22-12-2015, 21:13
(This post was last modified: 26-12-2015, 19:17 by St Charles Owl.)
THE MATCH - SATURDAY 26TH DECEMBER 2015 3PM KO
![[Image: 150px-Sheffield_Wednesday.svg.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Sheffield_Wednesday.svg/150px-Sheffield_Wednesday.svg.png)
v ![[Image: 100px-Birmingham_City_FC_logo.svg.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/Birmingham_City_FC_logo.svg/100px-Birmingham_City_FC_logo.svg.png)
Boxing Day has always been one of the best days in the Football calendar. In the past it was better as it would also be the day when we would play a local rival rather than a game which was just another game!! I suppose they eventually figured that no matter what day we played a local derby the crowd would still be high, so why not take a less attractive game and increase the crowd by playing it on Boxing Day. Logical I suppose but not quite as much fun!!
Today we entertain Birmingham City, a team I thought would struggle this season due to not being that good and also due to the turmoil they seem to have off the field. But Gary Rowett has guided them to a very solid start this season although they have lost some form over the past few weeks. Make no mistake though this is a game we can win and one we should be looking to win!!! Back to back games against teams from the West Midlands as well!
This will be our 90th meeting with Brum and our record is pretty even at W31 D24 L34. Our home record against them is much better at W25 D9 L10, with us being unbeaten in our last 4 meetings at S6, so we should be confident as we are playing this on our patch!!
Interestingly we have played them 5 times on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day winning 3 and losing the other 2. In fact back in 1934 we played them at Hillsborough on Christmas Day, beating them 2-1 and then traveled down to Birmingham and played them at St Andrews on Boxing Day, winning 4-0!!!! And today's players moan about the fixture schedule at Xmas!!! 
Last season we surprisingly drew 0-0 with them under SG, but the year before we soundly beat them 4-1 with a brace from Lavery, a goal from Leon Best and an own goal putting us 4-0 up before the got one back late on. Our squad that day included Hutchinson, Loovens, Helan, Lee, Nuhiu and Palmer, so maybe we haven't changed too much since the takeover!! 
Here is the video, notice the crap pitch as well!!
LINKS BETWEEN THE CLUBS
Current staff:
From what I can see they have 2 ex-Owls playing for them:
Jacques Maghoma
Michael Morrison - Statesides favorite opposition defender!!!
Past Players
Darren Purse, Steve Whitton and Michael Johnson all played for both teams.
Past Managers
Trevor Francis deserves special mention as the only one who played for both clubs and managed both clubs in his career!!
I am sure there are other links between the clubs, if you know of any please feel free to mention!!
THE LAST MATCH
That was better!!! After another slow start which saw us go 1-0 down to a soft penalty, we stormed back with one of our best performances of the season running out easy 4-1 winners in the end!! It could easily have been 6 or 7-1 with the way we played as well!! Forestieri got a nice brace, maybe we would have scored more if we hadn't kept trying to get it to him for him to get his hat trick, Pudil scored a cracking goal from the egde of the box and Hooper got his second goal of his loan spell. Enjoy the video:
OUR TEAM
I think the team that CC put out against Wolves was our best 11 from the available players and for me he should stick to that line-up!! Playing the 3 up front really puts the opposition on the back foot and the movement alone creates a lot of doubt in the defenders minds. of course the midfield three have to play like a true engine room but with Bannan and Lee in there they are capable of doing that!! Hutchinson should stay as CH until Lees is fit and ready to return. Aside from that I would like the team to look like this:
Westwood
Hunt Loovens Hutchinson Pudil
Wallace Lee Bannan
Forestieri
Hooper Joao
Lets attack from the start, especially as we are the home team, lets get a lead and then push on from there. The bench is looking a bit thin on quality at the moment but if our best 11 can't win the game then our second string side isn't going to!!
