Gamball:
Sheff W - Watford

Others:
Ipswich - Leicester
Southampton - Everton
Wolves - Crystal Palace
Blackburn - Sheff Utd
Oxford - Swansea
Stoke - Derby
Cardiff - Norwich
Preston - Bristol City
Spurs - Villa

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER KO 8PM

v

LAST MATCH



We got back to winning ways as we came from behind to beat Portsmouth. We started ok and had a couple of chances, Palmers having a shot deflected for a corner the best. Pompey came more into it in the latter stages and took the lead from a set piece, Beadle did well to save but the rebound was hammered in from close range. Onto the 2nd half and we went on the front foot and quickly levelled when Bannan found Smith who nodded down and Windass finished from close range. We then got the winner when Valery pulled back and Smith smashed it in from 25 yards. Pompey had a late chance but headed over the bar.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and back to Carabao Cup action as we travel south to take on PL Brentford. The Bees have made a decent start to there season and currently lie in 9th place and you could see them finishing around about mid table. A decent cup run is there best shot at winning something this season and will be confident in seeing us off. They are managed by Thomas Frank who has been in charge since 2018 and saw the Bees get promotion to the PL and now seem established. There leading scorer is Mbuemo who has 8 goals so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 16
BREN 15
DRAWS 13

CURRENT FORM

OWLS W D L W D W                                                            

BREN W L W D L L                                       

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Will Finnie
Stuart Burt and Daniel Leach
Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Musaba Ingelsson Gassama
Ugbo

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

4-1 Gassama

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

66

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

SCO 8
Wereham 7
Maddix 7
Washington 7
Imre 4

BMPL

Southey 10
Owlkev 7
Stateside 4
Pei 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

WINNER OF THE TIE EITHER NORMAL TIME OR PENALTIES

Brighton v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace
Manchester United v Leicester City
Newcastle United v Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

AHHHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Badger gives you 2 points

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

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. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

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.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830



Division One table after Matchday 12:

1. themaclad = 224 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 221 pts
   
3. jjamez = 218 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 209 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 198 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 180 pts
   

FA Cup 1st rd:
Friday 1st November:
Tamworth v Town
Town scorers:
Tamworth scorers:

Saturday 2nd November:
Barrow v Doncaster Rovers
Carlisle United v Wigan Athletic
Gillingham v Blackpool
Newport County v Peterborough United
Southend United v Charlton Athletic
Swindon Town v Colchester United
Tranmere Rovers v Oldham Athletic
Walsall v Bolton Wanderers

Sunday 3rd November:
Milton Keynes Dons v AFC Wimbledon (12:30)
Harrogate Town v Wrexham (15:30)

Bonus matches:
Friday:
Championship:
Luton Town v West Bromwich Albion

Saturday:
Preston North End v Bristol City
Sheffield Wednesday v Watford

Sunday:
Premier League:
Manchester United v Chelsea (16:30)

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

1. neonfoxinthebox = 239 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 232 pts
   
3. Devongone = 223 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 211 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 187 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 176 pts
   

FA Cup 1st rd:
Friday 1st November:
Tamworth v Town
Town scorers:
Tamworth scorers:

Saturday 2nd November:
Bradford City v Aldershot Town
Chesterfield v Horsham
Exeter City v Barnet
Port Vale v Barnsley
Reading v Fleetwood Town
Rotherham United v Cheltenham Town
Salford City v Shrewsbury Town
Wycombe Wanderers v York City
Northampton Town v Kettering Town (17:30)

Sunday 3rd November:
Sutton United v Birmingham City (12:30)
Boreham Wood v Leyton Orient (14:00)

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Premier League:
Newcastle United v Arsenal (12:30)

Sunday:
Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa (14:00)

Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Dundee United (15:00)

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Town injury news:- As far as I know, Koroma is out for the next few weeks, as are Helik and Hodge. And now Sorensen is out for 8 weeks.

Swindon Town have appointed Ian Holloway as their new manager, on a deal until the end of the season.

It is the 61-year-old's first job in the dugout since he resigned as Grimsby Town boss in late December 2020.

Holloway, who has managed 989 games in English football, replaces Mark Kennedy who was sacked earlier on Friday morning.

The Robins are one place and three points off the League Two relegation places having won just one of their last seven games in the fourth tier.

"I'm delighted to be back working in football after a period out of the game," Holloway said

"I wanted to get back into it if the right opportunity arose which, with this opportunity, I feel is the perfect fit for me.

"Conversations happened very quickly and both sides were very keen to get the deal done and of course, I was delighted to engage with a club like Swindon Town, a club of whom I know a lot about due to my location and knowledge of the local area.

