As the debate intensifies among Hibs fans re the manager either being allowed to stay at Hibs or "send him on his way", one has to ask what are the main reasons why a huge percentage of said fans have seen enough and want him removed asap? I would argue that 1. He has violated the whole ethos of Hibs playing attacking footie with gusto and taking risks while entertaining the Cabbage fans in the stands - that's how we traditionally play our footie down at ER but at the moment Hibs are dull and boring! 2. He appears to be tactically inept and does not recognise the abilities of players who do not perform well when used in the wrong position on the field of play. 3. He seems incapable of identifying a balanced Hibs team esp after signing a good number of new players since last season. 4. It is fine being cautious but Heckingbottom "comes over" as a manager whose results stats will resemble WLDDLWDLW and he is happy with this kinda "middle of the road" form. 5. He has been involved in dismantling a good Hibs team in a matter of months and many regular Hibs fans have noticed how significantly different it is and it is not for the better.
What to do? For starters, I would like to see young Ryan Porteous returned to Hibs defence asap in order to "shore up" a defence that has been "leaking silly goals" for weeks. Also play David Gray or accept the guy is an injury crock, groom an alternative player and just keep him on the subs' bench and let him rest for a few months - fielding old defenders generally results in regular injuries and unnecessary defensive errors!!
In reality, Heckingbottom is on a 3 year deal and IMO Dempster will be loathe to "dump" him and admit to making a mistake re his appointment!! Therefore she and the Director of footie, George Craig, need to at least prompt him to sort out the "areas of concern" that are pissing off lotsa fans who have paid "good money" to support Hibs. Dempster professed at previous AGMs that she would not interfere in any Hibs manager's footie operations - fair enough, but I think there comes a point where the likes of George Craig can be prompted to set a progress initiative alongside Heckingbottom to give him every opportunity to improve this current Hibs side and how to do it. If that strategy fails, then I think Dempster must "bite the bullet" and sack him at a point of the season when Hibs could still regroup and recover rather than see through a totally wasted footie season with very little interest for Hibs fans - WE ARE BIGGER AND MORE AMBITIOUS THAN THAT!!

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 28TH AUGUST 7:45PM KICK OFF

v

[b]LAST MATCH



Well that was disappointing, 2 penalties given away and only turning up for the last 15 minutes meant defeat number 2. It was Obudajo who clumsily gave away the first as there forward got in front of him and the pen was dispatched although Westwood did get a hand to it. 2nd half, 2nd pen, poor tackle number two by Obudajo and dispatched for a 2nd time. We pulled one back through Fletcher and then gave it a go but we couldn't find the leveller.

THE MATCH



Onto the cup as we make the short trip to Toytown. They are now in league one and have won two out of three and will be looking to make a quick return to the Championship. This will mean more to them than to us and it should be a chance to rest a good majority of the first team and give those who need a game a runout. We should still have enough, but this is Sheffield Wednesday

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                        

ROTH                -                  

THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

NO OFFICIALS LISTED FOR THE GAME

THE TEAM

This is where the rest of the squad should get a game, but with Bullen calling it a "big game" who knows.

My starting eleven
Dawson
Obdajo Iorfa Bates Fox
Murphy Pelupessy Luongo Reach
FF Rhodes

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Rhodes

POSSESSION X CORNER

312

BML STANDINGS

Washington 3
Stateside 2
Southey 2
Owlkev 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Burnley v Sunderland
Lincoln City v Everton
Newcastle United v Leicester City
AFC Bournemouth v Forest Green Rovers
Queens Park Rangers v Portsmouth

HHAHH

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  

Saturday 31st August

1/ Southampton V Man Utd
2/ Crystal Palace V Aston Villa
3/ Newcastle V Watford
4/ Birmingham V Stoke
5/ Leeds V Swansea
6/ Luton V Huddersfield
7/ Sheff Wed V QPR
8/ WBA v Blackburn

Sunday 1st September

9/ Everton V Wolves
10/** Arsenal V Spurs

   

Best scoring week of the season so far for the PL as a whole with a combined 133 points. Taking top spot this week is Themaclad with 25 points, top score in the Pl so far this season!! After a slow start he has certainly found his form from last season scoring a perfect Gamball as well as a CR on the BB! He scored points on 7 of the 10 games. Close behind in 2nd spot is one of our other promoted players Bomber with 23 points. He went one better than Themaclad and scored points on 8 games but only got a CR on the Gamball. In 3rd place is last years Champion Zinman on 20 points, he is showing the same consistency as last season, scoring on 8 games and no playing the Gamball, which cost him 3 points this week!!

4th spot goes to current leader Sanjay on 15 points, a position that may be under some pressure but no playing the Gamball at least saved him some points!! AAA takes 5th place on 14 points and once again not playing the Gamball cost him points, in this case 6 points as he got it spot on again!! Bomber might have to start a column for points lost or won by those not playing the Gamball at this rate!!

Bit of a drop to 2 players in joint 6th spot, BBB and Beefy on 12 points. Both of them missed the Gamball but Beefy got 7 scoring games and BB came in with 6, so good scoring despite that. SCO comes in 8th on 10 points, missed the Gamball but got a CR on the BB, not getting any correct scores again is hurting his scoring this season!!

Derby brings up the rear this week with a disappointing 2 points. He missed on all his points and only got 4 CR to at least keep him on the positive side. I think the relegation spots beckon for him after this set of results!!!

Cheers
SCO

   

A week that saw every position change in the Premiership after a high scoring week for most.

