https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/lo...spartandhp

I certainly agree with this revolt to stop this outdated nonsense re "swamping" the HoL and "legging up" hereditary peers but my anti royalty inclination tells me that this system is backward, biased and so full of privilege and greed and an insult to decent citizens when watching the "public purse" being "dipped into" in this shameless way. Scrap it all!!

 

This weekend Huddersfield head abroad to foreign fields for footballing purposes (weather permitting), it marks the second visit to wales this season and comes on the back of a positive performance away at Derby. It also marks the beginning of a busy week for town with this game being closely followed by a home game against bristol city and then fellow relegation battlers charlton.

Its safe to say that at the moment you never know what sort of performance you'll get from town, so much so we are almost marmite, you'll either love it or hate it, seldom do we see the in between. A positive 2-0 victory at home to QPR was swiftly followed by a horror show against another welsh side in Cardiff, The trip to Derby was with the fear that the display on the pitch could be as bad as the weather that has been battering the country (plural if you want welsh independence), however, that was not to be, as despite my first fears, town seemed to manage the game well and for the most part of my viewing seemed to be the best team on show, hitting the woodwork through a Frazer Campbell strike. Questions for their goal could be raised, with one being why was welshman Tom Lawrence left unmarked and unchallenged before using the freedom of Derby to fire a dipping effort into the top corner, and why moments later was he allowed the same time and space to nearly replicate it all over again, you'd think that footballers never paid attention at school and haven't the ability to think on their feet    

However, rather than go down with a whimper town managed to fight back and got a deserved equaliser through Harry Toffolo, questions too could be asked as to what their keeper was playing at, but considering he is number two behind one Ben Hamer, I think you've got your answers there. That being said, he did make amends to an extent when he produced a fine stop to deny Chris Willock his first town goal late in proceedings. All in all I'd say a point is a good result from Pride Park, although three wouldn't have been undeserved either.



A week has nearly passed and we now head to the liberty stadium, another of towns happy hunting grounds, to face a Swansea side, whom sitting in 10th won't have given up on a play off push, although their recent form would suggest that they are slowly drifting away from the pack, even worse for the swans is that Cardiffs challenge is gathering pace, they wont like that one bit.

Its fair to say that the swans' season has petered out somewhat over the last few weeks, with the side only registering 2 wins since the turn of the year, those coming against Charlton on the 2nd of Jan and most recently against Wigan on the 18th of Jan. Other than that it has been fairly bleak, crashing out of the FA cup 5-1 at QPR, losing 2-0 at a semi-resurgent Stoke side, whilst drawing 0-0 against Cardiff. Februarys returns have been equally bleak, with the side drawing at home to qpr 0-0 (better that 5-1 i guess) and losing 2-3 to Derby, whilst on the road they picked up a 1-1 draw against preston and most recently drew 4-4 away at Ull, having eventually taking the lead in the 84th minute, they managed to concede in the 95th minute, talk about snatching a draw from the hands of victory.

In the first half of the year swansea managed to get off to their best ever start which saw Steve Cooper awarded the manager of the month award. It also saw them finishing September in 2nd, whilst come October that had drifted to 4th is was still a good start. They managed just the one victory in november and as such fell down to 6th place and have gradually been falling down little by little. November was also when we last met, with the two sides playing out 1-1 draw with Karlan Grant cancelling out Jay Fultons opener. Town saw Chalobah given his marching orders for a headbutt on George Byers. It was also the last time we saw Alex Pritchard on the pitch in a town shirt, he has appeared once on the bench since then and wasnt used.

The swans are still managed by the Brad Pitt of the management world Steve Cooper, the former England Youth manager was appointed as manager last summer after Graham Potter left to join Brighton. Cooper is assisted in Wales by former Town coach Mike Marsh, who incidentally left town to work with Cooper in the England set up, whom he had got to know during their time in the Liverpool set up. Whilst former town stopper Martyn Margetson is their current goalkeeping coach

Cooper resides from Wales and is the son of former welsh referee Keith Cooper and whilst there is a player called Brandon Cooper amidst the Swansea ranks, I'm not too sure if there is any family ties, I dont know how popular a surname Cooper is in Wales.



