DangerousSausage

AFC Wimbledon's match has been postponed - @ARLukomski, @liampie and @cheeky~k8, feel free to pick another joker, provided you do it before kick-off. As for the rest of you, keep an eye on postponements before you make your predictions - it's likely there'll be more. You're free to change your jokers until kick-off time! Bristol City 1-2 Watford Norwich City 1-1 West Bromwich Albion Exeter City 2-1 Cambridge United Stevenage 0-2 Barnsley (joker) AFC Wimbledon P-P Crawley Town Barrow 2-2 Crewe Alexandra Eastleigh 1-3 Oldham Athletic Ebbsfleet United 0-1 Hartlepool United

This is terrible news, but the writing has been on the wall for a while - they've gambled heavily on winning promotion. Not a well-run club. They were liquidated in 1991 and 2008 and initially restarted at the same ground as Nuneaton Town. Their ground isn't even that old, but now it looks like it'll all be lost and they'll have to start from scratch completely. I went to their old ground once, Manor Park, there was a proper old-school stand behind one goal (on the left on the pic, taken from Wikipedia). This is a massive shame.

I've moved about a bit so you do tend to pick up second teams that way! Since I've lived in Germany it's been SV Waldhof Mannheim in the third division, who are having a really poor season. Before that I went to see Coventry City a few times when they played at Highfield Road, which was just a short walk away. I've been to the Ricoh as well but it's just not the same.

Welcome @Harry Buckley! Looking forward to seeing you on here

You're going to be basking in six whole degrees tomorrow! You can wear your shorts.

To be fair to him @Chris he scored more goals for Watford than Les Bradd scored for us. He was their talisman for years. I don't think his ability as a player is in question, but not every player is cut out to be a good manager. Sometimes you need to bite your lip if you want to inspire loyalty and trust in your players. Players need to channel their passion and emotion to the right place, and the manager should be an example. Deeney walked into a really difficult situation that many experienced managers would have struggled with, but he blew it. What a plank.

One manager who laid into his players was Giovanni Trapattoni when he was Bayern manager. This outburst features very broken German (with the grammar replicated in the English subtitles). He starts banging the table after about 1.30. Unlike Deeney, he didn't get the sack - they won the title!

I saw the comments he'd made a few days ago and meant to make a thread about them. When a manager throws individual players under the bus in post-match interviews, it's an act of desperation and the writing is on the wall. And that was just six games in! It's probably a blessing in disguise for FGR as they were messing about with a celebrity manager while safety got further and further away, a bit like us with Harry Kewell. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67995450

Interesting appointment. The owners obviously wanted someone who is up and coming. He's just taken Wealdstone to their highest league position in over 30 years for two seasons running, and was on course to do it again. But of course you can only go so far with a part-time team in a largely professional league. If any of their fans have complained about him, I haven't seen it. I've only seen positive comments, and the few on their Facebook page seem gutted he's left. It's also important that he could bring his coaching team with him. Hopefully that'll help him make the switch to professional football. Obviously I wish him luck, and I'm glad we can start looking forward again. Most importantly of all, though, is he our first manager with a tache since Allardyce?

I've never used it as it's simply too expensive - from Frankfurt you can get to London via Brussels. I looked at a connection in November (a quiet period) and it would have cost me over €1000. Just for me. I ended up booking Lufthansa flights for a quarter of that. No longer using the stations in Kent also renders it useless for people who might have used it regularly. Having to negotiate your way through London is a deal breaker for many. There was talk about a direct connection from Frankfurt, but to do so they needed a separate area for passport controls, which was just not feasible at such a busy station and the demand wouldn't have justified it. It would all be such a lot easier if there were no passport controls, but unfortunately they're here to stay.

We didn't make this loss in League Two, we were in the National League during the reporting period. That is significant because there is little difference in wages, but in League Two the club makes a seven-figure sum from TV money, grants and more. A lot of the other stuff is little better than guesswork to be honest. Any interest on the loans due to the owners would be academic, as they'll simply try to get as much of that money back from the next owners when they sell the club. The last two owners did the same thing.

It's prediction league time again - get your predictions in by 3pm on Saturday, and remember your joker. Good luck! Bristol City v Watford Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion Exeter City v Cambridge United Stevenage v Barnsley AFC Wimbledon v Crawley Town Barrow v Crewe Alexandra Eastleigh v Oldham Athletic Ebbsfleet United v Hartlepool United

I think it'll be too late for any new head coach to implement anything @Chris, but maybe our next man will be in the stands? It'll be interesting to see whether the new keeper will get the nod now he's got his feet under the table. We gave Stockport a really good game at their place just a few weeks back, and with home advantage and if everyone is at their best there's every chance we could come away with points.

Surely Warnock is just fan talk, he's a legend but he wouldn't be the right choice for us now for all sorts of reasons. He'd be an awkward fit as a head coach.

