Barrow have appointed David Dunn as their new manager ahead of the club's return to the English Football League.

The 40-year-old has left his job as Blackpool assistant head coach to replace Ian Evatt on a two-year deal.

Evatt departed the Bluebirds at the beginning of the month to take charge of League One club Bolton Wanderers.

Barrow were promoted back to the EFL after a gap of 48 years as champions when the National League season was ended in June by coronavirus.

Chairman Paul Hornby said: "As soon as we knew David was available and wanted the position we made him our number one target.

"He is an extremely talented coach and ticked all the boxes with the owners."

Dunn had a spell as Oldham manager during the 2015-16 season, but lasted only 20 games, the last seven of which were winless.

He then returned to Blackburn, whom he helped win promotion to the Premier League in 2011 and lift the League Cup in 2002, as a member of the coaching staff, before moving on to Blackpool in January.

Hornby added: "His football philosophy and style of play is completely suited to how we are setup and he also knows a number of our players, which met our requirements for a seamless transition.

"Over the coming weeks David will be assembling his backroom management team and strengthening the squad - a task which is already well under way."

Barrow were four points clear at the top of the National League table when games were halted in March because of the pandemic and later confirmed as champions on a points-per-game basis.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 11TH JULY 3:00PM KICK OFF

v

LAST MATCH



Back at home and another defeat to a team who hadn't won in seven and had only scored 3 goals. We hit the crossbar early on through Iorfa. Preston then had several chances but wasted them and we went in level at the break. We started better in the second half and took the lead when Murphy was put in by Nuhiu and finished. Things were gong our way until Preston made some subs and the game changed. Sinclair was put through from a flick on and leveled. We then had a goal ruled out correctly for offside then Preston went up the other end a took the lead through Stockley and wrapped up the points in injury time when Potts surged forward and scored. To say we defended poorly is an understatement.

THE MATCH



Next off down to London to play QPR. They look set to remain in the Championship as they are 11 points off the playoffs and 8 above the relegation zone. This lot score know how to score with 60 goals so far but dont know how to defend as they have conceded 67 so expect them to keep a clean sheet against us   Hugill is there top scorer with 15 goals and got the winner at Hillsborough earlier in the season.

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                                  

QPR                  -                                    

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

OLIVER LANGFORD
Adrian Waters and Geoffrey Russell
Fourth Official: Tom Nield

THE TEAM

Does it really matter who plays, any players put back into the team will either not score or make defensive errors

Westwood
Lyons Pearson Borner
Harkes Sheridan Palmer Lungo Worthington
Hirst Varadi

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Nuhiu

BML STANDINGS

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

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Barnsley v Wigan Athletic
Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
Hull City v Millwall
Middlesbrough v Bristol City
Preston North End v Nottingham Forest

HAAAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC





One for Washington



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

Brentford have played / will play pretty much all their games before Leeds and us, giving them the chance to get points on the board and to pile pressure on the top two, creating must win games .....

Also why are pundits adding extra pressure on to us by repeatedly stating Brentford will overtake us because they have an easier run in, Leeds will go up yatter yatter yatter.......

We're not London or a North West, or a " big " club (Leeds) so don't matter, Leeds are perennial chokers, they are one point better off and have a worse goal difference than us, they are playing teams that know how to fight, Stoke, Preston and still have Derby away as well. So are just as likely to drop points as us .... We have a big, dare I say, great squad, we should have more quality cover in case of injury or fatigue.

We have players who have been there and done that ..... I feel we won't choke.

Derby tonight have five players missing, some will be back in time for Brentford and Leeds matches ...

We can afford to draw two matches provided we win the other three, winnable games are there, Derby are beatable, Fulham also, Blackburn, Huddersfield and QPR have little to play for ....... It's in our hands.

BUT A BIT OF FAIR PLAY PLEASE .....

Player Pts CS CR GB BB SB
Bomber 28 2 6 10 3 1
Themaclad 23 2 4 10 3 0
Derby 22 2 6 5 3 0
B.B.B. 20 3 3 NP 6 0
Beefy 19 1 4 10 3 0
Zinman 13 2 3 -3 6 0
Sanjay 10 1 4 -3 3 0
A.A.A. 9 0 6 NP -3 0
St Charles 8 0 5 -3 3 0

An excellent scoring week for most in the PL this week and a combined 152 points!! Topping this weeks scores is the PL leader Bomber with 28 points, a season high score for him!! A spot on Gamball along with a CR Bonus and being the only one to get anything on the Scoreball saw him potentially do enough to win the title!!! His closest challenger for the title Themaclad was also his closest challenger this week on 23 points. He too got a spot on Gamball and a CR Bonus but just couldn't back that up with enough other games to keep pace with Bomber. Third spot goes to the relegation threatened Derby with an impressive and much needed 22 points. He scored on as many games as Bomber but only got a CR on the Gamball but I would think he will be delighted with this anyway!!