A brief history of Swansea Football Club, well they were founded in 1912 and became part of the football league in 1921, they came close to winning the first division in 1981, but ultimately fell away and finished 6th, still the clubs highest ever league finish and by 2003 they were fighting to avoid falling out of the football league, but obviously survived and managed to work their way back up to the top. Under the stewardship of Brendan Rodgers they managed to get promoted from the championship thanks to a 4-2 win at Wembley over Reading (they love it there dont they?) and finished 11th the season after. Rodgers departed to join Liverpool and a slip cost him the title there, but at the Liberty Stadium Michael Laudrup took over and steadily guided the club to more stability in the league as well as winning their first major trophy thanks to a 5-0 win over Bradford in the league cup. This made them the first non english side to win the cup and also qualified them for their first and only taste of european football. The next season saw Laudrup eventually replaced by the man of "class, humility and respect" himself Garry Monk. Monk was a former Swansea player but his tenure only lasted the year as he was replaced by Francesco Guidolin, his spell didnt last too long as after a take over by an American consortium, he was replaced by former USA mens soccer coach Bob Bradley. The yank found himself out of his depth much like Jan the Man and was sacked after just 2 wins from 11 games, but the decline had long since started. He was replaced by former Bayern Munich and Chelsea assistant Paul Clement and whilst results picked up seeing the swans survive the 2016-17 season, Clement soon found himself out of the door as fans became restless over his negative and boring football and he was replaced by former Wednesday manager Carlos Carvahal. He was unable to keep them up and left over the summer to be replaced by Ostersund manager Graham Potter, whilst former owner and chairman Huw Jenkins also left the club over increasing criticism over the sale to the yanks. Potter managed to finish 10th in the championship as well as reaching the quarter finals of the FA cup. He left to join Brighton last summer and you are now up to date, sort of.



Over January plenty of players left the Liberty stadium with left sided players Barrie Mckay and Declan John both going down to league one to join Fleetwood and Sunderland respectively. Cian Harries also went to league one but on loan to Bristol Rovers whilst keeper Kristoffer Nordfelt did a Hadergjonaj and went to ply his trade in turkey. Elsewhere, Sam Surridge saw his loan ended by Bournemouth whilst fellow striker and big earner Borja Baston made the deadline day move to Aston Villa on a free transfer whilst midfielder Tom Carroll saw his contract terminated.

January was a rather quiet window in terms of incomings for Swansea, with just the three loanees coming through the doors. Two of which came from Chelsea in the forms of recent Charlton loanee Conor Gallagher and defender Marc Guehi, the other loanee was from Liverpool and was rumoured town target Rhian Brewster, now this isnt the first time the two sides have locked horns over potential transfers with the swans beating town to the signing of Jason Scotland back when both sides were wee league 1 clubs, whilst Jake Bidwell and Sam Clucas have both chosen Wales over West Yorkshire.



Team news so far suggests that town will have everyone available for selection bar Kamil Grabara and Tommy Elphick, which with games coming thick and fast is not a bad place to be in, it may also give the fans a glimpse of Alex Pritchard, whilst top scorer Karlan Grant could make a return. That all pales into insignificance as the long awaited return of the man, the myth, the legend, the prodigal son Colin Quaner could also be on the cards, just in time to save our season.

As for Swansea, they are set to welcome back defender Joe Rodon who returned to training this week and is looking like he will be available for Saturday, fellow defender Mike Van der Hoorn is closing in on a return but the fixture against town is going to be too soon. Trevoh Chalobahs best mate George Byers is also unavailable due to an injury which has ruled him out for the rest of the season, whilst strike Liam Cullen faces a late fitness test ahead of the fixture.



