THE MATCH

FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER KO 8PM

v

LAST MATCH



Our 2nd home game in 4 days, was one not to remember as the game finished goalless. The closest anyone came to scoring in the first half was when Swansea hit the post although there player didn't know much about as the ball kinda just deflected off him. On to the 2nd half and Beadle made the only save of the game from Ronald. We came close to taking the 3 points but Valentin's close range shot hit the post.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and back on the road as we make the long journey south to take on Pompey. Pompey have made a poor start to the season and currently lie bottom of the Championship with just 1 win all season. You would imagine they will be around the relegation zone for the majority of the season and it will be touch and go to see if they stay up or not. They are managed by John Mousinho who took charge in January 2023 and has a 48% win percentage. There leading scorer is Lang with 4 goals.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 28
PORT 27
DRAWS 16

CURRENT FORM

OWLS D L W D W L                                                            

PORT L W D L D L                                       

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  



THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Musaba Ingelsson Gassama
Ugbo

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Smith

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Wereham 7
Maddix 7
Washington 6
Imre 4
SCO 4

BMPL

Southey 10
Owlkev 4
Stateside 4
Pei 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Everton v Fulham
Coventry v Luton
Mansfield v Birmingham
Bradford v Doncaster
Halifax v York

HADDA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Tuesday sees Towns one and only international game of the season as they head to Hollywood to meet a supposed Welsh side. Backed by a couple of actors, Wrecsam have had a dramatic profile increase, which in turn has seen them stride up the leagues, with very little to suggest that they won't be the biggest side in Wales over the coming seasons. You could argue that they are the most likely to reach the Premier League out of the Cardiff and Swansea.



Wrecsam have taken to this league much like they did to League two last season, currently sitting in second place following a 1-0 win away at Rotherham, they will be hoping that it is a short stay, they have lost just the two league games all season so far, one of those being away at Birmingham, the other coming against Stevenage. They began the campaign with a 3-2 win at home to Wycombe, former T'owl Steven Fletcher finding himself on the scoresheet there. They followed that with a 4-2 defeat at Brammall Lane in the League Cup before playing out a goalless draw at the Toughshit Stadium against Bolton. Winning ways was resumed with a 3-0 win at home to Reading, Deadpool star Ollie Palmer among the goals there, he has been a pivotal part of the Wrecsam side that have climbed up the football league. They followed that up with a 2-0 win on the road away at Peterborough with another former owl, Jack Marriott on the scoresheet, the striker is their leading scorer so far this season, but is out for up to 4 months after breaking his leg. The Dragons made it three in a row with a 3-0 win over Shrewsbury, the Palmer and Marriott were both on the scoresheet once again, joined this time by Elliot Lee, son of former Newcastle and England midfielder Rob. Their next league fixture was against Birmingham which saw Hollywood face up against one of the greatest NFL players, stars were in attendance, the likes of David Beckham being lured in by the fame and fortunes, Wrecsam would take the lead through Marriott after just three minutes, but Brum would bite back to win 3-1, despite Krystian Bielik seeing red late on. They dusted themselves down quickly and returned to winning ways thanks to a 2-1 win over Crawley, Lee and Max Cleworth scoring either side of a Junior Quitima goal. A goalless draw away at Leyton Orient ended September, before losing away at Stevenage 1-0, but a 4-1 thrashing of Northampton took them into the international break, with a 16 second goal from Paul Mullin seeing them past Rotherham at the weekend.



It's worth looking into a few of the stats, with the vast majority of the games seeing Wrecsam yielding possession of the ball, with a high number of fouls being committed by the side. It seems like a lot of their wins have been revolving around set pieces and hitting teams on the break, with a few clinical and hardworking strikers amidst their ranks. Quite a few of their games have seen them face a fair amount of efforts on their goal, Rotherham clocked 17 efforts, but not many on target, Northampton, despite losing 4-1, managed 14 efforts as an away side. Stevenage restricted the Welsh side to 7 attempts with one on target, Orient, too frustrated the Welsh side, but in fairness it seems like a drab match. Crawley had the higher possession and attempts on goal as the away side when the sides met, they were probably unlucky to come out on the losing end of the tie. The Birmingham game seems like it was much like how we tried to play against the moneybag side, Shrewsbury managed to get into double figures in attempts, Posh struggled but saw over 70% of the ball, Reading nearly got 70% of the ball also as an away side but managed just one attempt on goal. Same story with Bolton, they just managed more attempts on target. Wycombe also had the better of the game but lost. I guess what I am trying to suggest is that we could well muster quite a few attempts on goal and we will probably see a fair bit of the ball in the process, Wrecsam like breaking play up with fouls, normally we have been decent on attacking set pieces but I think Matty Pearsons goal was the first from the initial set piece, Ben Wiles scored against Peterborough in the aftermath of the corner. It will be interesting to see how we line up in the forward line, whilst Marshall rats around and could be a big problem for the Wrecsam defence, his partner, should it be Bojan will probably have to be far more alive to rebounds and snap shots, at the moment, it still feels like the much maligned Danny Ward or the ever injured Rhys Healey are the more likely to capitalise from this sort of opportunity, although having scored at the weekend maybe Bojan will be more confident and riding the crest of a wave.



