“I feel it there in front of me…”:

As the draws return to the football leagues, so do the points to Predict-a-Score. A keenly contested week sees Matt Gingell 33(5) get his head turned from the egg chasing and take this week’s £20. Well done Maffew, not too many pints of Pimms now…

“getting further out of reach”:

Until she can actually talk and not just point to food she wants to eat (constantly), her nan is the custodian of her scores… best hurry up talk then little girl! Francesca Fernandez 8(0) limps in last this week…

Correct Score of the Week:

I hate Montrose… 7 got the “shock” 1-1 draw between Raith & Aberdeen, 5 got the blinding 1-2 away win for Palace at Scunny, Sam A/Paul H/Will O got Bolton 0 Fulham 0 and Matt G/Julian F/Clare T got Donny 1 Reading 2. Paul J & Andy C have Pompey to thank for Man Utd 5 Portsmouth 0, Sam A (again) & Ben McK got the Posh 1 The Rich 0 and Jazz S & Stephen S got Kilmarnock 3 Inverness 0.However, best correct score of the week, and the season so far, goes to Stephen Street for his Hibs 5 Montrose 0.

Bet of the Week:

A bit of a bitter sweet last gasp victory for Palace, as it denied us a draw treble and £18 into the coffers – as did the injury time equaliser for Hartlepool denying us an away treble (and another £3) – splendid effort Mr Bowley, very unlucky to come away with nothing… next up is Matt Gingell playing for himself and BotW spot prize slot 39th.

Table News

“…holding court with scheming money grabbers”:

Tony Bowley stays top for a second week with a 11 point lead over Mark De-Ste-C. Matt G climbs up to third.

“The things I have to do to keep myself from falling out of view”:

Little Frankie Fernandez falls two places to the bottom 3 points adrift of Gareth M who moves off last place.

“Something to break through the normal”:

Highest climber this week, up a whopping 28 places, is Stephen Street to 16th. Honourable mentions for Matt G (+14), Andrew D (+21), Simon Lind (+23), Ben H (+19) and Catriona H (+18)

“…dreams of better days in better places”:

Falling furthest this week, down a whopping 22 places, is Mark J B to 33rd. Dishonourable mentions for Michelle F (-13), Simon Linq (-13), Vim G (-14), Mark Se (-14), Jamie S (-16) and Danny A (-14)

Spot Prizers:

OK, if you finish on these positions at the end of Week Thirteen, you WILL win these prizes! Current incumbents are Rob H on 12th, Neil O on 17th, Ben H on 23rd, Julian F on 27th, Mark J B on 33rd, Mark Sh on 42nd, Jon A on 50th and Jon T on 54th.

PAS World Cup 2010:

In order to be invited to enter the PAS World Cup 2010 you will have to finish in the Top 32 after 13 weeks of play. Currently sneaking the last spot is… Mark Seels.

And Another Thing:

You’ll see from the table we’ve had a “drop out” so the spot prize amounts had to take the hit I’m afraid… Oh, and Wenger out!!!

Cheers,
Pab

“Yeah you m*th*r*ck*rs, I’m all that”:

Big week total score-wise and out on top is Tony Bowley 50 (9) to claim the first £20 of the new season. Well done T – gonna send it to Billy to throw at the aggressive Nigel?

“you can kiss my ass, I ain’t interested in you anyhow”:

It’s all uphill from here for Gareth Morgan 15(1) – a bit like Sp*rs then fella!

Correct Score of the Week:

Not much about apart from that 4-4… 15 got Rangers, 6 got Hull 2 Wolves 2, 6 more got Middlesbro 0 Bristol City 0, another 6 more got WBA 3 Sheff Utd 1and a further 6 more got Sunderland 0 Stoke 0. Andy C / Julian F / Dave N got West Ham 0 Blackburn 0 and Debbie J & Vim G got Arsenal 1 Man Utd 3 (the gits). However, best correct score of the week, and therefore the season so far, goes to Jason Morris for his Leicester City 0 Newcastle Utd 0.

Bet of the Week:

We start this little episode once again next week – £3 stake for £1 on 7 homes, 3 draws and 3 aways… First up is our own Robin Hood Tony Bowley, who will be looking to rob the bookies to pay the lucky punter who finishes on spot prize slot 13th at the end of the 13 weeks

Table News

“Today is my day and I’m a get nice too”:

Come on…

“…I see you lookin’ at me”:

it’s…

“When I get on there is no stoppin’”:

Highest climber this week is – Week One!