In regards to lineups, I'd not expect wholesale changes from town, with the back 5 to be untouched, the sole change could come in the form of ESR coming in for Andy King, with Lewis O'brien reverting to his role alongside Hoggy, I'd be inclined to suggest that Grant will return to the bench with the view to getting some second half minutes ahead of the key fixture against charlton coming up, it'll also be interesting to see if Pritchard gets a spot on the bench with the same view.

From a Swansea perspective, it would seem that Rodon will return to strengthen their recently flimsy backline, whilst the only other change I expect them to make would be for Rhian Brewster to come in at the expense of Wayne Routledge, otherwise it will be as you were from the last game away at Hull.  



How to get there

By Car - Postcode: SA1 2FA The Liberty Stadium is located next to the Morfa Retail Park. Exit M4 via Junction 45 and take the A4067 South towards the City Centre for approximately 3 miles.

Park and Ride Felindre and Ride is located off Junction 46 of the M4. The cost of which is £10 a vehicle. The Park and Ride opens two hours prior to kick off and closes up to 2 hours after final whistle. Park and Walk Post code: SA1 2JT Landore Park and Walk is a 3 minute walk to the stadium and can be purchased on the day at £10 per vehicle, subject to availability. The Park and Walk sites open two hours prior to kick off and close up to 2 hours after the final whistle. Visitors are advised that some of this car park's surface will be gravel.

At £10 a car you might want to check here https://www.swansea.gov.uk/carparkingcharges and consider parking further away from the ground and using public transport to get there. The ground itself is about a couple of miles outside of the city.

By Train - Swansea Train Station (High Street) is located 1.4 miles from the stadium and is approximately a 20-minute walk. A taxi rank is located directly outside and the average fare would cost approximately £7 - but prices may vary. In addition to this, there is a bus service across the road from the train station and the 4/4A bus runs directly to the Liberty Stadium. The fares are £2.80 (single journey) or £4.90 (return journey).



Played for both

1) defender who played for both welsh clubs, had a short loan spell at town under Mark Robins

2) Another defender who began his professional career in the north of England and had a spell on loan at both clubs, has been a bit of a nomadic player having never really settled anywhere, currently plying his trade in north america

3) Bald midfielder who was one of Turnips signings. Found himself surplus to requirements under Lee Clark and left for the west coast on loan before having his contract terminated and heading once again to the west coast

4) Became a bit of an icon at town having initially joined on loan to replace an outgoing striker. Spent the best part of 4 seasons at town before leaving to have a short and fruitless spell at swansea. After leaving town he never really settled at a club for an extended period

5) another player who had a loan spell at town early in his career for a season and also spend the one season at swansea, has represented just the 15 teams during his career



The two clubs have shared a similar path since the turn of the century with the clubs having met in all of the top 4 divisions of english football and have played each other 54 times so far with town having come out on top on 23 occasions, whilst Swansea have been the victors 14 times, with the other 17 being draws. Towns record at Swansea either at Vetch Park or Liberty Stadium has seen just the 7 wins, to the home sides 11, with towns largest away win being 3-1 back in 1990. I wasn't even born then... the last time town won at the swans was back in 2007.

so from a game of yesteryear, I'll let you guess the line up, one hint is that it isnt from when we last won there in 2007...

GK- Joined the club from a side in scotland and spent 4 years contracted at the club. has played for a couple of yorkshire clubs and has retired from playing twice.

RB- one of a set of brothers to have played in blue and white, spending just shy of a decade at the club, never quite achieved consistency at the club, mainly due to injuries which have plagued his whole career. Is still playing albeit not as often

LB- A short but feisty full back who was struggled for hair as much as pace. Spent two seasons at the club before joining a west coast club on a free transfer

CB- Started his youth career down at tottenham, but began his professional career north of the border. Joined town from a fellow yorkshire side, ahead of a 2 season spell playing 48 times for the club before moving on to the likes of Grimsby and Mansfield. Has since retired and had managerial spells at a handful of non league sides

CB- came through the system at town and at times featured as a striker. Had six years at town before he was questionably moved on to a division rival. reached the championship before town could and had 2 full seasons there before another questionable move saw him move briefly down south, only to return back to his old club. Has since been found playing in league two but has recently retired.

