Just seen that Fosun have lost £1Billon due to the Thomas Cook colapse.
They were the largest single share holders at 18%

So Hibs must "dust themselves down" and try to win a quarter-final in which the majority of Hibs fans give them no chance and I am one of the sceptics. As far as I'm aware, Paul Heckingbottom has not been sacked. Therefore we have "nae chance"!! Now lets get down to how Hibs could actually win this game. IMO we need to "shut the back door" and focus on not losing silly, avoidable goals. IMO stick to the current defence but we need an "anchor man", an organiser/leader, in front of our back line - we actually require a Milligan type player to mop up and dictate forward counter-attacks on a shit artificial surface. We also need to identify who can play on this restrictive surface - a lotta homework to do before arriving at Rugby Park with an effective plan to win a cup-tie and make some money from a semi-final appearance - I am not bothered, one way or the other, re winning this cup because it is ultimately a distraction from an impending relegation crisis if we "dinnae get the finger oot" and field accountable players in an accountable Hibs 1st team. I'd bring back Rocky in goal. I'd also field a back three and choose the best defenders who can perform on this pitch to attack the opposition. I'd move Porteous into that midfield "anchor role" because I can't think of anybody else who is suitable for that role. I WOULD NOT FIELD VELA UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - NOWT AGAINST THE LAD BUT IMO HE IS NOT FIT TO WEAR A HIBS JERSEY!! We have players for the mid area but lets play them in their best positions - lets experiment with that mid formation but also demand a physical commitment from certain players - lets play a tough, competitive match bordering on dirty and nasty as we have been soft and uninspired for too long esp when the "going is tough" - I would demand this commitment in the dressing on behalf of the Hibs fans who have been totally let down this season! I'd consider bringing back young Fraser Murray as part of that experiment. I'd play two up front (not Hecky's usual useless one lone striker!!!) and try to play for goals as GOALS WIN GAMES AND THIS IS A GAME THAT WE WANNA TRY TO WIN!! My preferred strikers? Well it must be Kamberi again but play him alongside Shaw and I'd tell the lad that he is finally in a "last chance saloon position" to win a position in the team - relax, play well and try to score goals because he has not been doing enough of that and must perform better. Players to choose who must "feed" the front two? Horgan is a 1st pick and Middleton(?) poss did enough on Sunday to be given a slot on Hibs right wing. However, the reality is that Heckingbottom is still in charge and he won't change anything or impress Hibs fans with a "fighting" Hibs line up - totally incapable, much the same as the Hibs board at the moment! Lastly I wish we had a proper captain - an "old chestnut" for me to raise!! I have nothing against Paul Hanlon, the current skipper! Paul is a good lad but my captain will always be an "in your face" fully committed player! Somebody like Scott Broon - ohhhh I forgot that Scott was once a Hibs player and was groomed to eventually be a long-term Hibs captain, a potentially great one, but even though he chose to leave, Hibs did what they do well and took the £3M that Celtic offered. I'd actually be tempted to give the captaincy to Porteous who is one Hibs player who looks like he wants to win any game "at all cost"!! I like that attitude!

GGTTH

Tremendous news just materialised that Johnson and his govt, incl that complicit little shit heid Cummings, did indeed break the law!!! The SC have backed the Scottish Court of Session judgement. A corrupt Tory govt fully exposed and the British PM, Johnson, humiliated again. The SNP's Joanna Cherry and Jeremy Corbyn telling Johnson to "do the right thing" and resign!! Aye GTF Johnson and Dominic Cummings and "crawl into the gutter" you "chancing" bastards. Lady Hale suggesting that parliamentary business can return immediately!! WHOOPEEEEEEEEE!!! The actual result was BoJo 0 Judges 11 - all judges backed this clear judgement, not even a "split decision", and A WIN FOR PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY!! I've also gotta give a special mention to the resolve of Gina Miller, a woman who has been intimidated and threatened for a very long time by horrible representatives and backers of the Brexit quest in England, an utter disgrace!

