Group A

BaggieOne 17
BaggieVicar 12
Minizin 10
Stairs 7
Twerton 7
A.A.A. 3
Zinman 0
B.B.B. -3

Bit of a nondescript week in Group A with a second lowest weekly score of just 55 points scored, although it was only over 9 games with the pond emerging at Ewood Park!! One interesting stat is prior to Birmingham's 94th minute winner the total score was only 28 points for the entire group but that goal saw a 27 point swing in the points scored on that game alone!!

But there is a definite pattern showing with who is near the top and who is near the bottom!! BaggieOne again leads the way with 17 points, this is his third weekly win out of the 6 weeks so far!! He scored on 7 games including 2 CSs and CR on the Bonus, if he ever sorts out his Gamball predictions then he would be way further ahead!! BaggieVicar is in 2nd spot with 12 points, which is a season high score for him and his first time in the top 2!! He has now not played the Gamball for the last two weeks which has saved him 2 points and he is one of only 3 players with a positive bonus points for the season. In 3rd is Minizin with his joint lowest score of the season with 10 points, he really is becoming Mr Consistency without being spectacular. He was the only player this week to get a CR on the Gamball.

Joint 4th is Stairs and Twerton with 7 points. Stairs only scored on 3 games but did manage a CR on the Bonus whereas Twerton scored on only 2 games but got his first spot-on Bonus. AAA ended with 3 points, his ball play is seriously letting him down this season!! Zinman is not last for a change, although thats only due to a technicality, he didn't trouble the scorers with his Zero, the second week this season he has done that.

BBB is in last place this week due to him not getting on in time to predict on 8 of the games. He in the end played the Gamball on the right game and put his Bonus and Scoreball on the only other game he had to predict on, unfortunately he got both predictions wrong so ended on -3 but did at least get the point for the SB.

93 BaggieOne
71 Stairs
69 Minizin
52 BaggieVicar
49 Twerton
43 B.B.B.
39 A.A.A.
20 Zinman

BaggieOne is really starting to run away with it and has now opened up a 22 point gap to Stairs in 2nd spot. Minizin is right behind Stairs now but then there is another large 17 points gap to BaggieVicar in 4th place. Twerton in 5th, BBB in 6th and AAA in 7th really need to pull their socks up if they are to climb the table, Zinman in last needs to actually put his socks on first!!!!

Cheers
SCO


Group B

4eva 12
Lady Jane 11
Themaclad 10
Salop 9
Snooty 9
SCO 7
Amelia 5
Derby 4

Another decent week, partiularly considering we only had 9 games, with just 7 points separating all players. Two games generated negative points, the gamball match and QPR's win over Stoke, while Palace's win at West Ham and Blues last minute victory over Swansea produced 20 and 22 points respectively. It was a better week for the bonus ball which delivered 12 points (the previous best was just 3) while it was the first time we saw a negative total on the gamball with just 1 correct predictor. This week also saw our first negative scoreballs.

Lady Jane was the player with a correct gamball helping her to the toip of this week's table. She only scored on 3 games but they included both of the main balls, once again showing how important they are. Themaclad and 4eva lie a point behind, Themaclad returning to form with the week's best 5 correct results, though missing out on all his balls, while 4eva only scored on 3 games but got 2 spot on including his bonusball which helped offset his negative scoreball.

Salop and Snooty just missed out on double figures - Salop scored on 3 games including his bonus while Snooty had 4 correct results including his bonus but was one of just 2 players not to hit a correct score.

SCO sits in mid table with 7 points, he was helped by a correct bonus among his 3 correct predictions .SCO also scored on the scoreball for the first time this season - unfortunately his score was negative as he played it on the Leicester/Coventry 0-0. Amelia was 2 points back, matching SCO's 3 results but missing with both of her main balls, leaving Derby at the foot of the table with 4 points from 2 correct predictions including his bonus but no correct scores.


59 Themaclad
56 SCO
52 4eva
40 Snooty
37 Lady Jane
33 Derby
30 Salop
17 Amelia

After being caught by SCO last week, Themaclad did enough to open a 3 point gap at the top. Lady Jane's good week sees her jump ahead of Derby in the only positional change.

