29TH DECEMBER KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



Our first home Boxing day fixture for 8 years saw us claim a point against high flying Hull. We started the game brightly although didn't create much, but we were looking the most likely. We took the lead when a long ball by Charles put Ingelsson through and he prodded the ball past the keeper. Hull levelled when Belloumi turned well and fired past Charles. Onto the 2nd half and Hull looked a bit better but it was us who took the lead when Bannan found Cads who controlled and finished nicely. Our lead didn't last long as Crooks lashed home after the ball fell for him. Both teams had half chances but the game ended in a fair result.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our last fixture of the year sees us entertain Blackburn. Blackburn are struggling at the wrong end of the table and are just 4 points above the relegation zone. I would expect them to be hovering around the bottom of the table as the season goes on, but I think they might have enough to just avoid the dreaded drop. They are managed by Valerian Ismael who took charge in February. There leading scorer is Gudjohnson who has 7 goals so far this season.

And that's it's for 2025. Been an interesting year to say the least, a mid table finish under Rohl and then the off field problems that has dominated the news, wages not being paid, the ground falling apart, training ground a mess, Rohl leaving, embargos galore, unable to sign players as half of the squad left in different ways and then finally going into Administration and more importantly the end of DC 2 different points deductions which will see us in League One next season but with new owners who hopefully know what they are doing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 62
BLACK 58
DRAW 40

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     D L L D L L                                                          

BLACK D W L D D D

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

OLIVER LANGFORD
Mark Stevens & Lee Venamore
Fourth Official: Benjamin Speedie

THE TEAM

Charles
Palmer Cooper Iorfa Otegbayo Amass
Thornton Ingelsson Bannan
J Lowe Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Cadamarteri

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

24786

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 12
Maddix 8
Imre 7
Washington 6
SCO 4

BMPL

Stateside 7
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Millwall v Bristol City
Birmingham v Southampton
Barnsley v Lincoln
Cardiff v Stevenage
Gillingham v Colchester

HDAHD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

SCO

The Proclaimers will be singing at full time again.

Oh it's the most wonderful time of the year... according to some. Depends on how you look at it if you ask me. But the one thing that always sticks out is the boxing day fixtures and it is quite often one of the first people look for when the fixtures come out. So imagine the disappointment when it was announced that port vale would be following Santa to town. Nothing against port vale as a team or non existent place, but a festive fixture against a team closer in proximity or more rivalry always feels better, especially for a festive atmosphere.

So anyway, port vale come on boxing day sitting bottom of the league, 7 points adrift, with vale fans planning chants against Darren Moore's management. Something we are all too familiar with, that being said the former Wednesday man should never have been offered the opportunity to be at the helm of the terriers. Moore had a disastrous spell in charge of town and saw himself relieved of his duties at the end of January leaving andre breitenriter to have the displeasure of taking town down. Mr Moore wasn't out of a job for too long as port vale snapped him up quickly in the February and he begun the job of rebuilding their side, firstly by taking them down to league two, so kudos to the man, he managed two relegations in one season, bet that hasn't happened much. He did manage the valiants to an immediate promotion back to the third tier thanks in large to the goals from Lorent tolaj. they begun the season with a full squad overhaul, signing 12 new players, but lost the key man of tolaj to Plymouth for an undisclosed fee and have found him to be a massive miss. In his place vale brought in former Barnsley striker devante cole from his failed spell at west brom, many town fans clamoured for us to sign him under Michael duff last season but all eggs were in certain striking baskets, Cole son of Andy, has 5 goals in all competitions which puts him in fairly decent comparison to our strikers, which is saying something considering where they currently sit in the league. Vale also signed long throw expert Jordan Gabriel from Blackpool and former Wednesday player Marvin Johnson both on freebies, although good players for this level, their fitness records leave much to be desired, something our transfer team enjoys capitalising on.

