A mixture of league and cup matches - usual cup rules apply, the score after extra time but before penalties counts (I'm guessing that there are no replays again this round?)

Gamball:
Portsmouth - Sheff Utd

Others:
Norwich - WBA
Port Vale - Bristol City
Southampton - Leicester
Villa - Newcastle
Liverpool - Brighton
QPR - Blackburn
Birmingham - Leeds
Grimsby - Wolves
Stoke - Fulham

Jamie Grimes has joined Boston United on loan till the end of the season. I guess that he'll be released at the end of the season. He's been a good defender for us.

This morning the Albion ambassador in London handed the Football Association a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland and/or deduct a bajillion points from Leicester, a state of war would exist between us and relegation. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this club is up shit creek.

You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to Mr Ramsay that all his long struggle to secure survival has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different that he could have done that would have been more successful, except for literally everything from day one.

I would say to you now that I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering and of going to Small Heath on a Tuesday night. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: it is to wage war by sea, land and air (but mostly land, unless Norwich ends up underwater), with all our might; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. Against having to play Port Vale ever again.

That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let us take up the task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail (unless, of course, it does). And so I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

To victory!

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 8TH FEBRUARY KO 12PM

v

LAST MATCH



Another game, another defeat, no goals scored and now 23 games without a win. It didn't take long for Blackburn to take the lead when Cashin turned in Morishita's ball into the box. Cooper kept the score at 1-0 as he made saves from Hayden Carter, saving the defender's header. Cooper made an even better stop when he touched Sondre Tronstad's 20-yard shot onto the post, before he also denied Moussa Baradji. We didn't have an attempt in the first half. Onto the 2nd half and we were a bit better. Toth made a fine save before Jamal Lowe's header was cleared off the line and came back off the crossbar. That was the closest we came to an equaliser as we slumped to another defeat.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our next defeat, sorry next game, see's us travel to Wales as we take on Swansea. Swansea have been lingering in the bottom half of the table and currently sit in 16th place, 8 points off the playoffs and 7 points above the relegation zone. They aren't good to make a challenge for the playoff spots but probably should have enough to avoid the relegation dogfight. They are managed by Vitor Matos who has been in charge since November and has won 7 of his 15 games so far. There leading score is Vipotnik who has 13 goals and 2 assists so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 14
SWAN 11
DRAW 15

CURRENT FORM

OWLS    L L L L L L                                                             

SWAN W L W D L W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

THOMAS KIRK
Johnathon Bickerdike and Robert Hyde
Fourth Official : Leigh Doughty

THE TEAM

Cooper
Valery Palmer Cooper Adaramola
Nakamba Ingelsson Heskey
McNeill Yates Ndala

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 Ndala

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 16
Imre 16
Washington 14
SCO 11
Maddix 8

BMPL

Stateside 15
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Brighton v Palace
Liverpool v Man City
Sheff Utd v Middlesboro
Leicester v Southampton
Oxford v Norwich

HHDAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Docked 6 points

We are now in the bottom 3

Morecambe have reappointed Jim Bentley as manager until the end of the season, only days after parting company with former boss Ashvir Singh Johal.

Johal departed the club on Friday having steered the club to just five wins from 28 National League games.

Bentley managed the club between 2011 and 2019 and returns to the Mazuma Stadium with the Shrimps in 23rd, and in danger of being relegated from the National League.

Having resigned as Morecambe boss in October 2019, Bentley went on to manage AFC Fylde and Rochdale but had not managed since March 2025 after being sacked by Southport.

Speaking after his appointment, Bentley said:, external "When I was asked to come back as manager, I was excited. They've asked me to come back here and I'm more than happy to do that."

"I've had a couple of calls about other roles, and I didn't feel it," he added.

The club paid tribute to Bentley's "extensive managerial experience" and said his "familiarity with the club, its people, and the local area allows him to step into the role with immediate focus as the squad prepares for the remainder of the season."

Bentley's first job will be to reinvigorate a Shrimps side which has only won twice, in all competitions, since the beginning of December.

Blackburn Rovers have sacked boss Valerien Ismael after a run of eight league games without a win left the club in the relegation places in the Championship.

The 50-year-old was appointed as head coach in February 2025 and replaced John Eustace, who left Ewood Park to take over at Derby County.

Ismael steered Blackburn to a seventh-placed finish last term, narrowly missing out on a play-off place by two points. However, they have struggled this term.

Rovers have managed just seven wins in the league all season and have won just once in their past 15 games in all competitions.

The club issued a statement confirming Ismael would leave by "mutual consent" with immediate effect, with assistant coach Dean Whitehead also departing.

Former player and long-time Rovers coach Damien Johnson will take charge of the first team on a temporary basis, starting with Tuesday's visit of Sheffield Wednesday.

Johnson previously had a spell in caretaker charge in February 2024, overseeing a 3-1 win over Stoke City.

"Blackburn Rovers would like to thank Valérien and Dean for their efforts during their time at the club and wish them both the very best for the future," said the statement.

"The club will now begin the process of appointing a new head coach and will make no further comment until an appointment is confirmed."

A 1-0 defeat at home to Hull City on Saturday left Ismael's side three points from safety in the final relegation spot in 22nd and proved the final straw.

The Lancashire club have maintained Championship status ever since winning automatic promotion from League One at the first attempt in 2017-18.

Since that return, however, the club have twice registered a seventh-placed finish but have yet to make a realistic push towards promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since their relegation from the top flight in 2012.


To announce the departure of a head coach five hours before the transfer window closes is a little different, but the executives at Blackburn Rovers probably felt that they had no choice following an eighth home defeat of the season on Saturday.

When I spoke to Valerien Ismael after the defeat by Hull City, he couldn't defend that record, and he didn't particularly back himself to turn things around either, after a run of one win in 15 games in all competitions.

In a little under a year in charge, he won 11 of his 43 games. A win percentage like that is always going to be scrutinised, and rightly so.

The playing roster has undergone enormous change under his tenure. Experienced Championship stalwarts have been replaced by those with little or no experience of the level. Some have settled, while others have found it tough. This was a decision made above Ismael and one that they admitted in September was a risk.

Only Adam Forshaw and Todd Cantwell started both Ismael's first and final game in charge.

He inherited a team sixth in the Championship but ultimately failed to make the play-offs after five straight defeats in the run-in. Four wins and a draw from the final five saw them come close, but not close enough, and it never really felt that the fanbase was entirely won over.

This season, a run of four wins in five during October and November was a positive sign that things were moving in the right direction, but Ismael only tasted victory once more from that point on.

He had horrendous luck with injuries. For weeks on end it was double figures in terms of absentees; for the recent visit to Swansea, that number rose to 14.

But he remained convinced that once those injuries cleared up, the results would come. Time was against him to make that happen.

He did admit to me before Christmas that managing Rovers was the most challenging experience of his career, completely different from what he had experienced before.

Whoever comes next is a huge call. Staying in the second tier is absolutely imperative.