DangerousSausage

5 hours ago, Chris said:

Wooop, Woooop... I'm coming for ya @ARLukomski and @DangerousSausage.

Could you speak up? I can't hear you all the way back there...

Were we really as bad as those highlights made us look? There's some really careless, slack passing in there. And the second was a howler - if you're coming out for those, you should make sure you reach them.

11 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

Did @DangerousSausage say monorail?

 

 

I've heard of it but never been. You're not getting me on that thing!

And here are mine:

Middlesbrough 2-1 Preston North End

Nottingham Florist 2-1 Luton Town (joker, but yuck)

Burton Albion 1-2 Accrington Stanley

Plymouth Argyle 3-1 Wycombe Wanderers

Salford City 1-1 Bristol Rovers

Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Bradford City

Halifax Town 1-1 Wrexham

Solihull Moors 0-2 Grimsby Town

The results:

Middlesbrough 1-1 Millwall
Swansea City 1-1 Blackpool
Fleetwood Town 1-2 Morecambe
Sunderland 2-0 Ipswich Town
Barrow 0-1 Crawley Town
Bristol Rovers 2-2 Tranmere Rovers
Barnet 2-1 Torquay United
Woking 1-2 Stockport County

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Quite a mixed bag points-wise - a couple got zero for the first time this season, but there were big scorers too. Congrats to @Joshua, who won this round!

@Joshua - 9
@nottsnutter, @super_ram - 7
@ARLukomski - 6
@Chris - 5
@jimbob, @Megan_Elizax - 4
@gtownjohnno, @liampie - 3
@4everapie, @GrannyPie - 2
@Dripsey3, @DangerousSausage - 1
@Dan, @magpiejue - nul points

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It's pretty much as you were at the top, with the chasing pack only making limited inroads into @Dripsey3 and @Dan's lead. There's some movement elsewhere though.

Dripsey3 - 116
Dan - 113
gtownjohnno - 104
nottsnutter - 97
super_ram - 93
4everapie - 90
jimbob - 87
magpiejue - 85
DangerousSausage - 84
ARLukomski - 78
Chris - 71
Megan_Elizax - 69
barnet11uk - 64
GrannyPie - 59
KB1862 - 52
liampie - 43
Joshua - 34
Feral Fox - 29
allardyces tash - 19
TheSkipper - 16
Alex - 7
CliftonMagpie - 6
Canadian - 4

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The next round is this coming Tuesday, so click this link and make your predictions!

What? Another prediction league round already? Yes - there's another full set of fixtures on Tuesday night, so don't miss out! All of these matches kick off at 7.45pm on Tuesday, and remember your jokers. Good luck!

Middlesbrough v Preston North End

Nottingham Florist v Luton Town

Burton Albion v Accrington Stanley

Plymouth Argyle v Wycombe Wanderers

Salford City v Bristol Rovers

Tranmere Rovers v Bradford City

Halifax Town v Wrexham

Solihull Moors v Grimsby Town

That's a real let-down after the last few weeks. We seem to slip up against average but well-organised teams far too often, and you only afford to make very few mistakes in this league if you're serious about automatic - it's like like L2 where you can fluke third place on 70 points.

Boredom Wood next. They are where they are for a reason, but we can't afford to drop points two games in a row.

When you do well, other clubs will naturally be interested in your best players. It's just how it is. Even if a big fee is on offer, selling is always a huge gamble - you've got no way of knowing whether the replacements you bring in will be better. Get it wrong and the season could be a write-off.

From the point of view of the players mentioned, I couldn't blame them for being interested after three years in the NL. On the other hand, they both know the backroom team at Notts, are well-liked and are among the first names on the teamsheet - not necessarily a given elsewhere. In a peverse way, us being in the NL could actually work to our advantage when it comes to keeping them - I doubt many L2 clubs could pay them significantly more than us, and I'm not sure it makes a massive difference to most players whether they play in L2 or the Bananarama League, and many L1 clubs might not be willing to take a chance on a player two divisions below. I expect us to get speculative offers anyway, but I think we'll hold on till the end of the season.

Middlesbrough 1-2 Millwall

Swansea City 2-1 Blackpool

Fleetwood Town 1-1 Morecambe

Sunderland 2-2 Ipswich Town

Barrow 1-1 Crawley Town

Bristol Rovers 3-1 Tranmere Rovers (joker)

Barnet 0-2 Torquay United

Woking 0-1 Stockport County

Did you know that 17 is the sixth Mersenne prime exponent, yielding 131071? You do now. Anyway, this is round 17. If you fancy it, predict the following scores and remember to include your joker. Kick-off is Saturday at 3. Good luck!

