[theo_luddite]

 V 

L666s v Town

The Palace of Lies

North End of the A62

LS11 0ES

19-March-2016 - Kick off 15:00

There's a novelty, Leeds not on the telly and a 3:00pm kick off too, this might just catch on. 

Keep your eye on some other L666s  threads, you never know.

The L666s are going up? You're 'aving a giraffe mate. 

Town, on yet another indifferent run of form, visit the numpties up the road who are currently on a reasonable run of form by their standards. In fact it is so reasonable, the deluded ones are dreaming of play-off places and promotion again. Well I can tell you all now, it won't happen. It won't happen this season, it won't happen next season and it likely won't happen the season after. Why? Because the L666s accounts spell out in black and white why. It would apparently be financial madness for them to get promoted in the next few seasons. 

Just in case you haven't seen them, there's a copy attached to this post. Just in case you can't work out the actual bits that I'm talking about they are posted for your reading pleasure below. 

Now a rough and ready calculation based on what is in their accounts - if the Chairman (or whatever he calls himself these days) of L666s is remotely stupid enough to let them get promoted anytime soon -  something like £28 million flies out of the window immediately. 

This is all before L666s start increasing the wages of any of the current squad, start to pay inflated transfer fees and further inflated wages of the new players they would need to try and get there and then stay there, oh and don't forget the leeches that will want what they consider to be their share of anything they can get their grubby hands on. Did I say leeches? Sorry, agents. What a nice, knowlegeable, erudite, realistic set of people they are. 

No Chairman, unless he throws his brass around like a bloke with no arms and however dodgy and stupid with what he promises one day and fails to deliver at any point over the next two, three or four seasons, is going to walk away from that amount of cash. Even if the prize for getting up is at least £100 million in the first season, based on estimated shares of the new TV rights windfall that might go to the current clubs up there. 

That is thanks to the money owed to the Arab Bankers with no brass, aka GFH, and the dodgy deals set up by Master Bates when he negotiated and renegotiated the terms of the various Administration's he put the club through seemingly every other week (or day) a few seasons back. Bates also seemed to purposely get L666s relegated to League 1 to cool off the clamour for Prima Donna League football frm the fans, sacking Kevin Blackwell in the process and replacing him with Dennis Wise as Blackwell didn't get the message that promotion to the Prem was the last thing Bates wanted. Putting L666s into Administration one minute and buying them back out 5 minutes later for weeks on end enamoured him to the League no end. They should have been relegated to League 2 (or lower based on how lower league teams have been treated for going bust owing far, far less) but agreed to League 1 and a points deduction. The Football League has apparently been corrupt as a result of this decision ever since. 

There will likely be additional runs on L666s finances too with an assortment of court cases waiting to be dealt with, HMRC being one they are admitting to, assorted sponsors are amongst the others. So despite all the spin that was put on the press handout that was faithfully reprinted by the Yorkshire Post and its Leeds-centric Evening Post version a few weeks back - all isn't quite as rosy in the garden as the picture that was then painted down in the Smack Happy Valley next to Junction 2 of the M621.

So, pretty much regardless of the outcome on Saturday, we'll likely be playing each other for a few season to come yet in this division, unless Deano gets his wallet out. I won't hold my breath on that one.

It's who's cup final?
Nobody's really - it's just an ages old local derby with the usual bragging rights up for grabs and a lot of banter between the locals, same as any derby match. The fact that we haven't liked them since 1908 has nowt to do with it.

OK - some won't agree so looking at the facts/stats (mostly nobbled from our friends at statto.com as usual)
Over our last 5 meetings, this has been our comparative form going into the game, the result and our form after the derby match, 6 games either side of the derby match.

L666s have won 4 of the last 5 and would appear to have upped their game in most of those that they won or if not it gave them the kick up the arris they needed to get them moving. Town did the same in the one we won and seemed to get their arris in gear after losing one.

Head-2-Head

Latest form

L666s are the form team coming into this match with only 1 defeat in their last 5 compared to Town's one win. Town need a result to turn the tide in both the league and the bragging rights (so a few of my mates can go into work on Monday with a smile on their face and I can give two or three oiks down here what for). Whilst I believe the teams below us (and a couple above us) to be generally worse than us, Rotherham are on a bit of a roll under Colin and even Bolton might now pick up a few points having parted company with the Ginger Whinger. Town's biggest problem for most of the season has been taking points off clubs in the top half of the league, our biggest successes have been against those in the bottom half and L666s are just in the bottom half due to the fact that they score even less goals than us. Let's keep that up chaps. 


Where did all the goals go? 
Whilst one of our failings has been not taking our chances this season, our other has been shipping in too many at the other end, too often bloody gurt lumps of 'em. Despite that, we are in the Top 10 this season for scoring, even if it's a paltry 48 so far with 19 on the road. L666s have only scored 15 at home and a total of 36 in their 36 games this season. Beyond that though, it seems most clubs in this division are relying on defense first and goal scoring second this season.

