THE MATCH

FRIDAY 28TH FEBRUARY KO 8PM

v

LAST MATCH



Despite playing OK, the not taking of chances and our flaws in the defensive department saw us go down 4-0 to Burnley. We had a few chances Armstrong should have scored but shot narrowly wide and Windass had a shot blocked, but Burnley took the lead when Edwards got some space in the box and finished from close range. Onto the 2nd half and we had a few chances again, and again Armstrong & Windass with the chances. Burnley then went and scored two more goals, both similar one from the left & one from the right both crosses with close range finishes. Burnley added a fourth with an excellent strike from just outside the box.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and Sunderland make the journey south. The Black Cats have been having a good season and are currently 4th in the table, but are 8 points off the autos, though they do look set to make the playoffs if they cant close the gap to the autos, with a 12 point gap to 7th. The are managed by Regis Le Bris who took over in June last year and has done a good job overall in his first season in charge. There leading scorer is Isidor who has 12 goals so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 50
SUND 52
DRAW 29

CURRENT FORM

OWLS  L L W L D W                                                                      

SUND L L W D W D            

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

WILL FINNIE
Daniel Leach and Mark Stevens
Fourth Official: Oliver Langford

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Ingelsson
Musaba Windass Gasama
Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Gassama

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

26542

BML LEAGUE

Imre 23
SCO 22
Maddix 21
Washington 20
Wereham 12

BMPL

Stateside 16
Owlkev 13
Southey 12
Pei 8

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Blackburn v Norwich
Luton v Portsmouth
Birmingham v Wycombe
Wrexham v Bolton
Salford v Bradford

HDHHD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Nigel Adkins has left Tranmere Rovers by mutual agreement just 15 months after taking charge following a winless run of 10 League Two matches.

The decision to part ways comes in the wake of Tuesday's home defeat by fellow strugglers Accrington Stanley.

Adkins, 59, took the helm in November 2023 and lost 34 of his 72 games in charge, winning 23.

Tranmere sit 22nd of the 24 teams in League Two and are two points clear of the relegation zone.

"No-one can doubt his [Adkins'] commitment, effort or passion for Tranmere Rovers but this season has been hampered by a litany of injuries to, and suspensions of, key players which have all contributed to the current league position," chairman Mark Palios said.

"We both acknowledge our league position is disappointing and that football is a results business. As a consequence, we have sadly both come to the conclusion that a change of manager will give the team the best chance of making the most of the remaining 13 games."

Former Scunthorpe United, Southampton, Reading, Sheffield United, Hull City and Charlton Athletic boss Adkins steered Tranmere to mid-table safety last season, finishing 16th on 57 points.

But this time round they have struggled - having won just six times in 34 league games, leaving them in danger of returning to non-league football, as first happened to them in 2015 - ending a 94-year stay in the Football League.

Birkenhead-born Adkins, who began his playing career at Prenton Park, returned to his home-town club in July 2023 as technical director.

He then took over as interim first-team boss after Ian Dawes was sacked two months later before being installed on a more permanent basis when he signed a two-and-half-year contract in November 2023.

Just 19 days ago, Tranmere chairman Palios said in an open letter to fans that he believed sticking with Adkins was the right call, rather than "gambling" on a replacement before the Wirral club's hoped-for takeover.

But Rovers have failed to win in the five games since, losing at Salford City and Notts County, either side of home draws with Fleetwood and MK Dons, before Tuesday's 1-0 loss sealed his fate.

https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/feb/14/p...e---140225

The download for 13/2/2025 does describe some preconceived bias against some of our players or as PH would say they are taking the f**king piss

Blackburn Rovers have appointed Valerien Ismael as their new head coach on a deal until the end of the 2027-28 season.

The former Barnsley, West Brom and Watford boss replaces John Eustace, who left Rovers to take the Derby County job earlier this month.

Ismael, 49, led Barnsley to the Championship play-offs in his sole season at Oakwell and will look to do the same with Blackburn, who are sixth with 12 games to play.

"We were hugely impressed with Valerien throughout what was a rigorous recruitment process," chief executive Steve Waggott told the club website., external

"He knows the Championship extremely well and what it takes to finish in the play-offs.

"He has played and managed in some of the biggest environments across Europe, and has all the credentials to have a successful spell with us over the coming years."

Ismael's first game in charge will be at home to Norwich City - who are also challenging for a play-off spot - on Saturday.

Following a playing career that included a spell in the Premier League with Crystal Palace, he moved into management with Hannover 96's reserves in 2011 and has also worked in Greece, Austria and Turkey.

Blackburn have spent the majority of the season in the top six and caretaker David Lowe won both of his first two games in charge.

