I noticed that in Hibs recent friendly match v St Johnstone Ryan played out the full game and was in good shape after that 0-0 draw. I just hope his recovery continues in a positive fashion. I wanna see this lad pushing on as a solid top young defender, one of the best in Scotland. However, I think Jack Ross must "pull him aside" and advise him to stop lunging in to tackles - good advice IMO! Tough tackling is fine but IMO when one makes a challenge that is "out of control", that's a different matter and that kinda challenge can hurt a player quite badly. I don't wanna see Ryan losing any of his battling qualities but he needs to temper that impulsive side of his game and focus on "reading the game" better and timing his challenges and movement "off the ball". He is a potentially top player and future Hibs captain but careful guidance of his future progress is definitely in order.

v



LAST TIME OUT

BRENTFORD 1 PRESTON NORTH END 0



BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1



FORM GUIDE MAX 25 POINTS

PRESTON NORTH END  8  BIRMINGHAN CITY 1

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

The man with two brains



For the fourth time this season Preston North End will have Steve Martin as the match official, when we face Birmingham City at Deepdale on Saturday.

The match official was the referee for our opening day game down at Millwall, the 1-0 victory over the Blues at St Andrews in today’s reverse fixture and the 3-2 comeback victory over Blackburn Rovers.

Steve also had whistle for the Millwall away game last season as well, when Alex Neil’s men came out 3-1 winners, back in February 2019 at The Den.

That was one of the match official’s three games officiating both North End in 2018/19, the others being PNE’s wins at Nottingham Forest and at home to Ipswich Town – that visit to PR1 being back in April 2019, when we ran out 4-0 winners.

Since coming onto the EFL lists back in 2012/13, the Staffordshire referee has officiated many North End games, at least one a season for all the years he has been on the league groupings.
His first game was a goalless draw against Leyton Orient back in March 2013, whilst other memorable games include our 3-0 win at Havant & Waterlooville in the FA Cup in 2014, a 3-0 home win over Cardiff City in 2016 and a 3-1 win at Oldham’s Boundary Park in 2014.

He has taken charge of 35 games so far this season, issuing 86 cautions and two red cards. This will be his third City game of the season; as well as our match at St Andrews, he also refereed their match with Brentford in the second city, which ended 1-1 in February.

The other members of the third team involved in Saturday’s game are assistants Andrew Fox and George Russell and fourth official Seb Stockbridge.

MACS MEMORIES BIRMINGHAM

6 APRIL 1968



The game finished 0-0, we had a goal disallowed, which when shown the day after on Granada TV clearly showed the Blues keeper had dropped the ball before Willie Irvine put if into the net,
The match was important for one specific reason it was my first at Deepdale.
The play off semi final in May 2001 was also epic but the goalless draw shades it.

THE MATCH

City's point in midweek will just about will make them safe, the Blues are managerless following Pep Clotet's early departure. Steve Spooner is in charge for the time being until the Blues apart a new permanent manager.
The club have not had a good recent history going back to the sacking of Gary Rowett, seems to be no stability, Squad wise Jutkiewicz has scored 15 in  a struggling side, supported up front by Scott Horgan. Youngster Jude Bellingham will be available for one of his last games before his move to Dortmund for a reported £30 million fee.
As for us it seems a long time since we actually won a home game and as we finally draw the season to a close at Deepdale the Blues represent a good chance for us to actually achieve this. Still a faint chance of the play offs although given Cardiff have to play Hull next Wednesday is probably a gimme, maybe only pride to play for.
Hopefully by the time we rock up at Deepdale probably mid September a certain amount of fans will be allowed in.

Several other teams at our level are starting to sign new players, and renewing contracts that had run out .........

We're doing quizzes and hoping being in debt to Councils turns out to be better than Casinos.

Shouldn't we administratively and in terms of recruitment be leaving the starting blocks by now? Stockport players are going on to EFL careers and beginning to be replaced by promising unknowns. Are we even formulating ideas beyond furloughing Pembo for as long as possible to save money?

There'll be a lot of former EFL players desperate to grab a contract as impoverished clubs reduce the size of their squads for this season. For sure there'll be players left when we decide to start looking, but do we really want the pick of the picked-over rejects (or EFL players at all for that matter)?

Those clubs making moves now are getting the chance to grab those players who have performed well at lower levels. These players want to prove themselves. Ex-EFL players sometimes give the impression we should be grateful they decided to wear our shirt.