The last time the two sides met was back in 2017 when David Wagner's terriers hosted vale in the fa cup. Town ran out comfortable 4-0 victors over vale with goals from little jack Payne sandwiching strikers from Kasey Palmer and Harry Bunn (no bread pun intended), town would go on to be knocked out of the cup in a replay against Manchester city, the league campaign we know how that ended. Theres a further 3 other meetings between the sides, all in cup action, before we get to the last league meeting, two fa cup ties and a league cup tie, town won in the league cup 4-2 thanks to a lee Novak brace, whilst Nathan Clarke scored the only goal of the fa cup tie the season prior, both with lee Clark at the helm, the other fa cup tie finished 4-3 to vale at the galpharm, in what was towards the end of Stan ternants tenure. The last league meeting was a boring 0-0 draw which condemned port vale to relegation. Overall town have 19 victories over the stoke based side, with 11 draws and 18 defeats, so fairly even, hopefully not so on Friday.

For team news, the lesser spotted Marcus mcguane is returning to training shortly. Herbie Kane has been filmed trying to fight someone on a night out drinking, but he took could be in line for a return to the squad

Nice article here which DOES give me a lot of hope....
Mason backed by West Brom sporting director Nestor - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/art...09g2gn7w9o

Leaves the Kassam potted

[align=center]What better way to work off the half a ton of food you've eaten the day before, go to the ground nesstling on the mountain slopes near the A500/A50 in that most wonderous of cities on the planet, Stoke, luckily at this time of year it is mostly dark so you will miss the beauty of the Potteries
They have started the season well, although appear to have it a patchy bit of form, first time I went to the Bet 365 was a Boxing Day 1998 won 1-0 Michael Jackson was blowing a gale that day

https://www.stokecityfc.com/

MANAGER

Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player who is the manager of EFL Championship club Stoke City. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier League with Manchester United, Norwich City and Leicester City.

Robins began his career with Manchester United. During this period, he scored a goal against Nottingham Forest in a 1989–90 FA Cup tie that has subsequently been credited with "saving" manager Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford. After spending time with Norwich and Leicester, Robins went on to play for Reading, Manchester City, Walsall, Rotherham United, Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday in the Football League. Robins also played across Europe during spells with Copenhagen, Ourense, and Panionios before finishing his career with Burton Albion in the Conference National.

In 2007, he became manager of Rotherham United, and joined Barnsley in the same capacity in 2009, before leaving in 2011, following differences between him and the board. In 2012, he became manager of Coventry City until 2013 when he joined Huddersfield Town. Robins left Huddersfield Town in 2014 by mutual agreement. A few months later he became manager of Scunthorpe United before leaving in 2016.

In March 2017, Robins rejoined Coventry City and a few months later won the EFL Trophy. In the 2017–18 season, Robins won the EFL League Two play-offs with the Sky Blues and were promoted to League One. After a solid eighth placed finish in League One in the 2018–19 season, Robins led Coventry to promotion to the EFL Championship as League One Champions in the 2019–20 season. He followed that up by guiding Coventry to a respectable 16th placed finish in the Championship in the 2020–21 season, and further improved upon this with a 12th placed finish in the 2021–22 season. In the 2022–23 season, Robins led Coventry to a fifth place finish in the Championship, qualifying for promotion play-offs. Coventry City met Luton Town at Wembley in the final, where they ultimately lost on penalties. In the 2023–24 season saw Robins lead Coventry to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1987, where they lost to his former club Manchester United. Robins left Coventry in November 2024 and later was appointed manager of Stoke City in January 2025.


Attribution Timmy 96

Form



Stats Fotmob

STOKE 3 PNE 13

Sorba Thomas 8 goals 6 assists having a more than decent season

AI overview

Team Form and Context
Preston North End is currently in better form, sitting higher in the league table (5th vs 8th for Stoke) and are on an unbeaten run of five league matches with two wins and three draws. They have one of the best defensive records in the league.
Stoke City are in a challenging period, having lost four of their last five Championship matches. However, they possess a strong home record this season, which is expected to be a key factor in the AI's prediction for a home victory.
The match will be played at the bet365 Stadium and is expected to attract one of Stoke's highest crowds of the season.


Stoke culture

Christ Church is an Anglican church in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is the parish church of Goldenhill and Tunstall; the combined parish, which is an Anglo-Catholic parish, was created in 2010.[1] It is a Grade II listed building.[2]



Attributed to Attic Tapestry