It's a tricky trip to the far north tomorrow night and we're all hoping to avoid another horror show.

All I will say is that Ross County have a habit of scoring late goals against us - 2 in the last 16 minutes at Easter Road to lose 2 points, 1 in added time at the Global Energy Stadium to lose 2 points, 1 with 2 minutes to go again in the away game to lose 1 point. That's 3 out of 4 games last season we have thrown away points against The Staggies!

SDG has said that "one point against Hearts is not a disaster". Well, that's true, but it was the manner in which we threw away two points that was disastrous. He is either far too nice to the players or he cannot admit that publicly praising the underperforming players is now rebounding, because the little darlings don't feel the need to change.

Group A

Zinman 19
Minizin 12
A.A.A. 12
Themaclad 7
Amelia 3
Twerton 1

This week was about the same as last week with regards to scoring. Zinman posted 19 points in first place and equalled his season high score, which he set last week!! He got a spot on Bonus, his first of the season and backed that up with a CR on the Gamball and one other CS. Minizin and AAA were joint second with 12 points. They did it in different ways though, Minizin scored on half the games including CRs on the Gamball and Bonus. AAA missed on the Gamball but got a max on his Bonus and posted his best score of the season.

Themaclad got his 7 points in a strange way, he started off with a max on the Gamball, his second of the season but then got bugger all else and ended with 7 points!! Amelia did manage a CS but missed on the major balls to keep her score down to just 3 points.

Twerton is bottom of the table again with just a solitary point, he missed on the Gamball and Bonus and only ended positive courtesy of the Scoreball!!

101 Themaclad
70 Minizin
68 Twerton
68 Zinman
66 A.A.A.
55 Amelia

Lots of position changes in the table this week. Themaclad increased his lead at the top to 31 points and is the first player to chalk up the century but now he has Minizin behind him with Twerton's poor form costing him a place. Zinman is now level 3rd after two cracking weeks, level with Twerton and AAA is just 2 points behind them!! Amelia has dropped to the bottom, but a couple of good weeks will easily see her back up with the pack. Only 4 points separate 2nd to 5th!!


Group B

Derby 16
Lady Jane 16
Stairs 14
BaggieOne 12
SCO 10
Snooty 3
BBB 0

A decent week driven by a season's best return from the gamball. In contrast, the bonus ball - the one where we get to choose which game we are most confident in predicting - produced minus 21 points, a complete wipe out.

Derby and Lady Jane share top spot with 16 points from identical returns - 2 correct scores, 5 correct results, a gamball maximum and the score ball. Stairs has one fewer correct results to fall 2 points off the top and is the 3rd player with a spot on gamball. Baggieone is a further 2 points behind while SCO completes the double figure scores.

Not such a good week for Snooty and BBB who fall some way short of the rest. Both of them scored on just 2 games though Snooty did get one of them with the correct score. BBB is the only player not to collect the scoreball point - he played it on the only eligible game not to have both teams score.

109 Lady Jane
85 Derby
66 BaggieOne
66 BBB
64 SCO
63 Stairs
61 Snooty

Congratulations to Lady Jane being the first player to climb above the 100 mark. She maintains a healthy lead at the top with Derby also beginning to pull away from the pack. The rest are separated by just 5 points but will have to show some improvement to catch the leaders.

Dreams of barmy summer days next year the route for men on bikes 2025

Boston United have sacked manager Ian Culverhouse with the team next to bottom of the National League table.

The former Norwich City and Swindon Town defender, 60, was appointed just over two years ago and led the Pilgrims to promotion via the play-offs last season.

But they have won only two of their 16 league games this season - both away from home - and drew 1-1 at Eastleigh on Saturday.

Boston are next in action with a home game against Dagenham & Redbridge on 9 November.

A short club statement said: "Ian took charge at the Jakemans Community Stadium in September 2022, helping to preserve the club's National League North status in his first season at the helm, before guiding the Pilgrims to promotion through the play-offs in May.

"However, a difficult start to life in the National League has led to a change being made."

Culverhouse began his coaching career at King's Lynn Town and had a brief spell in charge at Kettering Town before taking the Boston job.

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