Fog Dude

UEFA Nations League Slovenia 2-1 Scotland England 0-2 Spain Denmark 3-1 Wales Gibraltar 1-1 Andorra Israel 0-3 Ireland (in Debrecen) Norway 1-0 Portugal Belgium 2-2 France Northern Ireland 0-1 Hungary Sweden 1-2 Poland Women's Super League Liverpool 0-0 Everton

My only other thought was

Off the top of my head I think I heard somewhere that it's

And that's why we love football. Stafford Rangers did indeed cause the upset of the round, winning 3-2 to knock The Bulls out at the earliest possible hurdle. You're right that it perhaps not the best choice of D2D fixture since you'd have only got four more points even if Hereford had gone through, but it was definitely a more interesting pick than any league fixture would've been. As for feeling "physically sick" at the Old Firm prediction? Well, you've gotta go with your head sometimes and not your heart. Anyhow, the results were up in the opening post on Sunday night, and the table was updated soon after that, complete with the draw for the FPL Cup on the right-hand side. It was based on a seeding system using performances in both competitions last season, but I've put the groups into alphabetical order to disguise that somewhat. I had considered one big "Swiss system" (i.e. new European League phase-style) group of 10, but with our usual "crosspools" clashes in odd-numbered groups it'll likely produce a similar outcome regardless. We'd need a few dozen more frequent players for me to consider actual divisions so there's no relegation as such, but if Stinky Dad is now worried about the wooden spoon then he's in good company because it seems reigning Double holder Vegeta has decided to join him. The gap there is now four points, just one fewer than at the top where Gooner still leads and three people are level on 40 points as his nearest challengers. Despite being best performer for the round, Rory isn't among them but he does at least make it into the top half of the standings. The randomly selected "wildcard" fixture was, strangely enough, once again match #10 which took place at the Estádio do Dragão where the home side triumphed by threeOn goals to one. Nobody managed the exact scoreline, but half a dozen participants took an extra bonus point each. Elsewhere, victories for Everton and PSG generally proved fruitful, but score draws in Italy and at Penydarren Park produced more of a mixed bag of guesses, while reverses on the road for title-chasing Arsenal and Hull caught most people out. On reflection, should've possibly included the fash-on-fash* Madrid derby instead of that tie in Merthyr, but adding a game from yet another league makes things untidy. Truro have since won the replay to keep alive hopes of a highly rare appearance by a Cornish side in the First Round proper. As promised, the final stats for D2D picks which total more than thirty despite no overlap, because one person sent more than three teams in just in case (I do always say I need a minimum of three teams, to be fair): That's mainly in spoiler tags for reasons of space, by the way. It still doesn't give too much away. Right, high time we put a new lot of encounters into the original post, including the first tranche of FPL Cup group clashes. See you all there. *Not as in Justin vs John. Figure it out

I thought the "massive asterisk" was gonna involve some dodgy tracing of the boards' origins back to 1966, which would make it predate ARPANET. So, in the interests of being the resident pedant around here, I feel the need to point out we're talking about a silver anniversary here, aren't we? Wasn't in any of the predecessor (or rival) forums but did start lurking after about a year, then decided to dive in and set up an account a few months later and you've all had to suffer ever since. The other two wrestling message boards I hung around in at the time were both American. One definitely doesn't exist now and the other I haven't even checked on for decades, but they just didn't feel right compared to here anyhow. You're all a decent bunch really.

Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion 2-2 Arsenal Everton 3-1 Ipswich Town Newcastle United 1-1 Hull City FA Cup Second Qualifying Round Merthyr Town 2-1 Truro City Stafford Rangers 1-0 Hereford w/Bent My Wookie Scottish Premiership Celtic 1-2 Rangers Serie A Roma 0-1 Internazionale Fiorentina 0-3 Napoli Ligue Un Marseille 0-0 Paris Saint-Germain A Primeira Liga Porto 2-0 SL e Benfica