However, Saturday's 3-0 defeat at fellow managerless side Swansea left them just one point clear of seventh-placed Coventry.

Should they secure a play-off place this season it will be their highest league finish since being relegated from the Premier League in 2011-12.

Ismael has previously worked with Rovers midfielder Callum Brittain and forward Cauley Woodrow when he was Barnsley boss and striker Emmanuel Dennis at Watford last season.

David Longwell is set to remain as interim head coach of AFC Fylde for the rest of the season.

Longwell stepped into the role along with goalkeeper coach Chris Neal after Kevin Phillips left the club last week.

Having won their first game at Altrincham on Saturday, the pair have been asked to take charge of the remaining 14 league games.

Fylde are currently 22nd in the National League, one point adrift of safety.

"I was brought in to provide support and I'm going to continue to do exactly that for the players," Longwell told the club's website, external.

Group A

Amelia 14
Themaclad 14
Zinman 13
A.A.A. 6
Twerton 4
Minizin 3

Well its fair to say this this week is a bit Jekyll and Hyde for the 6 participants!! The top 3 this week are separated by one points but all scored more than double of the bottom 3! Amelia and Themaclad lead the way with 14 points each. Amelia missed on the Gamball but scored on her Bonus and added 2 CSs as well. Themaclad was the only one to score positive points on the Gamball and he too had 2 CSs but missed on his bonus. Zinman is a single point behind, he actually scored on more games than the two above him including 3 CSs but he missed on both the Gamball and Bonus to keep his score down.

Big drop to AAA with 6 points, he missed on both his main balls but did manage one CS, whereas Twerton finished with only 4 points actually scored a CR on the Bonus but virtually nothing else and Minizin brings up the rear with just 3 points, missing on the Gamball and Bonus.

256 Themaclad
236 Minzin
236 Zinman
223 Twerton
185 A.A.A.
182 Amelia

So after a few weeks of Themaclad slowly being caught he finally increases his lead back to 20 points. Minizin has now been caught by the much older (and dare I say wiser??) Zin and they are now joint second. Twerton lost a bit of ground on them but is still within striking distance. Amelia's good form now sees her just 3 points behind AAA so the wooden spoon is now up for grabs!!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

BBB 11
Derby 9
Stairs 9
SCO 8
Lady Jane 7
Snooty 6
BaggieOne 4

By pretty much any measure, this was an average week for Group B. 54 points scored (season's average is 56) and 24 correct predictions (average = 23.5).
For the 3rd week in a row, we saw just one correct gamball prediction though, for once, the bonus total was positive!

Just like last week it's BBB who sits on top of the table and, just like last week, he scored 11 points. He had 4 correct predictions, including his bonus, and 1 correct score and was the only player to achieve a double figure score. Derby and Stairs are 2 point back, Derby with 1 less correct prediction than BBB while Stairs failed to score a maximum on any of his 4 correct predictions.

SCO was the only player to predict a gamball draw but missed on his bonus and failed to nail a correct score. Lady Jane was the only player to get 2 correct scores but didn't get much else. Snooty actually matched BBB's correct scores/results but missed out on all the balls to leave him in 6th place, just ahead of BaggieOne who at least had the consolation of getting his bonus right.

224 Lady Jane
208 SCO
204 Derby
204 Stairs
183 BBB
178 Snooty
151 BaggieOne

A close fought week so just the one positional change sees BBB climb ahead of Snooty in 5th place. SCO gains one point on Lady Jane at the top - if the season lasted until November that rate may just see him catch her! Just 4 points separate 2nd and 4th in the battle to qualify for the play-offs.

Zin

Hibs continued their unbeaten run, extending it to 13 games, with their fine win against Celtic on Saturday. Unfortunately that positive mood was slightly dampened by both teams immediately above them both winning too.

One of these teams, Dundee United, are our hosts tomorrow night. The Tangerine Terrors, does that moniker still exist?, have stuttered recently but got back on track against Motherwell. Another fast start from Hibs will be required and it looks as though our stability and teamwork over the last 3 months is vital to our success.

United have the Premiership's top scorer in Sam Dalby, but can't be considered a one-man band. They don't lose many goals, so every chance must be taken. I'd love us to end the month on a high going into a vital few matches in March.

A mix of league and cup games this week plus a dip into League 2 as we have fewer interesting top tier fixtures to pick from.

