Tonda Eckert has targeted a promotion challenge after being appointed Southampton's permanent head coach on a contract to 2027.

The Championship side have won four of their five games since the 32-year-old German took charge on an interim basis at the start of November.

That run has helped the team climb to 14th in the table, five points off the play-off places.

"I think that we've had a great start and now it is up to us to continue," said Eckert.

"We go all in; there is no other way. I don't shy away from being ambitious to say that we want to play for promotion, whatever that is going to look like in the end. We will go for every single point there is to take."

Eckert had been Southampton's under-21s head coach and took over the first team when Will Still was sacked after just five months in charge.

Southampton, relegated from the Premier League last season, made a poor start to this campaign.

But they won their first four games under Eckert, beating QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton and Leicester, before losing 3-2 at Millwall last Saturday.

Southampton technical director Johannes Spors said of Eckert: "His empathy for the playing group and the clarity with which he communicates his ideas have been central to the team's improvement since he took charge.

"The great results he has achieved in that time, not just in terms of performances and points, but also in the way he has brought together players and supporters, has shown everyone what he is capable of achieving."

Eckert has never previously had experience as a first-team manager but has been assistant manager at Barnsley and Genoa.

Hartlepool United have appointed interim manager Nicky Featherstone as their new permanent boss on a deal until the end of the season.

The 37-year-old won four of his eight games after being placed in charge following Simon Grayson's sacking.

"It is a tremendous honour to be appointed manager of this football club, Pools means a huge amount to me," he told the club website., external

Featherstone made 415 league appearances across more than a decade as a player for Pools, with the last one coming against Boston in September.

"We spoke to a wide range of candidates including experienced EFL managers but Nicky's leadership and understanding of the club made him the standout choice," said Hartlepool head of football operations Joe Monks.

"Nicky is a club legend with a genuine connection to our supporters."

Featherstone has helped Hartlepool climb to eighth in the National League, one place and two points outside the play-off places.

They host mid-table Yeovil on Saturday.

There's a lot of stones to be drawn, guarded and taken out before the Finals in Denmark, but the long and winding road starts in Lohja, Finland on Sunday 7th to Saturday 13th December with the Women's B Championships, where the top 3 teams will qualify for the Finals.

The 22-team field is split into three groups where they will play a round robin within their group. The top two teams in each group plus the two third ranked teams with the better Draw Shot Challenge qualify for the quarter-finals. Then, teams will be ranked 1-8 to decide the quarter-final matchups.
Group A: Australia, England, Estonia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Türkiye
Group B: Chinese Taipei, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, United States
Group C: Brazil, Czechia, Finland, Hong Kong China, Latvia, Scotland, Spain

England are represented by Lina Opel - still only 15 - (4th and Vice Skip), Marianna Ward (3rd and Skip), Anna MacDougall (2nd), Helena Keggell (1st) with Chloe McNaughton as Alternate and play their first game against Estonia at 12 noon on Sunday, then at the same time against Australia on Monday.

Scotland's hopes rest with Katie Archibald - no not the multi-medalled saddlesore one, but the up-and-coming junior - (Skip), Alex McMillan (3rd), Hannah Young (2nd), Lillia Clarke (Lead) and Cara Thomson (Alternate). They play Spain in their opening game on Sunday at 7am. Their second game is against Brazil on Monday at 5pm.

Gamball:
Leicester - Ipswich

Others:
Burnley - Fulham
Oxford - Preston
Millwall - Hull
Portsmouth - Blackburn
Wrexham - Watford
Huddersfield - Wigan
Forest - Spurs
Sunderland - Newcastle
West Ham - Villa

Can we have a Sportbabble World peace prize please?

Asking for a friend.

Seriously, what’s next

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation award for Medicine?

The World Taekwondo award for Economics?

The World Darts Federation award for Literature?

What a farce

Last week's must-win game came within a whisker of going severely Shane Long for Albion, and while the 2-0 half-time deficit thankfully just paved the way for the most entertaining comeback win we've been treated to in years, it nevertheless means that the only two ticks in Ryan Mason's plus column for November were earned by coming from behind at home against relegation battlers. If it was a school report, ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT would be plastered in red ink over the front, and though there are two opportunities in the coming week for that improvement to be delivered, both are taking place on the road where we haven't won in over two months.