The final scores went into the opening post on Sunday night, and for the fourth time in five rounds, they were very much on the low side, so there wasn't too much change to the table. Have I been picking odd fixtures, have the results been genuinely unpredictable so far or are we just a hopeless bunch? Possibly a mix of all three, although the last card didn't feel particularly controversial. Gooner still leads, but his advantage is cut to eight points by new nearest challenger Bent Wookie, who leapfrogs TildeGuy alongside joint top scorer Chutney Spoon (who got the only exact scoreline guess this time out for Hibs' win in Dingwall). At the other end of the standings, it's now ultimo that Stinky is trying to catch, with the deficit down to four. The randomly selected "wildcard" was, unusually, match #10 at the Anoeta where a majority of participants correctly thought Atleti would triumph, but nobody thought it'd be as comfortable as it actually ended up, so have to settle for a single bonus point each. Elsewhere it was an utter crapshoot, but the outcomes at Dean Court, Old Trafford and the City of Valencia Stadium (confusingly enough, not the home of Valencia CF) were the least bad for one-pointers. Next week is the cut-off point for sign-ups, so there'll be a lot of housekeeping: the full D2D statistics (ideally without giving too much away) plus the draw for the FPL Cup group stage. In the meantime though, there's still one more lot of domestic matches before the men's international break, so we're going to use that to get somebody else's first turn done and dusted, in the middle of a set of nine other games in the first post in just a moment.

Premier League Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest Bournemouth 1-2 Brentford Chelsea 3-1 Hull City Crystal Palace 2-1 Ipswich Town Liverpool 2-0 Fulham Manchester United 2-2 Manchester City Scottish League Cup Quarter-final Ross County 1-3 Hibs Rangers 0-1 Celtic La Liga Levante 0-2 Barcelona Real Sociedad 1-1 Atlético Madrid

The results were up in the initial post on Sunday night, and it didn't take long for us to get a new table afterwards since we finally got a massive divergence between best and worst performance. A last-gasp (but deserved) worldie for The Toffees denied ultimo a correct bet on the banks of the Mersey, five of nine other participants correctly disagreed with him, and in keeping with tradition that saw his potential score cascade right down until it reached just three points, the lowest of the round. Almost matching him was reigning champion Vegeta, whose own total continues to crater. Stinky Dad remains in last place as expected, but is now just five behind that duo after making it into double figures this time out. The top two stay the same as well, except this time rather than being separated by mere alphabetical order, they're a whopping ten points apart as Gooner suddenly storms ahead with a whopping weekly score of 17. The randomly selected "wildcard" fixture was match #5 at The City Ground, the stalemate between Judas Glasner's Forest and... well, Spurs being Spurs. Nobody quite foresaw a stalemate due to handball (elbow-ball?) on the line, but four people including myself did at least nab a bonus point for guessing it'd be a score draw. Elsewhere, further draws at Brentford, Brighton and Hull alongside wins for Arsenal, Man City, PSV and Swansea generally proved fruitful, with only the away win by the odd goal in five at Craven Cottage catching most players out. We'll wait a further week before getting another D2D out of the way, so an ordinary card will appear in the original post shortly.

Premier League Brentford 2-0 Sunderland Brighton & Hove Albion 1-2 Leeds United Fulham 0-0 Crystal Palace Manchester City 3-0 Coventry City Nottingham Forest 1-1 Spurs Hull City 3-1 Aston Villa Everton 2-2 Manchester United w/ultimo Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea Eredivisie Ajax Amsterdam 0-1 PSV Eindhoven Adran Premier Swansea City 2-1 Cardiff City

The final scores went into the first post on Monday night, and the table in its new home was figured out soon after that. I've made it clearer what's what compared to the initial attempt last week, which I thought on reflection looked a bit barebones. The only tie after three low-scoring rounds is for first place, with Gooner appearing on top for the first time ever due to alphabetical order, level with the more familiar name of TildeGuy. I'm just noticing now that I've done nearest challenger ultimo a disservice since he does actually join the leader on nine points this week, since once again nobody made it into double figures. Four people failed to nab even a single exact score, including previous pacesetter Vegeta who's now in a four-way cluster in mid-table all tied on 17 points each. With around 1,300 points left to play for, there's still plenty of time for Stinky Dad to catch up but he didn't help himself this time out as he scored just a single point to leave him seven adrift of me. The randomly selected "wildcard" fixture was match #7, the Bank Holiday clash at Brunton Park, which ended 4-2 to Sparky Hughes' home side. Most people got a bonus point for the correct result, with myself and Rory only one goal away from getting it spot on. Elsewhere, narrow wins for Arsenal and Sunderland all generally proved fruitful alongside 1-1 draws at Dean Court, Elland Road and Aggborough. The two French outcomes caught most participants out, while further reverses for Cov and Spurs produced more of a mixed bag of guesses. Onto housekeeping: the transfer window may be shut, but with changes to the international calendar, registration is technically still open, so I can't confirm the FPL Cup group stage draw just yet although I have put a provisional one together. What we can get on with, however (and should, if everyone's gonna get a turn before Christmas) are D2D bets. So, the first of those for the season will be among the set of 10 that magically turns up at the top of the thread sharpish.