BBB comes in 4th with 20 points, while this score is good, the fact that the two ahead of him in the title race were also ahead of him this week means he will lose ground in the title race, could this be the end of his challenge with only a few weeks left?? Another BBB comes in 5th - Bottom Basement Beefy with 19 points. He was the third player this week to get the maximum on the Gamball but his inability to follow this up with much else saw him come in mid-table. Still the fact that his main relegation rivals are below him will see him gain ground on them. Another of the relegation threatened players Zinman comes in 6th on 13 points, definitely his best week of post-lockdown scores but with Derby and Beefy above him he is now in real danger of dropping further!!

Sanjay comes in 8th with 10 points, scored on 5 games but missed on the Gamball to keep his score down. AAA comes in 9th place on 9 points, no correct scores really hurt him this week, if he could have converted one of the 6 CRs he got he could have scored a lot more points. Last place this week is St Charles, his season long inability to get correct scores haunts him again with zero this week but 5 CRs including the Bonus kept it from being a total disaster.

So what does this do to the table as we head into the home stretch?? Bomber will post the table but if I am adding up right at the top of the table his lead is increased to 16 points as he goes past the 300 mark for the season, a healthy lead with only a few weeks left. Themaclad wasn't able to fully consolidate 2nd spot, but he did double his lead over BBB to 6 points, still a shot for BBB of claiming second spot though!! At the other end things have become very tight, Derby's fine score this week moves him out of the playoff spot, leaping over SCO whose poor week saw him fall 10 points behind Derby and now 4 points ahead of Zinman!! Beefy started this week 20 points adrift in last place and 29 points from safety, he ends this week 14 points adrift of Zinman but still 28 points from safety. The race is well and truly on going into the final laps and all is still to play for!!

Cheers
SCO


   

Snooty      21pts 2CS 6CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Stairs        13pts 2CS 5CR -3GB 6BB 0SB
BaggieOne 13pts 0CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Twerton     12pts 1CS 6CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Lady Jane  12pts 0CS 7CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Amelia       10pts 1CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Joker           8pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB

A clear pattern at the top of the table with only 2 players gaining points from either the gamball or scoreball b and everyone gaining their extra bonus ball point. A clear winner this week is Snooty with an impressive 21 points though an enquiry may be necessary as he appears to have stolen Amelia's balls. Snoots scored on 6 games with 2 correct scores and a full set of positive balls though his sudden form has come far too late to help his season.

Not much to choose between the rest. Stairs got his bonus spot on to secure 2nd place on 13 points tied with BaggieOne who actually had the worst set of predictions with only 4 correct results and no correct scores but he still manages to scrape a top 3 finish because of his gamball and scoreball. Twerton and Lady Jane both reached 12 points but in very different ways. Like Snooty, Twerton got 6 correct results but just the 1 score and Lady Jane scored on a week's high of 7 matches but failed to get a single score correct - fine margins!

Amelia passed her ball skills on to Snooty for the week and suffered as a result - still 10 points isn't bad and she still managed to extend her lead over Joker by 2 points in the chase for the second promotion slot.

No show again from MightyBrom.

Just a couple of weeks left and I think that Twerton can confidently put his promotion champagne on ice. Amelia in 2nd place can still be caught by Joker but he will need to improve his recent form (getting his scores in on time will help) and hope that Snooty doesn't give Amelia her balls back.  BaggieOne will need a couple of miracle weeks to get back in the frame. Stairs looks set to take the wooden spoon though he may just be able to catch Mighty as long as he continues to be absent.

Zin

   

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  

Friday 10th July

1/ Huddersfield V Luton

Saturday 11th July

2/ Watford V Newcastle
3/ Sheff United V Chelsea
4/ ** Derby V Brentford  
4/ Blackburn V WBA
5/ Preston V Notts Forest
6/ QPR V Sheff Wed

Sunday 12th July

7/ Wolves V Everton
8/ Aston Villa V Crystal Palace
9/ Spurs V Arsenal
10/ Swansea V Leeds

His recent actions have been IMO all been wrong. I'm sure racism has a long way to go before equality
can be claimed across our society. Hamilton I feel has been ill advised and spoken out of turn on several issues.
To claim reminders of slavery should be removed, he then shows up wearing a chain and padlock? 
He say he will not "Force" his fellow drivers to take the knee? Another bad choice of words.
Cars being painted black it's all OTT - when the boo's ring out for him and they will, how long will it be before his motivation goes?
McLaren have asked him to take a £12m drop in salary, when he asked for an £8m pay increase.
That gives an indication of he is now in the twilight of his career and his value has dropped like a stone. 
I think he will remembered for driving the best car, not as the best driver, simply because he has not driven and won races
for another team.

