Morecambe boss Ged Brannan has left the club to join League Two rivals Accrington Stanley as assistant manager.

Brannan, 52, took over at the Mazuma Stadium initially as caretaker manager after Derek Adams left for Ross County in November before signing an 18-month deal.

He was previously on the coaching staff at Stanley before moving to the Shrimps in September 2023 and has rejoined on a three-year deal after the clubs agreed compensation.

"I'm absolutely delighted to be back working with John [Doolan], he's a fantastic manager, and he's a great friend of mine as well," Brannan told the club website., external

"I'll always have a place in my heart for Morecambe and there's a lot of lovely people over there."

Brannan ended his playing career with the Shrimps in 2007 after helping them win promotion to League Two.

His departure is the latest twist in what has been a turbulent spell for the club.

They were placed in a transfer embargo in March, deducted three points at the start of this month by the English Football League for failing to adhere to an agreed decision imposed in August 2023, and players and staff received their April wages late.

Brannan, who guided them to 15th in League Two this season, said he did not "see a way in which I could continue given the current situation".

“Leaving Morecambe has undoubtedly been the hardest decision of my life and one which wasn’t taken lightly, though I feel it is the right time for me and my family to step away," he told the Morecambe club website., external

“I mean every word when I say it truly saddens me to leave, though I don’t see a way in which I could continue given the current situation.

“To be up against what we have been with staffing issues, ownership challenges, the embargo, points deduction and late wages, I couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved this season."

a big thank you to all those that have made this prediction league so much fun
and a big thanks to the scorers 
very appreciated

hopefully this will be back next season

Premier League

Derby 11
B.B.B. 11
Zinman 9
Minizin 5
Stairs 5
Lady J 5

Almost identical scoring to last week and with just one week left in the season still no one is grabbing the bull by the horns!! The Gamball again proved to be elusive with everyone getting it wrong again!! The Bonus was a bit better with the top 2 getting a CR on it which made all the difference for them.

Derby is up at the top again in his pursuit of Zinman, this week he is level on 11 points with BBB. These were the two with CRs on the Bonus and both backed that up with one CS each but BBB put his scoreball on the only 0-0 game we had and that in the end cost him 2 points in the end. Zinman though isn't far behind with 2 points. He was looking much better until Villa collapsed in the second half costing him 9 points!!!

The rest of the players all scored 5 points, all missed the Gamball and the Bonus, all scored on the Scoreball and all had one CS!! Minizin and Lady J should have known better than to play their Bonus on The Albion!!! Whistle

370 Zinman
356 Derby
349 BBB
347 Minizin
311 Stairs
283 Lady Jane

So the lead at the top is down to 14 points, with one week left its not impossible for Zinman to blow this!!! BBB takes over 3rd spot from Minizin and Lady Jane is heading for the playoffs with the 3rd place player in the Championship.

Championship

SCO 24
Snooty 22
AAA 18
Sanjay 16
Themaclad 13
BaggieOne 5
Twerton 4

After a few poor weeks, the Championship finally came to life to produce its 3rd best total score of the season. Unusually the balls all produced positive scores with the Gamball producing 26 points, a total only bettered once this season. It would have broken the record had everyone gambled!

SCO showed his class once again to sit on top of the table with 24 poijnts, his second best performance coming at the right time to surely secure the title. He scored on 7 games with 2 correct scores which just happened to be his gamball and bonus. Snooty was close behind with a similar set of results but having to settle for a 3 point bonus and losing a point on his scoreball. AAA matched their 7 correct results but failed to hit any correct scores though he did score on all the balls.

Sanjay had one of his better weeks though, in keeping with the season he's endured, his decision not to play the gamball cost him 4 points. Themaclad had a decent week, turning half of his 4 correct predictions into maximums (maxima?) and was the third contstant to max out the gamball.

Not such a good week for BaggieOne and Twerton. Neither secured a correct score and both lost out on the gamball. B1 scored on 4 games while Twerton got just 2 right though these did at least include his bonus. Still, with such a big gap between top and bottom, this may just have made the last week of the season very interesting......

.....
367 SCO
335 Snooty
334 Twerton
331 AAA
310 Themaclad
280 BaggieOne
250 Sanjay

SCO can relax, his season, unlike The Owls, is over as it would take an unprecedented set of final weeks to knock him off his perch. Behind him however things have just got very interesting. Snooty started the week 17 points behind Twerton but now sits one point ahead with AAA also just 4 points off the second promotion place. Twerton is mirroring Albion's end of season form, totalling just 10 points from the last 5 weeks to drop out of the promotion places with the distinct possibility of also missing out on the play-offs. So now on to the final week of the regular season!

