Fog Dude
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Posts posted by Fog Dude
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10 hours ago, PunkStep said:
Probably the best Xmas present I've ever had.
My folks didn't have much money and I knew that, so all I asked for was Sonic 2 for the Master System. That's all I wanted, I'd watch the demos of it in Woolworths endlessly. The Master System version was shit as well! I didn't care.
What a surprise when instead on Christmas Day I opened up a SNES, with Street Fighter II. Overjoyed was a massive understatement! I played that game to death until my birthday 4 months later, when I got Sim City.
Over the years, other favourites of mine included Super Mario World (discovering and completing all levels was my mission), Mario Kart, NBA Jam, Theme Park, Mario All-stars and one of the greatest games of all-time- Link's Awakening.
I have more fond memories of the SNES than any other console. I got the mini SNES for Christmas a few years ago and have also played some of the games on the Switch through Nintendo online membership. I think it's one console where so many of the games are timeless regardless of the graphics, such as Super Mario World and Link's Awakening.
Are you getting Link's Awakening mixed up with A Link to the Past? The former was a Game Boy game which you could play on the SNES, but only via a Super Game Boy. It was still pretty decent, mind, but ALTTP/Zelda 3 was an absolute masterpiece.
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Two matches left in the Fantasy League gameweek (both involving Chelsea), so no full update on that yet, but suffice to say it hasn't gone well so far. Again.
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FA Cup Third Round
Blackpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Boreham Wood 1-2 Accrington Stanley
Chesterfield 2-3 West Bromwich Albion
Fleetwood Town 1-3 QPR
Hull City 2-1 Fulham
Ipswich Town 3-1 Rotherham United
Middlesbrough 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Shrewsbury Town 3-2 Sunderland
Brentford 2-0 West Ham United
Grimsby Town 1-0 Burton Albion
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Newcastle United
Liverpool 3-1 Wolves
Cardiff City 1-2 Leeds United
Hartlepool United 2-3 Stoke City
Manchester City 2-1 ChelseaScottish Women's Cup Round 4
Falkirk 0-3 CelticFrench Cup Ninth Round
Le Puy 0-2 OGC Nice
Bordeaux 1-0 Rennes
Lannion 1-3 Toulouse -
As alluded to above by Shy Dad, the Bulls got a decent point at Aggborough on Sunday but that still wasn't enough for him to win his D2D bet. Nobody else went for an away win so all other participants who actually got their picks in claim a pair of bonuses each. And, as you'd expect, that left him as the worst New Year's performer and moving down a place in the table.
Below him, just a point now separates Vegeta from Nicko. Rory narrowly leapfrogs out of the bottom 3 as the only person into double figures and with more than one correct scoreline this time out. At the summit, seph cuts the lead of MVP RULZ by one point back down to 8.
The 'wildcard' fixture randomly selected after all the games were finished was Nantes v Auxerre, and even though most people got the result right there, Rory managed to nab all the bonus points for himself by being the only player to get the exact score correct. A reminder that there'll be no wildcard game next week as it's classed as a 'bumper' round with enough going on already.
Elsewhere, not a lot of high scoring going on. Victories for Grimsby, Darlo and Hearts generally proved fruitful for one-pointers, and a score draw in the Old Firm derby wasn't too bad either. Reverses for Posh, Liverpool and PSG, on the other hand, caught almost everyone out, as did Chelsea being deservedly held at Forest.
Right, that'll do. No additional gimmicks like D2D, FPL Cup or wildcards next weekend, but there are more matches on the card than usual. Look out for that at the top of the thread in just a tick.
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1 minute ago, deathrey said:
Greenclaws?
Course it was! Thanks. Clearly I was so infatuated with her that I didn't take enough notice of the actual name of the show. I can still picture the other main character and you're right, he definitely had claws instead of fingers. I think it was generally meant to encourage kids to get into gardening though, rather than doing something else with their hands.
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Had a bit of a 'mare in the Fantasy League last time. Left Martinelli on the bench again and he got double figures for the second time in a row. At least his value's going up, I guess, but there are no awards for having a squad worth over £100m at the end of the season. Picked the wrong keeper too. Only 3 outfielders managed more than the basic 2 points – most got fewer. Worst of all, I captained Mitrović and even though Fulham won, his penalty miss means he scored nothing, which of course doubles up to... zero.
