It is interesting that Hibs have created this "huge match" with a gradual improvement in results and picking up vital pts. Now we have a home advantage to finally catch up with Livingston and poss push on to the next fight for 3rd or 4th place in the Scot Prem. Confidence is high and we have a good, positive momentum "ticking over" in a team that, at last, has a "goal threat". I think the challenge for JR is to try to strengthen our defence in some way. I notice they have just signed Efe Ambrose and it is, no doubt, to cover for the loss to injury of big Marv - that position is "key" to their season being so good. However, I think he is not match fit (never played for months!) but it is likely they'll play him! C'mon Hibs. Lets "push on" v a team that has a very poor away record!!

GGTTH

Well I'm fairly confident that Scotland will lose this 6 Nations match in Rome but will Gregor Townsend still be allowed to remain in his position after a period of utter negativity and failure from World Cup Japan onwards? IMO he has survived off that "miracle" at Twickenham last year when Scotland gave England a 31 pts start and then initiated the biggest 2nd half RU comeback of all time to retain the Calcutta Cup. That "honeymoon" is over and he must depart and give way to a more able and tactically astute coach who can move forward with this current group of players

I know some people have different views are Livermore, I have just listened to the express and star Albion podcast and they say Jake Livermore is captain fantastic and Bilic trusts him as his leader on the pitch. Another thing if you can find it on Twitter it shows just how much the Albion means to him , it shows his reaction when we took the lead for the second time against Forest now that’s passion.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 22ND FEBRUARY 3:00PM KICK OFF

v

LAST MATCH



Well to no ones great surprise, we ended Readings 7 game win-less streak in true Wednesday style losing 0-3. I thought we started OK but it was Reading who took the lead with a simple through ball and decisive finish. Onto the 2nd half and a silly challenge by Urhoghide resulted in a 2nd yellow card and a red card. That was basically game over as Reading added a second although Dawson probably should have done better despite a slight deflection. Reading wrapped up the game in injury time when Iorfa gave a penalty away that was put away despite Dawson getting a hand to it.

THE MATCH



Next up a trip to St Andrews and Birmingham City, one of Monks old haunts. The Brummies are now on the same points as us but they are heading the right direction while we tumble towards oblivion. They haven't lost in the league since the 1st January a 2-3 loss to Wigan. They are managed by Pep Clotet who Monk blames for losing his job at Birmingham. Teenager Jude Bellingham is getting a lot off attention with quite a few big clubs keeping an eye on him, although rumours of £50 million bids seem ridiculous. We drew with these earlier in the season but I can only see another defeat the way things are going  

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                        

BIRM                -                              

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

JOHN BROOKS
Robert Hyde and Sam Lewis
Fourth Official : Oliver Langford

THE TEAM

Does it really matter, most of them seemed to have given up the fight. One thing for certain, Westwood & Hutch wont be playing.

Dawson
Odubajo Iorfa Borner Palmer
Windass Bannan Pelupessy Harris
FF Wickham

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 FF

POSS x FOULS

765

BML STANDINGS

SCO 17
Washington 17
Pei 16
Wereham 15
Imre 15
Owlkev 11
Stateside 10
Southey 8

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion
Charlton Athletic v Luton Town
Leeds United v Reading
Nottingham Forest v Queens Park Rangers
Preston North End v Hull City

AHHHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC





One for Washington



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

Player Pts CS CR GB BB SB
Beefy 11 1 4 -3 3 1
Zinman 10 0 4 NP 3 1
Sanjay 9 1 3 -3 3 1
B.B.B. 9 2 3 -3 -3 0
A.A.A. 8 1 3 NP -3 1
Bomber 7 0 4 -3 3 1
Themaclad 5 1 1 5 -3 1
St Charles 5 0 3 -3 3 1
Derby 0 0 3 -3 -3 0

Well what do we have here?? I do believe that for the first time this season Beefy is topping the scores!! Is this finally the resurgence he has been promising for weeks now? Are we seeing the first shoots of spring coming out of the ground? Will Beefy actually put up a fight against relegation? No one knows for sure yet but for at least this week he is top of the pile!! He finished on 11 points but had Northampton held it he would have been 8 points higher and way ahead of the rest!! As it was he had to settle for scoring on 5 games and of course missing on the Gamball!!

Zinman takes 2nd spot with 10 points, this follows up on his top spot last week so he is showing some signs of being able to maybe escape relegation. 3rd spot goes to Sanjay on 9 points who picked up a third of his points with his Bonus


BBB missed on both his balls to cancel out the good job he did on the other games!! but still managed to pick 8 points along with AAA in joint 5th, nothing spectacular here, he just keeps trundling along in the middle of the pack!! Bomber is 6th on 7 points, he can't seem to predict a Correct Score these days and that is just holding him back in the chase for the title. Themaclad is in joint 8th as his up and down season continues, this week he was the only one to get positive points on the Gamball. St Charles also finished on 5 points, another lower end result for him and relegation is definitely staring him in the face!!! Last place this week goes to Derby, he managed 3 CR but missed on all his balls to cancel those points out and finish on zero points!! He and BBB were the only players this week to not pick up the scoreball point this week.

Not sure these results will see much change in the table!!!!

Cheers
SCO

   


Joker 23pts 3CS 6CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
BaggieOne 11pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Twerton 11pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Amelia 10pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
MightyBrom 8pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Stairs 8pts 0CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Snooty 3pts 0CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
Lady Jane 2pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 0SB

Don't you just love a last minute goal? Spurs' at Villa made for a great start to Sunday and Walsall's on Saturday helped several of the Championship players to a respectable score (as well as screwing up Beefy's gamball prediction thereby saving us all from a week of posts about his rather overdue resurgence).

Last week it was Amelia scoring more than double the player in second, this week it was Joker's turn, reacting to the increasing competition for promotion. I will admit to checking the timing of his submission as he got the first 3 scores spot on (highly suspicious) but all seems to be ok. Those 3 correct scores were accompanied by a further 3 correct results and positives from all balls to give him 23 points and, by my calculation, lifting him back into the promotion places.

Something of a logjam under Joker as the next 6 players all got 4 correct results. BaggieOne and Twerton share 2nd place on 11 points achieved in identical fashion. Amelia, not enjoying Beefy's balls quite so much this week, is just a point further back due to a failure on the scoreball. Stairs and MightyBrom lie just 2 points further back, MightyB losing points from his gamball but getting the bonus correct, Stairs being the first of those with 4 correct results not to get a score right.

Snooty also got 4 correct predictions but was the only player this week to get both his gamball and bonus wrong and may not agree with my opening paragraph as that Walsall goal cost him 8 points. His mid season surge now seems well behind him but at least he didn't fall to the bottom this week. That honour falls, for the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks, to Lady Jane. On Saturday night she was on for a complete wipe out but was saved by 2 correct results on Sunday, including her bonus.

Zin

   

Cup tables to follow

The next on the FA's list to ban

NEW: @TheAthleticUK understands the FA have asked Charlie Austin for his observations regarding his tweets about Southampton fans on Saturday night. Austin's tweets included the phrases 'cheeky c**t' and 'shit fans'. #WBA #WBAFC

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 21st February:
Derby County v Fulham

Saturday 22nd February:
Swansea v Town
Town scorers:
Swansea scorers:

Brentford v Blackburn Rovers (12:30)
Barnsley v Middlesbrough
Birmingham City v Sheffield Wednesday
Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion
Charlton Athletic v Luton Town
Leeds United v Reading
Nottingham Forest v Queens Park Rangers
Preston North End v Hull City
Stoke City v Cardiff City
Wigan Athletic v Millwall

Tuesday 25th February:
Town v Bristol City
Town scorers:
Bristol scorers:

Cardiff City v Nottingham Forest
Luton Town v Brentford
Queens Park Rangers v Derby County
West Bromwich Albion v Preston North End

Wednesday 26th February:
Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City
Fulham v Swansea City
Hull City v Barnsley
Middlesbrough v Leeds United
Millwall v Birmingham City
Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton Athletic
Reading v Wigan Athletic

Table after Matchday 29:
neonfoxinthebox = 665 pts
jjamez = 631 pts
Baggiebob(BBB) = 621 pts
theo_luddite = 611 pts
themaclad = 602 pts
St Charles Owl = 575 pts
ritchiebaby = 555 pts
SHEP_HTAFC = 542 pts
Lord Snooty = 539 pts
Amelia Chaffinch = 514 pts
Beefy 1965 = 498 pts

The ball well n truly in Rangers "court" again as Celtic hit the Dons with an 11th consecutive defeat at Pittodrie and the Dons played reasonably well during a stormy 90 mins! A big result today!

So Man City have been banned from playing in Europe for 2 seasons and fined £25 million for breaching Uefa's club licensing and financial fair play regulations.

They must have know it was coming as they issued a statement saying "they were disappointed, but not surprised and they would appeal".

Its just a same that the same regulations, well the enforcement of the regulations were the same for all clubs, such as let me think........................ Barcelona.

Good to see him back reffing again. I thought he was one of the best refs a couple of years ago. It seems he made an error of judgement re a social media post.

Are people no longer able to make a mistake, apologise for it, take the punishment and then get on with things anymore. 

Discuss!