RM- Another product of the town academy, was originally a full back but moved into the midfield and was on occasion the captain of the side. Spent 6 years at the club before leaving after being unable to reach an agreement over a new contract at the club. Had brief spells at oldham and morecambe after leaving town before finishing his career playing in non league football. Is currently a youth coach at a yorkshire rival.

CM- Signed on a free transfer from Chesterfield but never cemented his place during a two year spell at the club and subsequently left to find football elsewhere. After leaving town he slowly made his way down the footballing ladder, he is one of the few players to represent the club along with a namesake

CM- A highly rated midfielder who scored two remember-able goals for the club to go with 17 others that dont quite stand out as much. Has played for two other  yorkshire clubs and managed one other for a short spell, has since come out of retirement to play in non league football including for his hometown club. He has also gone to play abroad in a lesser known league but only for the one season before being lured back to england to play in league two.

LM- Although not quite a product of the academy or a local lad, he was on the books at town for 10 years and played primarily on the wing but sometimes upfront. Requested to leave the club and was allowed to do so in order to play where cider is produced for a season before joining one of englands most hated clubs for two years. Has since retired and coached at another of englands most hated clubs as well as getting a sports science degree. He now coaches at one of englands most loved clubs

ST- Scored a milestone goal for town and the football league and was a bit of a fans favorite, left to go to the seaside and his career escalated pretty quickly with his representing and scoring for them in the premier league, when he left that club fell apart and he went to help a midlands club achieve promotion to the top division, but never represented them there and was sent out on loan. Holds one of the shortest tenures as a manager.

ST- A bit of an icon over two spells at the club. Is fitter now than he ever was when he was a player.

Subs- A former man united goal keeper that had 3 different spells at the club either permanently or on loan, made three premier league appearances for the club he left town for and has also gone on to play for Leeds, Oldham as well as in India

Subs- Another who is in a set of siblings to represent town, didnt feature much for town and made more of a name for himself at port vale and york, has since retired and studied sports science

Subs- a bit of a fan favorite for town, but sometimes remembered for a dreadful back pass, although his efforts at the other end of the pitch slightly made up for it

Subs- one of the quickest players to ever play for town, if he was up against a sloth, snail and a slug...but he did know how to put the ball in the onion bag. nearly helped town to  promotion whilst on loan and rejoined a bit later on a permanent deal and spent two further years at the club. Has since retired and turned his hand to physiotherapy.

If you do your predictions after these specified times, they will not be accepted.

Weekend games 12 pm
Midweek games 7:30 pm

Just a reminder that you can use your    on any fixture, but its not compulsory!! Get it right and you will score double points but getting it wrong will result in -2 points, so the reward and risk are there for all!!

Boreham Wood 0-2 Yeovil Town
Bromley 1-1 Wrexham
Chesterfield 2-0 Ebbsfleet United
Chorley 0-2 Barnet
Dagenham & Redbridge 1-2 Solihull Moors
Dover Athletic 0-0 AFC Fylde
Harrogate Town 2-0 Eastleigh
Hartlepool United 1-2 Notts County
Maidenhead United 1-0 Aldershot Town
Torquay United 1-2 FC Halifax Town
Woking 0-2 Stockport County
Sutton United 1-3 Barrow

League Table after Matchday 37
Amelia = 480
Lord Snoots = 446
Dancing = 442
Spireitematt = 398
St Charles = 394
SaltergateBorn = 390
Theo = 236
Devon = 98

what are your views on the season so far?
good,bad,indifferent?

will we survive in the greed league with what we have?

opinions welcome

Kristien

Back from spending yet more of my money - sorry, guys and gals (am I allowed to say that?) but only I can apply for funds - I'm going to do a big catch-up on the Junior Championships, currently being held in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. They only have the Semi-finals and Finals to play in both the Men's and Women's events, culminating in Saturday's Finals.