WHO'S THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK
Ref - TONY HARRINGTON
Assts - Declan Ford and Simon Mather
Fourth Official - Darren England
MS will hopefully give us the skinny on this guy in previous Owls games!!
CURRENT FORM - League games only
SWFC - 
Birmingham -
OTHER RESULTS TO PREDICT
Blackburn v Middlesbrough
Huddersfield v Preston
Hull v Burnley
Ipswich v QPR
MK Dons v Cardiff
THE BIG MANS LEAGUE
Current Table
Owlkev
Towinjustonce
Pei
Thurnscoe
Madsteve
Jacko
Wereham
Imre
Consilio
Maddix
Stateside
Owlshighgreen
St Charles
Southey
Jacko picked up his 3rd of the season in the Wolves game and Madsteve moved up the table with his 4th. For this week here is what you need to predict:
SCORE AND SCORER (SWFC score first please, no copying, correct for both only will win, defeats are allowed)
2-0 Forestieri - Washington
2-1 Hooper - St Charles
3-0 Forestieri or Lee - Actual Score
3-1 Joao - Thurnscoe
3-1 Hooper - Southey
4-2 Hooper - Stateside
ATTENDANCE (Closest to wins, no closer than 50 to any previous poster, no copying)
22,650 - Stateside
23,456 - Washington
23,618 - St Charles
24,000 - Southey
24,500 - Thurnscoe
25,500 - Jacko
28,523 - Actual Attendance
OTHER RESULTS TO PREDICT (Copying is allowed, all 5 correct will win)
ADAHA - Stateside
ADDDA - Washington
AHHDD - St Charles
DAADA - Thurnscoe
HHADH - Southey
HHHHH - Pei, Imre
XHHHH - Actual Results (Blackburn v Boro postponed so void)
THE MUPPET LEAGUE
![[Image: THE-MUPPETS-008.jpg]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/3/29/1333038570260/THE-MUPPETS-008.jpg)
KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PICS
![[Image: kate_beckinsale_esquire_wallpaper_by_ank...4ptvcm.png]](http://img08.deviantart.net/1d3b/i/2012/046/3/1/kate_beckinsale_esquire_wallpaper_by_ankieter69-d4ptvcm.png)
![[Image: kate-beckinsale---effortlessly-beautiful.jpg]](http://www.horror-asylum.com/news/pics/kate-beckinsale---effortlessly-beautiful.jpg)
The thread awaits the Meggo of Statesides choice![[Image: thumbsup.png]](http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/images/smilies/thumbsup.png)
v Boxing Day has always been one of the best days in the Football calendar. In the past it was better as it would also be the day when we would play a local rival rather than a game which was just another game!! I suppose they eventually figured that no matter what day we played a local derby the crowd would still be high, so why not take a less attractive game and increase the crowd by playing it on Boxing Day. Logical I suppose but not quite as much fun!!
Today we entertain Birmingham City, a team I thought would struggle this season due to not being that good and also due to the turmoil they seem to have off the field. But Gary Rowett has guided them to a very solid start this season although they have lost some form over the past few weeks. Make no mistake though this is a game we can win and one we should be looking to win!!! Back to back games against teams from the West Midlands as well!
This will be our 90th meeting with Brum and our record is pretty even at W31 D24 L34. Our home record against them is much better at W25 D9 L10, with us being unbeaten in our last 4 meetings at S6, so we should be confident as we are playing this on our patch!!
Interestingly we have played them 5 times on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day winning 3 and losing the other 2. In fact back in 1934 we played them at Hillsborough on Christmas Day, beating them 2-1 and then traveled down to Birmingham and played them at St Andrews on Boxing Day, winning 4-0!!!! And today's players moan about the fixture schedule at Xmas!!! Last season we surprisingly drew 0-0 with them under SG
, but the year before we soundly beat them 4-1 with a brace from Lavery, a goal from Leon Best and an own goal putting us 4-0 up before the got one back late on. Our squad that day included Hutchinson, Loovens, Helan, Lee, Nuhiu and Palmer, so maybe we haven't changed too much since the takeover!! Here is the video, notice the crap pitch as well!!LINKS BETWEEN THE CLUBS
Current staff:
From what I can see they have 2 ex-Owls playing for them:
Jacques Maghoma
Michael Morrison - Statesides favorite opposition defender!!!