So what's happening at the Stok racecourse ground? Well Hollywood came a calling and the Welsh side listened intently, ultimately succumbing to the charm of Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, of Green Lantern, Free Guy fame and a small movie trilogy called Deadpool, nothing to do with Clint Eastwood and his friend Rob McElhenney, who claimed it's always sunny in Philadelphia, jokes on him, he's never been to Yorkshire. The duo purchased the club back in 2020, the club finished 8th that season, but was unveiled to whole new audience thanks to the docuseries welcome to Wrexham. The following season the side finished second and just missed out on promotion, but constant investment from the big screen duo saw the club achieve back to back promotions.



Reynolds has been seen in Hollywood since the first Deadpool films success as almost a banker at the box offices, whilst the films may not be Oscar worthy nor the greatest of films overall, they are normally good for a few hours of humor and escapism, which in my book is normally a good thing. Not every movie has to be hard hitting, that being said I do enjoy thought provoking films just as much as I do a good Sci Fi or comic book film, I feel I am quite well rounded in that regards. So does anyone have a favourite Reynolds film? mine outside of the Deadpool series would be Free Guy. What would People put as their top 10 films of all time? I'll put mine in the comments below.



As well as getting money from the TV show and their famous owners, the club has also seen a dramatic upturn in sponsorship deals, with social media site tiktok sponsoring the side the last two seasons along with travel site expedia, Vistaprint has sponsored their sleeves along with Reynolds owned company American Aviation gin. This season the club is sponsored by American Airlines and Vistaprint, with HP Inc sponsoring their sleeves, not sure if it's ketchup, brown sauce or the fruity one. Which is your favourite?



Managed by Mr Empty Seat himself, Phil Parkinson, the former Reading player replaced Dean Keates in July 2021. His first season saw the side miss out on Promotion in the playoffs to Grimsby before leading the side to back to back promotions, as well as a couple of overseas tours to the US of A, building up a new fanbase, capitalising on the fame of their owners. Back in 2007, Parkinson was assistant manager to Alan Pardew at Charlton and looked set to a return to management at the then McAlpine Stadium, but backed out of the deal at the last minute to stay at the Valley, this resulted in the infamous scene of Ken Davy and a guy who I can't remember the name of, Andrew Watson maybe? sat at a table with gathered press and an empty chair, having to announce that the manager wasn't going to turn up. In the end we ended up with Andy Ritchie and Parkinson would eventually take the hotseat at the Valley in 2008 on New Years Eve. His tenure at the Valley ended in January 2011 and in August the same year he wound up at another Valley, in Yorkshire, of Bradford origin. He spent 5 years at Valley Parade, with his first full season at the helm he would guide the Bantams to a historic League Cup final, which they would lose 5-0 to Swansea City, the same season they would also gain promotion to League One via the Playoffs. The next season he would see his Bradford side ease past a Jose Mourinho Chelsea side in the FA Cup, but could only get as far as the Quarter Finals, in the league, they would lose to Millwall in the Play Off semi finals and Parkinson would depart to join newly relegated Bolton Wanderers. He would guide the Trotters back into the Championship at the first time of asking, but struggled upon their return, managing to scrape to survival, he would resign from the club in 2019, before having just over a year at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland, leaving them in 2020 before having a few months off to recharge ahead of the arguably heightened media scrutiny in Wrecsam.