Yikes! More proof, if any was needed, that running the operation we were in the National League was NOT sustainable. It's a good job the owners plugged the gap and kept us in the manner to which we are accustomed, otherwise we'd have had to make big cuts and may well have ended up treading water like so many former League clubs down there. Hopefully the numbers will look a little rosier with the bigger crowds, TV money and other things we get as a League club, but we're a loooong way from being sustainable financially. The statement isn't very detailed, so we can only speculate about some things, but I'd guess the 38k was the fee received for Ian Burchnall. But it's also possible that some of it is for IB, and the rest is a sell-on fee for Cal Roberts? If you're interested, it's the latest document at the following link: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04789632/filing-history

Welcome to the community @True Magpie!

Ice is the worst thing. Where I am we've just had a severe weather warning due to it raining, dropping below freezing and everything freezing solid. There is black ice all over the place and the streets around my house are like an ice skating rink. Look after yourselves!

If a club pays more than 200% of its turnover on players' wages, it's an accident waiting to happen - the rules are there to prevent owners gambling on success and then vanishing if it doesn't work, leaving a mess behind. I mean, they've still got Harry Arter on their wage bill. Flouting the turnover rules put them at a significant advantage to other clubs that adhered to them. It's plain that they're not a well-run club in general and it wouldn't take much for things to start going south. If they end up in League One again in the not-too-distant future, we've got to make sure we're there to greet them.

The walk of shame isn't quite so bad if you've got company!

I wish he wouldn't share that @Robbie, somebody might find out! We're on course to score 100 and let in 88. Insane. As @Chris says, even our defenders are attack-minded. That's not a fluke, it's a strategy, but we need to strike the right balance and it probably won't be as simple as signing one or two players. That said, it's about entertainment and the last few years have been an absolute privilege in that respect.

Ray Trew used to claim that the womens' team would pay for itself, but I always thought that was optimistic. At the time we actually had the biggest attendances in the WPL (helped by the fact that they played at Meadow Lane and not a non-league ground), but there's no way we'd have been able to keep up with the big guns now. That said, the way the team was disbanded overnight was a disgrace and left many players without a club. Like you say, it's great that we've got a proper women's team now.

Good question! I enjoy Pointless. And Fridays didn't feel complete without Anne Robinson's Weakest Link. Alas, I live in Germany now, but luckily for me it means that Who Wants To Be a Millionaire in its original format is still a thing. Apart from that, quiz shows are usually four-hour extravaganzas hosted by a man in a frilly chequered suit who strokes female contestants' knees.

Huddersfield Town 1-1 Plymouth Argyle Millwall 1-3 Middlesbrough Northampton Town 1-1 Wigan Athletic Reading v Port Vale - abandoned Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Lincoln City Accrington Stanley 1-2 Gillingham Doncaster Rovers 0-1 Newport County Eastleigh 0-1 Southend United --- The lack of home wins, and Wycombe's pathetic failure to hold onto a 1-0 lead, means this was a low-scoring round. Congrats to this round's winner, @ARLukomski! And it's cool how @4everapie seems to get 4 points every week... @ARLukomski - 7 @cheeky~k8, @DonnyNotts, @Robbie - 6 @4everapie, @Dan, @Fan of Big Tone, @gtownjohnno, @super_ram - 4 @william1984 - 2 @DangerousSausage - 1 (thanks again Lincoln for ruining my joker!) @Chris, @magpiejue, @Megan_Elizax - nul points --- That leaves @ARLukomski eight points clear and @cheeky~k8 back in the top three... ARLukomski - 153 gtownjohnno - 145 cheeky~k8 - 129 4everapie - 128 Fan of Big Tone - 124 william1984 - 121 DangerousSausage - 118 super_ram - 117 magpiejue - 115 Dan - 114 nottsnutter - 112 Megan_Elizax - 102 liampie - 98 Chris - 96 upthepies - 90 DonnyNotts - 85 Joshua - 80 allardyces tash - 67 KingWilliams - 66 TheSkipper - 58 CliftonMagpie - 49 thommo - 49 OoooooTommy - 45 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 KB1862 - 22 Robbie - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- If you like, join us again from Wednesday, when I'll be posting Saturday's fixtures. Thanks for playing and take care!

Kjaergaard's odds seem to have drifted slightly. I suspect this might be another case of someone having a punt on a random Danish bloke. He does fit the mould in that we would be his second club and in terms of our style of play, but we should remember that the Danish third division is nothing like ours - only their top flight is fully professional. I have a feeling it'll be someone nobody here has considered.

POTS so far: Jodi Jones Best performance: Doncaster (A), albeit against poor opposition. Swindon (H) was impressive too. Best opposition: Mansfield, by a mile. Worst opposition: Doncaster, awful team. Best away day: For me personally, Meadow Lane I can't really comment as I haven't travelled away, but Grimsby always looks fun (if bracing). Who I'd appoint: One of the Irish blokes.