That added up to 33 points overall, well below average, easily inside the bottom 2 million players for the week, and down in all but one of my private leagues. No change in the other one, so I can only presume nobody else in that is taking it seriously. They might have even forgotten all about it during the World Cup and never come back.
Based on the last two performances, I can't be certain that Ben Davies is actually a professional footballer so I've shipped him out for Struijk from Leeds. I've found a place for Martinelli in the starting line-up at last, but it leaves a surprisingly strong-looking bench of Kane, Gündogan and an out-of-form Cancelo. In contrast, Andreas has been decently lately and he's got a double round, so he gets the armband, with Jorginho from across West London getting the nod for vice-captain ahead of the derby a week on Thursday.
Haven't got any Brentford or Liverpool players in my squad at the moment, so we can safely ignore the fact that I've got nought for the round so far.
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For the Predictions League, not put the results in the opening post or figured out the table yet. Will go do that now and then write the wrap-up tomorrow night as usual.
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Aside from the aforementioned Ace, Alex Mack and Michaela Strachan, I also faintly recall having a thing for Iris from Greenfingers.
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On 12/28/2022 at 11:25 AM, Shy Dad said:
Is it three years in a row I've had the over Christmas D2D or just 2 now?
First of all, thanks for picking early. It's why I tag people in the initial post but it doesn't always get a swift response.
Your memory is playing tricks on you though, I'm afraid. Not going to dig up the last 2 seasons' threads, but according to the records on my spreadsheets your D2Ds fell in August and early December last year, and in December and February the season before. There's never a D2D in the Boxing Day round, and having one as part of the New Year card is a bit of a rarity too.
Premier League
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Chelsea
Brentford 2-2 LiverpoolLeague One
Peterborough United 2-1 Wycombe WanderersLeague Two
Grimsby Town 3-2 Stockport CountyNational League North
Kidderminster Harriers 3-0 HerefordUnitedw/Shy
Scarborough "Athletic" 1-1 DarlingtonScottish Premiership
Rangers 2-3 Celtic
Hearts 3-1 HibernianLigue 1
Nantes 0-0 Auxerre
Lens 0-2 Paris Saint Germain===
On the Fantasy front, Tuesday's game did indeed take me from just below average to just above. Haaland's brace earned him 13 which doubled up to 26 for me, but Mitrović on 15 would've been an even better choice of captain – so he will be this weekend. The only other bad selection decision was leaving Martinelli on the bench, whose score of 8 put him above no fewer than seven of the outfielders I started with, including even Kane. The big exception was new signing Ødegaard who made it into double figures.
A total of 80 points for the round and now at 912 in total. Just outside the top 3 million overall, slightly inside the top 4 million for the week. Up in one private league, but down in two, including a UKFF one. No change in the rest.
For the imminent next gameweek, Lloris and Andreas come into the first XI in place of Leno and Thiago Silva respectively. The latter loses the vice-captaincy to Gündogan.
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First of all, no Fantasy League round-up yet because there's still one match to go in Gameweek 17 (which I'm hoping can salvage things for me). Hope everybody's had a good last few days anyway.
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The results went into the opening post on Tuesday night and the table was updated straight afterwards. For the first time in a few rounds, MVP RULZ extends his lead and once again leads by 9 points. Nicko's still last, but worst performer Rory sinks to just one point above him, to Vegeta's benefit. Top scorer Stinky closes in on the duo at the summit and moves further clear of TildeGuy. He was the sole participant to make it into double figures and the only one to get more than one exact score.
No D2D this time, so the only bonuses were from the 'wildcard' fixture, which was randomly selected once all the games were done as match #9, the meeting at Meadow Lane. Nobody quite guessed the exact scoreline of 4-1, but everyone correctly bet on a home win, meaning the whole field gets an additional point like they're audience members on Oprah or something. Normally I'd say that makes the gimmick pointless, but in a Christmas round I just think it was extra nice.
We were luckier with the weather than in the previous couple of weeks, so there are 9 other matches to whizz through. Both score draws in the second tier generally proved fruitful, whilst two more at Plough Lane and Plainmoor were generally good for one-pointers, alongside away victories for Argyle, Newcastle Utd and Brighton. A stalemate in Exeter and a heavy reverse on the road for Donny in the battle of the (non-G*s) Rovers, on the other hand, caught most people out.