Past Players
Darren Purse, Steve Whitton and Michael Johnson all played for both teams.
Past Managers
Trevor Francis deserves special mention as the only one who played for both clubs and managed both clubs in his career!!
I am sure there are other links between the clubs, if you know of any please feel free to mention!!
THE LAST MATCH
That was better!!! After another slow start which saw us go 1-0 down to a soft penalty, we stormed back with one of our best performances of the season running out easy 4-1 winners in the end!! It could easily have been 6 or 7-1 with the way we played as well!! Forestieri got a nice brace, maybe we would have scored more if we hadn't kept trying to get it to him for him to get his hat trick, Pudil scored a cracking goal from the egde of the box and Hooper got his second goal of his loan spell. Enjoy the video:
OUR TEAM
I think the team that CC put out against Wolves was our best 11 from the available players and for me he should stick to that line-up!! Playing the 3 up front really puts the opposition on the back foot and the movement alone creates a lot of doubt in the defenders minds. of course the midfield three have to play like a true engine room but with Bannan and Lee in there they are capable of doing that!! Hutchinson should stay as CH until Lees is fit and ready to return. Aside from that I would like the team to look like this:
Westwood
Hunt Loovens Hutchinson Pudil
Wallace Lee Bannan
Forestieri
Hooper Joao
Lets attack from the start, especially as we are the home team, lets get a lead and then push on from there. The bench is looking a bit thin on quality at the moment but if our best 11 can't win the game then our second string side isn't going to!!
WHO'S THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK
Ref - TONY HARRINGTON
Assts - Declan Ford and Simon Mather
Fourth Official - Darren England
MS will hopefully give us the skinny on this guy in previous Owls games!!
CURRENT FORM - League games only
SWFC -
Birmingham -
OTHER RESULTS TO PREDICT
Blackburn v Middlesbrough
Huddersfield v Preston
Hull v Burnley
Ipswich v QPR
MK Dons v Cardiff
THE BIG MANS LEAGUE
Current Table
Owlkev
Towinjustonce
Pei
Thurnscoe
Madsteve
Jacko
Wereham
Imre
Consilio
Maddix
Stateside
Owlshighgreen
St Charles
Southey
Jacko picked up his 3rd
of the season in the Wolves game and Madsteve moved up the table with his 4th. For this week here is what you need to predict:SCORE AND SCORER (SWFC score first please, no copying, correct for both only will win, defeats are allowed)
2-0 Forestieri - Washington
2-1 Hooper - St Charles
3-0 Forestieri or Lee - Actual Score
3-1 Joao - Thurnscoe
3-1 Hooper - Southey
4-2 Hooper - Stateside
ATTENDANCE (Closest to wins, no closer than 50 to any previous poster, no copying)
22,650 - Stateside
23,456 - Washington
23,618 - St Charles
24,000 - Southey
24,500 - Thurnscoe
25,500 - Jacko
28,523 - Actual Attendance
OTHER RESULTS TO PREDICT (Copying is allowed, all 5 correct will win)
ADAHA - Stateside
ADDDA - Washington
AHHDD - St Charles
DAADA - Thurnscoe
HHADH - Southey
HHHHH - Pei, Imre
XHHHH - Actual Results (Blackburn v Boro postponed so void)
THE MUPPET LEAGUE
KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PICS
The thread awaits the Meggo of Statesides choice
![[Image: 3556953304.jpg]](http://www.thestar.co.uk/webimage/1.7546808.1446383162!/image/3556953304.jpg_gen/derivatives/articleMaxWidth_620/3556953304.jpg)