"I want to be able to bring everyone together to deliver success and positivity on the off the pitch and I'm delighted to be at The Nigel Eady County Ground tomorrow to meet you all for the first time as Swindon Town manager and I look forward to a successful time working together."

Holloway has achieved promotion three times in a managerial career that began at Bristol Rovers in 1996.

He led Queens Park Rangers to what is now the Championship via the play-offs in 2004 before guiding Blackpool and Crystal Palace into the Premier league via a Wembley showpiece in 2010 and 2013 respectively.

Holloway has also had spells in charge of Plymouth Argyle, Leicester City and Millwall before spending just short of a year in charge at Grimsby over the turn of the decade.

Earlier this month he told BBC Sport about his desire to become the latest English manager to take charge of 1,000 matches.

He has worked as a pundit, been an after-dinner speaker and spent time with his grandchildren since leaving Grimsby and told the BBC that he still watched and analysed matches.

Holloway - who becomes the third-oldest EFL manager behind Blackpool's Steve Bruce and Steve Evans at Rotherham United - takes over a Swindon Town side whose 19th placed finish in League Two last season was their lowest league position in 40 years.

This term has seen more difficulty on the field with just two league wins all season, while there have been fan concerns off the pitch as owner Clem Morfuni struggles to right a club that has had more than its share of financial problems in recent seasons.

"We are confident that Ian's experience and leadership qualities which he has shown for many years across not just at Premier League level, but the top five divisions of professional football, will be a significant asset for Swindon Town Football Club," the club's head of football Jamie Russell said.

"His passionate approach coupled with his location being more local to the South-West area along with most importantly, a desire to build a hardworking and entertaining side is a large part of what made us believe he would be the ideal fit for us.

"Additionally, Ian’s ability to help grow, develop and nurture not only our first-team players but also the dedicated coaching staff we have at Swindon Town was important to us."


He's got a mighty job to do to make sure that Swindon keep their Football League status.

I think it's a bit of a surprise to see him return to management, but one has to trust that the hunger is there. His engaging personality will help.

It looks like he's going to work with the existing backroom staff - he's managed Marcus Bignot already during their time together at QPR.

I'll be interested to see the fan reaction, we are at the stage where some people will be jaundiced whoever the manager is.

But some people will know him, know that high profile, and the fact there have been successful times for different clubs with him in charge, and they will be more energised by the whole thing.

Group A

Zinman 19
Minizin 15
Themaclad 13
A.A.A. 10
Amelia 5
Twerton -2

Decent scoring for some this week, not so for others!! Seems for each person who got something on the Gamball, there was someone who didn't and this was replicated through the Gamball and Bonus balls. The Scoreball was a complete washout this week though!! This means that Zinman scored his best result of the season with 19 points, he got a CR on both the Gamball and Bonus and backed that up with 2 CSs on other games. Minizin got his highest score since week one with 15 points, he missed on the Gamball but made up for this with a max on the Bonus!! Our league leader Themaclad rounds out the top three with a consistent 13 points, he matched Zinman on the balls but was only able to add one CS on the other games.

AAA is 4th with 10 points, he missed the gamball but got a CR on the Bonus. Bit of a drop down to Amelia in 5th where she ended with just 5 points. She only scored on 3 games, including a CR on the Gamball but missed on her other balls.

Twerton had a complete mare!! He ended on a season's worst -2 points, missed all his balls and only has one CR in the positive column.

94 Themaclad
67 Twerton
58 Minizin
54 A.A.A.
52 Amelia
49 Zinman

All this means that Themaclad has stretched his lead at the top to 27 points over Twerton in 2nd spot. He is now under a bit of pressure from Minizin, with AAA and Amelia not far behind. Zinman's excellent week sees him close the gap on the pack to just 3 points. All to play for but can anyone put any sustained pressure on Mr Consistency at the top??

Cheers
SCO

Group B

BBB 18
Lady Jane 13
BaggieOne 9
Derby 8
Snooty 6
SCO 3
Stairs 2

What a difference a last minute goal makes! As well as ruining my weekend, that Oxford equaliser cost Group B a total of 35 points, taking that match's tally from plus 23 to minus 12, and turning a good week into an average one. The bonus proved difficult (hardly surprising as 4 players had it on an Albion win) and correct scores were lower than average.

BBB heads the table for the 3rd time in the last 5 weeks - unfortunately for him, the other 2 weeks saw him at the bottom! He was the only player to get 2 correct scores with one of them being the only bonus maximum, securing him a comfortable lead. For once Lady Jane missed out on the gamball but did score on half the games including both her other balls to earn yet another good points haul which should see her stretch her lead in the overall table.