A new set of 10, including the last first-choice D2D of the season, will appear in the original post sharpish. Although Saturday seems to be the main day for the EPL this weekend, our card will feature just New Year's Day and Bank Holiday Monday games, so for the second week running you've got more time than usual in which to make your picks.
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Premier League
Leicester City 2-2 Newcastle United
Southampton 0-0 Brighton & Hove AlbionChampionship
Hull City 2-1 Blackpool
Rotherham United 1-2 Stoke CityLeague One
Cheltenham Town 0-1 Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City 1-1 PortsmouthLeague Two
Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Doncaster Rovers
Wimbledon 3-3 Newport CountyNational League
Notts County 3-1 Oldham Athletic
Torquay United 0-2 Yeovil Town -
On 12/14/2022 at 9:26 AM, Fatty Facesitter said:
Wycombe Wanderers 0-2 Ipswich Town (it hurts me to put this)
And yet something that brings you no joy also brings you no points. Even if the Tractor Boys do ultimately go up this season, the trip to Adams Park was always likely to be one of their trickier away fixtures. EDIT: Forgot to add, to make matters worse, that was the random 'wildcard' fixture to boot!
(Disclaimer: I'll be staying the annex to the house my uncle built over Christmas. He grew in the Stour Valley so despite being Westcountry-based for 50+ years, he remains a Town fan. And I don't want to risk having to sleep in the orchard without a tent on Christmas Eve by bad-mouthing them.)
So much to round up, so let's start with Nicko's initiative and mention the Fantasy League. Even though the World Cup is now over, you still have time to ship out anybody you might've picked that gets themselves injured or suspended in this midweek's Carabao games. I've gone for players who are meant to have double rounds coming up soon, though all of those rearranged games come with the usual weather/floodlight failure*/pre-empting for Cup competitions/renewed lurgy outbreak caveats.
[Although the only actual instances of top-flight floodlight failure in the modern era seem to have been betting scams.]
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Next, the FPL Cup and the conclusion to its absurdly lop-sided group stage. I somehow finished runner-up in Pool B with two wins and a draw plus a negative points difference. Meanwhile RoryFice, with only a slightly weaker record (and a better one than seph's), lands in last place in Pool A. Shy Dad could yet replace ultimo if the latter drops out completely by the spring.
The draw for the quarter-finals is as follows:
Fatty Facesitter v seph
Fog Dude v TildeGuy~!
MVP RULZ v Vegeta
Stinky Dad v ultimo the greatThe above was seeded, with the top half from one group playing the bottom half of the other, and the further stipulation that people who faced each other in cross-pool play couldn't do so again. The semis, in contrast, will be a completely open draw. Ties will take place during the next international round in March, with the semi-finals in late April and the final in late May.
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The results we had by Sunday night went into the opening post at that time and now, at the third time of asking, I think the uploaded table is finally accurate. A whopping 27 FA Trophy ties succumbed following lunchtime pitch inspection after I'd posted on Saturday, but 24 of those – including, crucially, both of ours – have been completed tonight, so in accordance with the longstanding policy on postponed Cup ties, the picks for those are valid after all. The three league matches I already cited are guesses we're never getting back, however.
Rather like my bowels once Christmas dinner's over, there was significant movement in the bottom half. I move further clear of worst performer Rory, who is overtaken by Shy Dad. Vegeta was the sole participant into double figures and with more than one exact score, so he jumps back off of the wooden spoon spot. At the top, seph cuts MVP RULZ' lead at the top by a further two points to seven, whilst ultimo's cushion to sixth place will surely disappear if he sits out another week.
Miraculously, one of the two League Two games that went ahead was one of ours at Holker Street, but the boys from Richie Freebird's home town will wish they hadn't bothered as Barrow lost 1-0 and by all accounts it could've easily been more. That outcome, alongside away wins for Watford and Halifax, proved fruitful. Three home wins by a single goal at Wycombe, Oviedo and Málaga caught a lot more people out, as did a surprisingly comfortable passage for The Shrimpers at Roots Hall tonight against ambitious moneybags side Boreham Wood.