Some stats that went missing last week!
The gamball has 3 players with 9 points (LJ, SCO and 4eva) while Snooty has yet to get anything from this ball and has minus 5 points from it (he missed week 1). Contrasting fortune for Snooty on the bonus ball where he has 4 out of 5 positive scores (2 maxima) to gather 15 points, 27 more than Derby and Lady Jane though at least they did pick up their first bonusball points this week. As stated above, SCO has managed to accumulate minus 1 point from 6 scoreball predictions - probably the first time this has happened!

The maclad is way out in front in terms of correct scores - 8, double the number of anyone else. He also has more correct results than anyone else, 24 with SCO on 23. If he could get the gamball right he could be out of sight by now!

Zin

Just as a reminder, due to the Blackburn game being called off, Zinman has 2 Bonus balls to play in Week 7, and Twerton, Derby and Lady Jane have 2 Scoreballs to play.

Yeovil Town manager Danny Webb has resigned from his role after just one match in charge.

The former Chesterfield coach moved to Huish Park earlier this month to replace the sacked Mark Cooper.

Webb has cited personal and family reasons for stepping down and becoming Yeovil's shortest-reigning permanent manager in their history.

Under his brief tenure he oversaw a 1-0 loss at Tamworth on Saturday, leaving the club 17th in the National League.

The club have promoted coach Richard Dryden - who was previously in interim charge - to manager for the rest of the season.

Gamball
Oxford - Sheff Utd

Others:
Brentford - Man Utd
Leeds - Bournemouth
Coventry - Birmingham
Wrexham - Derby
Charlton - Blackburn
Preston - Bristol City
Sheff Wed - QPR
Southampton - Middlesbrough
Newcastle - Arsenal

Following last week's abandoned game, Zin has to play 2 bonus balls (so that's minus 6 to start with), Twerton, Derby and Lady Jane have 2 scoreballs to play.

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 the Matchday 8:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 135 pts
   
2. jjamez = 131 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 126 pts
   
4. SHEP_HTAFC = 115 pts
   
5. ritchiebaby = 103 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 102 pts
   

Friday September 26th:
Championship:
West Bromwich Albion v Leicester City (20:00)

Saturday September 27th:
Sheffield Wednesday v Queens Park Rangers

League One:
Exeter v Town
Town Scorers:
Exeter scorers:

AFC Wimbledon v Wycombe Wanderers (12:30)
Burton Albion v Plymouth Argyle
Mansfield Town v Rotherham United
Peterborough United v Lincoln City
Wigan Athletic v Cardiff City

Scottish Premiership:
Celtic v Hibernian

Monday September 29th:
Premier League:
Everton v West Ham United (20:00)

Tuesday September 30th:
League One:
Blackpool v Luton Town

EFL Trophy Northern Group F:
Harrogate v Town
Town scorers:
Harrogate scorers:

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

1. themaclad = 152 pts
   
2. Devongone = 123 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 118 pts
   
4. Amelia Chaffinch = 102 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 97 pts
   
6. St Charles Owl = 95 pts
   

Saturday September 27th:
League One:
Exeter v Town
Town Scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Leyton Orient v Stevenage (12:30)
Barnsley v Port Vale
Bradford City v Blackpool
Luton Town v Doncaster Rovers
Northampton Town v Bolton Wanderers
Stockport County v Reading

League Two:
Chesterfield v Newport County

Sunday September 28th:
Premier League:
Newcastle United v Arsenal (16:30)

Tuesday September 30th:
Championship:
Hull City v Preston North End

League One:
Cardiff City v Burton Albion

EFL Trophy Northern Group F:
Harrogate v Town
Town scorers:
Harrogate scorers:

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

League One strugglers Wycombe Wanderers have named Michael Duff as their new head coach after sacking Mike Dodds.

Duff, 47, most recently worked as Huddersfield Town boss last season after spells at the helm of Swansea City, Barnsley and Cheltenham.

The Terriers sacked him in March after they dropped out of the League One play-off places with 10 matches of the campaign remaining.

He now succeeds Dodds at a Wycombe side that sits 19th in the table after just one win and five defeats in their opening eight league games under the former Sunderland assistant.

"Everyone at Wycombe Wanderers would like to welcome Michael to the club and look forward to working with him to support the club's goals of competing at the highest level possible in this league and beyond," the club said in a statement., external

'Reluctantly taken this decision'
Wycombe had been second in the table when former 39-year-old Dodds replaced Matt Bloomfield, after he left Adams Park for the Luton Town job in January.