Nobody else managed double figures. BaggieOne secured 3rd place with 9 points helped by a correct gamball. Derby matched Lady J's correct scores/predictions figures but missed out on all his balls while Snooty failed to pick up a maximum but did at least get the gamball correct.

SCO's struggles continued with just 3 points but was kept off bottom spot by gaining the scoreball point - his highest weekly score so far is just 11 points secured in the first week. Stairs didn't turn up last week and almost didn't bother again this week! Just 2 points from 3 correct predictions and a blow out on his balls.

93 Lady Jane
69 Derby
66 BBB
58 Snooty
54 BaggieOne
54 SCO
49 Stairs

Can anyone mount a challenge to Lady Jane? It may be early in the season but she now has a 24 point lead and is showing a remarkable consistency that the others can't match. Derby remains 2nd with BBB leaping from 5th to 3rd. Stairs drops to the foot of the table after scoring minus 1 point from the last 3 weeks. Some random stats: BaggieOne has the lowest total of correct result predictions but the highest ratio of correct scores - just under 40% of his correct results are maximums in contrast to Snooty at just 20%. Lady Jane and BBB share the highest number of correct results but LJ has turn more of them into correct scores and this, together with a huge lead from the balls explains her position at the head of the table.

Zin

Following Tuesdays solid away display in Wales, Town return to home comforts as they welcome Exeter City to the John Smiths Stadium on Saturday. The draw against Wrecsam was probably fair overall, neither side really threatened either keeper, you could argue that Town made the Wrecsam keeper work the hardest but Chapman had to make the most telling save. Town had to defend stoutly in the first half as Wrecsam applied constant pressure that at times seemed as if Town were not able to get their lines cleared well enough, but in the second half Town pushed the hosts back and got into the final third, however, as has been the case for a while, the final ball was lacking in one way or another and never really resulted in clean effort on goal.

Our visitors currently sit one place behind us in the league after having a good start to the season, one that has surprised a few 'experts' out there. Currently being managed by former Celtic and Wigan defender Gary Caldwell, the Grecians have played one game less than Town so far this season but have a near to similar record so far. Last time out they lost to Reading, who themselves sit just one place below, Exeter had the better of the game but couldn't make it count as the Royals ran out 2-1 winners, Ilmari Niskanen scored for Exeter in the second half after Reading had a 2-0 lead at half time.

They begun the season with a surprise 1-0 at home to newly relegated Rotherham, Aussie midfielder Caleb Watts scoring in the second half after coming off the bench, they followed that up with a defeat in the first round of the League Cup to Walsall and then another defeat on the road at Northampton. Defender Tristan Crama put the Grecians ahead inside the first 10 minutes but the Cobblers hit back in the second half through Callum Morton and Cameron McGeehan. They were unable to dust themselves down as next time out they lost 2-1 again, this time at home to Peterborough. Once again they raced into a lead through Reece Cole after just 4 minutes, but it didn't take long for Posh to hit back through Malik Mothersille, before Emmanuel Fernandez scored the decisive goal on the stroke of half time. Exeter would then pull off a real backs to the wall win away at Bolton, as the Trotters registered 21 attempts on goal and dominated possession, but Exeter scored with their two shots on target thanks to Kamari Doyle and former Halifax player Millenic Alli. Their next league game would see them return to losing ways once again as they traveled to a different beach to face Blackpool. CJ Hamilton opened the scoring for the Tangerines and Edward Francis looked to have rescued a draw for the Grecians in the 88th minute, but former Town loanee James Husband scored deep into injury time to consign Exeter to their third league defeat of the season. This sparked a mini turnaround in form as they would go 5 games without a defeat starting with a 2-0 win over Stevenage at home, with goals coming from Francis and Doyle, before holding firm in Lancashire for a 0-0 draw against Wigan. They would then head to Leyton Orient and come away with three points thanks to an Amani Richards goal, although they finished the game with 10 men as Watts received a red card in injury time. Long time Town tormentor Ryan Woods was on hand to score the only goal as the Grecians beat Cambridge United in the game before the international break. Post break they beat Shrewsbury 2-0 away with goals from Doyle and Josh Magennis before the defeat to Reading last time out.