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Looking ahead to next week, we're following the same pattern as both recent rounds and our now-traditional format for Christmas and Easter weeks. No double-header this time, but Boxing Day will be domestic-heavy with a focus on games that haven't had their start time changed. I'll write in the blurb which matches from the continent and which later kick-offs I considered but decided to reject for simplicity's sake. Let's hope temperatures are milder next week so we don't lose a few clashes yet again.
The first two rounds in the New Year will be a lot more flexible, mind, as games shifted to Bank Holiday Monday are fair game and some French domestic matches will be featured too.
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The first post was updated last night to reflect the fact that we'd already lost the matches at Vale Park and Field Mill to the weather yesterday, and so far this morning the game at the Tony Macaroni Stadium has also fallen to the big freeze.
And if we had hedged our bets on some sunny Aussie action instead? Well, looks like the Melbourne derby has been abandoned due to crowd trouble! Seems you can't win either way sometimes...
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Championship
Huddersfield Town 0-1 Watford
League One
Port Vale 1-1 Accrington Stanley
Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 Ipswich TownLeague Two
Barrow 0-0 Swindon Town
Mansfield Town 1-2 Grimsby TownFA Trophy Third Round
Guiseley 0-3 Halifax Town
Southend United 3-1 Boreham WoodScottish Premiership
Livingston 2-0 Dundee UnitedSegunda División
Real Oviedo 2-2 Sporting Gijón
Málaga 1-0 Alavés -
The only time I visited the old Wembley was with secondary school, because my PE teacher was playing in an FA Vase Final.
I've seen two England internationals at Ashton Gate: one an U21 game against Poland and the other a Women's Euros qualifier. I also once went to a Wales v Montenegro dead rubber Women's World Cup qualifier here in Bangor.
So anyway, do we reckon the third place match will be better than the 0-0 Croatia and Morocco served up in the group stages?
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The final scores were in the opening post by Sunday evening. We lost a couple of matches to the cold snap, and with lower division still featuring heavily for the next month we'd better hope this Arctic blast subsides sooner rather than later. Still, the mean score wasn't too low considering there were only 8 results in the end. Facesitter bet on a draw and the Canaries actually won, which means everyone who opted for either an away win or a home win gets bonus points.
The only people who didn't claim them were Stinky, who nonetheless is the sole participant to get more than one exact scoreline right this time out, and Vegeta, who spared Nicko's blushes by being the round's worst performer, slipping to last place and drawing level with him on three-pointers for the season despite having missed one round fewer. Rory and Shy Dad both slip a place in a tight lower half of the standings.
It's equally crowded in upper mid-table as Tilde makes it into double figures to leapfrog ultimo. MVP RULZ kept pace with the weekly average to keep a decent lead, but seph did just what he needs to as the nearest challenger by being top scorer and closing the gap. He and I got an extra bonus point this time for sitting on the fence when guessing the outcome of the women's Manchester derby.
I've left the FPL Cup classification up as a reminder ahead of the last group stage clashes this coming week. All to play for in Group A, whilst for Group B I've at least added who's through already, with MVP RULZ getting an NFL-style capital Q for qualified as he's guaranteed to finish in the top two. No 'home field advantage' in the knockout phase here, mind.
Of the other matches that went ahead, the World Cup quarter-final actually proved the most fruitful even though it didn't actually go to a shootout, but a key penalty miss still managed to be involved. The Final won't be included next time since we don't know who's in it yet. That was always the plan and this isn't sour grapes. I don't live in England anymore anyway.
As for the remaining club results, wins for the Blades, Burnley and Sutton Utd were generally good for one-pointers, as was the draw at whatever The Britannia is called these days. A reverse on the road for forum favourites homeless Cov turned out tougher to foresee.
A new set of 10 will go live at the top of the thread shortly, along with – as I mentioned – the last lot of FPL Cup group fixtures.
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Micro-update on the Fantasy League: I've only logged in a couple of times all month, but remember to use those unlimited free transfers while you still can!
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World Cup Quarter-final
England 4-1 France (in Al-Khor)
Championship
Reading 3-1 Coventry City
Sheffield United 2-0 Huddersfield Town
Stoke City 1-1 Cardiff City
Swansea City 3-0 Norwich City w/Nicko
Queen's Park Rangers 2-1 BurnleyLeague One
Morecambe 1-0 Charlton Athletic
League Two
Rochdale 1-2 Stockport County
Sutton United 0-0 Colchester UnitedWomen's Super League
Manchester City 2-2 Manchester United -
On 12/3/2022 at 3:19 PM, Shy Dad said:
Trying to remember to do this during Christmas dinner season is becoming more difficult.