Player Pts CS CR GB BB SB
A A A 19 3 2 NP 6 1
Derby 17 2 2 5 3 1
Themaclad 12 1 4 5 -3 0
Bomber 11 0 3 5 3 1
B B B 11 1 3 5 -3 1
Beefy 11 2 2 -3 3 1
Zinman 9 1 4 NP -3 0
St Charles 6 0 3 5 -3 0
Sanjay 5 0 2 5 -3 1

Well thank God for Sundays!!!  This week over 60% of the points scored in the PL came in the three Sunday games, helps when the Gamball is in there and goes to form!!!

This week's winner is AAA with 19 points!!  Three correct scores will take you a long way in this game, including a spot on Bonus Ball, but in true AAA fashion he would have scored 3 more points had he had the courage to play the Gamball, I have lost count of the points he has lost due to not playing it this season, still his relegation fears will certainly ease this week!!!  In 2nd spot is another relegation threatened player Derby who scored a fine 17 points.  He was staring at another poor week on Saturday night and then picked up 12 points on Sunday on the back of a correct result on both the Gamball and the Bonus to propel him up the scoreboard!!

Our current league leader Themaclad comes in at 3rd with 12 points, a score that should keep him in top spot and probably increase his lead!!  4th place was shared by the Three B's - Bomber, BBB and Beefy, all finishing on 11 points.  Unlike the other two Bomber didn't get any correct scores but did pick up points on both the Gamball and Bonus!. BBB got one CS but missed on the Bonus but did pick up on a CR on the Gamball.  Beefy on the other hand was the only Gamball player who missed his prediction so despite getting 2 CS those missed Gamball points cost him a place or two!!

7th place goes to Zinman on 9 points and like AAA his failure to play the Gamball cost him 3 points, which when combined with a missed Bonus saw his score curtailed even though he scored on half the games.  8th place goes to St Charles on 6 points.  Another poor week for him and without the Gamball CR it would have been much worse!!  Early PL leader Sanjay brings up the rear this week with just 5 points, like SCO a CR Gamball made a ton of difference to his score in what ended up a fairly barren week for both of them.

Cheers
SCO

   

The top 3 stay exactly as they were this week as only 3 points could separate them, with themaclad still leading the way at the top with a 5 point cushion over Zinman who missed out on an extra 3 points by bottling out of the Gamball, while Bomber can thank his points from the 3 feature balls for hanging on to the top 2's coattails in 3rd just 2 points further back.

BBB climbed a place back into the top 4 at the expense of Sanjay who slipped a couple back to 5th though only a solitary point separates the 2 and at worst they're only a bakers dozen off the top.

AAA was the big scorer this week and although it only moved him up a place to 6th, he did cut the gap to another climb to just 5 points, showing what a good week can do . It also cost St Charles a place dropping down to 7th and the relegation play-off place, a victim of getting plenty of correct results but failing to turn those into correct scores.

Derby had his best week of the season in 8th and although not enough to gain any places, he did gain ground on those directly above and opened up an 8 point lead over our very own Beefy who remains rooted to the bottom, being the only player in the league not to score on the Albion, though if we're to believe him, he did it for the sake of our club, knowing we'd win but not wanting to jinx us - YEAH RIGHT  

Bomber


BaggieOne 17pts 1CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Lady Jane 15pts 1CS 4CR 5Gb 3BB 1SB
Stairs 13pts 2CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Joker 13pts 0CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Mighty 12pts 0CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Twerton 10pts 0CS 5CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia 6pts 0CS 3CR 0GB 0BB 0SB
Snooty -2pts 0CS 2CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

So after getting up at 4am to follow the Albion game, then moving house for the second time in 3 weeks (slightly shorter move this time - 5 miles rather than 5,208) I now have to sit down at 9pm and create yet another masterpiece of a write up for the Championship. Not that I'm complaining (though an occasional 3pm (7am) kickoff would be appreciated!