In terms of team news for the two sides, town will be without the usual bunch of balker, helik, nicholls and Hodge, but will now see Sorensen join them after limping off only 4 minutes into Saturday's game. Ollie turton stepped in admirably and will be hoping to start, as will Brodie Spencer who returns after suspension. Striker Rhys Healey is expected to have gotten over the illness that dragged him off early in the b team game and kept him out of the weekends game. Wrecsam will definitely be without Jack Marriott with a broken leg, Max cleworth will also miss out with torn ankle ligaments, midfielder George Evans will also miss out having suffered the same fate.



The side will be captained by everyones favourite footballer James McClean, I'm sure he will get a vociferous welcome as he does at every ground.

He will be one to watch as he is prone to winding opponents up and not just the supporters, now 35 his best days are behind him and no longer is he a marauding winger, most recently he has been operating as a wing back in a back 5. Also to be watched is Paul mullin who has come in due to the injury to Marriott. Over the last few seasons mullin has been pivotal to wrecsam climbing the leagues, but a serious injury in the summer set him back. The Liverpudlian is no stranger to Town, having come through the set up down Leeds road but never managed to play a game for the club. He moved to Morecambe and would spend 3 years there scoring 25 goals before heading south to Swindon. His one season there yielded 6 goals before he moved back north to Tranmere, scoring 8 goals in 42 games over a two year period before moving to Cambridge. At the U's he becomes a cult icon scoring 32 goals in a season there winning promotion to league one. Despite this he made the decision to leave and dropped down two divisions to join wrecsam, where he is already approaching the 100 goal mark, having been there since 2021, earning him a standby callup to the Wales squad and an acting credit as Welsh pool in the Deadpool v wolverine movie.



His most recent striking partner has been fellow actor Ollie Palmer, the 32 year old has been at the club since 2022 when he joined from AFC Wimbledon. Also in the striking ranks is Steven Fletcher, the former owl striker has scored a few times against town, but now nearly 40, he is more of an impact player. They also have talented midfielders Andy cannon, Elliot lee and spent good money on Ollie rathbone in the summer but haven't seen the best from their midfield three yet and still see themselves in second spot.



Their transfers can be seen here,

   

Departures

   

Our head to head record is as follows;

   

The most recent of meetings came way back in may 2005 when David Mirfin scored past a young Ben Foster to give Peter Jackson's side the three points, whilst the first meeting was a 0-0 draw in 1973.

I don't know how to get these bigger, first time I've used attachments for one of these.

Gamball:
Watford - Blackburn

Others:
Everton - Fulham
Coventry - Luton
Derby - Hull
Plymouth - Preston
Chelsea - Newcastle
Palace - Spurs
West Ham - Man Utd
Arsenal - Liverpool
Norwich - Middlesbrough

THE MATCH

TUESDAY 22ND OCTOBER KO 7:45PM

v

LAST MATCH



Back off the international break and we went down to defeat to Burnley. It was a fairly even half, Ugbo should have scored with a close range header but he put it over the bar. We had a couple of other chances but didn't take them and we were punished when Valery couldn't control a pass and Anthony slotted past Beadle. Onto the 2nd half and Burnley increased there lead when Brownhill fired in after a Beadle save. We huffed and puffed and Smith had a couple of late chances but both missed the target.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and Swansea make the journey north. The Swans have made a reasonable start to the season and currently lie in 13th place. Another of those teams not good enough to go up and probably too good to get involved with a relegation scrap. They are managed by Luke Williams who has been in charge since January this year after leaving leaving league 2 Notts County. There leading scorer is Cullen who has 2 goals so far.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 13
SWAN 10
DRAWS 14

CURRENT FORM

OWLS L W D W L W                                                            

SWAN L D L D W W                                       

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Matthew Donohue
Paul Hodkinson & Richard Woodward
Fourth Official: Geoff Eltringham

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Musaba Ingelsson Gassama
Ugbo

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Smith

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

25546

BML LEAGUE

Wereham 7
Maddix 7
Washington 6
Imre 4
SCO 2

BMPL

Southey 10
Owlkev 4
Stateside 4
Pei 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Oxford v Derby
QPR v Coventry
Birmingham v Bolton
Gillingham v Newport
York City v Barnet

HHHHD

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 11:

1. themaclad = 197 pts
   
2. Baggiebob(BBB) = 195 pts
   
3. St Charles Owl = 194 pts
   
4. jjamez = 187 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 164 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 163 pts
   

Saturday October 26th:
Town v Exeter
Town scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Mansfield Town v Birmingham City (12:30)
Bolton Wanderers v Peterborough United
Cambridge United v Burton Albion
Charlton Athletic v Wrexham
Rotherham United v Stevenage