Ha, I thought you were having some kind of Vicar of Dibley The Christmas Lunch Incident experience every day at the moment until I read what you meant by this in another thread. You weren't the lowest scorer this time, mind, but you won't be as lucky with the number of late starts and Sunday matches most weeks!
It seems @ultimo the great is finding it tougher than usual right now too, since he missed this round for whatever reason. That obviously meant he lost his FPL Cup match but he still goes through thanks to previous performances. The only question remaining in Group B is which order the top 4 will finish in, but in Group A somebody is going to exit the competition with a minimum of 6 points as they've been absolutely dominating the cross-pool meetings. Just to ratchet up the tension a bit more, the final round of clashes will take place the week after next as we pause it this coming weekend so we can get another D2D out of the way.
Anyway, those standings plus the main table have all now been updated, and the results have been in the initial post since Sunday night as usual. In a low-scoring week, there was no movement at all as already-dominant MVP was the only participant into double figures so extends the lead at the top to 13 points. Stinky Dad somehow conspired to spare Shy's blushes by being lowest scorer despite making his picks on time, whilst Nicko was somehow the sole other player to get more than one exact score right but just about remains in last place regardless.
Speaking of saving something from embarrassment, I only escaped an even worse score thanks to the random 'wildcard' fixture. That was selected as match #6, the women's Charlton v Sheffield United game, where I managed to get the scoreline spot on. Even though most other people got the right result, that means I nab all the bonus points for myself. Sorry, I don't make the rul... oh hang on, I did actually make that one up myself early last season. Whoops!
Elsewhere, wins for England's men and Chelsea Ladies generally proved fruitful, but away reverses for promotion-chasing Pompey, Swindon Town and Brum caught a lot of people out. The outcomes in Scotland, Spain and Italy produced a mixed bag of guesses too.
As I mentioned, a new set of 10 featuring our first D2D in a while will be up in the first post shortly.
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11 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:
I'm not sure it's on topic or not but apparently there is a huge tradition across Northern Europe of watching an old British music hall sketch called "Dinner for one" on Christmas Eve.
I tried to get the family to start doing this but it died out after about three years as Just Some Girl found Freddie Frinton who plays the butler in the sketch to be exceptionally creepy.
Anyway, if you haven't seen it I'd recommend watching it once out of interest but it probably shouldn't take the place of any aforementioned shows in the thread.
That's a New Year's Eve tradition, not a Christmas Eve one, but it's still worth digging up that sketch if anyone hasn't seen it (or at least hasn't watched it in a while).
Plus the 31st of December is technically the seventh day of Christmas so it still counts.
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On 11/30/2022 at 10:22 AM, Fatty Facesitter said:
Yep, I thought the last round was binned for some reason. Bring back 'proper' football, that's what I say.
If the forum had gone haywire earlier, or for longer, then it probably would've been. This time last week that's what I was expecting to have to do, to be honest. But ultimately there were only approximately 20 hours of downtime according to Moo, and 80% of people still managing to play means I'm happy for the last round to count as normal.
There was a chance that these matchdays during the World Cup would only be valid for the FPL Cup groups, but a poll in the sign-up thread in the summer was narrowly in favour of them also counting towards the main table so that's what I'm sticking to.
On the subject of 'proper' football, it'll be back with a vengeance next week. When even proper-er football comes back at Christmas, you'll all get an extra two days to make your picks because all the matches are on a Bank Holiday Monday. Hope that goes some way to making up for having slightly less time to post last week.
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My picks:
2022 World Cup Second Round
England 1-2 Senegal (in Al-Khor)
League One
Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 PortsmouthLeague Two
Crawley Town 1-3 Swindon TownWomen's Super League
Leicester City 0-3 ChelseaWomen's Championship
Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Birmingham City
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Sheffield UnitedScottish Championship
Ayr United 1-1 Raith Rovers
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2-2 DundeeSegunga División
Sporting Gijón 2-0 Las PalmasSerie B
Cagliari 0-0 Parma -
On 11/26/2022 at 2:31 PM, Shy Dad said:
Thought I'd submitted but hadn't gone through, nearly did the same again today.