We need a few players all across the park. Surely we aren't going to re-sign Shwan Jalal are we? Cameron Mason was impressing people enough to gain England C selection - he was keeping clean sheets and he is apparently very popular at Curzon Ashton with their fans. We could even go for 22 year-old Kyle McKenzie-Lyle from Liverpool, who is huge, inexperienced but once played for Barnet - could be a better bet than a geriatric? If we wanted an old forward we might grab Nathan Blissett. Somebody younger try Tunde Owolabi. If Peterborough haven't grabbed him, Dion Sembie- Ferris might be worth a bet. Attacking midfield Lucas Rodrigues from Whitehawk looks the part, 13 goals and 14 assists in the truncated campaign speak for themselves. Ben Garrity at Warrington deserves the chance to play higher, has plenty of midfield energy. Jersey Bulls left back Giles is apparently a bit of a player. Maybe now he's fit right back Kane Smith might fancy leaving Boreham to play in front of a crowd (when there are crowds). Alex Brown's only at Buxton, but he has a touch of class across the defence. I'm sure Pembo can come up with good names, but it's a paid job for him.

Do you know anything about AFC Wakefield? Well they play at Cudworth, which certainly isn't Wakefield. Chris Turner helped form them I think. He was manager for a bit but now he's back to being a Director of Football. Like many others their aim is EFL status, but that's a long way from Sheffield and Hallam Senior. Before lockdown they signed Ify Ofoegbu and he played a few games. They are trying to turn up and develop young talent, so if we were ever interested in finding young talent it might be a place to look ........ and steal some. If we intend to continue as a football club surely we can't continue in the same vein that left us with a young Che Adams playing 20 miles down the road for Ilkeston and we couldn't be bothered to take a look. The names of the clubs watching him should have been enough for us to offer him a contract sharpish (even unseen like a Latin translation), but I don't think we ever knew he was there.

Thoughts on a Thursday. Jamie Vardy Stocksbridge. Chris Wilder Alfreton and Halifax. Chesterfield bubble-wrapped, Devon sunny. Thoughts, ideas?

By the way, this site comes up as NOT SECURE on my computer. Any idea why? Answers on a postcard. In blue.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 18TH JULY 3:00PM KICK OFF

v

LAST MATCH



After the good win at QPR, we kinda went back to normal as we played out a dull 0-0 draw with The Village. There wasn't many clear cut chances tough there keeper did make a quality save from Harris & stopped a shot by Odubajo as both teams huffed and puffed. Onto the 2nd and basically the same thing. They had a chance which was put wide, Bannan had a curler that went too high. The Village best chance came near the end when there sub Fraser Campbell blazed over from inside the 6 yard box. Another point, but we still await the decision from the EFL.

THE MATCH



Next up another long trip and the final one of the season as we travel to London to take on promotion chasing Fulham. It looks like the playoffs and not automatic promotion barring some ridiculous results. They have the leagues 2nd top scorer in Mitrovic, who has racked up 24 so far. They are managed by Scott Parker who was a good player and is now on the start of his managerial career. We drew with these earlier in the season with Nuhiu getting a late late equalizer. They have a talented squad including a couple of players who were with us last season, Hector & Onomah.

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                                  

FUL                  -                                                         

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

DARREN ENGLAND
Darren Blunden and Robert Hyde
Fourth Official: James Oldham

THE TEAM

Wickham, Palmer & Lee could all make a re-appearance is the only real question.

Wildsmith
Lees Iorfa Borner
Murphy Lee Bannan Luongo Harris
Wickham Windass

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Windass

BML STANDINGS

SCO 20
Washington 18
Imre 17
Wereham 17
Pei 16
Owlkev 13
Stateside 11
Southey 8

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Hull City v Luton Town
Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Preston North End v Birmingham City
Queens Park Rangers v Millwall
Swansea City v Bristol City

AAHAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC





One for Washington



The thread awaits the Meggo of Statesides choice.[/b]

SMILIES/BALLS

 Bonus Ball
 Score Ball, Free to use Ball , play it on a game that you think both teams will score in !
 Gamball,

New Scoring System

Incorrect Result =  0 point
Incorrect Result (Bonus Ball) = -3 * Changed from -2
Incorrect Result (Gamball) = -3
[/color]
Score Ball = 1 added Point if both teams score.  !