The consolation is that our opponents are very much in the same boat as us: the good ship 12th-14th to be precise, boldly going nowhere fast and cultivating an ever-growing aquarium on the lower decks. QPR are Saturday's opposition, defeated at Norwich last week but with a couple of recent wins buoying them somewhat, while Southampton - our destination Tuesday night - are also bouncing back from a loss, but otherwise enjoyed a dream November with a string of resounding victories that went some way to repairing their dreadful start. The encouraging signs for Albion, not just against Swansea but also in the Coventry capitulation, are that we can clearly score goals if our forwards (particularly Heggebo) get the support and supply they need; the lesson to be learned, on the other hand, is that we can't expect to defend a lead for more than ten minutes, and Josh Griffiths needs to be protected from saving anything smaller and faster than a balloon. It's not an ideal situation, but shouldn't be beyond Mason's ken to make good.

Still, a couple of draws to give us an unbeaten run would be a decent outcome against these shipmates who are a little more shipshape at present than us, and even one draw would keep the points tally ticking. Back-to-back defeats, on the other hand, would put us back at square one a week from now.

Scotland get Brazil Morocco and Haiti. Looks like one of the games might be in boston/philly. Brazil will be in Miami. FFS

Only Scotland could wait nearly 30 years to go to a World Cup, the most expansive one in history, then end up with nearly the same draw as the last time they were in it. If Denmark qualify via the playoffs they will land an easier draw

England as Per get the pish easy group, I was almost expecting Spartans or Peterhead to come out of pot 4 That freaky looking gimp Kane will have scored about 20 goals before they qualify.

Totally rigged for TV audiences. Totally contrived.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 6TH DECEMBER KO 3PM

v

LAST MATCH



The end of a 3 day match week, unfortunately we made it 3 defeats in a row, despite putting in a decent performance. We got off to a great start when McNeill was found on the edge of the box and he finished with a curler into the net. Preston were soon level when Whiteman scored from the edge of the box following a corner. We were soon back ahead when McNeill scored with a header. Cads had a chance to make it three but hit his shot at the keeper. Onto the second half and Preston levelled on the hour mark when Dobbin headed in from point blank range following a corner. We had a great chance to retake the lead Offiah handled in the box but McNeill's penalty was saved. Of course Preston went up the other end and grabbed the winner when Jenson found the corner. Redmond nearly levelled but put his effort wide.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and trip across the Pennines to take on Blackburn. We won here last year 1-3 with Windass scoring a wonder goal. Blackburn have made a disappointing start to the season and currently lie in 18th place just 4 points above the relegation zone. I would expect to see Blackburn remain in the bottom half of the table and depending on how other teams fair could be sucked into the end of season relegation dogfight. They are managed by Valerian Ismael, who took over in February, previously manager of our neighbours the Dingles. There leading scorer this season is Gudjohson who has 6 goals so far.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 62
BLACK 58
DRAW 40

CURRENT FORM

OWLS    L L L L D D                                                             

BLACK D D L W L W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

RUEBYN RICARDO
Emily Carney and Shaun Hudson
Fourth Official: Declan Brown

THE TEAM

Horvath
Fusire Palmer Iorfa M Lowe Amass
Valery Ingelsson Bannan
McNeill Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 McNeill

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 10
Maddix 8
Imre 6
SCO 4
Washington 3

BMPL

Stateside 6
Pei -3
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Everton v Notts Forest
Ipswich v Coventry
Bristol City v Millwall
Preston v Wrexham
Southampton v Birmingham

AAHHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Group A

Twerton 16
BaggieOne 14
BaggieVicar 12
Zinman 12
Stairs 11
A.A.A. 10
B.B.B. 6
Minizin 3

Decent week in Group A with 6 players reaching double figures. Twerton is back on top for the fifth time this season finishing on 16 points. He is the only player to get the max on the Gamball this week and managed to score points on all his balls, he didn’t get much else but this shows that if you get your ball play correct you don’t need much else for a good score!! BaggieOne is 2nd with 14 points, he also scored on all his balls and managed one CS as well. BaggieVicar is joint third with 12 points, he sounded like the guy from the Vicar of Dibley all week - no, no, no followed by yes, yes, yes with regard to his Gamball choice!! In the end not playing it cost him 2 points. Zinman also ended on 12 points, this is the third week in a row in double figures for him, he hasn’t done that before this season!!