Most weeks I'd once again ask how you managed that, but given the shenanigans from Thursday lunchtime until mid-morning on Friday it's actually understandable if people had trouble making their picks this time.
It seems to have caused a couple of people to miss the latest round in the shape of @seph and Nicko, even though the former 'liked' my previous round-up post and the latter tagged me in the cache issue discussion thread, so I know they're about.
The other snag this week was that two FA Cup ties were postponed and another was abandoned amid terrible weather on Sunday. Unfortunately, one of those was among our trio of matches. Since amateur women footballers apparently have day jobs these days ("Next thing you know, they'll be letting them vote!" etc.) and the concept of floodlights has yet to make its way to Cornwall, they're gonna wait till this coming weekend to try again, which means all picks for that game are void.
Anyway, the results went into the original post at the usual time and the tables were updated straight after that. Turns out seph had enough of a cushion to remain in second place even in a relatively high-scoring week (especially considering there were only 9 valid fixtures in the end). He does, however, allow MVP RULZ to go 10 points clear, while the other absentee sinks back to last place but is only 3 points behind Vegeta.
It was a good round for Rory and Tilde who both move up one as the sole participants into double figures and with any exact scores right this time out. They leapfrog me and worst performer Shy Dad respectively. Over in the FPL Cup, Tilde and Stinky maintain their 100% records in a wide open Pool A whilst MVP stays top of the other group despite suffering a defeat to ultimo.
By far the most fruitful outcome was the score draw between Germany and Spain, with wins for France and Stenhousemuir providing the rest of the correct scoreline guesses. The second half of the previous sentence lays bare what an utterly batshit season this is. Elsewhere, wins for Argentina, Croatia, West Brom, Forest and Falkirk were all generally good for one-pointers, with the margin of victory in those domestic games being just a bit too wide to contemplate beforehand. If only I'd foreseen Wem's consolation goal...
... I'd have got 4 more points and everyone who played would've got 1 fewer, because that was the randomly selected wildcard match. The only result that caught people out was Belgium's insipid defeat to Morocco.
New mostly club-based set of 10 coming up soon in the opening post, plus more FPL Cup clashes.
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It was all part of the plan to make E&C 7-time champions just a year after they first won the tag belts, because it was Attitude Era and the hot potatoing of titles was all the rage.
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Welp, looks like the hybrid round cursed the whole forum for a bit! I tried to make my picks last night anyway but unsurprisingly it seems they didn't go through, so I've no idea if these scores are the same or not:
2022 World Cup – Groups C-F
Denmark 1-3 France (in Doha)
Argentina 1-1 Mexico (in Lusail)
Belgium 1-0 Morocco (at Al-Thumama)
Canada 0-0 Croatia (in Al-Khor)
Germany 1-2 Spain (in Al-Rayyan)FA Women's Cup Second Round
Lichfield City 0-3 West Bromwich Albion
Liskeard Athletic 1-4 Oxford United
Wem Town 0-5 Nottingham ForestScottish Cup Round 3
Formartine United 0-1 Stenhousemuir
Wick Academy 2-3 FalkirkIn the circumstances I think we can forgive the apparent double post from Vegeta. Remember that all the domestic games are decided on the day this week, with extra time played if necessary.
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For 75% of my time on these boards, PMs have only been used for Predictions League sign-ups so mid-season I don't even think to look in my inbox. Or, in this case, other people's.
Like Chris said, if I tried to go to profile information it either showed my own details or I got a "You don't have permission to view this page" as if I were logged out.
Just glad things got sorted in under 24 hours. And, as has also been pointed out, it could be a wake-up call to finally update passwords and make them more secure.
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On 11/17/2022 at 10:23 PM, seph said:
Oversight. Corrected.
Don't usually call people out, mainly because I don't notice they've missed a game until after the fact, and because it generally is just the one match. But since I spotted it early this time, it was two fixtures and you'd done so well last week I thought I'd ping you. Looks like it saved you a total of... *checks notes* zero points. Perhaps I shouldn't bother next time!
On 11/19/2022 at 3:52 PM, Shy Dad said:Bugger it was saved in drafts
Do you mean you thought you'd clicked 'Submit' and it never went through, or just that you were going to finish posting later and didn't get round to it in time? I sometimes find half of a post I've already made has been saved and have to clear the editor before typing anything new, but it never seems to happen the other way around that I thought I'd posted but it turns out I hadn't*, so not sure how you managed that to be honest.