Middlesbrough v Millwall

Swansea City v Blackpool

Fleetwood Town v Morecambe

Sunderland v Ipswich Town

Barrow v Crawley Town

Bristol Rovers v Tranmere Rovers

Barnet v Torquay United

Woking v Stockport County

Sounds like a close game that unfortunately went against us. At the same time I'm encouraged that we could give one of the better League Two sides a good and even game. Personally I'd have found it very sobering if they'd blown us out of the water.

Wipe your mouth and carry on, as they say here.

The actual results:

Burton Albion 0-1 Charlton Athletic
Ipswich Town 0-0 Oxford United
Rochdale 2-2 Leyton Orient
Stevenage 1-2 Mansfield Town
Tranmere Rovers 0-1 Sutton United
Maidenhead United 1-4 Dagenham & Redbridge
Wealdstone 1-0 Barnet
Yeovil Town 2-1 Eastleigh

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Congratulations to this week's winner, @liampie! You win a hen's tooth (self-collection only).

@liampie - 10
@DangerousSausage, @Chris - 8
@Dripsey3 - 6
@Dan, @4everapie, @magpiejue, @ARLukomski - 5
@gtownjohnno, @jimbob - 4
@nottsnutter - 2
@super_ram, @Megan_Elizax, @GrannyPie - 1

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Without further ado, here's the table. @Dripsey3 is still at the top, @Chris gains another couple of places:

Dripsey3 - 115
Dan - 113
gtownjohnno - 101
nottsnutter - 90
4everapie - 88
super_ram - 86
magpiejue - 85
DangerousSausage - 83
jimbob - 83
ARLukomski - 72
Chris - 66
Megan_Elizax - 65
barnet11uk - 64
GrannyPie - 57
KB1862 - 52
liampie - 40
Feral Fox - 29
Joshua - 25
allardyces tash - 19
TheSkipper - 16
Alex - 7
CliftonMagpie - 6
Canadian - 4

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The next round will be next Saturday, so expect the fixtures to pop up here on Wednesday as per usual. Have a good week!

Brilliant crowd, brilliant result! That win was anything but routine - Solihull might not be a "name", but they had conceded one goal in 12 hours of football before yesterday. And it's great news that Kairo has found his shooting boots too.

3 hours ago, Dripsey3 said:

We must get out of this league before we become part of the furniture

Definitely! But as long as the fans keep the faith, we'll make it eventually. The tickets might have been cheap, but 12,000 people still cared enough about the club to buy those tickets and make their way to Meadow Lane, even for a NL match. That counts for a lot.

Going off on a slight tangent now, but we're currently on course for three consecutive top-five finishes for only the second time in our entire history. Yes, it's only the NL, but we're turning into a club that expects to win more often than not. Don't underestimate the impact that can have on a club and its culture.

1 hour ago, Chris said:

I wouldn't mind the odd flight to a game, eventually, one day at least.

Sounds fun to me!

Better than a coach any day of the week.  

FA Cup winners qualify for the Europa League, so maybe then? Would be good to have a Greek or Turkish team in our group. But we have to beat Rochdale first.

I've never been that fussed about post-match interviews, but I do tend to watch Burchnall's. He comes across very well and clearly has a good knowledge of the game. Of course, there's a difference between recognising where things are going wrong and putting them right, and that'll be the proof of the pudding in the long term. Ardley was similar. Both of them take responsibility and never give you the feeling they were watching a different game.

On the other side of the spectrum there are managers who are immediately on the defensive and who try to fob off the interviewer with cliches. No names, but John Sheridan and Harry Kewell will know who I mean.

Here are the right answers.

Burton Albion 1-2 Charlton Athletic

Ipswich Town 2-1 Oxford United

Rochdale 1-1 Leyton Orient

Stevenage 0-2 Mansfield Town (joker)

Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Sutton United

Maidenhead United 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge

Wealdstone 1-2 Barnet

Yeovil Town 2-1 Eastleigh

After a short break, we're back in action! As usual, predict the following fixtures, remember to use your jokers, and try not to beat me please kick-off is Saturday at 3!