He managed to take the Chairboys to the League One play-offs with a fifth-placed finish, but they were beaten 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals by Charlton Athletic - who went on to seal promotion.

In his seven months in charge, Dodds led Wycombe to only nine wins in 31 games across all competitions.

In a short statement about Dodds' exit on the club website, the departure of first-team coach Peter Shuttleworth was also confirmed.

"The board has reluctantly taken this decision, and the club would like to place on record its gratitude to Mike and Pete for their hard work and efforts during their time with Wycombe Wanderers, and wish them every success for the future," it said.

The slow start to the season under Dodds has Wycombe equal on points with Reading, who are in the relegation places.

His final match in charge was a 2-1 defeat against bottom side Peterborough United - a side that had not previously won a game in any competition this season.

League Two bottom side Cheltenham Town have sacked manager Michael Flynn after they suffered a 3-0 home defeat by Oldham Athletic.

The loss was the Robins' ninth in 12 matches across all competitions this season.

Only one of those wins have come from nine league matches to date, leaving them at the foot of the English Football League.

Flynn had been in charge of Cheltenham since May 2024 and guided them to 15th place in the table last season.

In a 48-word statement confirming his departure on the club website,, external Cheltenham thanked Flynn for "his efforts and contributions".

Talking after Saturday's defeat by Oldham, in what proved to be his final post-match interview as Cheltenham boss, Flynn predicted his exit as he lamented a performance that was "nowhere near good enough and unacceptable".

"Performances like that get you the sack, I can't be any more honest than that," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I can take responsibility for certain things, but I'm not just going to blame myself for that performance today from that group of players

Asked if he felt he was about to get the sack, Flynn replied: "I hope not, because I really love this club and enjoy working here.

"But it is a results business and I'm not stupid. I'm someone that is going to come out here and speak open and honest, whether that is good or bad. And things have to improve.

"And if I still am [in charge] they have to improve quick."

New owner Mike Garlick completed his takeover of the club on 23 August and had appeared to back the Welshman, saying Flynn was "the man" to turn the results around despite a run of five straight league defeats at the time.

Yet with one win in the four League Two matches that have followed, Garlick has decided to make a change.

Cheltenham are now looking for their fourth manager since 2022, following Wade Elliott, Darrell Clarke and now Flynn.

Eastleigh have sacked manager Kelvin Davis and his assistant Danny Butterfield.

The decision comes after the National League side lost for the third time in five games, leaving the Spitfires 16th in the table.

Their 3-1 loss at home to Braintree Town on Saturday was their fifth in nine league games this season.

The former Southampton goalkeeper had led Eastleigh to three wins in four games in August, but his side have taken one point from their last three matches.

"We would like to thank Kelvin and Danny for their commitment and efforts for the club during their tenure at the club and we wish them both all the best for the future," a statement released by the club, external read.

Davis was appointed in February 2024 and led the club to a 13th-placed finish at the end of his first season in charge.

Last term the club were again 13th - winning 14 and losing 15 of their 46 league games as they finished nine points off the play-off places.

Head coach Steve Morison has left Sutton United by mutual consent with the side 22nd in the National League table.

Sutton have won once in nine league matches this season, with the 3-2 home defeat by Tamworth proving to be Morison's final game in charge.

The 42-year-old was appointed in January 2024 and guided the club to 12th in the table last season.

"The club wishes to place on record its thanks to Steve for his service during his 21-month spell at Gander Green Lane," a Sutton statement said.

"His energy, passion and dedication have been infectious to all, and his tireless work off the pitch in helping reshape the club as a more professional organisation has been invaluable."

First-team coach Jon Meeney will act as interim head coach with Sutton next in action away to Brackley Town on 20 September.

Sutton become the fourth National League side to change their manager this season, after Morecambe, Yeovil Town and York City.

The U's were bottom of League Two when former Cardiff City manager Morison took charge. But despite reviving their season and taking their relegation fight to the final day of the 2023-24 campaign, they were unable to avoid the drop to the fifth tier.

While they finished 12th last season, eight points off the play-off places, they have picked up just five points so far, from one win against Carlisle United and two draws, and have the second worst goals conceded tally in the league with 20.