Keeper on bench? That's a new one.
Great result Saturday. Let's not get carried away though. Mainly reserves out tonight but it was only to be expected.
We should win it but let's wait and see.

Some slight changes to the format this season - please see below.

Group A

Themaclad 17
Minizin 17
A.A.A. 11
Amelia 8
Twerton 6
Zinman 3

Decent scoring in Group A in the first week back. Themaclad and Minizin obviously worked hard in pre-season and came out of the blocks running, both scoring a good 17 points. Themaclad scored a CR on the Gamball, Minizin missed on his but ended with 2 CSs to boost his total. Both managed to score positive points on the Bonus Ball. AAA is third with 11 points, he failed to get an CSs but did manage to score points on both the Gamball and the Bonus.

Amelia, good to see her back this season, finished 4th with 8 points, a couple of points ahead of Twerton on 6 points. The defending Champion Zinman brings up the rear with a poor 3 points, I am sure he will say he is just being kind and giving others a head start but time will tell!!

Positive totals on the Gamball and Bonus for a change, lets see if that becomes a trend or is just a blip!!


Group B

BaggieOne 11pts
SCO 11
Lady Jane 10
Stairs 9
Derby 7
BBB 3
Snooty 2

A steady start to the season - nobody started with a sprint and nobody went backwards, though Snooty did try! The Derby - Middlesbrough match caused a few problems, no one foresaw a Derby victory and it also blew 3 bonus balls with the Championship, as usual, looking hard to predict.

The week's league lead is shared by BaggieOne and SCO. B1 equalled the week's best results and score predictions though lost out on the major balls. SCO was one of 2 players to score on the gamball but missed out on the other balls. Lady Jane follows just a point behind as the other positive gamballer. Stairs and Derby occupy mid table, Stairs equalling B1's 5 correct results while Derby was one of the 2 players scoring on his bonus. BBB got off to a quiet score with just 3 correct predictions none of which were his balls while Snooty was saved from a negative start by the fact that his only correct result was his bonus.


2024/2025 Season Format Changes

So on to those changes. With relatively few players we've decided to operate 2 groups, imaginatively called Group A and Group B - these groups were chosen randomly by Zin's solar powered super computer. The league will run until the weekend of April 19th when the play off positions will be decided. At that time the leaders of each Group will go through to the play-offs and receive a bye in the first round. The next 4 highest scorers (from either Group) will play off against each other on the week of April 26th with the top 2 going through to meet the Group winners in the 2nd round. The top 2 from that round will play off for the overall championship with Zin being the winner. In the event of any ties during the play offs, the winner will be determined by the number of correct score predictions that week and if they are equal by the number of correct results. If we still have a tie then the player scoring the highest number of points in the regular season will go through.

There are no changes to the scoring this season.

All very simple.

Cheers
Zin & SCO

Preston North End are delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Heckingbottom as the club’s new first team manager.

The 47-year-old arrives with experience of two promotions as a manager, including in the 2022/23 season when he took Sheffield United to the Premier League.

Heckingbottom, who has managed in the top three divisions of English football, will be joined at North End by assistant Stuart McCall.

Speaking after his appointment, Paul said: “I’m really delighted with it, ready to go, and champing at the bit really. It’s a club I know well for lots of reasons and a league I know well, so it was a pretty easy decision.

“Experience is key. Knowing the players helps, and then having success in this league helps, so we know what it takes to compete. We know what it takes to do well and you can give that clear direction to try and get there, and that’s the aim.

“The short-term goals are to get back on track. Longer term, we want to be a really, really competitive team in this league.

“We want to play in a way the fans can enjoy and in a way that gets the best out of the players, and when you get that it can be really powerful.”



Following an extensive playing career, which included spells with Darlington, Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday, Heckingbottom’s first coaching role came with Barnsley.

He led the Tykes to success in the EFL Trophy and the League One Play-Offs, and brought both Liam Lindsay and Brad Potts to the club once in the Championship.

Heckingbottom went on to take charge of Leeds United and Hibernian, before enjoying huge success with Sheffield United, taking the Blades to an FA Cup semi-final and leading them to the top flight with a tally of 91 points.

PNE Director, Peter Ridsdale added: “I’m delighted that Paul Heckingbottom has joined us as first team manager.

“We identified that we wanted Paul to be the man to take us forward and moved swiftly over the weekend. We met on Sunday, finalised the details late last night and he’s here with us today, ready to get to work.

“I’m now looking forward with confidence with Paul and Stuart McCall in charge, and I think all Preston North End fans can be really excited about the season ahead.”

The manager will be in attendance at Tuesday’s Central League fixture against Derby County and will take charge of the first team on Saturday against Luton Town.

