So it looks like Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond have "weathered the storm" from disgruntled Celtic fans and will continue with the manager's services at the current time. The team travels to Milan for probably another defeat in a meaningless match as the Hoops have failed to qualify in their Europa League group. However, this is a case of certain players likely playing for a place in the 1st team - surely Lennon must be at a point where he has to know who is "for the fight" and who wants to move on? Is this executive decision by PL and DD the right one? Well only time will tell although I will say there is not an easily identifiable replacement currently out there when one considers the huge pressure and demands placed on such an incumbent and being able to handle it. I personally think that Lennon would love to see the return from injury of two particular forward players, James Forrest and Mikey Johnson, who certainly would provide a lot more scoring opps from both flanks and also gave a more balanced look to the first team.

Yes I am referring to Perry Ng Captain of Crewe Alex.
As the commentators said during the match "A very talented player who should be capable of playing at a higher level but who is being held back because of an attitude problem."

The match itself was a well contested affair between two good footballing sides. The Robins got off to a great start by scoring in the first few minutes. The scorer was Finn Azaz on loan from West Brom who was returning from injury. It was the only first half goal although, also returning from injury Scott Flinders was called upon to make a couple of really good saves.
Crewe equalised midway through the second half and although both sides created chances to settle the game, extra time proved necessary.
As they had in normal time, the Robins scored early in the first period this time through George Lloyd who, along with a Crewe player, lay injured afterwards.
So the Robins, for the first time since 2013 progress to the 3rd round of the cup and have been drawn at home, yet again, and face fellow league 2 side Mansfield Town.

So what of the talented unpredictable Perry Ng. Well at the end of the game he filled his mouth with water and deliberately spat at a member of the Robin's coaching staff, soaking that person's shirt top.
Will Crewe take appropriate action against a spitting incident which, disgusting at the best of times, is potentially dangerous these days?????

   

Player Pts CS CR GB BB SB
B.B.B. 20 3 2 10 -3 1
St Charles 15 0 5 5 3 1
Amelia 15 0 5 5 3 1
Derby 15 0 5 5 3 1
Bomber 14 0 5 5 3 0
Sanjay 14 0 7 5 -3 0
Snooty 9 1 1 10 -3 0
Themaclad 7 0 4 -3 3 1
A.A.A. 6 1 2 4 -3 1
Twerton 2 0 2 -3 3 0


Decent scoring in the PL this week with the Gamball proving to be crucial with 43 points gained off that one game. Leading the way again is the current PL leader BBB with 20 points. He was one of only two players to get a spot on Gamball and get a CS, in fact he managed 3 of them!! If he had been better on his bonus ball he could have posted a much bigger score!! His consistency is impressive at the moment and he is stretching his lead each week. 2nd spot is occupied by three players - St Charles, Amelia and Derby. They had identical paths to their 15 points each, scoring a CR on their Gamball, Bonus and picking up the Scoreball as well. Keeping their scores down was their collective inability to get any CSs this week!!

Joint 5th on 14 points is Sanjay and Bomber. Sanjay scored on a week's high 7 games, but like most others he was unable to convert any of those into CSs and while he did get a CR on the Gamball he missed on his Bonus. Bomber missed on on being joint 2nd by not scoring on his Scoreball but he did manage to pick up points on the other two balls. Bit of a gap down to Snooty who is in 7th on 9 points, he was the only other player to get a CS on the Gamball but basically managed bugger all!!

Themaclad is 8th on 7 points, the mediocre scores persist for him this season and he looks like he might be stuck in a relegation battle this season. AAA with 6 points is in 9th place, his did get one CS, and it was on the Gamball but this week he chose not to play it and it cost him 6 points and probably a few spots in the table!! Twerton's improvement in form deserted him again this week, coming in last with only 2 points, he only scored on two games, thankfully one was his Bonus or he would have been in negative territory!!

There was a bit of movement in the table this week but not much. BBB extended his lead over SCO to 21 points, that is a big gap for this stage of the season!! The gap down to Amelia in 3rd spot stayed at 17 points with Sanjay close in 4th and Bomber moving up to 5th. AAA was the biggest mover this week dropping two places to 6th.