Plea for sympathy over and congrats to this week's league leader Baggieone. In an unusually good week for balls, B1 was one of 3 players to score positively on all three of Beefy's balls (always thought there was something odd about Beefy - well many things really) and also got a week's high of 5 correct predictions. Lady Jane followed up last week's impressive score with another solid week again helped by a full set of Beefy's balls (one day I'll desist from these puerile double-entendres, but not today) to finish in second place. Stairs was the only player to predict 2 correct scores but was let down by his bonus ball and has to be content with sharing third place with Joker, the third player to score on all balls.

Just a point further back is MightyBrom, missing out on the scoreball keeping him off the (crowded) podium. Twerton also managed double figures though he lost out on the bonus.

A miserable week for our friends from Huddersfield was continued in the prediction league. Amelia did at least improve on last week's showing - though that wouldn't have been difficult - but Snooty's blind faith in the Terriers revival once again cost him, only 2 correct predictions and a blow out on his balls - very painful!

Zin

   


There's a bit of a split emerging in the Championship with the top 4 beginning to pull away from the bottom 4. Far too early to say so but are the 2 promotion places and 1 play-off place already any 3 from 4.

Twerton still leads the waybut did have his lead cut to 4 points by both BaggieOne and Lady Jane who share 2nd spot after a decent weeks scoring. while Joker makes up the quartet in 4th as only 8 points separate the top 4 places.

Mightybrom climbed up into 5th with his best week in a while which saw him demote Amelia to 6th although more points were probably saved by opting out of the feature balls in particular the Gamball where the terriers would have cost her more points in one day than they've managed all season.

Our bottom 2 are made up of Stairs who at least made up some valuable ground on those above him, and Snooty who unfortunately didn't as he sits 17 points adrift and in danger of being tailed off even at this early stage of the season.

Bomber

Briefly diverting from the Heckingbottom problem, can someone please explain to me how a referee, John Beaton, could consistently ignore deliberate regular fouling of Flo Kamberi by Berra from the 1st minute onwards? The offences varied from hands/arms on shoulders to "ground" the player, arms around Kamberi's waist and also pulling the striker's jersey downward from the rear. Every one of these ploys by Berra are fouls listed under FIFA rules and regs and yet this referee allowed this nonsense to literally carry on throughout the Embro Derby match instead of "nipping it in the bud" early in the match!!!!! I watched Kamberi explaining to Beaton what was happening when they were walking out of the players' tunnel together after HT!!! Yet he still continued with no retribution on Berra, not even a yellow card for persistent fouling!! Which leads me to pose the question, "Did Beaton have some kinda agenda re this particular issue or this particular player because he didn't do his job at all"????? He has absolutely no excuse IMO!! I call it dinosaur refereeing when comparing this type of officialdom with top referees practising in the Champs League or even in the English Premiership.

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER 7:45PM KICK OFF

v

[b]LAST MATCH



Our first home game under Monk and we rescued a point right at the death. We setup as 433 and seemed content on them having ball as we defended pretty well. We forced there keeper into several saves before Fulham took the lead as Westwood couldn't deal with a cross and Cairney scored just before HT. Into the second and we started to push forward more but it didn't seem we would get anything until Nuhiu's diving header claimed a deserved draw overall.

THE MATCH

Onto the waste time of cup as we host Everton. Expecting a number of changes for this one and the least important competition for us. Everton actually played a strong line-up in the last round so it will be interesting if they continue that against us. They have lost there last 2 including a home defeat against our neighbour's at the weekend so will be looking to bounce back straight away



CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                          

EVERTN             -                       

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

JEREMY SIMPSON
Richard Wild and Robert Merchant
Fourth Official : Mark Dwyer

THE TEAM

Probably a rash of changes, with a several first teamer's intermingled

(4312)
Dawson
Obudajo Bates Thorniley Fox
Lee Luongo Pelupesssy
Murphy
Rhodes Winnall

