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From my former life I am still receiving E mailed ticket and match information from Old Trafford including the following announcement :

Manchester United U21s

United's stars of tomorrow are taking on their Sunderland counterparts at Old Trafford next Monday (15th Sep), kick-off 19:00 BST.

All supporters can register for free entry by texting UNDER 21 SUNDERLAND to 60777*. A further message will sent on Matchday to advise which turnstile to enter.   



If you are not doing anything next Monday get that text message in for free admission.

 

Click on the following link and 'Season 8 Episode 4' to hear "the lovely Brian Flynn's"  interview with Carolyn Barker from the Alty TV/Radio Robins gantry for the Radio 5 Non League Football Show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/nonleague

Brian is first on the bill so need to listen to the full programme.

.... to join the 2014-15 TASC Goal Rush Scheme, and the chance to win free travel to an away match or two tickets to a home match of your choice as well as a signed match ball and shirt.
 
We are still looking for further participants to help us achieve our target of £30.00 per goal scored in total.

For those who are not sure how the scheme operates, the scheme is simple. Anyone can sponsor the mighty Robins any amount they wish in multiples of 25p per goal for each goal they score throughout the 2014-15 season in all competitive the Vanarama Conference League and play off matches, FA Cup, FA Trophy and Cheshire Senior Cup matches.

For example – If Altrincham score a total of 75 goals in the 2014/15 season for each 25p sponsored goal you would be paying £18.75 for the whole season.

For every 10th goal scored, each sponsor will be entered into a free draw based on one entry for each 25p sponsored, i.e If you agree to donate 50p per goal, you receive 2 entries, £2.00 per goal receives 8 entries etc.   

The lucky winner of each draw for every 10th goal will have the choice of one of three prizes. These are (1) TWO FREE TICKETS for a forthcoming home league game, (2) FREE AWAY TRAVEL for one person to any away game on the TASC organised coach or (3) A SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH of the winner with their favourite Altrincham player

In addition there will be still be the end of the season draw for TWO PRIZES of a signed shirt and match ball.

Should the total amounts pledged exceed £30.00 and Altrincham score 100 goals in the 2014-15 season then the Chairman has again agreed to provide a free season ticket for the 2015-16 season in addition for the end of season draw.

Application forms will be available from the TASC table located in the Noel White Suite before the home matches v Lincoln City on Tuesday evening and Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

Many thanks to all those supporters who have re-pledged their goal sponsorship in the TASC Goal Rush Scheme for the 2014-15 Season.

Nigeria’s second goal against Argentina in a 2-3 defeat scuppered eight 3-1 score predictions in the final round of matches in Group F. No one made a fully correct score prediction although 22 teams had gone for an Argentinian win which means that only 2 teams failed to pick up at least one point.  

Top of the table Sarah Rowley and Barkley’s Brave Hearts were the only two teams to correctly predict the 3-1 score for Bosnia Herzegovina against Iran. Only 3 other teams picked up 2 points meaning Sarah’s lead at the top of the table extended to 4 points after the early kick offs.

However Sarah failed to pick up any points from the two Group D matches between Honduras and Switzerland and the Ecuador v France game. Unfortunately none of the challengers could come up with a fully correct 3 point score prediction to capitalise.

Going in to the final round of matches Sarah Rowley leads by 2 points from Potters Mould and Shortdean United with The Hand of God a further 3 points in arrears.

The penultimate table from the qualifying matches reads as follows (the second figure in brackets indicates the number of fully correct score predictions)

1   Sarah Rowley   57   (6)
2   Potters Mould   55   (7)
3   Shortdean United   55   (3)
4   The Hand of God   52   (4)
5   Groucho's Gooners   51   (4)
6   GC XI   50   (4)
7   Barkley's Brave Harts   50   (3)
8   Rio De Timperley   49   (4)
9   Foz   49   (3)
10   The Flaggers   49   (2)
11   Pukka Is Best   47   (3)
12   Mauritian Flyer   45   (5)
13   I'll Beat George   45   (3)
14   Super Doopers   45   (2)
15   Hardly Athletic   45   (2)
16   One Over The Eight   45   (2)
17   Gilmore   44   (3)
18   Timperley Toon   43   (4)
19   Good Guessers   43   (3)
20   Phil Jones   41   (3)
21   They Think It's All Over   39   (4)
22   We're On The First Plane Home   39   (3)
23   All Roads To Rio - BR - 116   39   (1)
24   Wilmslow Wanderers   34   (1)
25   Pete Foster    33   (1)
 
Day 15 (Thursday - Final qualifying matches)

This is it the last chance for the chasing pack to lay claim to the top of the table after the qualifying group matches. Will anyone be able to close the gap and catch Sarah Rowley at the top of the table ?    