Stairs is 5th with 11 points, he actually scored on more games that any other player but the miss on the Gamball cost him dearly. AAA is on 10 points, a CR on the Gamball and one CS kept him in double figures. BBB is 7th on 6 points, he actually got a CR on the Gamball but missed on the bonus and did little else to boost his score.

Minizin is in last place this week with just 3 points, this is his lowest score of the season a week after setting his previous low last week, can we call that a slump for him?? He only got one prediction right, a CR on the Bonus but managed nothing else!!

163 Stairs
160 Minizin
139 BaggieOne
138 Twerton
125 A.A.A.
121 BaggieVicar
115 B.B.B.
108 Zinman

So, the Minizin slump sees Stairs go past him to take over top spot, the first time he has held that position on his own so far this season!! B1 and Twerton continue their close battle for third with AAA and the Vicar vying for 5th spot. BBB has dropped back and bit and with Zinman finding some form he is now just 7 points behind BBB for the wooden spoon.

Just a quick look at the Bonus ball this week. It is causing its usual woes and so far only only 3 players have a positive points total from it, Stairs has 9 points with Zinman and B1 both having 6. AAA, Minizin and Twerton are all standing on zero for the season from it!! The Vicar is on -12 for the season and BBB having often struggled with it is on a rock bottom -18 from that one ball this season!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Amelia 26
4eva 16
Derby 12
Snooty 12
SCO 8
Salop 7
Lady Jane 7
Themaclad -3

Another good week for Group B - well, most of them - with a total of 85 points scored, the 2nd highest points return so far. We also saw the biggest spread of points with 29 points separating first from 8th. Only one match other than the gamball failed to see both teams score and nobody (at least from this group) picked that game so we saw a complete set of scoreball points.

It was an outstanding performance from Amelia - 26 points beating her previous best by 11. She became the first player to secure a second gamball maximum (and remember, she missed the first 3 weeks), one of her 3 correct scores with 4 other correct results, including her bonus ball. 4eva took 2nd place equalling his season's best 16 points. His score came from 5 correct results with 1 correct score and a full set of positive ball. Derby and Snooty shared 3rd place with an identical breakdown of results/scores to 4eva but both missed out on the bonus to leave them 4 points adrift.

Another 4 point drop off to SCO - he only got 2 correct results but he had his balls on both of them to prevent an ordinary week turning into a bad one. The bottom 3 were the players to miss out on the gamball. Salop and Lady Jane both had 3 correct results including their bonuses to lie a point back from SCO.

I think I mentioned last week that Themaclad was a model of inconsistency, with runs of excellent weeks being followed by bad weeks. Well, after equalling his season's best last week, he proved me right by scoring a massive minus 3 points. A positive score ball saved from a complete wipe out as he failed to predict a single result.

145 4eva
116 Snooty
116 SCO
111 Lady Jane
106 Themaclad
100 Amelia
98 Derby
91 Salop

With the disparity in scoring this week , it isn't surprising to see a number of positional changes in the overall league. 4eva has stretched his lead to 29 points but the fight for 2nd place is getting very interesting. SCO and Snooty are locked together on 116 points, both climbing ahead of Themaclad. Lady Jane stays in 4th place while Themaclad drops 3 places to 5th. Amelia's great week sees her climb off the foot of the table with Derby and Salop both dropping a place. If Amelia had joined at the start of the season and secured her average score on those weeks, she would now be sitting comfortably in 2nd place.

Some notable runs: SCO secured his 4th consecutive correct bonus with Derby having his 4th consecutive miss. In contrast, this week was Derby's 3rd positive gamball in a row and I should have mentioned above that he also managed his 5th correct score this week - only 2 behind SCO. In contrast, 4eva has predicted at least 1 correct score in each of the last 7 weeks.

Themaclad's wipe-out was just the 2nd time that's happened this season, though he did miss out on matching Salop's low mark by virtue of that scoreball point.

Zin