Correct Result = +2 points
Correct Result (Bonus Ball) = +3
Correct Result (Gamball) = +5  * Changed from +4
Correct Score = + 4 points
Correct Score (Bonus Ball) = +6  
Correct Score (Gamball) = +10   * Changed from +8

As you can see the incorrect scoring has not really changed apart from a wrong Bonus this will be now scored at -3 instead of -2 the reason for this are the gains on the new Gamball scoring you will make (see below) in the hope this encourages you to use it most if not all of the time.

So to the Gamball, the use of the Gamball was tactically not used in some cases last season as the gains we not considered to great compared to the losses, it's for this reason we have decided to change the scoring, The loss will stay the same at -3 but the reward will be a correct result will go up by one from 4 to 5 points and the correct score will go up by 2 from 8 to 10 points !!!
Just a reminder you DO NOT have to play the Gamball if you dont want too, the score will then be marked normal.  


Again the third from bottom of the premiership will play off against the third in the table from the Championship to keep even more excitement going, they will have to predict through all the Playoffs and the winner obviously takes their place in the Premier League the following season  

Beefy, Bomber, Zinman & SCO  


If you do not predict,...........
If in your league everyone scores above zero you will receive Zero points,
However if in your league the person with the lowest score is below Zero (eg -4) you will score -5 and receive your first strike, Remember 3 strikes and you're out.

All scores must be in before MIDDAY SATURDAY,(For The Early Kick Off If Applicable) If the early kick off is missed the rest of your predictions must reach us by 2.45pm or none will be counted.



* NEW & UPDATED 2018/19 PARTICIPANTS,

Premiership
                             
1/ Zinman
2/ ST Charles Owl
3/ Derby                            
4/ Bomber
5/ Sanjay
6/ Beefy                                                      
7/ AAA
8/ BBB 
9/ MattWBA
10/ MacLad                  
                           
Championship

1/ Joker
2/ Stairs
3/ MightyBrom
4/ Baggieone
5/ 4eva
6/ Amelia                          
7/ Twerton
8/ Snoots
9/ Lady Jane

                        
                             
I'm almost 100% sure Myself & the Scorers get the scores added up correctly, From time to time over the season we may get now and again get this wrong, SO IN THE EVENT OF ANY POINTS DISCREPANCIES can i ask all you guys to check your predictions and if you feel they are incorrect in anyway contact me Via PM within a week of the TABLES & SCORES being presented and they will be corrected the following week.
Anything later unless it is a Major error will NOT be corrected. It is as much your responsibility to check your scores as much as it is ours to try and score them correctly.
Beefy  

** The last three set of fixtures are now up and running, same rules apply one different ball for each set of fixtures Bonus/Score & Gamball.
Again Sorry the Season has come down to NO Promotion/Relegation and Champions but Hey Ho integrity of the League during a Pandemic and all that .........  
Good luck All
Beefy and the Three Musketeers

Friday 17th July

1/** Huddersfield v WBA  17:30  
2/ West ham V Watford

Saturday 18th July

3/ Arsenal V Man City (FAC) *Score after 90 Mins
4/ Norwich V Burnley
5/ Charlton v Wigan
6/ Stoke V Brentford
7/ Fulham v Sheff Wed
8/ Hull City V Luton
9/ Preston V Birmingham
10/ Swansea V Bristol City

Wednesday 22nd July

1/**Birmingham  v Derby  
2/Brentford v Barnsley
3/ Bristol City v Preston
4/ Cardiff City v Hull City
5/Leeds  v Charlton
6/Millwall v Huddersfield
7/Nottingham Forest v Stoke City
8/Sheffield Wednesday v Middlesbrough
9/ WBA v QPR
10/ Wigan  v Fulham

WEEK 33 is just for those involved in the Relegation / Promotion play offs Only *****

Sunday 26th July

1/ Arsenal v Watford
2/ Burnley v Brighton
3/**Chelsea v Wolves  
4/Crystal Palace v Spurs
5/ Everton v Bournemouth
6/ Leicester City v Manchester United
7/ Manchester City v Norwich City
8/Newcastle United v Liverpool
9/Southampton v Sheffield United
10/ West Ham United v Aston Villa

Colchester United have parted company with head coach John McGreal after four years in charge.

The U's finished sixth in League Two, but lost to Exeter City in the play-off semi-finals.

Ex-Ipswich, Tranmere and Burnley defender McGreal, 48, was promoted from under-21 coach in 2016 after the club were relegated from League One.

"John should be very proud of his time in charge of the first team," said chairman Robbie Cowling.

