Sorry folks, there is only one fixture on Friday 1 March, WBA v Coventry, in the first week of the challenge, I was looking at the wrong Friday, thanks to Powmill- Naemore for pointing out my error in the pre warning.@exmil. I am still not getting it.
I am sorry if I am missing something obvious, but I don't want to miss the boat by not getting all my predictions in to you for Part 1. You said the challenge Part 1 will start "after" the Plymouth game, but then say the two fixtures on the Friday "before" the Plymouth game are included. That implies the challenge is starting "with" the matches on next Friday/Saturday, not "after".
i appreciate you won't be setting out the format for this season's challenge until after next Saturday, but I am still not sure if you are including those matches next weekend in the challenge or not.
In other words, are asking us to send you our predictions for all of next Friday's and Saturday's Championship fixtures before kickoff on Friday?
Sorry that I am being a little bit slow on the uptake here.
Come on BORO.
GENTLEMEN - I have bad news! The "away win" at Leicester didn't happen on Saturday as we all thought. It must have been some sort of mass delusion.
I looked in The Sunday Telegraph and in The Sunday Times yesterday and neither paper carried a report of the game. That is despite the fact that it was clearly the "Result of the Day" (if not the season) to beat the runaway League leaders AT THEIR PLACE, to secure a league double over them. I'd have thought it worthy of a double-page spread at least and maybe advance warning of a lengthy interview with Michael Carrick, going in depth into the tactics his team employed, to be published later. But, no such luck.
Most of the front page of the Sunday Telegraph Sport was filled with a large picture of Haaland missing a goal and then a double page spread inside about Man City v Chelsea (and an article about "Haaland in clash with cameraman"); a full page about the match between Burnley and Arsenal with a massive 21K in attendance (clearly, then, a BIG game); almost a page on Forest v West Ham and a page about Mourinho who may or may not be hinting about a possible return to the Prremier League. It was no better in the Sunday Times with its double page srpread "Confessions of the Premier League's wind-up king" (apparently Brentford's Neal Maupay, since you asked).
It's all a bit of a surprise really. I mean - 31,487 turned up at the Kingpower Stadium to see Leicester turned over, which is more than turned up to watch ANY fixture in England on Saturday apart from 2 Premier League games at Newcastle (52,224 watched the match against Bournemouth) and at Spurs (61,532 saw the game against Wolves). We must exclude the game between Manchester City and Chelsea because neither the Telegraph nor the Times give the attendance (maybe someone should let the VAT people know so they can check whether it is realistic later to claim only 10K were there?). In other words Brentford v Liverpool (17K), Burnley v Arsenal (21K), Fulham v Villa (24K) and Forest v West Ham (29K) all had crowds documented to be below the 31,487 souls who braved the trip to see Leicester City v Our Heroes. It just MIGHT have been worth a mention in those papers.
@forever-dormo Maybe, just maybe, you’re reading the wrong newspapers.
@martin-bellamy - The last time I read The Guardian it spelled Middlesbrough with 2 Fs (*cough*, *cough*).
Sorry folks, there is only one fixture on Friday 1 March, WBA v Coventry, in the first week of the challenge, I was looking at the wrong Friday, thanks to Powmill- Naemore for pointing out my error in the pre warning.Phew. I was getting worried for a moment that I was losing my faculties.
Like I sing to Mrs.P-N, "Will you still need me, Will you still feed me, Now I'm sixty-four"
Thanks for clearing that up Exmil..
Stircrazy - try the below - it is the first tweet if you scroll down - hopefully you can access this?
Yes, that was fine, Ebo (sorry about the abridged name - being lazy!), thanks.
GENTLEMEN - I have bad news! The "away win" at Leicester didn't happen on Saturday as we all thought. It must have been some sort of mass delusion.
I looked in The Sunday Telegraph and in The Sunday Times yesterday and neither paper carried a report of the game. That is despite the fact that it was clearly the "Result of the Day" (if not the season) to beat the runaway League leaders AT THEIR PLACE, to secure a league double over them. I'd have thought it worthy of a double-page spread at least and maybe advance warning of a lengthy interview with Michael Carrick, going in depth into the tactics his team employed, to be published later. But, no such luck.
[...]
I'll grant you that The Sunday Times didn't feature a full-blown report on the match, Dormo, but it did at least feature a couple of paragraphs acknowledging the result at the beginning of its round-up of Championship matches, or my copy did at any rate:
Middlesbrough have not had the most consistent of seasons, sp to have completed the double over runaaway leaders Leicester City is a remarkable achievement (Peter Wilson writes). They won 2-1 at the King Power Stadium having gone four matches without a victory. It might just kick-start a late run to secure a play-off place.
Finn Azaz slotted in the opening goal before Samuel Silvera's powerful second. Substitute Jamie Vardy's deflected reply was one of 24 shots Leicester had on goal, but only two of them were on target.