Gamball:
Blackburn - Norwich

Others:
Preston - Burnley
Oxford - Coventry
Luton - Portsmouth
QPR - Sheff Utd
Stoke - Watford
Orient - Charlton
Stevenage - Huddersfield
Newcastle - Brighton
Man Utd - Fulham

Wigan Athletic v Huddersfield Town
Sky Bet League One
Tuesday February 25th - 19:45 ko
at the Brick Community Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to Wigan to the Pile of Bricks Community Stadium on Tuesday evening for another re-arranged game of football.

And the Terriers go there once again, as a club in crisis. Difficult to understand as we are still in fifth place in the League One table and only nine points off an automatic promotion spot. But the low quality football being served up by Mike Dufflecoat and his merry men is driving supporters to despair. The performance against Peterborough United on Saturday was unacceptable on so many levels that even I came close to booing the team off.

The injury list is a great excuse to have for all this, but is it really? Not in my opinion. It's all down to the recruitment team. Taking on unfit players in the hope that they will come good is like building your house on sand. I say recruitment team, I mean Mark Cartwright of course. How he kept his job after overseeing a disastrous relegation, is beyond belief.

So which of our current bunch of crocks will be available for this game on Tuesday night? Listening to Paul Ogden after the game on BBC Radio Leeds, as he was waiting to interview Dufflecoat, Radinio Balker walked past him, smiling but carrying a large ice pack. No way will he play. When the Head Coach did appear, almost an hour after the final whistle, he told us the news that Tom Lees was out for the rest of the season and that Nigel Lonwijk came off because he was "cramping up" and it was Nigel himself asking to come off, which led to confusion on the touchline as the fourth official had indicated that Jonathan Hogg was coming off.

A crazy state of affairs. Nowt against the lad, but can you imagine Peter Jackson, Andy Morrison or Peter Clarke asking to come off because they were cramping up?

So we finished the game with Ollie Turton and David Kasumu at centre back.

Thankfully Brodie Spencer will be available after his two match suspension, but who will be at centre back alongside him? Loick Ayina? I doubt it after Dufflecoat didn't trust him on Saturday to come on. Hopefully a fully fit Lonwijk, but probably knowing our luck he won't be and we'll get Turton or Josh Ruffels.

As for the Latics, they had a creditable draw on Saturday, down at second placed Wycombe Wanderers, but by the sound of things, goalkeeper Sam Tickle won that point for them.

This has all the signs of another low quality, bore-fest with probably just the one goal in it. Let's hope I'm wrong and Town turn up and tonk them ten-nil. Not gonna happen though, is it!?

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 14 wins to Wigan's 11, with 8 draws.

I can't recall many good games between these two clubs. They tend to be desparately dull. The one we played at the John Smith's in December being yet another one. Ollie Turton scoring his first Town goal was the only good part of the game, as I recall.

The first time we met was back in the 1973/74 FA Cup 1st round when the Latics were still a non league club. We beat them 2-0 with both goals coming from young Bob Newton, who had just turned 18 the day before.

They got elected into the Football League in 1978, in place of Southport and so with us being in Division 4 at the time, we were one of their first league opponents when they came to Leeds Road and came away with a point in a 1-1 draw. Paul Bielby scored ours from the penalty spot.

The following season we did the double over them. My first visit to Springfield Park saw us win 2-1 in the promotion season of 79/80, with Ian Holmes and Peter Fletcher scoring. We'd done the double over them before October was out as they came to our place and got spanked 4-0. Fletch scored twice in that one with Brian Stanton and David Cowling adding the others to take us top of the 4th Division table.

Looking down the list of results on Soccerbase, it's very hard to spot anything else interesting. They pumped us at the Galpharm in the FA Cup back in 2013 when they were a Premier League side and had current boss, Shaun Maloney in the line up. But then there's a lot of 0-0's and 1-0's with probably the most memorable being the late winner from Nahki Wells at the JJB in the 2016/17 promotion season.

The most recent season we had together was 2022/23 when they did the double over us despite getting relegated. The 2-1 home win I seem to remember was one of the most miserable evenings watching football I've ever had. Here's hoping we don't suffer such like again on Tuesday.

1. Flaking Drippers
   
2. Handel Wave
   
3. Unholy Seaman
   
4. Norbert Atomizer
   
5. Beans Town
   
6. Arrowing Is War
   
7. Be More Froggy
   
8. Her TV Eve
   
9. Ignacio Swan
   
10. Waring Pie
    

Tuesday 25th February

Bromley v Bradford City. Kick-off at 7:45pm
Cheltenham Town v Walsall. Kick-off at 7:45pm
Gillingham v Fleetwood Town. Kick-off at 7:45pm
Tranmere Rovers v Accrington Stanley. Kick-off at 7:45pm

Thursday 27th February

Barrow v Carlisle United. Kick-off at 8pm