Burton Albion v Charlton Athletic

Ipswich Town v Oxford United

Rochdale v Leyton Orient

Stevenage v Mansfield Town

Tranmere Rovers v Sutton United

Maidenhead United v Dagenham & Redbridge

Wealdstone v Barnet

Yeovil Town v Eastleigh

Another tricky opponent - 2 defeats out of 14 speaks for itself. But if we want to win the league, we should be aiming to win at home, whoever the visitors are. I'll go for a nail-biting 2-1 win. But it's just as likely we'll end up "respecting the point".

I think Neal Ardley will get a good reception, but he can leave the points in Nottingham!

There were some really good chances for both sides. Could definitely have been more goals.

As for the penalty shout at the end, my initial reaction is that he went down looking for it. There may well have been contact, but that doesn't automatically make it a penalty - unfortunately, the poor camera angle means we can't see how much contact there was. The ref had a better view and didn't give it.

One all and a replay, just as I predicted on Facebook. Surely that's got to be worth points in the prediction league?? 

Not a shabby result, was hoping we'd match them and it appears we've done just that. Just a shame we didn't finish them off. 

I'm aware the lottery laws are (rightly) quite restrictive, but an associate membership without prizes but with the proceeds going to the same places could avoid this. 

Of course, the question is whether it's really worth the hassle. Fans near Nottingham support the club by buying tickets, and most of those further afield buy merchandise instead. 

The club runs a scheme called Lifeline, which is a members-only lottery that contributes money to the club. It's capped at 2500 members and is currently full. Maybe a kind of associate membership with no or different prizes would be an idea - for overseas fans and for those on the waiting list. 

On 04/11/2021 at 15:53, CliftonMagpie said:

I dislike Rochdale ever since the season we won the league, their fans whinging about us cheating to win the league.

I would love it if we gave a chance to some of the fringe players and, used the in form squad members then smashed them.

Keith Hill's holier-than-thou whining was seriously annoying and made winning the championship ahead of them all the more sweet.

In the present day, there isn't really any pressure on us. Rochdale seem to have hit form and will be feeling confident, but I'd still like to have a good go at them instead of giving them too much respect. For what it's worth, I think it'll be a tight game and ultimately a draw. 

Perhaps he's operating on a shoestring budget at Hartlepool and feels he can take Stockport further? But the money they're throwing at him no doubt made the decision an easy one

It must be soul-destroying for Pools fans to lose a promotion-winning manager to a team a division below, and of course it's a crude attempt from Stockport to buy promotion. It's easy to take the moral high ground, but it feels a bit hypocritical at our end - we have several players who could've been playing higher up, but chose to join us instead. There's a handful of NL clubs, us included, that can blow most of League Two out of the water financially, so things like this will happen. 

The results:

Huddersfield Town 1-0 Millwall
Swansea City 3-0 Peterborough United
Cambridge United 1-0 AFC Wimbledon
Portsmouth 1-0 Bolton Wanderers
Barrow 1-2 Rochdale
Leyton Orient 5-0 Hartlepool United
Bromley 0-0 Halifax Town
Eastleigh 1-0 Maidenhead United

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For the first time this season, @ARLukomski has this week's highest score with 8 points!

@ARLukomski - 8
@super_ram - 7
@Dripsey3, @gtownjohnno, @magpiejue, @KB1862 - 6
@Dan, @nottsnutter, @4everapie, @DangerousSausage, @barnet11uk, @Chris - 4
@GrannyPie - 3
@jimbob - 2
@Megan_Elizax - 1

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And on that bombshell, @Dripsey3 has once again overtaken @Dan to take top spot, while @gtownjohnno still lurks ominously in third.

Dripsey3 - 109
Dan - 108
gtownjohnno - 97
nottsnutter - 88
super_ram - 85
4everapie - 83
magpiejue - 80
jimbob - 79
DangerousSausage - 75
ARLukomski - 67
barnet11uk - 64
Megan_Elizax - 64
Chris - 58
GrannyPie - 56
KB1862 - 52
liampie - 30
Feral Fox - 29
Joshua - 25
allardyces tash - 19
TheSkipper - 16
Alex - 7
CliftonMagpie - 6
Canadian - 4

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Because of this new fangled "FA Cup" that we have decided to participate in this season, the prediction league will be taking a week's break. The next fixtures will be on Saturday 13 November, so expect to see the next round posted here the Wednesday before that. In the meantime, I will float around the board offering nuggets of wisdom on important matters, such as: which 80s players had the best moustaches? And did Clive Platt really have a 19-year career in the Football League, or was it all just a fever dream? Take care!