At the bottom Themaclad and Twerton did nothing to make any move out of the relegation spots but Derby was able to draw level with Lord Snooty in 7th spot as they fight to stay out of the relegation PO spot.

Cheers
SCO


BBB 129pts
SCO 108
Amelia 91
Sanjay 88
Bomber 87
AAA 80
Snooty 69
Derby 69
Themaclad 60
Twerton 51



BaggieOne 12pts 0CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
DD 9pts 1CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Beefy 8pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Lady Jane 8pts 0CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Joker 7pts 1CS 1CR 10GB -3BB 0SB
Zinman 4pts 1CS 2CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Silver 4pts 0CS 3CR 0GB -3BB 1SB
Minizin 3pts 1CS 2CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Stairs -1pt 0CS 1CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Somerset -2pts No scores submitted

A low scoring week despite a higher than normal positive gamballs. Oddly the 4 players who chose not to play the gamball all occupy the bottom 4 positions this week (excluding no-shows), so on the face of it, maybe being cautious isn't such a good move?*

BaggieOne leads the table for the first time this season and is the only player to reach double figures. He scored from 4 matches - equal best this week- and though he didn't get any scores right, he was the only player to score from both his gamball and bonus. DD had one of his better weeks to take second place with 9 points, another player to predict an Albion win and brave enough to gamble on it.

Beefy and Lady Jane are tied together (thankfully for Lady Jane, only in terms of this week's scores) in 3rd place. Beefy was rescued from disaster by a good Sunday, including a correct score with his bonus ball which made up for being the only player to screw up his gamball. Lady Jane matched BaggieOne's 4 correct results, including the gamball but lost out on her bonus. It's not often that the only person to score a maximum on the gamball sits in mid-table but Joker managed to do it this week. Joker had 9 blanks, failed with his scoreball and bonus but somehow got the gamball spot on.

For the second week running, Zinman got Sheff Wednesday's score correct (it's called the Tony Pulis nil method) but only scored on one other game and he's joined on 4pts by Silver. Minizin is a point further back. Both Zins lost out on their bonuses by extra time not being included for cup matches. At least Minizin managed a positive score which is more than can be said for Stairs. He had a complete nightmare week, only scoring on 1 game. No predictions from Somerset this week so in accordance with the rules he scores one less than Stairs.

* Except everyone who chose not to play the gamball got the result wrong so the right decision after all.

The relatively low scores this week mean not much change in the overall table. Despite their poor week, Minizin and Zinman retain the promotion spots but the gap is closing. Joker takes advantage of Stairs minus week to take 3rd place with Beefy close behind. Stairs drops to 5th. 2nd to 5th are separated by just 6 points (if my calculations are correct).

The gap to those at the bottom is still there but positions have shuffled. BaggieOne, Silver and Lady Jane are now very close together while, despite his better week, DD remains rooted to the foot of the table.

Zin


Minizin 97pts
Zinman 92
Joker 90
Beefy 87
Stairs 86
Somerset 80
Silver 67
BaggieOne 67
Lady Jane 66
DD 51

In the third round, Albion will play Blackpool away.

firstly just want to wish Raul Jimenez a speedy recovery from his horrible injury:
totally agree with what Alan Shearer had to say about players safety
why was Luiz  allowed to carry on playing?....blood everywhere  beyond me


begs the question:
should those skull caps become compulsory?
i know its a physical game and sometimes a passionate game
but player safety should be paramount 

we have had the comparison of dementia and heading a football

game is heading(no pun intended) into dangerous waters
needs sorting:

any views on this?

THE MATCH

WEDNESDAY 2ND DECEMBER 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



TP first game in charge at Hillsborough ended in a bit of a bore draw. Chances were at a premium with Harris having a shot cleared off the line, the closest we came to scoring. Wildsmith had to make a save with his foot late but that was as close as Stoke came to scoring. The talking point was Rhodes who came on as sub only to be subbed himself later on. Pulis has done this before and has said he will do it again so players be warned.