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 2:

1. themaclad = 36 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 32 pts
   
3. Baggiebob(BBB) = 28 pts
   
4. jjamez = 28 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 22 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 20 pts
   

Saturday 24th August:
Town v Shrewsbury
Town scorers:
Shrews scorers:

Stockport County v Bristol Rovers (12:30)
Barnsley v Northampton Town
Cambridge United v Blackpool
Charlton Athletic v Bolton Wanderers
Exeter City v Peterborough United
Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United

Carabooboo Cup 2nd round:
Tuesday 27th August:
Walsall v Town
Town scorers:
Walsall scorers:

Grimsby Town v Sheffield Wednesday
Harrogate Town v Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers v Luton Town
Watford v Plymouth Argyle

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

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

1. neonfoxinthebox = 44 pts
   
2. Devongone = 42 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 39 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 30 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 27 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 23 pts
   

Saturday 24th August:
Town v Shrewsbury
Town scorers:
Shrews scorers:

Burton Albion v Stevenage (12:30)
Leyton Orient v Birmingham City
Lincoln City v Mansfield Town
Wigan Athletic v Crawley Town
Wrexham v Reading

Carabooboo Cup 2nd round:
Tuesday 27th August:
Walsall v Town
Town scorers:
Walsall scorers:

Barnsley v Sheffield United
Barrow v Derby County
Everton v Doncaster Rovers
Fleetwood Town v Rotherham United

Bonus matches:
Saturday:
Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Dundee

League Two:
Chesterfield v Salford City


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

Gamball:
Bristol City - Coventry

Others:
Brighton - Man Utd
Crystal Palace - West Ham
Southampton - Forest
Villa - Arsenal
Norwich Sheff Utd
Preston - Luton
Stoke - WBA

Sunday
Wolves - Chelsea
Swansea - Cardiff

The idea behind splitting the Carabao in its first two rounds holds obvious appeal, unfortunately it doesn't go far enough to grab the attention of the crowds or the clubs. Far too many clubs discard it completely from their thinking and field an almost complete reserve side, because their season has hardly started and they decide their is little chance of achieving anything worthwhile.

My solution is go the whole hog with the idea and split the whole competition in two. Give the two sections names - maybe Helvellyn and Jurassic or something and make the draw simpler to understand.

46 clubs geographically divided in each section. The lowest ranked 28 from the previous season's league positions go into the first round draw. 18 "top" clubs get byes.

2nd Round, now 32 clubs. The 14 first round winners to be guaranteed HOME ties in Round Two. So lower clubs get 14 chances of playing a much bigger club at home. Only two games feature big clubs only. That way ALL the smaller clubs will give Round One a real go.

Then carry on with normal draws for a Round 3 of 16 clubs and so on regionally UNTIL you have a Northern and a Southern Final with a trophy for each.

Then towards the season's close, North vs South in a big Kings of Carabou Final. The sponsors would love it I'm sure. Fans would like guaranteeing playing their own area only until the big play off. No small club like Chesterfield would fight its way through to Round 3 only to find that of all the glamour clubs left they'd got Ipswich miles away on a Tuesday night. A draw home or away against Liverpool or even Newcastle would bring a song to the heart even with a hiding in prospect.

And maybe start the competition when all 92 clubs have actually got going

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 18TH AUGUST KO MIDDAY

v

LAST MATCH



We started the new season with an emphatic win against Argyle. We were on the front foot from the start and had several chances before we eventually took the lead. Bannan fed Ingelsson who controlled the ball well and crossed for Lowe to fire in from close range. We went in 1-0 up. Onto the 2nd half and the pattern stayed the same. Bannan had a couple of efforts to double the lead before Argyle helped us into a 2-0 lead when Galloway put one in his own net. We continued the one way traffic and Windass made it 3 when firing in from 6 yards. We made it 4 when Smith finished from close range after missing his first attempt.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our fist league away game sess us travel to the north east to take on Sunderland. The Venue where we secured our Championship survival on the last day of the season. Sunderland made a winning start to the season with a 0-2 win at Cardiff. They still have the likes of Jack Clarke and Bellingham's younger brother Jobe. They are managed by Regis Le Bris, who is a French manager who has managed in France with Lorient and had a 30% win percentage. Could see Sunderland finishing around mid table or just below.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 50
SUND 51
DRAWS 29

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                              

SUND -                                         

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Dean Whitestone
Daniel Leach & Rob Smith
Fourth Official: Oliver Langford

THE TEAM

Beadle
Valery Bernard Iorfa Lowe
Bannan Ingelsson
Musaba Windass Gassama
Lowe

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-2 Lowe

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Wereham 7
Maddix 6
Imre 4
Washington 2
SCO 2

BMPL

Southey 6
Owlkev 4
Stateside 1
Pei 0

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Brentford v Palace
Chelsea v Man City
Bolton v Wrexham
Notts Co v Fleetwood
Mallorca v Real Madrid

AAHHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC