DangerousSausage

FYI, I'll post the scores for this one tonight once I've counted them.

Since the festive season is all about football, there is more football coming on Sunday. It also marks the halfway point of the prediction league this season. As always, I've picked matches that kick off at 3pm, and you have a joker each! Coventry City v Millwall Oxford United v Plymouth Argyle Bolton Wanderers v Lincoln City Reading v Mansfield Town Stevenage v Bristol Rovers Bradford City v Chesterfield Grimsby Town v Port Vale Tranmere Rovers v Barrow

Firstly, they're not the Dons. The Dons nickname was given to Wimbledon due to a nearby college. It has nothing to do with the Buckinghamshire entity that stole Wimbledon's League place, no matter what they write on their badge. It's interesting to note that the home team had a fancy dress party today, with many of the alleged 7500 home fans coming dressed as black seats. It was a great performance. I missed a chunk of the first half, but from what I saw we were largely in control but maybe a bit too risk-averse to get anything telling on goal. When one of our players won the ball deep in the opposition's half, they looked up to see very few orange shirts in the vicinity. That changed in the second half - we played with intensity high up the pitch and the home team couldn't catch a breath (a five-minute wobble aside). We scored our second at just the right time, and from then on the result was never in doubt. Bass was the calm, reliable presence in goal we've been missing for so long; Abbott oozed class and thoroughly deserved his goal; Crowley was Crowley. The result puts a bit of distance between us and the teams below, but League Two is so tight this season that anyone in the top half can legitimately dream of automatic promotion, and that includes us.

Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Sunderland Bristol City 0-1 Luton Town Huddersfield Town 2-0 Stockport County (joker) Rotherham United 1-1 Wigan Athletic Carlisle United 0-0 Morecambe Walsall 3-1 Doncaster Rovers Altrincham 1-0 Halifax Town Maidenhead United 0-1 Wealdstone

If you can take time out from inserting seasonal cakes and chocolates into your face, we have more prediction league fixtures for you. They all kick off at 3pm on Boxing Day and, as a special present, you get one joker. Have fun and good luck! Blackburn Rovers v Sunderland Bristol City v Luton Town Huddersfield Town v Stockport County Rotherham United v Wigan Athletic Carlisle United v Morecambe Walsall v Doncaster Rovers Altrincham v Halifax Town Maidenhead United v Wealdstone

Our jolly Christmas scores: Burnley 2-1 Watford QPR 2-1 Preston North End Blackpool 0-0 Stevenage Northampton Town 0-5 Charlton Athletic Chesterfield 1-0 AFC Wimbledon Morecambe 0-2 Bromley Hartlepool United 2-1 Yeovil Town Wealdstone 3-0 Dagenham & Redbridge --- Strutting around at the top of this round's standings like conquering gladiators are meeeeee and @4everapie with 12 magnificant points! --- Overall, @super_ram has overtaken @Robbie again and will spend Christmas in top spot. Meanwhile, yours truly is now in a Champions League place and @Megan_Elizax has moved into the top five. --- There is of course football on Boxing Day, so expect the prediction league fixtures to be posted at some time today. Thanks for playing and making this a bumper Christmas round, and hopefully I'll see you there!

It's a bit of a risk, but he'll have made a calculated gamble that it'll be a wake-up call and they'll respond well. A manager needs to have a certain amount of capital to play that card though - I doubt he'd have done it if he was unsure of his backing from the board.

He's started 16 games and been on the bench five times, so he's very much a regular. It'll be interesting to see if the new man rates him, but if not I think he'll find a club in League One bare minimum.

A great and deserved result. More of the same please! The three-goal blast in the first half put what had been a pretty even game to bed. Bradford were more in control in the second half, but for all their huffing and puffing it was Notts who came closer to scoring again. Fistly through McGoldrick's shot - the Bradford defence just opened up beautifully for and invited the shot, I only realise afterwards that Jatta was arriving at the far post. I don't blame him for having a crack. And secondly Jatta's scuffed effort, with the backspin on the ball stopping it from crossing the line. But we were already 3-0 up by that stage. Crowley oozed quality and Austin worked incredibly hard (him winning possession led to our third goal). I don't think Abbott stood out as much purely because the rest of the team stepped up. And we definitely got the better deal from the Platt/Baldwin swap! Well no, you would have been pretending to enjoy yourself ????

This is interesting. If we're judging on the basis of honours, number one would have to be the manager who led us to FA Cup victory, the first time a second division club had ever won it. Obviously none of us were there to see it, but it's our club's only major honour and our greatest achievement. Nothing else comes close. But as @menzinho says, anyone under 40 doesn't have a lot to choose between as we've managed nothing more than two fourth division titles since 1990. If we ever manage to do a Bournemouth, maybe this list will feel a bit less historical. As for Howard Kendall - if the question is "best Notts County managers", nope! He was a big-name appointment who just ended up speeding up our tailspin towards the lower division and didn't even last the season. But if the topic was "best managers ever to have managed Notts County", you'd probably have to include him because of his achievements before he came to us. But then you'd also have to include Hans Backe and Howard Wilkinson for their title-winning exploits too.

This is OK. It's also lovely to see Baldwin back. He should visit more often.

What's Father Christmas bringing you this year? Maybe some prediction league points? You've got until 3pm on Saturday! @Robbie, @ARLukomski, @liampie, @thommo, @menzinho, @TheSkipper, @Chris, @Blake, @allardyces tash, @Joshua, @JustLikeJuve, @DonnyNotts, @NottsTastic, @CliftonMagpie, @The Heff, @NottsLoyal, @upthepies, @OoooooTommy, @JIMBO, @Harry Buckley

I don't feel very woke today, probably because I got five hours' sleep last night. This seems more a hopeful, hubristic punt by Real Madrid than anything serious. They've already downgraded their ambitions to replacing the Champions League. And they're clearly running out of names too - whatever next? The Utter Division? The Mega League? The Europa Blue Square Conference (actually we almost have that one already)? The idea that they'll bring in more money through free streaming than with the huge Champions League contracts already in place also seems overly optimistic to me. Not that I've got much love for the CL as it is now. As new EU legislation makes it difficult for UEFA to stop this in its tracks, they'll likely just call the clubs' bluff instead. I doubt many will want to sacrifice the Champions League riches for the sake of a vanity project. Slightly OT, but surely the English champion would win every time? But I've always liked the idea of merging the English and Scottish League Cups. Could add some interest to a tired competition. Away day in Edinburgh anyone?

It gets earlier every year! But happy Christmas to you all in advance

Burnley 2-1 Watford QPR 1-1 Preston North End Blackpool 1-0 Stevenage Northampton Town 0-2 Charlton Athletic Chesterfield 2-1 AFC Wimbledon Morecambe 0-2 Bromley (joker) Hartlepool United 1-0 Yeovil Town Wealdstone 0-2 Dagenham & Redbridge

Yeah, we discussed this at work a while back. It doesn't really make a lot of sense as it can be used in the context of shop and business names but not in ordinary speech - so Rosi's Bar is now correct, but Rosi's Familie is still wrong although the apostrophe denotes ownership in both cases. Make it make sense. Another problem is how it is used. Many Germans who love to drop in Anglicisms often do so incorrectly. Most also have no idea where the apostrophe key is on keyboards - on German keyboards it's on the hashtag key, but the key to the left of the backspace has something that looks very much like an apostrophe. However, it's actually used for French accents. So many people here would write Rosi´s Bar instead of Rosi's Bar (trust me, it looks pig ugly when you're not writing on a forum). All languages evolve @Robbie, but many of the "evolutions" in Germany are decided by a committee in a pretty arbitrary and wrong-headed way. One example is gender-neutral nouns, which are normally used in the plural. The problem is that the female form is slightly different - the male form of "the student" is "der Student", while for women it is "die Studentin". The plural - "die Studenten" - is therefore assumed to be male because of the lack of an "in" suffix. So over the past few years we have had various attempts at constructing plural forms that are gender-neutral, each stranger than the last - StudentInnen (yes that's a capital I), Student*innen and the current flavour of the month, Studierenden ("those who study"). They could just abolish the female form like we did in English (does anyone still say manageress or directress?) and use the same word for everyone, but that would be far too simple...