Colchester finished eighth, 13th and eighth in McGreal's previous three seasons in charge, but 15 wins and 13 draws in 37 games before coronavirus ended the 2019-20 regular campaign were enough to secure a play-off spot.

However, after winning their home leg of the semi-final 1-0, they went down 3-2 on aggregate after a 3-1 extra-time defeat at Exeter.

"I spoke with John McGreal on Friday, 3 July to explain that the club is going to be implementing a new plan that will see the first team being even more tightly aligned to the academy and that I along with my three other directors, (Tony Humes, Tony Ashby and Jon De Souza), felt a change of first-team head coach was required if our new direction was to be successfully implemented," said Cowling.

"The club is not only facing a number of unprecedented challenges but also some unprecedented opportunities and myself and the other directors believe significant changes are required that will be best served with a new head coach."

Analysis
BBC Essex sports editor Glenn Speller

Having made the play-offs and the quarter-finals of the League Cup under McGreal, who was on a 12-month rolling contract, this will come as a surprise to many.

But Colchester are clearly tightening their belts given the current financial challenges facing football.

It's a club already renowned for utilising academy players and McGreal started his coaching career within that set-up.

Another appointment from within will be expected with Wayne Brown already a frontrunner."

v



LAST TIME OUT

DERBY COUNTY 1 BRENTFORD 3



PRESTON NORTH END 1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1



FORM GUIDE MAX 25 POINTS

BRENTFORD 19 PNE 8

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE



Taking charge of this Wednesday’s live Sky encounter with Brentford at Griffin Park is match official Darren England.

Darren last refereed PNE in the 2-1 win at Wigan Athletic in February, having also officiated the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough back at the beginning of October; this is also his third Brentford game of the season, having refed their 1-1 home draw with Hull City and their 2-1 loss at Luton in February.

Last season, he officiated two North End games; our win over Queens Park Rangers at Deepdale in August 2018, when Alan Browne was the match winner on the opening day of the season and then the thrilling 3-3 draw with Aston Villa at Villa Park in what proved to be Steve Bruce’s last game in charge of our opponents.

In 2017/18, his first on the Select Group Two list, Darren took charge of three North End games, another draw at Middlesbrough in August, the 2-2 clash with Fulham at Craven Cottage and the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in February, so the QPR game was his first and only visit to Deepdale thus far.

In total so far this season, he officiated in 32 games, issuing 89 cautions and two red cards, his last game being the 3-1 away victory for Bristol City against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

This Saturday lunchtime he will be assisted by Sam Lewis and Nigel Lugg, whilst the fourth official will be experienced match official Keith Stroud.

THE MATCH

The first of our three game run in against sides beginning with the letter B, almost certainly this is our last game at Griffin Park although a play off semi final between the clubs is a possibility, remote but could take place.
The hosts are in terrific form at the moment despatching allcomers by usually a few goals although did have to work hard to beat Charlton ;ast week 2-1.
Last time out they beat Wayne Rooney FC 3-1 with two of the three main front men scoring Watkins and Benrahma who seems to be scoring for fun at the moment. Personal view will settle for a point in this however injuries may have struck at a bad time, Davies definitely out, Pearson, Browne and Johnson doubtful this could be a very different North End side from what we are used too.

MACS GRIFFIN PARK MEMORIES

Never won at the ground with four pubs(yep done them all) match that stands out for all the wrong reasons, can be summed up when my mate went to the bogs with us 3-0 and came back with us 5-0 down almost missed the pleasure of this man scoring for the last time in a North End shirt unfortunately in his own net. Step forward Chris Humphrey

United really look more n more like a top side and I expect that great unbeaten run to continue tonight v Southampton - amazing how confidence can sweep through a winning team in the way it has materialised with Bruno Fernandes at the forefront of this great run of form and Pogba becoming part of that "good feeling" as well!! Great stuff!

Player Pts CS CR GB BB SB
Zinman 18 2 3 10 -3 1
St Charles 13 1 4 5 -3 1
Themaclad 11 1 3 5 -3 1
Derby 9 0 2 5 3 1
Beefy 6 1 2 -3 3 0
A.A.A. 6 1 0 NP 6 0
B.B.B. 0 0 3 -3 -3 0
Bomber -1 0 2 -3 -3 1
Sanjay -1 0 2 -3 -3 1

Bit of a mixed bag this week with a decent spread between top and bottom, but this means we have some real positional battles going in as we head into the final two weeks!!