THE MATCH



We next host Reading as the games come thick and fast. Reading have made an excellent start to the season helped by our former striker Joao who has 12 goals this season already, we have scored 9 total goals in comparison. They are managed by Veljko Paunovic, yeah never heard of him either, but he seems to be getting the best out of the players. Not many players outside of Joao we might recognise. Can they keep up the momentum and at least clinch a playoff spot or even better one of the automatic spots, we will see

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                      

READ                -                                        

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

OLIVER LANGFORD
Robert Merchant and James Wilson
Fourth Official : Andy Woolmer

THE TEAM

Windass is still suspended, will Rhodes start ever again?

Wildsmith
Palmer Lees Borner Aken
Bannan Luongo
Harris Paterson Reach
Kachunga

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Joao

BML STANDINGS

Owlkev 4
Washington 2
Maddix 2
Stateside 2
Wereham 1
SCO 1

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Middlesbrough v Swansea City
Blackburn Rovers v Millwall
Luton Town v Norwich City
Nottingham Forest v Watford
Wycombe Wanderers v Stoke City

DHAAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC





One for Washington

Tuesday 1st December

Chesterfield 3-0 Aldershot Town
King's Lynn Town 2-1 Bromley
Maidenhead United 2-0 Dover Athletic
Solihull Moors 2-1 Hartlepool United
Wealdstone 0-2 Torquay United
Woking 1-3 Sutton United
Wrexham 2-0 Altrincham
Yeovil Town 0-1 Eastleigh

Wednesday 2nd December

Dagenham & Redbridge 0-3 Notts County
FC Halifax Town 2-1 Barnet

League Table After Matchday 12
Lord Snoots = 106
Spireitematt = 98
Amelia = 92
Devon = 90
Dancing = 86
St Charles = 54

So Hibs miss a chance to eliminate a misfiring Hertz team, compliments of a Wasps' pk conversion in extra time!! IMO it is a good draw even though it will be played on an artificial pitch and Hibs have a good chance to reach the final and earn some much-needed extra revenue. All the usual "suspects" in the Scot footie media "Rangers Appreciation Society" already telling us that it is "in the bag" and Rangers have already won it!! These arrogant bastards never change and I must say I don't particularly care for the league cup these days but the additional revenue is useful and I'd still take great pleasure in "stuffing" these sectarian bigots all the same and continue their glut of not winning any domestic trophies for four years after all their desperate huge loans and massive borrowing that is still being ignored by the footie authorities except UEFA whose officials have previously been monitoring their activities!!

Almost time for annual short quick dip into FA Cup folklore

2 points for a correct result
4 points for a correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score      
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.


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.

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.  

Friday 4th December:
Barnsley v AFC Bournemouth (17:30)

Saturday 5th December:
Town v QPR
Town scorers:
QPR scorers:

Reading v Nottingham Forest (12:30)
Brentford v Blackburn Rovers
Bristol City v Birmingham City
Coventry City v Rotherham United
Millwall v Derby County
Norwich City v Sheffield Wednesday
Preston North End v Wycombe Wanderers
Stoke City v Middlesbrough
Swansea City v Luton Town
Watford v Cardiff City

Tuesday 8th December:
Town v Sheff Weds:
Town scorers:
T'Owels scorers:

Coventry City v Luton Town
Millwall v Queens Park Rangers
Stoke City v Cardiff City
Swansea City v AFC Bournemouth
Watford v Rotherham United

Wednesday 9th December:
Barnsley v Wycombe Wanderers
Brentford v Derby County
Bristol City v Blackburn Rovers
Norwich City v Nottingham Forest
Preston North End v Middlesbrough
Reading v Birmingham City

Bonus match:
Sunday:
Premier League:
Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal (16:30)

Table after Matchday 13:

1. themaclad = 329 pts
   
2. jjamez = 318 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 298 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 294 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 277 pts
   
6. Beefy 1965 = 272 pts
   
7. neonfoxinthebox = 270 pts
   
8. ritchiebaby = 258 pts
   
9. SHEP_HTAFC = 255 pts
   
10. St Charles Owl = 246 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 232 pts