Only Scotland's men have qualified from the Home Nations for these Championships and are represented by James Craik (skip), Mark Watt, Blair Haswell, Niall Ryder and Angus Bryce (AB from my home ice rink). After losing their first 2 games against Italy and Russia, they really got going, winning the next 7 against Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, USA and Canada.

The upshot is that they lead after the round-robin games and play Switzerland in the Semi-finals tomorrow with Canada playing Germany in the other. The Women's Semi-finals are also tomorrow with Korea playing Japan and Canada playing Russia.

Yes Pembo it makes a little bit of sense, like the offside rule and VAR.

Saturday's best bet - Ebbsfleet away.

We spend most of our time not saying anything and deliberately covering stuff up, BUT when the time comes just to SHUT THE FCCKU UP we decide to go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like

er well we quite like you and here's the shortest contract in history to recognise the fact that we have no confidence in either ourselves or you.

What a belly-up club!

All we need now is the National League to announce it has finally got its act together just before the season ends and has decided to relegate four teams rather than the obvious three.

v



MACS MYSTIC FORM GUIDE

PNE 16 HULL 3

LAST TIME OUT

PNE 0 MILLWALL 1


Need to be better than we were last Saturday

HULL 4 SWANSEA 4

The Daily Telegraph described this as a Valentine's Day massacre of the defences, saw second half and astounded as to how bad both sides were at the back, Swansea's second goal typified the game no home defenders saw the Swans take the quick corner and nobody was near Routledge about 10 yards out as he scored CRIMINAL

LAST SEASON

PNE 1 HULL CITY 2


City were on a good run as we had run out of fit players.

Another home game before we take on the minnows of Albion and Fulham away next week, do not know what to expect from the Tigers, the side who I saw batter Fulham at the Cottage, the one who hammered us at the KC although our lack of one full back caused us major issues.
Or will City be as pourous as they were against Swansea last week, yes they did score four but Swansea were as bad at the back as Hull were.
Since we last met they have sold Bowen and Grosicki, and replaced them with Wilks and the man with the tatts Maddison, McCann seems to be bringing in ex Peterbrough men as he as Da Silva Lopes and Tafazoli.
Maddison is an odd sort, wand of a left foot can be devastating on his day but basically being given away as a free by the Posh.
Eaves said at trhe end of last weeks game they will have some players back from injury they need them.

Bad news for Hull we hopefully will have two full backs and a fullish squad to pick from need a win considering the two away games we have looming.
Billy Bodin is getting closer to a return, having been out since early January, but Tom Bayliss has undergone an operation on his ankle which looks set to end his season early.
Match Officials: Hull City Home

For the fourth time this season Preston North End will have Steve Martin as the match official, when we face Hull City at Deepdale on Saturday.
He has already refereed the opening day 1-0 defeat to Millwall, the 1-0 win at Birmingham City in September and the 3-2 Lancashire derby success over Blackburn Rovers in November.

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 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 – his last visit to PR1 back in April, when we ran out 4-0 winners.
Since coming onto the EFL lists back in 2012/13, the Staffordshire referee has officiated 14 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.

This campaign, he has officiated a total of 25 matches across the four divisions, issuing 61 yellow cards and two red cards. His only game in charge of Saturday’s visitors this season came in their 2-1 home defeat to Huddersfield Town last month.

The other members of the third team involved in Saturday’s game are assistants Jonathan Hunt and Andrew Fox and fourth official Wade Smith.

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  

Saturday 22nd Feb

1/ Chelsea V Spurs 12:30
2/ Southampton V Aston Villa
3/ Leicester V Man City
4/ Birmingham V Sheff Wed
5/ ** Bristol City V WBA
6/ Stoke V Cardiff
7/ Swansea V Huddersfield
8/ Walsall V Port Vale

Sunday 23rd Feb

9/ Wolves V Norwich
10/ Arsenal V Everton

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51561933
So Rangers are fined £15k by the SFA for misdemeanours v Hibs and the Hoops in the space of 2 weeks but surely one must take into account their previous UEFA penalties as well???? They are clearly serial offenders and don't seem to "get it"!!!!!!!