In the 5.00pm kick offs in Group G Germany and Portugal are clear favourites with 21 and 22 win predictions to beat USA and Ghana respectively. None of our teams have gone for either a USA or Ghana win.

Most popular prediction is a 2-0 win for Portugal (10 predictions) with 7 going for a 2-1 German win. Leader, Sarah Rowley goes for a bold 5-1 win for Germany with Potters Mould at 3-1 and Shortdean at 4-0.

Three of our leading five have all gone for a 2-0 win for Portugal and the same teams also go for the same 2-0 score for a Russian win against Algeria.  

And finally ! Group H concludes proceedings at 9 o’clock with South Korea v Belgium in Sao Paulo and Algeria v Russia in Curitiba. Belgium and Russia are again clear favourites win 17 and 18 win predictions respectively.

The final table could all be down to predicting the correct score. 6 go for a 1-1 draw between South Korea and Belgium, and 8 go for a 2-0 win for Russia.

It's going to be close at the top !

After the final group games it's all down to the predictions for Winners, Runners Up, and the third & fourth placed matches. Some interesting predictions there could decide the final outcome ?

Yours Truly is off to play golf in North Wales from Sunday to Tuesday, so the next update, following this will not be possible until after England’s final match of the tournament against Costa Rica on Tuesday evening.

At least it gives me the opportunity to escape the household and stick for my team still being behind both my son and even worse the wife's teams. Hopefully when I return class will have risen to the top by Tuesday evening ! 

In Saturday’s matches, Lionel Messi’s late winner for Argentina to save their blushes against Iran meant that 24 out of 25 correctly predicted the result. However, only one team (They Think It’s All Over), correctly predicted the 1-0 score line to pick up a maximum 3 points. 22 teams out of the remaining 24 teams did pick up 2 points each, the only 2 missing out were Pete Foster and Wilmslow Wanderers who predicted that Iran would score. 

The second of Saturday’s matches saw Germany take on Ghana in Fortaleza. In one of the most entertaining matches to date Ghana’s 2-2 draw blew the 22 predictions for a German win. Next to the bottom, ‘We’re On The First Plane Home’ were the only team to correctly predict a 2-2 draw to pick up a maximum 3 points. No teams picked up 2 points and 11 failed to pick up any points.

The late kick off between Nigeria and Bosnia Herzegovina was surely one for the diehards in a match described as ‘flaccid’ only two teams (Groucho’s Gooners and I’ll Beat George) correctly predicted the 1-0 win for Ghana.

Sarah Rowley’s lead at the top of the table has been cut to just 2 points courtesy of Groucho Gooners correct prediction which moves him up to second alongside Rio De Timperley

1   Sarah Rowley   39
2   Groucho's Gooners   37
3   Rio De Timperley   36
4   Potters Mould   35
5   Shortdean United   34
6   Gilmore   34
7   The Flaggers   33
8   Mauritian Flyer   33
9   Good Guessers   32
10   The Hand of God   32
11   GC XI   31
12   Barkley's Brave Harts   30
13   Pukka Is Best   30
14   I'll Beat George   29
15   Foz   28
16   Super Doopers   28
17   One Over The Eight   28
18   Phil Jones   27
19   Hardly Athletic   27
20   We're On The First Plane Home   26
21   Timperley Toon   24
22   They Think It's All Over   24
23   Wilmslow Wanderers   23
24   Pete Foster   23
25   All Roads To Rio - BR - 116   23

Sunday sees three matches which complete the second round of fixtures and the potential qualifiers are beginning to take shape.   

Belgium v Russia kicks off proceedings in Group H at 5.00pm. Belgium are favourites to come out on top with 15 predictions for a win, with 2-1 being the favoured win margin (8 predictions). We have 8 predictions for a draw with 6 going for 1-1.

The second match in Group H kicks off at 8.00pm in Port Alegre where South Korea take on Algeria. South Korea are again the favourites to win with 15 predictions, the most popularly predicted being 2-0 by 6 of our entrants.

The late kick off match is the USA v Portugal. Can Portugal bounce back from their thrashing at the hands of the Germans ? 21 of you seem to think so by predicting a Portuguese win (7 go for 2-0, 6 for 2-1 and 4 for 3-1) Only one person has gone for a victory by Uncle Sam’s boys and three have opted for the draw.   

Day 12 (Monday) sees the beginning of the last round of qualifying matches, with both matches in each group taking place at the same time.

First off at 5.00pm are the matches in Group B with the Aussies taking on the Spanish in Curitiba and The Netherlands against Chile in Sao Paulo.
Australia are no hopers to beat Spain with 24 out of 25 predicting a Spanish victory. 15 of you do not expect the Aussies to hit the back of the Spanish net. The most favoured predictions are 3-0 and 4-1 with 6 and 5 respectively.

18 people predict a Dutch victory over Chile, and 7 go for the draw which means again that no one fancies a Chilean win. 2-1 is the most favoured prediction with 7, and a 3-1 win second with 5.

