DangerousSausage

The scores: Coventry City 1-0 Bristol City Luton Town 0-0 Preston North End Crawley Town 1-1 Burton Albion Mansfield Town 1-2 Wycombe Wanderers Reading 1-3 Stockport County Grimsby Town 1-1 Chesterfield Swindon Town 2-0 Barrow Eastleigh 1-2 Altrincham Forest Green Rovers 1-0 Rochdale Halifax Town P-P Dagenham & Redbridge --- The great and powerful DangerousSausage wins this round, with @ARLukomski and @cheeky~k8 trailing in his wake. --- That puts me in the top three, leapfrogging @Robbie and just 11 points behind @super_ram - who can stop the Sausage juggernaut? Elsewhere, @Megan_Elizax jumps three places into the top five. --- Our next round is on Saturday, so I'll post the fixtures on Wednesday as usual. I now invite you to marvel at my tremendousness and cower in awe at my inevitable victory (and possibly wonder whether this is going to my head a bit). Thanks for playing and see you next time!

It was very much a different world, with "lad culture" very much prevelant and drinking till your head spins an accepted form of team bonding. That culture did a lot of harm to many people in football, and Howard Kendall was tragically one of them. The Championship was also a very different beast - a crowd of 6,000 in the second tier was still pretty normal. It was a long way away from the miniature Premier League we know now.

While we're being nit-picky, I've never understood the point of inverted wingers and, like @Chris, I'd have liked to see more of Scott up front rather than in midfield or on the wing. However, in cases like his and Gordon's I tend to cut the manager a bit of slack as he sees an awful lot in training that we don't.

I liked him in Game of Thrones.

All I really know about them is that they're very highly regarded and that our coaching team really does work as a team. It would certainly be a blow. However, the Wealdstone talk doesn't make sense. Wealdstone already have a manager, and even if they were to take over there, they're a part-time team and pretty likely to be in the National League North/South next season, so hardly a great career move. Their opponents, Hartlepool, appointed Lennie Lawrence (remember him?) a couple of months ago and he's already brought a couple of coaches in. So it was probably mistaken identity, or they were scouting a hot target. Wealdstone's equaliser was scored by a bloke called Boldewijn, worth a look?

Yes, he was a good appointment. He inherited a side that, with hindsight, were in a false position - we didn't have the strong defensive base you need to succeed in L2. We got taught a bit of a lesson last season, and it was a big learning curve for SM as well. I wasn't the only one who doubted him. Some of our fans still buy into the myth of the perfect football manager as a kind of messiah who sweeps in, waves a magic wand and makes everything brilliant overnight. Some of our owners have as well. This is the kind of thinking that took us from League One to the National League getting through about seven managers in the process. The truth is, like the players, the head coach needs to be given the right conditions to succeed and is not infallible. SM is much more proactive in making changes than Williams was, and he makes the right call more often than not. He's also clearly popular with the players. The league position hasn't changed much since one year ago, but in that time he's turned us from pretenders into genuine promotion challengers. He deserves our patience and a bit of faith.

Good luck to both of them in the future. However, I think @Mapperley Pie's comment is spot on - neither really did well enough to be retained. I might have taken a punt on Martin as there's clearly a good player in there, but the club seems to have decided that two good performances at the end of his contract weren't enough. Both players were on board during a spell when we were struggling creatively and didn't really take their opportunity.

A very assured performance against a poor team. Abbott has visibly grown in confidence, and his goals just underline that. Good to get a look at some of the new boys and returnees in the second half. In particular, I think Whitaker was very conspicuous (might have just been the hair though) and he looked very sharp on and off the ball.

Coventry City 1-2 Bristol City Luton Town 1-1 Preston North End Crawley Town 1-1 Burton Albion Mansfield Town 1-2 Wycombe Wanderers Reading 2-0 Stockport County (joker) Grimsby Town 1-0 Chesterfield Swindon Town 2-0 Barrow Eastleigh 1-1 Altrincham Forest Green Rovers 3-1 Rochdale Halifax Town P-P Dagenham & Redbridge

Isn't this just a revival of the old Welsh Cup? The likes of Cardiff and Wrexham used to play in the Cup Winners' Cup all the time, and this sounds very similar. I don't really see why not - if the FAW has an extra European spot, it's up to them how they use it

Guy Branston was a rock in my Notts team on Football Manager. He captained the team to promotion and was one of the first names on the team sheet. So I was thrilled when we signed him in real life. Finally the no-nonsense defender we needed. He spent 45 minutes losing his man and kicking the ball into the air, got subbed off at half time and spent the rest of his loan "injured", thus going down in Notts folklore in a different way. He was a decent player in his prime though, who made hundreds of League appearances and played in the Championship. We've had many other players who played far more games for us but were never close to League standard.

Welcome to a hopefully higher-scoring prediction league round! Due to all the postponements last week, I've decided to add a couple of extra fixtures this time. If they're postponed as well, tough as always, kick off is 3pm on Saturday and remember your jokers! Coventry City v Bristol City Luton Town v Preston North End Crawley Town v Burton Albion Mansfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers Reading v Stockport County Grimsby Town v Chesterfield Swindon Town v Barrow Eastleigh v Altrincham Forest Green Rovers v Rochdale Halifax Town v Dagenham & Redbridge

The line about his "expectations" says it all really. Very disappointing that he'd rather play for the franchise than fight for promotion with us, they've clearly offered him and Notts a lot of money. On the club's part it's risky selling another player to a rival when he was under contract, it could easily come back to bite us. In his position we're now relying on two promising but as yet unproven young players and Curtis Edwards, who has spent months injured. On the other hand, it can't be good for the harmony of the team carrying a player who doesn't want to be here, however good he is.

The results, such as they are: Swindon Town 0-0 Crewe Alexandra Boston United 2-2 Ebbsfleet United All the rest - POSTPONED --- With only two games actually going ahead, points were at a premium. However, this round's clear winner was @cheeky~k8, who not only got both results right, but also the scores - just in the wrong order! --- This predictably has zero effect on our standings, but here they are anyway! --- Join us on Wednesday, when I'll be posting Saturday's fixtures and hoping more of them actually go ahead! We usually lose a few fixtures due to postponements every season, but because there were such a lot this time I might add a couple of extra fixtures on next time. Thanks for playing, well done to those of you who won points and see you next time!

Sounds promising, but as always the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We've signed some quality players in this position under our current regime so I'm hopeful. With Whitaker and Jarvis both playing in Crowley's position, I wonder if there's any truth to the rumours that Crowley is leaving? I hope we hold onto him until the summer at least and have some genuine strength in depth for the run-in.

Of course we need extra bodies in defence after the injuries we've had. This one sounds promising and I hope he does well.

Yes, it's a bit of a double whammy isn't it - the smaller club loses out on a replay, while the big club has much more strength in depth to swing extra time their way.

That's impressive! Never doubted him.

Technically no more than he had before as this is his second go ????

The minute the club posted that there wasn't going to be a pitch inspection because of course it'll go ahead we knew what would happen. Shambolic from Grimsby. Hope there was at least a nice (if bracing) seaside trip @ARLukomski!

Only two of the games actually went ahead, so I might not need to use all my fingers when I count the scores up! It's pretty frustrating as all of these games were on when I picked them on Thursday night. Oh well, the show must go on.

Saturday 3pm is kick-off, don't miss out! @allardyces tash, @ARLukomski, @Blake, @cheeky~k8, @Chris, @CliftonMagpie, @DonnyNotts, @Fan of Big Tone, @Harry Buckley, @JIMBO, @Joshua, @JustLikeJuve, @liampie, @NottsLoyal, @NottsTastic, @OoooooTommy, @Robbie, @super_ram, @The Heff, @TheSkipper, @thommo, @upthepies

I had a hastily scheduled visit to the UK at the weekend and the start of the week. Maybe it's just the places I hang out in, but I was cold all the time! It's such a relief to be in the warm again. Then there was the journey. The trip there took me seven and a half hours door to door (via Manchester), so not bad at all. The return journey took over 13 hours, with me arriving home just before midnight and starting work the next morning. I have been completely exhausted all week. It's not been as cold in Germland, but we are hovering around zero degrees this weekend. No doubt it'll be a bit chilly in Grimsby too - wrap up if you're going!

Some good ideas there @Robbie, but I quite like the big clubs joining in in the third round. That way, a big draw in round three is a reward for progressing, rather than a lottery. But replays should definitely return and I'd also look into fining clubs for fielding weaker teams - if it's possible in the Trophy, it can be done in the FA Cup too. Poor attendances aren't new though. I remember us playing Cambridge at home in the early 2000s and there were less than 3000 people there. It was so quiet approaching the ground I actually thought it had been called off.

Blackpool 2-1 Cambridge United Shrewsbury Town 0-3 Huddersfield Town (joker) AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Cheltenham Town Gillingham 1-1 Fleetwood Town Swindon Town 0-2 Crewe Alexandra Boston United 1-1 Ebbsfleet United Oldham Athletic 1-1 Eastleigh Southend United 1-1 Halifax Town