StarkMallard

Fair enough @Robbie. Preston and Burnley could blow us out of the water financially and pay any compensation we demand, but I can't really see Burnley wanting him at this stage. It's probably more about securing his services for the time being and putting us in a better position to benefit financially if and when he does leave (hopefully not soon).

The results: @ARLukomski and @theAnticlough take the glory this round! Honourable mentions too to @cheeky~k8 and @Paris Sandwich Man. There's change at the top! @Paris Sandwich Man overtakes @4everapie to claim top spot, while @ARLukomski goes third and I surge into a glorious seventh place, which is much cooler anyway. I'll post Saturday's fixtures on Wednesday (tomorrow at the time of writing). Thanks for playing!

Good news, I think! He's done a fantastic job for us and deserves this. But I've got my cynical hat on today - Preston have sacked their manager and Burnley are bottom of the table, both former clubs of his. Is this a Langstaff-style extension - designed to get us a good fee if/when he moves on?

It's disappointing to lose as I felt we had the edge in the first half, albeit without creating many chances. Bradford started the second half more aggressively and their goal seemed to knock us out of our stride. We CAN create lots of chances - witness Burton at home last week - but this weekend we had stronger opponents plus the precision was lacking at times. At times you can see the players aren't yet used to playing together, particularly when we had that three-on-three break and were unable to carve out a chance despite the three Bradford players almost standing on top of each other. Oh, and the last-second equaliser didn't look offside to me. But that's the way it goes sometimes, let's beat Reading instead.

All the players who dragged us out of the National League are heroes in my book, that season and in particular that day against Boreham Wood were pivotal to our club. Although I don't believe the brothers would have given up on us, it was our fourth NL season after all. We remodelled our defence when he left and upgraded massively, which built the foundation for our later success.

Middlesbrough 2-1 Norwich City Preston North End 0-1 Lincoln City Cambridge United 1-1 Reading Plymouth Argyle 3-1 Barnsley Colchester United 2-0 Crewe Alexandra York City 1-1 Swindon Town (joker) Halifax Town 1-2 Hornchurch Yeovil Town 2-1 Fylde

PONdle #8 — 3/6 — 7 letters ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨⬛🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Play PONdle This is tough!

Onto round 6 and I've decided to pick harder fixtures as you're all getting too many points. So dig out your crystal ball, ouija board (not recommended) or horse and give it your best shot! Round: 6 Kick-off: Saturday 12 September, 3pm Don't forget your joker! Middlesbrough v Norwich City Preston North End v Lincoln City Cambridge United v Reading Plymouth Argyle v Barnsley Colchester United v Crewe Alexandra York City v Swindon Town Halifax Town v Hornchurch Yeovil Town v Fylde

I suppose this happens when you hit the big time, but three weeks without a proper game is way too long. Surely we're risking a fixture pile-up?

The results: Congratulations to @Fan of Big Tone and @nottsnutter who share the honours this round! Thus, @4everapie leads the way for another round ahead of @Paris Sandwich Man and @Megan_Elizax. But it's only round 5 - it's a marathon, not a sprint... That gets us up to date again in terms of scores. The next round will be on Saturday, with the fixtures posted here tomorror evening. Thanks for playing everyone, but please let me win next time!

I've relocated my laptop, my abacus and my magic spreadsheet, and here are Tuesday's results! A lot of teams "respected the point" on Tuesday night... @Paris Sandwich Man will be dancing around the Eiffel Tower as he has absolutely nailed this round with 17 points! Well done also to @Chris, @ARLukomski and @menzinho - it's pretty rare that four of you score in the teens. @4everapie stays top of the table, with @Paris Sandwich Man and @ARLukomski making big jumps to join the top three. The bad news is that this is already out of date! I'll add up for scores for last Saturday's round tomorrow or on Wednesday to bring us back up to date. Meanwhile, the next round of fixtures will be posted on Wednesday night. Thanks for playing!

What a committed, well-organised display that was. We won't have many tougher tests than Huddersfield away, yet we made life really hard for them. Now let's turn some of these draws into wins. Finneran's set pieces surprised me, he has a knack of putting the ball into the kinds of areas that give defences a dilemma, and we score from one of them. Evans had his best game for us so far IMO, and I'd mention Ness too but I'd rather other clubs didn't notice him! Very happy with this start, especially when you consider that we've had about seven new signings to bed in most games. It's quite the achievement to get such a new team performing like a well-drilled unit so soon, and a big contrast from last season!

Burnley 0-1 Bristol City Millwall 1-1 Bolton Wanderers Barnsley 2-0 Stevenage (joker) Burton Albion 1-1 Cambridge United Accrington Stanley 1-2 Crawley Town Bristol Rovers 2-0 Rotherham United Fylde 2-1 Worthing Wealdstone 0-2 Kidderminster Harriers

This round is Tuesday's, so it's over now - I'll post the results once I've got my PC and my magic spreadsheet back on Monday. @Megan_Elizax, go to the thread for round 5 for Saturday's round (if you haven't already (edit - apologies, for some reason I thought you'd submitted your predictions a day late, but you were actually just in time)).

Time to dig out your crystal balls again! And in case you're still waiting for your scores from round 4 (spoiler: you are), I'll be back in the land of sausage and sauerkraut on Sunday and will post them afterwards. Round: 5 Kick-off: Saturday 5 September, 3pm Don't forget your joker! Burnley v Bristol City Millwall v Bolton Wanderers Barnsley v Stevenage Burton Albion v Cambridge United Accrington Stanley v Crawley Town Bristol Rovers v Rotherham United Fylde v Worthing Wealdstone v Kidderminster Harriers