Not on the same level as the octogenarians the world lost this week who were known for their actual talents, but the King of Norway passed away today too. Best known here for sending a Christmas tree to London every year as a thanks for UK servicemen helping smuggle him out of Nazi-occupied Oslo as a baby then eventually liberate the country from Quisling, so was especially devastated when a neofascist massacred scores of his own citizens in 2011. He'd also spent his twenties having to date a so-called "commoner" in secret because his Dad didn't approve of the relationship, so came down massively on the side of people being able to marry whomever they want, explicitly stating a decade ago that this included "boys who love boys [and] girls who love girls" which must've been quite the conclusion to reach for an old man raised as a strict Lutheran. Inevitably one of the social media tributes came from his English-born compatriot Erling Haaland. Of course there are issues with the institution he represented (which might soon collapse anyway now he's gone), but it sounds like he was a nicer, if extremely privileged, person than actual war criminal Mladić at least.

Premier League Bournemouth 2-1 Everton Coventry City 0-0 Hull City Spurs 1-0 Newcastle United Leeds United 3-1 Brentford Sunderland 2-0 Fulham Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal National League Carlisle United 3-2 Scunthorpe United Kidderminster Harriers 1-2 Barrow Ligue Un Strasbourg 1-1 Lens Monaco 2-3 Marseille

Okay, let's see how this works. I figured out the table a few hours ago so hopefully you can all see it at its new home. I've set it to auto-delete the weekly updates after a fortnight but will obviously try to make an exception for the final standings at the end of the season. It was another low-scoring round, with MVP RULZ the early leader by virtue of being the first participant this term to make it into double figures thanks to the randomly selected "wildcard" fixture, match #2 at Portman Road, which he guessed spot on. Vegeta and TildeGuy remain near the top, right on his tail, then below that there's unsurprisingly a tie between Gooner and Rory. The other players on level terms are myself and Chutney Spoon, but we're off bottom spot because Stinky Dad decided to join us after all despite missing Week 1. He's kindly sent some D2D picks already, so we're now up to a nice round 10 people with only one set of choices outstanding. Anyway, the results were all in by Sunday evening but only went into the first post last night because I was away visiting friends and family without my laptop, and it'd have been a faff to do on my phone. I've been down the rabbit hole of trying to plan the rest of the season in more detail. Naturally the second half is looking quite bare but I reckon we've got most rounds up to Christmas more or less sorted. Domestic outcomes and the MLS score produced a mixed bag of bets at best, but progress in the Pokal for Union Berlin, Hoffenheim and Kiel were all generally good for one-pointers. This is going live late enough already, so let's put another normal round in the initial post soon before we start with the D2Ds in Week 4.

Welcome in, it's another bloomin' FPL season! Sign-ups are now closed. Missing a D2D turn incurs a points deduction. The plan is to update this line with the standings throughout the campaign, so here you go. === Oh joy of joys, not one but two men's international breaks in a row. We're sticking with Europe because all the other continents take a while to get their act together immediately following a World Cup. Take note, late pickers: Scotland's match starts at 3pm Central European Time, which is 2 o'clock here. Of course, nowadays when the major male teams are on pause, there's extra effort to bring eyeballs to the women's club game so we're also featuring the Merseyside derby to round off the card. Scroll down further if you want to know whom you're facing in the first lot of FPL Cup meetings too. Together, we can get through this long fortnight! Week 7 fixtures UEFA Nations League Slovenia v Scotland (Saturday 14:00) England v Spain (Saturday 19:45) Denmark v Wales (17:00) Gibraltar v Andorra (17:00) Israel v Ireland Norway v Portugal Belgium v France Northern Ireland v Hungary (Monday) Sweden v Poland (Monday) Women's Super League Liverpool v Everton (14:00) NB All games kick off on Sunday and at 7:45pm unless stated. Times are given in BST. === FPL Cup group stage GROUP A MVP RULZ vs. Tim H's Chutney Spoon ultimo the great vs. Vegeta GROUP B Fog Dude vs. Stinky Dad Gooner vs. TildeGuy~! Crosspools I Bent My Wookie vs. RoryFice === Week 6 results Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 Arsenal Everton 1-0 Ipswich Town Newcastle United 2-1 Hull City FA Challenge Cup second qualifying round Merthyr Town 1-1 Truro City Stafford Rangers 3-2 Hereford w/I Bent My Wookie Scottish Premiership Celtic 0-1 Rangers Serie A Roma 2-2 Inter Fiorentina 1-1 Napoli Ligue 1 Olympique de Marseille 1-2 Paris St Germain A Primeira Liga Porto 3-1 Benfica