Gamball:
Birmingham - Norwich

Others:
Brentford - Fulham
Leeds - Southampton
Middlesbrough - Watford
Plymouth - Hull
Stoke - Bristol City
Sunderland - Sheff Wed
WBA - Preston
Brighton - Aston Villa
Chelsea - West Ham

Last week of the regular season.

If anyone wants to keep their final week's predictions hidden from their fellow competitors, feel free to send them via private message to either SCO (for the Premier League) or me for the Championship. I promise not to edit them (though I can't speak for SCO!)

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 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.

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. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

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.  

End of season Play Offs: The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.

The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

1. St Charles Owl = 352 pts
   
2. Lord Snooty = 331 pts
   
3. themaclad = 326 pts
   
4. jjamez = 318 pts
   
5. Baggiebob(BBB) = 292 pts
   
6. ritchiebaby = 287 pts
   

1. SHEP_HTAFC = 324 pts
   
2. neonfoxinthebox = 315 pts
   
3. Devongone = 303 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 303 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 241 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 225 pts
   

Everybody has the same fixtures this week, all kicking off at 12:30.

Saturday May 4th:
Ipswich v Town
Town scorers:
Ipswich scorers:

Birmingham City v Norwich City
Coventry City v Queens Park Rangers
Leeds United v Southampton
Leicester City v Blackburn Rovers
Middlesbrough v Watford
Plymouth Argyle v Hull City
Rotherham United v Cardiff City
Stoke City v Bristol City
Sunderland v Sheffield Wednesday
Swansea City v Millwall
West Bromwich Albion v Preston North End



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

Alan Browne has been named the Sir Tom Finney Player of the Year for the 2023/24 season.

The skipper was the recipient of the main accolade, announced as part of a Player Awards show broadcast on the club’s YouTube channel.

Following Browney’s win in the 2018/19 season, the captain was again voted as the club’s Player of the Year by the North End faithful for his performances this term.



It was an extremely close call for the main award, with just 30 votes separating the top three, but the Lilywhites’ No.8 came out on top and was honoured to receive the trophy.

It was a different name taking the award voted for by the squad, as Liam Lindsay was named the Players’ Player of the Year.



The defender has featured in every Championship match of the campaign so far and his stats rank highly among all defenders in the division in a number of different categories.

While a rock at the back, his highlight of the season is of course the last-gasp winner against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

That header was among a 12-goal shortlist for the Goal of the Season award, but it was Liam Millar’s worldie in the 89th minute at home to Leeds United which came out on top.

The Canadian showed his skill and confidence to skip inside onto his right foot and curl a beautiful effort into the top corner to seal a Boxing Day victory for North End.


Elsewhere, manager Ryan Lowe presented the Young Player of the Year award, as voted for by the fans, to Kian Best.

The left-sided defender, who came through the PNE Academy, made his breakthrough into the first team at the start of the season and has gone on to feature 13 times, earning the admiration of the North End supporters and his country.

Off the pitch, Dai Cornell has been recognised for his incredible contribution to those in and around the local area, by being named PFA Community Champion and Community Player of the Year.

The goalkeeper and his family played an integral part in the launch of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower campaign at Deepdale earlier this season.

Dai has also been on a number of player visits throughout the campaign, from handing out Sunflower lanyards, to meeting SEND students, to visiting a terminally-ill supporter at their home.

Finally, Max Wilson was named Scholar of the Year following an impressive first year of his scholarship.

The midfielder, who can also play up top, captained the youth team to a Youth Alliance Cup victory earlier in the month and he has also played an important role in their title push.

It's a mystery

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/27587632/...p-preston/

The ten women’s teams are from Belgium, Croatia, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine and Wales.

The eight participating men’s teams are: Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Israel, Romania and Slovenia.

The event will be played at the Dumfries Ice Bowl (next to QOTS stadium, Palmerston Park), which is a multi-sport facility, with a six-sheet curling rink and dedicated ice hockey and skating rink. Round-robin play will run from Sunday 28 April until Friday 3 May. On Saturday 4 May at 9:00 semi-finals will take place. In these semi-finals the first-placed teams will play the fourth-ranked teams, while the second-placed teams will meet the third-ranked teams in both genders. The winners will play in the gold medal games and the gold medal winners will qualify for the European Curling Championships 2024 B-Division. The losers will play in the bronze medal games. All medal games will be played on Saturday afternoon at 14:30.


Wales' team consists of Anna Carruthers (Lead), Emily Simpson (Second), Judith Glazier (Third) and Laura Beever (Skip).

I won't bother with their playing schedule as the Welsh Curling Association have again helpfully included it in the photograph. Other associations take note. 

Barnsley v Notlob
Oxford v Posh

Crawley v Franchise
Crewe v Donny