Exeter City F.C. was formed from two predecessor clubs, Exeter United F.C. and St Sidwell's United. Exeter United was a football club from Exeter, Devon, that played between 1890 and 1904. In 1904, Exeter United lost 3–1 to local rivals St Sidwell's United and after the match it was agreed that the two clubs should become one. The new team took the name Exeter City and continued to play at Exeter United's ground, St James Park, where Exeter City still play today. The nickname 'The Grecians' has largely unknown origins, with a few different theories arising. One suggestion is that in 1908 the club voted for the name because of its association with St Sidwells parish. Historically people living in the parish of St Sidwells were said to have been known as "Greeks" or "Grecians". This is possibly due to the parish's location beyond the city walls. For instance, in Homer's epic poem the Iliad the Greek forces laid siege to the walls of Troy. However, perhaps more plausibly, the association arose because of rivalries between city boys and those of St Sidwells during the annual beating the bounds.
It has also been suggested the name derived from a group of children in St Sidwells who were referred to as the 'Greasy Un's'. A further possibility was that it derived from a jeweller's shop in Sidwell Street, close to the ground, which had a clock hanging outside displaying the name 'Grecians' on its face. The team became one of the first sides to tour far flung places, including going to South America to play games in Brazil. They became the first ever side to face the Brazilian national side and this lead to partnerships with illustrious clubs like Fluminense who have been the home for players such as Deco and Ronaldinho in the past. Exeter were invited to help create the Football League Third Division in 1920. They remained in the division until becoming founder members of the Fourth Division in 1958. They were promoted in 1963–64, only to be relegated after two seasons. They were promoted out of the Fourth Division again at the end of the 1976–77 season and managed to stay in the Third Division for seven seasons before being relegated in 1984.



Exeter won their first league title in the 1989–90 season, gaining promotion as Fourth Division champions under the stewardship of Terry Cooper. Relegated in 1994, they lost their Football League status at the end of the 2002–03 season. They spent five seasons in the Conference and recovered from defeat in the 2007 play-off final to win promotion out of the play-offs the next year. Returning to League Two in 2012, they have lost in the play-off finals in 2017, 2018 and most recently in 2020, but in the 2021–22 season they gained automatic promotion to League One and have finished 14th and 13th in the seasons since. Famous fans include David Earl, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Adrian Edmondson, Noel Edmonds, swimmer Liam Tancock, BBC broadcaster James Vickery, Spotlight reporter John Ayres, TV presenter Juliet Morris and Hoosiers drummer Alan Sharland. Singer Joss Stone signed up as a member of the supporters trust, being introduced to fans on the pitch as a new member during a League Cup match against Liverpool. In 2002 pop singer Michael Jackson was made honorary director of Exeter City. He visited St James Park with celebrity friend Uri Geller, who was also a director.



Now managed by Gary Caldwell who joined the club in 2022 following the departure of Matt Taylor to Rotherham (he was the manager of Bristol Rovers last saturday, whos fans were clamoring for him to be sacked) Caldwell has turned the Grecians into a solid outfit with the club often having one or two players that fetch interest from leagues above. In Caldwells first season in charge he had Sam Nombe who would score 15 goals in the league before moving to Rotherham in the Championship, the season after goals were harder to come by with Reece Cole leading the way with 7 for the season, but they still managed to finish in a respectable position. Caldwell himself has had a topsy turvy kind of managerial career so far, initially going into coaching at Wigan once retiring, he was placed in interim charge as they failed to avoid the drop into League One, but he was trusted with the job permanently, leading the Latics back up at the first time of asking, but he would lose his job after 18 months in charge. Nearly 3 months later he would take charge at Chesterfield in League One as they battled for survival, but he was unable to keep them up and after a poor start to the League Two campaign he was relieved of his duties. After over a year out of the game, Caldwell was appointed manager of Scottish Championship club Partick Thistle in October 2018. Thistle avoided relegation at the end of the 2018–19 season, but Caldwell was sacked in September 2019 as the club sat second-bottom of the 2019–20 Scottish Championship table. In 2021 Caldwell was named interim manager of Newcastle United's U23s team but later that year he joined Manchester City in a role overseeing their players loaned to other clubs. Caldwell re-joined Hibernian as their assistant manager in December 2021, working alongside current Wigan boss Shaun Maloney. They were sacked in April 2022, following a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Hearts. He would then join Exeter in October of 2022.



The Grecians appear to be a solid team with no absolute stand out players, more a unified team all pulling in the same direction and working together. That being said, the goals have been shared around between them with Doyle and Francis leading the way with 3 each, whilst striker Alli has 2 so far this campaign. Doyle and Francis will form the midfield axis for the visitors whilst Alli is likely to be partnered by the experience of Magennis. Out of the lot, Doyle, on loan from Brighton will be the one to keep an eye on, he has played a range of midfield roles coming through the systems of Brighton and Southampton and is regarded as being able to use both feet well and looks to get efforts off on goal when the chance arrives.