“Like I’m on a water slide…”:

Falling furthest this week is – Look at the table stoopid!

Spot Prizers:

OK, if you finish on these positions at the end of Week Thirteen, you WILL win these prizes! Current incumbents are Mark J B on 12th, Matt G on 17th, Jamie S on 23rd, Gary B on 27th, Anthony H on 33rd, Ben McK on 42nd, Catriona J on 50th and Francesca F on 55th.

PAS World Cup 2010:

In order to be invited to enter the PAS World Cup 2010 you will have to finish in the Top 32 after 13 weeks of play. Currently sneaking the last spot is… Shaun Backhouse.

And Another Thing:

The demise of Crystal Palace epitomises everything that’s wrong with football these days – you’d think having Shaun Derry as captain was punishment enough really… Anyway, here’s to a historic Cup run 20 years on from the last one. Check this article from the Guardian on Simon Jordan…

Never judge a man by the way he looks, although if you are inclined to doubt that blinding sliver of insight on the human condition you may take a few minutes out of your day to read online a series of columns written a few years ago by Simon Jordan, the perma-tanned, perma-groomed, perma-pleased-with-himself chairman of Crystal Palace.

There isn’t enough space here to do justice to the wit, the intelligence and, especially, the raging sense of injustice that illuminated Jordan’s weekly rant in the Observer, so instead we will just skip to the raison d’etre for a column that, while undeniably brilliant, confirmed in the minds of many that the Palace chairman was little more than a loudmouth in search of an FA censure (which, as it turned out, didn’t take long to arrive). “All the issues I’ve raised this season – dildo-toting owners, corruption, agents, racism, salaries – need to be open,” Jordan wrote. “They need debating because underneath it all there’s a sport, and people, worth protecting.”

A few months later the Palace chairman was gone from the Observer’s pages. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he was too busy, or maybe he decided he had better things to do. He toyed with the idea of becoming a TV personality. There was, I believe, an investment in a nightclub, a film company and an energy bar that, to use his words, tasted “like confectionary – not like shit”. But above all there was still Crystal Palace, the club for which his father had played, that he had supported since boyhood and which he bought in 2000 for a reported £10m. “I have achieved what I have set out in life to do, which is to become chairman of Crystal Palace,” he said at the time of the purchase.

Ten years and a reported investment totalling £35m later, Jordan’s footballing odyssey appears to be over, with Palace being placed in the hands of an administrator this week. A 10-point deduction will be automatically imposed on the club, instantly transforming a promotion-chasing season into one focused on avoiding relegation.

As he himself has said numerous times in the past couple of years, Jordan fell out of love with the football business a long time ago. But not with his boyhood club. Yet if the man himself had no trouble making the distinction between the two, his countless enemies within the game do not; they will view Palace’s demise as nothing more, or less, than his demise. As such, they will be deliriously happy, both because Jordan (who is believed to be one of the club’s biggest creditors) stands to lose a lot of money and because they think this means they will never again have to endure the man’s opinions on the state of football.

You don’t have to be steeped in theistic schools of Hinduism to hope such mean-spiritedness meets its karmic rewards. Nor do you need to be smarter than the average bear to appreciate that Jordan, for all his supposed brashness and the mistakes that have led to this week’s events, has made a valuable contribution over the last 10 years, in identifying both what was wrong with the game and how it could be fixed.

Looking back, it has hard to disagree with virtually anything he said – about the multiple failures of the Football Association, the inconsistencies of refereeing, the selfishness of the bigger clubs. A couple of years ago, after Tottenham bought the teenager John Bostock for a fee around 10% of what Palace valued him at, Jordan put forward an undeniable case for changing a system that allows bigger clubs to “steal” players who had been discovered and nurtured by smaller clubs.

He was ignored. Jordan was always ignored by the footballing establishment. This is one of the drawbacks of being a person who delivers truths, especially to those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and who don’t want to hear.

Still, at least someone was listening. Reading the Crystal Palace message boards yesterday the wonder was not that some fans were angry with Jordan but that there was still goodwill towards a chairman who had, when all is said and done, led the club into administration. “Thanks for everything, SJ,” wrote one poster.

I’ll second that.

Cheers,
Pab