Leading this week is Zinman, a rare decent week for him with 18 points all on the back of a correct score on the Gamball and being the only one to get more than one CS in total. His relegation threatened rival St Charles comes in 2nd, but crucially 5 points behind on 13 points. He got a CR on the Gamball and even got a correct score for once as well!! Those scores may change things at the bottom!! Themaclad comes in 3rd on 11 points, CR on the gamball helped him get there, how will that effect the top of the table??

Derby is in 4th on 9 points, got a CR on the Gamball and unlike the top three he was able to pick up points on the bonus and scoreball but unfortunately these were his only scoring games keeping his score down. Joint 5th is AAA and Beefy on 6 points. AAA only actually scored points on 1 game but it was his bonus and he got it spot on!! Beefy picked up a CR on his bonus but missed on the Gamball therefore cancelling each other out!! Will these three scores will have an impact on the table??

BBB finished in 7th spot but didn't trouble the scorers with his zero points. Three CRs cancelled out by the Gamball and Bonus misses. Joint bottom this week on -1 is our league leader Bomber and Sanjay. Both had identical scores, no CSs, 2 CRs and missed on the Gamball and Bonus. Could this score coupled with Themaclad's see Bomber throw the title away having been at the top for so long??

Bomber will confirm all this (or will he??) but at the top of the table there was a 12 point swing in Themaclad's favour, this means that Bomber still retains the lead but that lead is now down to just 4 points!!! Zinman's top of the table performance has once again seen him move above SCO and out of the automatic relegation spots and into the PO spot but there is only one point between them!!! I asked earlier how the middle set of scores would impact the table, well no positions changed hands but there are now only 11 points separating Sanjay in 4th place and SCO in the 8th place relegation spot!!! This means that the final two weeks could potentially see any of them drop into the relegation places!!

Not mentioned Beefy in all of this deliberately. This weeks results look to have all but confirmed his relegation and return to the Championship, not mathematically yet but before this week he was 18 points from the PO spot and 28 off safety, whereas after this week he is now 26 points off the PO spot and a whopping 31 points off safety!!!! Looks like Beefy is doing a Villa/Norwich and making a swift return to the Championship!!

Cheers
SCO

   


Snooty 22pts 2CS 5CR 10GB 6BB 0SB
Twerton 10pts 2CS 4CR DNPGB -3BB 1SB
BaggieOne 6pts 1CS 2CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Lady Jane 0pts 0CS 1CR DNPGB -3BB 1SB
Amelia -3pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Stairs -4pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Joker -5pts - Didn't bother to post

It was probably the impact of the pubs reopening last week but a combination of late postings/non-postings/bad postings gave us a miserable return of just 26 points this week, the second lowest score of the season. Yes, despite Beefy's maths giving everyone an extra game to score from. 3 matches failed to deliver a single positive score and it was all or nothing (or rather all or minus 3) from the gamball.

So only 26 points in total but Snooty still managed to score an impressive 22! As last week, his ball play was excellent (taking lessons from Amelia?) with a maximum from both the gamball and bonus, and he also scored from a week's high of 5 games - normally a 50% success rate but this week....well, you know.

Such is Twerton's lead at the top of the table that he could probably go on holiday and still win the title....and that's exactly what he did this week and still managed to come second. Twerton missed the first 3 games of the weekend but still got 4 correct results and a spot on gamball - well behind Snooty but still comfortably in 2nd place. BaggieOne's faint hopes of getting promotion were helped...not so much by his own performance, though 6 points in such a dreadful week isn't too bad, but by the rest of the contenders! Only 2 correct predictions from him but one of them happened to a correct score bonus to make him the only other player with a positive total score.

Lady Jane was another late entrant, missing out on the gamball (quite possibly a good thing) and failing on the bonus. Her one correct prediction plus the score ball helped her to a grand total of zero. Amelia appears to be crumbling under the pressure of her late promotion surge and her ball skills seem to have deserted her as again she lost points on the gamball and bonus. Only 1 correct prediction left her with a score of minus 3 which should have left the door open for Joker to claw back the gap to second place. Unfortunately he chose this week to be absent and the opportunity was lost.

Nearly at the end of the season and while the title was settled long ago, the hunt for promotion has suddenly become interesting (OK, maybe not that interesting but you have to realise I live a very dull life). By my calculation - not always totally accurate but more reliable than say a Beefy abacus - BaggieOne has crept above Joker into the play-off position with just 11 points between Amelia in 2nd and Joker in 4th. Another couple of weeks like this one would also bring Snooty into the frame. So all to play for (if you can be bothered).

Zin