Compared to the last two seasons (up to last weekend):

Probably as a result of almost every team playing only 1 striker up front this season and a variety of defensively minded systems behind the lone striker, total goals are well down from last season when 4 teams scored more than 80 goals by the season end and two managed it in 2013/4. Goals are also down when compared to the same stage a couple of seasons ago. There was a real surge of goals at the business end of the 2013-4 season with Watford and Derby among others bagging 20 goals each in the run in. 

This season however I doubt anyone, except maybe Burnley, will get into the 80 goal bracket after 46 games. Boro are the one top 6 club missing out in the top 5 goals scored with only 47 - that's one less than Town. Fulham - completely at the wrong end of the league on points in comparison to their ability to score - are the prime example this season that show that scoring goals gets you nowhere if your defense isn't up to snuff. Otherwise, with both Boro and Hull currently stumbling around like a pair of drunks in the dark, the two automatic places are up for grabs. Chances are both will find some form when we play them next month though.

Who's gonna win?
Will there be goals in this encounter? More than likely. We don't seem to do 0-0 draws too often either this season or in this fixture. L666s seem to be relying more and more on the smash and grab tactics that worked at our place based on highlights and reports of recent matches. Town will have lots of ball, probably create far more chances and score a much smaller %age of them. 

Who's gonna play?
It's about time we stopped this run of defeats against L666s and once again it's anyone's guess who will start and who will be on the bench for Town. Elvis might be back in the building after being disciplined and fined by Town for slagging Brighton off in an interview for an article back home. Brighton say he still has a chance of going back to them but he may have burned a bridge or two there. The Whinger from Oz might find himself at "left back on the bench" or even "left back in the dressing room" too, even if he recovers from the knock he got against Burnley after his published moan about not playing enough games this week.

Other stuff that has nowt to do with this match.
Septic Bladders words have finally been well and truly stuffed down his throat this week as FIFA have finally decided to try and recover the bribes that were paid to the corrupt barstewards that used to roam around the world asking for money for votes. Still no sign that they will ask for the votes back for redistribution that the same corrupt barstewards gave out or of a rerun on the votes for the next two World Cups though. 

Oh and apparently some MK Dons and Northampton players were seen at the races this week complaining they didn't have a pot to piss in between them. Brilliant lads, at least the lad from Mansfield had the decency to go round the back of the stand rather than get photographed in the act by the national press.

OK chaps, my rants are over - points please Herr Wagner - pick your teams and winners chaps and chapesses, I don't do predictions.

Places to drink, park and all the other stuff you might want to know just in case you forgot where L666s is.
Good luck with this one - http://www.footballgroundguide.com/leagu...-away-fans The Vulcan might not be a bad place for a pre-match and post-match pint.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

They were going on about building a team for the premiership on the radio again. Why do they still believe they are temporarily out of the premiership? How many years will it take?

[WakeyTerrier]

Can't wait for Saturday, the return of the West Yorkshire Cup Final, although if Bradford sneak through the play offs it's going to turn into a mini-league next season.
At least 11 of us booked on a mini bus for travel to the big skip on Saturday hoping that Town will return with 3points and the bragging rights although we need to overcome the 1st leg deficit to win the cup....do away goals count double?
£35 for a ticket...scandalous...especially as mine will have a better view of the Peacock Pub than it will of the pitch(Section B1 upper)

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Brilliant thread theo.....some random stuff in there but fantastic none the less.

I really don't know what to make of this game. Our form might look bad on paper, but losses to the leaders, 5th and 8th in the league isn't the disaster it might appear.
We just need to find a bit of confidence, especially in front of goal.
Hopefully we'll have Billing back playing in midfield.....I really like the look of this lad...he could well be a future star.
I think there will be goals in this game however....I'm going for 2-1 win for Town.

[theo_luddite]

Cheers Shep - I tried to mix it up a bit.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one theo. 

Lord Hoyle of Hopton is on the Noel Whelan show tomorrow teatime on Radio Leeds. Might be worth a listen.

[theo_luddite]

Elvis won't be in the building on Saturday according to Herr Wagner.

"Elvis Manu will be out at the weekend too, as he’s flown back to Holland; his son is in hospital at the moment. Everything I hear says it isn’t so bad, but sometimes there are things more important than football and he flew back to his family".

Read more at http://www.htafc.com/news/article/hudder...h3v11s6.99

[MNTerrier]

the more i hear Wagner talk the more i like him, he always speaks sense and rarely rolls out cliches about how the team did, hes the first manager in a long time i have wanted to be successful at town rather than hoped he would be

[Lord Snooty]

The ref tomorrow is that idiot Graham Scott, the same idiot who reffed the home fixture. The pillock who bottled sending Wootton off, five minutes before he set up their first goal. 

[theo_luddite]

Van the Man makes his debut, Billing and Lynch back amongst others