Tuesday October 29th:
Lincoln City v Northampton Town
Stockport County v Reading

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Championship:
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City

Tuesday:
EFL Cup (last 16):
Brentford v Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday:
Manchester United v Leicester City
Preston North End v Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

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

1. neonfoxinthebox = 217 pts
   
2. Devongone = 211 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 206 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 193 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 169 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 154 pts
   

Saturday October 26th:
Town v Exeter
Town scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Reading v Bristol Rovers (12:30)
Lincoln City v Stockport County
Northampton Town v Crawley Town
Shrewsbury Town v Barnsley
Wycombe Wanderers v Leyton Orient

Monday October 28th:
Blackpool v Wigan Athletic

Tuesday October 29th:
Stevenage v Bolton Wanderers

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
League Two:
Morecambe v Chesterfield (12:30)

Sunday:
Premier League:
Arsenal v Liverpool (16:30)

Wednesday:
Scottish Premiership:
Ross County v Hibernian

EFL Cup (last 16):
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace
Newcastle United v Chelsea

*** 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.

Ward, Healy and Kane are back in action.

As for Exeter, their star signing from us, Pat Jones, is also a long term injury.

Tuesday 22nd October

Barrow 2-3 Notts County
Cheltenham 0-2 Bradford City
Chesterfield 2-1 Colchester
Doncaster 3-0 Bromley
Fleetwood 2-2 Crewe
Gillingham 1-0 Newport
Harrogate 0-2 Port Vale
MK Dons 1-1 Accrington
Salford City 2-1 Swindon
Tranmere 2-1 Grimsby
Walsall 5-0 Carlisle
Wimbledon 2-0 Morecambe

League Table After Match day 12

Dancing - 232
Devon - 228
Maclad - 213
Spireitematt - 213
Amelia - 208
Lord Snoots - 200
St Charles - 188
SaltergateBorn - 186

Words fail me.

Tooley's Take on our website is the kindest take possible on a dire evening in Newport. We won 0-3 but it was an exercise in survival for those watching. The beautiful game this wasn't. The idiot goal stolen by Markanday after 40 seconds comforted us as we groaned that at least we were winning.

First, a confession, as I slowly decline towards dementia, I might occasionally refer to our Kenny-Everett-handed young keeper as Marshall. He's called Thompson I know, but my first crush was on Marshall Thompson, the lead in Daktari. Luckily he was more interested in Clarence the cross-eyed lion. But all these years on I can't stop accidentally calling our keeper Marshall. Quite soon my affections transferred to Patrick Macnee, Steed from The Avengers. I obviously went for the more mature man! Hopefully we can avoid signing any players whose names trigger "my befuddled brain" (a quote from Procul Harum) to rename them Macnee or Steed.

Bizarrely having watched us struggle last week against a man of only 6'5" Newport left 6'9" Kyle Hudlin sprawled on the bench. He finally shambled apologetically onto the pitch with the game two-thirds over, his body language shrinking him by several inches. He had chosen to curate his hair into two ill-formed non-matching antlers flopping unevenly against their elastic bands. His Auntie-Aleysha's shortie bedsocks were clearly designed to emphasise the abnormally long and spindly legs emerging unwillingly from aero-dynamically-unsustainably voluminous shorts.

Kyle won a couple of headers and hit a post with a cross desperately clawed away by our goalkeeper Daktari. Soon Grimes leapt into him to challenge for a header, leaving Hudlin grounded like a disassembled spider on the turf. That prompted Will Grigg to demonstrate that centre forwards need not leap high to score goals, cleverly adding two from an apparently somnolent position in the the six-yard box.

Newport's best player was undoubtedly Kamwa, whose focus was spot-on throughout, producing the odd snapshot and enlivening a rather passive attack with an entire album of tricks. The permanently argumentative Wildig eventually had to be substituted. Apparently he is to be confined to a telephone box to see whether he can manage to start an argument there.

Our best player was undoubtedly Ty Williams who chummed up with Araujo to handle everything half-heartedly thrown at them. Dobra performed as if choreographed by Dancing (willdoit) and was soon voted off by the audience.

It was a bad bad game and Newport will be well-advised to employ a dresser for Kyle Hudlin in future. Berry, glued to the bench, and Drummond and Hobson on loan must have wondered, but it is hard to argue with a 0-3. We did deserve to win and Newport certainly deserved to lose.