A familiar face took over at the summit as Zinman climbed a couple of places, after his first 20 point haul of the season was enough to pinch top spot by a point from Sanjay who still returned a decent week, but not enough to maintain pole position for a fourth successive week.

Bomber continued his rise up the table to sit in 3rd just a further point back, while BBB (on the slide) and Themaclad (on the climb) have a share of 4th spot just 4 points back after a week of mixed fortunes for the two, one average week and one stonking week.

St Charles was another to drop down the table, much the result, as he said earlier, of not turning correct results into correct scores, while AAA closed up ever so slightly and sits in the relegation play off spot that will become a whole lot more important after another 30 odd weeks.

While at the bottom Beefy 8th and Derby 9th already have a few points to make up to get level with those in mid table, but again it's very early days and too early to be talking about a relegation fight just yet  

Bomber

   

Back to normal this week, although I understand you were all spared from Beefy's write up due to Bomber being away (or more likely using a very sensible editorial decision).

Oh dear. The below is what I had originally posted before Bomber, in his role of The Great Prediction League Overseer, pointed out that I had missed the fact that one player had chosen to make a late edit to his predictions.

"Relatively close scoring this week but it's Baggieone who heads the table after a Ben Stokes Sunday -  a perfect 8 points from the 2 games. He just pips Twerton who takes second place with a week's best 6 correct predictions. Amelia continued her no ball policy (I'll leave the smutty jokes to beefy) and this week it paid off to give her third place and the final player to reach double figures.

Two players achieved mid table mediocrity - Joker, reaching unfamiliar heights, and Snooty who may be starting to recover following an early season relegation hangover (just like a certain Yorkshire football team). I say hangover, but it may be that he's still drunk looking at his bonus prediction - heart over head maybe?

This week's strugglers are Stairs and Lady Jane,both scratching their way to 4 points and MightyBrom who finished 1 point further back though he was at least one of only 3 players to pick up a scoreball point.

On to next week and then the first of those annoying international breaks.

Zin"

   

Twerton was able to reclaim top spot this week, climbing 2 places with a decent top scoring week, but as mentioned earlier BaggieOne's change of mind cost him dear as he slipped back into 2nd, when he could have been sitting pretty at the summit.

Lady Jane was another to drop a place, this time into 3rd, after a poor week, while Joker was unable to repeat last weeks heroics, but still did enough to sit in a comfortable 4th.

Amelias blank columns for all of the feature balls don't seem to be doing her progress any harm as she climbs a place this week into 5th, overtaking Mightybrom who suffered a poor week to drop to 6th.

Stairs & Snooty fill the bottom 2 spots of 7th and 8th respectively unable to close the gap on those above, at least for this week.

Bomber

Minute 70. 1-0 down a Stockport. We take off Boden and replace him with Weir.

I've tried to keep going. It's been a lifetime after all, but John Sheridan you finally killed it.

Not only did you select Gerrard who was so bad you had to sub him at half time against Barrow, but now you take off a goalscorer for a certified prick when we are losing.

What's the point in commenting further or chatting about football? It's nothing to do with us. You'd rather play behind closed doors at Staveley.

v



LAST MEETING
PRESTON NORTH END 1 HULL CITY 2

LAST ROUND OF CUP
BRADFORD CITY 0 PRESTON NORTH END 4

TRANMERE ROVERS 0 HULL CITY 3


League cup returns with a game against Hull as with the last round we will no doubt utilise the squad giving much needed game time to Green and Bayliss. Suspect Hull will do the same given both sides have played three games in the last week. Only costing a fiver half the ground will be closed, cannot beat the magic of the cup
The official in charge of the game is David Webb, who last had the whistle at Deepdale for our 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in the middle of the 2015/16 campaign.

Last season he officiated two PNE games, the away matches at Birmingham City and Derby County.
Overall then he has refereed the Lilywhites on 11 occasions, some of the most memorable games including the FA Cup win at Wycombe Wanderers, when Kevin Davies scored a stunning strike from 35 yards, and a 3-2 home win over Crewe Alexandra in 2011, also in the league cup.
David was in charge of three Tigers games last season, including home and away games against Wigan – both ending 2-1 to the home team – and a 1-0 away win at Bolton Wanderers in October.

Overall last season, he took charge of 34 games, issuing 102 cautions and five red cards, whilst so far this season he has been the referee for games at Wigan, West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday, showing the yellow card 12 times.

Takeover collapses

Cribbed this link from another well known site https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news...ld-u23s-a/
The photo's show some of our U23 team which played at Donny last week. We didnt even report it and the team was never announced. It would seem from the photo's Wedgbury, Maguire, Amantchi, Sheridan, Rawson, Wakefield, Coddington and Render played not sure who the others were. We won 2-1 but dont tell anybody, its top secret. We only promote Sheff Utd U23' team games on our CFC site.
Scunny reported the game on their site but were obviosly under instruction not to name any of our players.

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 30th August:
Cardiff City v Fulham

Saturday 31st August:
Luton v Town
Town scorers:
Luton scorers:

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

Bonus matches:
Sunday:
Scottish Premier:
Rangers v Celtic (12:00)

Premier League:
Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

Table after Matchday 4:
jjamez = 89 pts
themaclad = 77 pts
neonfoxinthebox = 75 pts
Baggiebob(BBB) = 73 pts
St Charles Owl = 73 pts
ritchiebaby = 72 pts
Amelia Chaffinch = 70 pts
SHEP_HTAFC = 65 pts
Lord Snooty = 64 pts
Beefy 1965 = 61 pts
theo_luddite = 61 pts