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-3 Winnall

ATTENDANCE

20112

BML STANDINGS

Washington 6
Stateside 5
Owlkev 4
Southey 2
Pei 1
SCO 1

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Brighton v Villa
MK Dons v Liverpool
Oxford Utd v West Ham
Wolves v Reading
Man Utd v Rochdale

HAAHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE



KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC





One for Washington



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

I'll bet!!! No "fighting talk" from this Hibs manager eh and it just confirms to me that my initial suggestion to sack him in August, just after Hibs were thrashed 6-1 by Rangers at Ibronx, was "spot on" mainly because of the insipid display that Hibs fans observed on that fateful afternoon in Govan and the clear deterioration of Hibs form in the weeks that followed!! We should've sacked him there n then because it was an utter disgrace and just confirmed how good a manager we previously had in Neil Lennon and the way he "went about his business"!! He organised his teams, chose new players wisely and had great motivational skills!!

….after the next three fixtures!!! A MAJOR CRISIS IS UNFOLDING!! Hibs next fixture is v Celtic at home when one can only guess how many goals the team is gonna concede in this game. Then it is Aberdeen away from home - Heckingbottom cannot find a competent defence/defensive mid set up to stop conceding goals and has no motivation skills!!!!! Therefore it is highly likely we will pick up no points again. The third fixture is v Hamilton on their artificial pitch - again Hibs are facing a stuffy, well drilled team that will not be easily beaten. So it is highly likely that Hibs will not earn any league pts at all!! The "lethal cocktail" is evident when one studies Hibs match stats - not scoring enough goals (where are our strikers?????) and conceding lotsa goals due to a poor defensive set up. There is already strong evidence that Hibs could well be relegated unless immediate action is taken by Hibs board to "steady the ship". I must also add that, in the weeks after that 6-0 thrashing at Ibronx about 4 weeks ago, Hibs FC officials have really been "sleepwalking" into this crisis and not heeding the "warning signs" re this manager's team choices and the way he sets up his Hibs team as well as being undone by opposition tactics and looking a proper sap in that respect!! One of the biggest "sickeners" for me is the amount of money that Hibs have paid out to Heckingbottom's so called team rebuild - IT IS NOT SMALL MONEY BY SCOT PREMIERSHIP STANDARDS AND IT HAS ACHIEVED NOTHING!!!! DEFINITE GROUNDS FOR AN IMMEDIATE SACKING!!!
There were strong warnings and criticisms uttered by many Leeds Utd fans re Heckingbottom's limited abilities and they appear to be very accurate!!!

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 27th September:
Fulham v Wigan Athletic
Stoke City v Nottingham Forest

Saturday 28th September:
Town v Millwall
Town scorers:
Millwall scorers:

Queens Park Rangers v West Bromwich Albion (12:30)
Blackburn Rovers v Luton Town
Charlton Athletic v Leeds United
Derby County v Birmingham City
Hull City v Cardiff City
Middlesbrough v Sheffield Wednesday
Preston North End v Bristol City
Swansea City v Reading

Sunday 29th September:
Barnsley v Brentford (13:30)

Tuesday 1st October:
Stoke v Town
Town scorers:
Stoke scorers:

Blackburn Rovers v Nottingham Forest
Hull City v Sheffield Wednesday
Leeds United v West Bromwich Albion
Middlesbrough v Preston North End
Wigan Athletic v Birmingham City
Reading v Fulham

Wednesday 2nd October:
Barnsley v Derby County
Brentford v Bristol City
Cardiff City v Queens Park Rangers
Charlton Athletic v Swansea City
Luton Town v Millwall

Bonus match:
Monday:
Premier League:
Manchester United v Arsenal

Table after Matchday 8:
jjamez = 180 pts
themaclad = 172 pts
SHEP_HTAFC = 164 pts
theo_luddite = 164 pts
Baggiebob(BBB) = 161 pts
neonfoxinthebox = 160 pts
Amelia Chaffinch = 155 pts
St Charles Owl = 152 pts
Lord Snooty = 139 pts
ritchiebaby = 138 pts
Beefy 1965 = 107 pts