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

Apparently there have been reports that Remi has passed aged 65 years.
However on News now Man Utd state these reports are false, they have spoken to his family and he is alive and well.

He started his professional career with us before transferring to Man Ure in 1981 and becoming their first black goal scorer.

I hope he is alive and well, even though he followed Ron Atkinson and Bryan Robson out of our door to Man Ure, still haven’t forgiven the Red Devils for this.
They ripped the heart out of our midfield, a team that deserved to win silverware, should have been league champions, would have been, apart from a harsh winter which caused us to have a fixture backlog, which the eventual champions, Liverpool didn’t have due to their under soil heating. We were forced by the FA to play a lot of games in a short period of time, fatigue took its toll, the players ran out of steam and we finished third.

It looks as though they're doomed.
New manager or not, let's hope they stay on 2 points for the season. Pity we won't pass them on the way up, but hey ho Merry Christmas.

Gamball:
Derby - Leicester

Others:
Villa - Arsenal
Bournemouth - Chelsea
Everton - Forest
Bristol C - Millwall
Ipswich - Coventry
Preston - Wrexham
QPR - WBA
Sheff Utd - Stoke
Southampton - Birmingham

Neil Gibson has been appointed Altrincham manager until the end of the 2026-27 season after a spell in interim charge.

Gibson, 46, took charge on an interim basis last month after Phil Parkinson was sacked following a seven-game winless run.

Under Gibson and assistant Lee Jones, Altrincham have taken 10 points from a possible 15 since taking over - although they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Slough Town.

Altrincham have climbed from 20th to 15th as a result, moving six points clear of the relegation places.

"The club has gone through a full process in appointing a new permanent manager and the decision to appoint Neil Gibson and Lee Jones was not taken purely on the results," chairman Mark Luby said.

"Neil and Lee have demonstrated to the board over the four weeks since they came into the building that they have all the experience and necessary skills to keep current momentum and continue to move us in the right direction.

"I would like to congratulate them both on their appointment, they thoroughly deserve this chance and I am looking forward to working closely with them in the coming seasons."

Yeovil Town have named Billy Rowley as their new manager on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

Rowley has left seventh-tier Walton & Hersham to become Yeovil's fourth manager in the dugout this campaign.

He has taken over from Richard Dryden, who had been in interim charge of the National League club since replacing Danny Webb.

Webb quit his role as manager after just one game and returned to former club Chesterfield as assistant manager in October, after Mark Cooper was sacked in August.

"It's a massive community club. The history of this club is incredible, I know a few boys who have played for this team and they can't speak highly enough of it," Rowley told Yeovil's website., external

"I'm just looking forward to getting on the grass with the lads. When a club like Yeovil call you up, it is incredibly hard to turn that down."

Walton & Hersham say they received an approach for Rowley during their Southern League Premier South match against Hungerford Town, external on Saturday.

He spent 18 months in charge of the Surrey club and has left them top of the league with a game in hand over second-placed Gloucester City.

Darren Simpson has been appointed assistant manager, following Rowley from Walton & Hersham, where the duo worked together.

Rowley will take charge of his new side's game against Boston United on Saturday.

The Glovers are currently 17th in the National League.

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 18:

1. jjamez = 327 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 321 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 288 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 245 pts
   
5. ritchiebaby = 241 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 137 pts
   

Saturday 6th December:
League One:
Cardiff v Town (12:30)
Town scorers:
Cardiff scorers:

Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Falkirk

Championship:
Queens Park Rangers v West Bromwich Albion

FA Cup round 2:
Fleetwood Town v Luton Town
Peterborough United v Barnsley
Wigan Athletic v Barrow

Sunday 7th December:
Blackpool v Carlisle United (17:30)

Monday 8th December:
Brackley Town v Burton Albion (19:30)

Tuesday 9th December:
League One:
Northampton v Town
Town scorers:
Northampton scorers:

Doncaster Rovers v Stockport County
Exeter City v AFC Wimbledon
Mansfield Town v Bolton Wanderers
Port Vale v Bradford City
Stevenage v Cardiff City
Wycombe Wanderers v Plymouth Argyle

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

1. theo_luddite = 303 pts
   
2. themaclad = 296 pts
   
3. Devongone = 290 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 249 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 227 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 224 pts
   

Saturday 6th December:
League One:
Cardiff v Town (12:30)
Town scorers:
Cardiff scorers:

Plymouth Argyle v Bradford City (12:30)

FA Cup round 2:
Accrington Stanley v Mansfield Town
Exeter City v Wycombe Wanderers
Port Vale v Bristol Rovers
Stockport County v Cambridge United
Swindon Town v Bolton Wanderers
Sutton United v Shrewsbury Town (17:15)
Chesterfield v Doncaster Rovers (19:30)

Tuesday 9th December:
League One:
Northampton v Town
Town scorers:
Northampton scorers:

Leyton Orient v Luton Town
Lincoln City v Barnsley
Reading v Peterborough United (20:00)

Championship:
Preston North End v Coventry City
Watford v Sheffield Wednesday

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

Three weeks after the redemptive win over Oxford, courtesy of two performances in which our brief flashes of flair made the inevitable outcomes all the harder to take, the Damoclean sword hangs again over Ryan Mason, as it was always liable to. The Baggies boss isn't yet in the kind of territory that made Steve Bruce's position untenable three years ago, and a seven-point cushion from the relegation zone more or less spares him getting there this side of Christmas, but as against Oxford, Mason tomorrow finds a hefty weight of expectation falling on one game in which anything short of a win would feel like a significant nail in the coffin of his tenure.

Swansea are the visitors, currently six games winless in all competitions and on a four-match losing streak. New head coach Vitor Matos failed to re-Vitor-lise their fortunes in his first match against Derby, but is now urging the Swans to treat Saturday's game as a cup final, and it's just Albion's luck that new manager bounce might kick in ninety minutes late. I can't see it being anything except a close match and result one way or another, so it's down to Mason to prove - not for the first time, and probably not the last - that he's got the answers.