It was a busy summer for Exeter, with 12 players coming in. Former Town player Muzzy Carayol joined on a free transfer, the experienced winger had last been on the books of Burton Albion. Fellow winger Pat Jones joined from Town, whilst the Grecians made the most of the loan system, bringing in the 5 that are allowed in a match day squad. Doyle joined from Brighton, whilst Amani Richards joined from Leicester. Tristan Crama joined from Brentford with goalkeeper Joe Whitworth joining from fellow London club Crystal Palace, the final loanee was Johnly Yfeko who came south from Rangers. They dipped into non league to bring Ed Francis from Gateshead and returned north of the border to bring Jay Bird and Jack McMillan from Arbroath and Partick Thistle respectively. The final transfers of the window were the experienced duo Josh Magennis who came from Wigan and Ryan Woods who joined from Hull. With regards to departures, a host of younger players moved to non league Plymouth Parkway whilst defender Cheick Diabate joined League Two side Bradford City on loan. Experienced goal keeper Gary Woods moved to Scotland to play for Morton, defender Will Aimson moved to Wigan, fellow defenders Zak Jules and Alex Hartridge moved to fellow League One sides Rotherham and Wycombe respectively. Striker James Scott moved to St Mirren whilst former Tottenham and Swansea midfielder Tom Carroll moved to MK Dons.



Town look set to have the same squad available that featured against Wrecsam, Turton came off in the second half with cramp so will be good to go, Healey made his comeback but will likely be limited to 15-20 minutes for the coming few weeks. Sorensen is expected to be out for 6-8 weeks with a hamstring injury, joining a list that already includes michal helik, lee nicholls, Joe Hodge and radino balker. Balker however has started running on the grass, but won't be anywhere near featuring until January at the earliest. Exeter will be without former Town winger Pat Jones who joined the Grecians in the summer, he has torn his hamstring without even playing a game for the club. Former Town tormentor Yanic Wildschut is out for the season with a cruciate knee injury, whilst defender Jack Fitzwater will be expected to be in and around the squad having played his first game the other week since being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

for Duff and Kasumu

https://x.com/i/status/1849725688640573669

Follow this for Caldwell's view on the game, as well as speaking about reaching the 100 game mark in charge of the Grecians.

In terms of head to heads, town lead the way with 11 wins, with Exeter winning 8 and there being 5 draws. The sides last met in February of 2012, where Jordan Rhodes scored one of his 7 goals against the Grecians for town, including two hat tricks, one of which was a perfect hat trick. The first meeting between the two sides was in 1975 where the visitors would win 1-0 at Leeds road. It would be 1980 before the terriers would register their first win against the Devonshire club.



No Anagrams again for this one, but there may be a Tamworth/ FA Cup themed something in the next one.

Colchester 2-1 Salford City
Morecambe 0-3 Chesterfield
Accrington 1-3 Walsall
Bradford City 2-0 Doncaster
Bromley 0-1 Barrow
Carlisle 0-1 Cheltenham
Crewe 1-1 Tranmere
Grimsby 1-2 MK Dons
Newport 2-0 Fleetwood
Notts County 3-1 Harrogate
Port Vale 2-0 Wimbledon
Swindon 0-2 Gillingham

Tuesday 29 October 2024
Fleetwood 1-1 Salford City

League Table After Match day 13

Devon - 253
Dancing - 252
Maclad - 236
Spireitematt - 230
Amelia - 225
SaltergateBorn - 220
Lord Snoots - 212
St Charles - 188

In the first derby of the season, things are going to get tough at Easter Road for Hibs supporters. We MUST improve our scoring conversion rate in attack and we MUST stop shooting ourselves in the foot in defence.

What we don't want is more of the same - the same old promises, the same old team selection, the same tired substitutions, the same late collapses we've become famous for and the same old excuses afterwards. SDG will surely change the keeper and right back (and maybe others as well) and look upon this game as a chance to change the record.

Hearts will come into this game on a high after their win tonight - note that Omonia Nicosia play in green and white and their club badge features a shamrock, so Hearts will use that to their advantage. Shankland hasn't scored for a month and will remember the last two games against Hibs to motivate himself. There's no doubt that the appointment of Neil Critchley has made a huge difference to the Jambos in a very short time. I can only hope that the new manager bounce wears off in time for Sunday.

I've never been a great believer in changing managers too often, but the mere fact that I'm mentioning it shows even my patience is wearing thin. If SDG can't show that he is learning from his mistakes, then there's little hope of any improvement.