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 10th July:
Town v Luton (18:00)
Town scorers:
Luton scorers:

Fulham v Cardiff City (20:15)

Saturday 11th July:
Charlton Athletic v Reading (12:30)
Derby County v Brentford (12:30)
Barnsley v Wigan Athletic
Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
Hull City v Millwall
Middlesbrough v Bristol City
Preston North End v Nottingham Forest
Queens Park Rangers v Sheffield Wednesday

Sunday 12th July:
Swansea City v Leeds United (13:30)
Stoke City v Birmingham City (15:00)

Tuesday 14th July:
Sheff Weds v Town
Town scorers:
Wendy scorers:

Reading v Middlesbrough (18:00)
Wigan Athletic v Hull City (18:00)
Brentford v Preston North End
Cardiff City v Derby County
Luton Town v Queens Park Rangers
Millwall v Blackburn Rovers
West Bromwich Albion v Fulham

Wednesday 15th July:
Birmingham City v Charlton Athletic (18:00)
Nottingham Forest v Swansea City (18:00)
Bristol City v Stoke City

Thursday 16th July:
Leeds United v Barnsley (17:00)

Bonus match:
Monday:
League 1 Play Off Final:
Oxford United v Wycombe Wanderers (19:30)

Table after Matchday 36:
jjamez = 783 pts
Baggiebob(BBB) = 775 pts
neonfoxinthebox = 768 pts
themaclad = 754 pts
theo_luddite = 731 pts
St Charles Owl = 711 pts
ritchiebaby = 697 pts
SHEP_HTAFC = 688 pts
Lord Snooty = 685 pts
Amelia Chaffinch = 634 pts
Beefy 1965 = 616 pts

After months of inactivity, Hibs finally looking at a home game at ER Stadium v Killie on 1 August or will we be watching this game at a re-adapted BT Murrayfield Stadium to accommodate "socially distanced" Hibs and Killie fans?

v



LAST TIME OUT

SWANSEA CITY 2 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1



HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 0 PRESTON NORTH END 0



FORM GUIDE LAST 3 GAMMES MAX POINTS 15

WEDNESDAY 5 NORTH END 2

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

It’s a second Preston North End game of the season for Tony Harrington when he is the match official for Wednesday evening’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

His first game was February’s home clash with Gary Rowett’s Millwall at Deepdale, however, last season the north east official took charge of three PNE games, the March trip to Reading, the 2-0 cup win at Leeds United back in August 2018 and the home game against West Bromwich Albion that autumn.

Tony has been a familiar face over recent seasons. In 2017/18 he visited Deepdale twice,
the Lilywhites’ opening day 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in Alex Neil’s first competitive game in charge of the club, and our Bank Holiday Monday clash with Derby County.

The previous season he also took charge of another two North End games, the 1-1 draw away at Nottingham Forest and the thrilling 4-2 win over Brentford at Deepdale.

The match official, who is now in his ninth year on the EFL list, has also been to PR1 on a number of previous occasions in the past, including the 2014/15 penalty win against Oldham Athletic in the JPT and the club’s last two home league games against Notts County, including a 2-0 win over the Magpies at Deepdale in February 2014.



This will be the Cleveland referee’s 33rd game of the season, having refereed opponents the Owls three times already, including home wins over Barnsley and Bristol City and an away defeat against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns and so far he had issued 85 cautions and six red cards; two of which came in his last game, when he refereed the feisty League One Play-Off semi-final between Fleetwood Town and Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe Wanderers.

He will be joined by assistants Shaun Hudson and Phil Dermott, whilst David Webb will be the fourth official.

MACS HILLSBOROUGH MEMORIES

Been numerous times have managed a solitary win 3-1 when Brian McBride scored his first goal for us before being unavailable with a blood clot, the match was in September 2000.
First visit was 3/3/1973 a dull rainy March afternoon, sat in the side stand opposite the players tunnel, memories of the game they only seemed to have one record that they played on the PA Alan Price Rosetta and this sod scored twice



Prospects

Wednesday still need points to ensure safety in the likely event they will get a points deduction from the EFL for slight financial trickery apparently, they have just come off the back of a 2-1 loss in South Wales were they only seemed to getinto gear in the last 10 minutes or so when they had about 9 forwards including the Giant Kosovan Nuhiu, they also have on their books he scores when he wants(Rhodes) and have board Whickham from Palace and some dude called De la Cruz. No Forestier, Fletcher or Hutchinson whose contracts have ended and they have decided to move on.
Apparently we are going in an attacking vein to try and keep our every decreasing chances of getting into the play offs, would actually help if we had shots on target, mind you might be good if we had forwards who could actually score but that's another tale.

By the time the game kicks off the first day of the Test series will have been completed not hard to guess which will probably be more entertaining