21 December is the shortest day of the year, Frank Zappa's birthday and coincidentally the date of the 21st prediction league round. These games all kick off at 3pm, and remember your joker! Burnley v Watford QPR v Preston North End Blackpool v Stevenage Northampton Town v Charlton Athletic Chesterfield v AFC Wimbledon Morecambe v Bromley Hartlepool United v Yeovil Town Wealdstone v Dagenham & Redbridge

With Harris's contract up next summer, I wonder if the club told him they wouldn't be renewing it, and he offered to go earlier? Having Macca back on loan would be great, but I doubt it will happen. The new manager might be keen to work with him, and if he does go out on loan, I think it's more likely to be in League One.

It's probably fair enough. However, I think it's natural to feel more enthusiastic during a promotion race or when battling the drop, crowds rise at those times for a reason. It would be nice if everyone kept attending come what may, but that's not the world we live in. You've also got more casual fans who have an affinity for Notts but are more likely to come when they're being entertained. It takes all sorts! As for bandwagon fans, many people who are now die-hard fans started off as bandwagoners. Not so very long ago, the average age of supporters at Meadow Lane was very high - probably because of the large number of pipe-smoking old boys who had started coming when Tommy Lawton signed and had gone on to become loyal and lifelong fans. No doubt the odd Notts fan in the 1940s grumbled about the bandwagon jumpers who just wanted to see Lawton play, but those of them who were still coming in the 90s definitely earned their stripes!

It's a decent haul, but is it even a professional club? They're currently sitting second bottom of the Cypriot first division. It's a shame really, with the right breaks he could have played on a bigger stage.

Depends. Maybe I'll relegate everyone but me

Curious. Now I'm tempted to check out the recording @Chris

The results: Middlesbrough 1-0 Millwall Stoke City 2-2 Cardiff City Charlton Athletic 0-0 Mansfield Town Rotherham United 3-0 Northampton Town AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Doncaster Rovers Grimsby Town 0-2 Crewe Alexandra Altrincham 1-0 Sutton United Southend United 0-0 Hartlepool United --- The PON elders won out this week - congrats to this round's winner @Fan of Big Tone, closely followed by @super_ram! @Fan of Big Tone - 9 @super_ram - 8 @Megan_Elizax, @menzinho, @Robbie - 7 @ARLukomski, @DangerousSausage, @nottsnutter - 5 @cheeky~k8, @Dan, @gtownjohnno - 4 @william1984 - 3 @4everapie - 2 @magpiejue - 1 --- This is our table after 20 rounds. @Robbie leads by a point from @super_ram, while the @Fan of Big Tone juggernaut gathers pace. --- The next fixtures are on Saturday, so I'll post the next round tomorrow. Thanks for playing everyone!

Just a general point from me. Last season I was calling for Crowley to play deeper as I thought he was ideal to cover for the missing Palmer. However, this season Palmer is back and we've got a lot more choice in that position. Right now we need him further forward as we've been so pedestrian and predictable the last few weeks. I hope SM draws the right conclusions.

I'm always sceptical when there's talk of a big club having a "crisis". However, the longer this goes on, the weirder it feels. And on top of it all, Pep Guardiola is clearly at his wits' end and his statements and behaviour are becoming ever more bizarre. He doesn't seem to know how to stop the slide. It's Sheridan-esque. They'll pick up eventually, but they'll be a long way adrift by then. Liverpool have a great chance to bag the title this season.