Anyway, all of the actual results and the FPL Cup scores went into the opening post on Sunday night. The table's also been updated and improved slightly so it ought to be a smidgen easier to make out what's going on now. As alluded to above, MVP RULZ has once again pulled clear of seph at the summit, while Shy Dad is only just clinging onto top-half status. Of those who picked on time, Vegeta was the lowest scorer and slips to dead last behind a resurgent Rory and Nicko. Best performer Stinky leapfrogs ultimo into third place.
The 'wildcard' game was randomly selected as match #2, and although it only yielded 8 points, it feels like that's the most since the gimmick was introduced at the start of last season. Four people got the exact scoreline right from that Lancashire derby as The Trotters pulled off the familiar act of coming back to win at Highbury, so they nab 2 bonus points each. As things stand, the next round that isn't set to feature third-tier sides is Week 24, so fill your boots in the meantime!
Elsewhere, the shock was very much on in France and only Facesitter correctly thought the tie would go to penalties. Two more draws in Spain proved less fruitful, but an away victory for Charlton and narrow home wins for Sheff Wed, Barnet and Dundee were generally good for at least a point. The mighty Glovers doing Wrexham a favour by holding Notts County to a stalemate caught most people out.
As for the World Cup opener, I was caught between the 'Qatar are rubbish' and 'this is likely rigged' mindsets and somehow ended up plumping for a draw. Everybody else rightly went for an Ecuadorian success. Whilst my guess was technically still possible going into (interminable) injury time, it did look after half an hour that it might be closer to 5-0.
In the group stage of our own little Cup, meanwhile, three participants are sitting pretty on maximum points and already have all but stamped their tickets for March's quarter-finals. Rory somehow contrived to be on the wrong end of a 25-point thriller and would miss out on the knockout phase as things stand, whilst Tilde helped his points difference massively. A useful low-scoring draw between ultimo and me puts us above Shy Dad who was punished for betting late, as you'd expect.
Right, new set of 10 coming up soon in the first post, split equally between World Cup and domestic club cup ties, plus yet more FPL Cup clashes.
* Yes, there are times in other threads when I probably shouldn't have posted anything but that's another matter.
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On 11/16/2022 at 6:31 PM, Fatty Facesitter said:
Bottom of the table? No problem. The only way is up. I'll start with a humping of the host nation in the World Cup opener. I'll take quadruple points if that correct score comes off, please.
Well, we have done bonus gambles like that for internationals before, but they've tended to involve the likes of Andorra or San Marino. I don't think I can quite stretch that definition to include the current Qatari side, sorry. Then again, I never thought we'd be in a position to feature the World Cup finals mid-season.
Also @seph any reason for boycotting the Segunda instead of the Middle Eastern dictatorship bud?
Anyway, there's one other possible source of matches that slipped my mind in the already overlong previous post: club friendlies. Looks like most clubs are taking the next couple of weeks off, then having a training camp somewhere before the odd 'mini pre-season' warm-up ahead of the Christmas fixtures. Any such meetings this month are basically just money-spinners (and demonstrate why a real winter break would never actually be about player welfare) and by the time the more reasonable clashes are played, some of the more decent leagues will already have resumed. So, I can't see us including any of those games on the card either, but they might be worth keeping in mind.
Right, enough extra rambling for now. Without further ado, my picks:
Men's World Cup Group A
Qatar 2-2 Ecuador
League One
Fleetwood Town 0-2 Bolton Wanderers
Port Vale 1-2 Charlton Athletic
Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Shrewsbury TownNational League
Barnet 0-0 Torquay United
Notts County 1-1 Yeovil TownScottish Championship
Dundee 2-1 Hamilton AcademicalFrench Cup Round 8
Thaon 0-3 Sochaux-MontbéliardSegunda División
Real Zaragoza 1-3 Málaga
Eibar 1-0 Alavés
Your Conspiracy Theory Free Pass
in Off Topic
Posted
I've been to the Cryptozoology Museum in Maine, which has a statue of Bigfoot outside as their kind of mascot. I'd say their take on him has a smidgen of credibility whilst being relatively harmless (unless it's somebody's gateway drug to wilder conspiracies).