The 9.00pm kick offs are in Group A where Brazil take on Cameroon and Croatia play Mexico.

23 people expect a win for Brazil and 2 go for a 1-1 draw. 11 of you do not expect Cameroon to register a single goal. The biggest predicted win margin is 5-0.

The Croatia v Mexico result appears more difficult to predict, 10 have gone for a draw, 6 for a win for Croatia and 9 for Mexico. The most predicted result is a 1-1 draw (8 predictions) followed by a 2-1 win for Mexico with 6 predictions.

Tuesday will undoubtedly be unlucky Day 13 for those teams in Groups C & D who will be flying home after failing to qualify.

The takeaway delivery services will be working overtime with the tea time kick offs with already eliminated England’s playing their final match against Costa Rica whilst Italy take on Uruguay in Natal with both teams yet to confirm their place in the knockout stages.

Nationalism /Patriotism rules for Roy Hodgson’s side as 24 out of 25 predict/hope for a victory, that will bring back some pride before departing for the airport. Most popular predicted score line is 2-0 (7 predictions) with 5 going for a 2-1 victory and 4 hoping for a more comfortable 3-1 win.

Meanwhile in Natal, 15 people have gone for a draw between Italy and Uruguay with 8 predictions for a 2-2 draw and 6 for 1-1. 7 punters have gone for an Italian win and 3 for Uruguay.

Group C concludes with Japan v Columbia in Cuiaba and Greece v Ivory Coast in Fortaleza.

10 people have gone for a 1-1 draw between Japan and Columbia with 6 & 7 of you going for Japan and Columbia wins respectively.

The Ivory Coast are favourites to beat Greece with 12 win predictions, 9 go for the draw and 5 for a Greek victory.

The next update on Tuesday evening will cover the 11 matches played on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so log in to see which of our teams are making the running in our World Cup Prediction Competition, and who will be the teams heading home from Brazil?

Right now here did I put those spare golf balls ?

With just under half of the 48 group stage matches played  to date, and Spain, Australia and Cameroon already out and England teetering on the brink, it’s an appropriate opportunity to look at the scores on the doors and analyse events so far.

No. of Matches Played : 23      Total Goals Scored: 66    Average Goals Per Game : 2.87   

Most Correct Predictions in One Match:  7 – Brazil 3 Croatia 1

Most Aggregate Points Scored in One Match: 49 – Brazil v Croatia

Least Aggregate Points Scored in One Match: 1 – Spain 0 Chile 2  

Most Correct Individual Score Predictions: 5 – Mauritian Flyer

Total Number of Correct Score Predictions: 52

Teams Yet To Correctly Predict a Correct Score;
   Souper Doopers
   All Roads To Rio

Number of Matches With No Correct Score Predictions - 7
   Spain 1 Netherlands 4
   Uruguay 1 Costa Rica 3
   Germany 4 Portugal 0
   Belgium 2 Algeria 1
        Brazil 0 Mexico 0
        Australia 2 Netherlands 3
        Spain 0 Chile 2

Most Common Actual Score Line: 2-1 (8 times)

Wildest Way Out Prediction: 7 goal difference (10 goals predicted 3 scored) -Souper Doopers 8-2 prediction  for France v Honduras (3-0)

The competition could ultimately be decided on the final predictions for the winners, runners up, and third and fourth placed teams.

With Spain already out 21 out of our 25 entries cannot pick up maximum points.

The full summary of winners etc, with the number of predictions shown in brackets is as follows:

Winners :           Brazil (17)
              Argentina (5)
              Spain (2)
              Germany (1)

Runners Up:   Germany (9)
                        Argentina (
               Brazil (5)
             Spain (3)

Third Place:   Spain (10)
             Argentina (5)
             Germany (3)
                       Brazil & Italy (2 each)
                       Belgium, Holland & England (1 each),

Fourth Place:   Spain (8)
              Germany (6)
              Belgium (3)
              England, Portugal & France (2 each)
                        Columbia, Uruguay ( 1 each),

Finally, as a matter of interest, Pete Foster’s entry predicted all 48 matches to finish 1-1. After 23 matches he currently languishes in 24th spot out of 25 with just one correct score prediction and 18 points.

However, had Pete submitted a similar entry and gone for a 2-1 ‘home’ victory down the coupon, he would be sitting in 7th spot with a healthy 28 points and 6 correct predictions. Conversely, if he had gone for a 1-2 win for all the ‘away’ teams you would have amassed just 15 points and two correct score predictions and be rock bottom !

With a further 25 qualifying matches to go things are beginning to hot up.

Three teams are eliminated on Day 7, with Spain, Australia and Cameroon dusting down their passports with one game still to play. Who will be next ?
 
Whilst 24 people had predicted a win for the Netherlands, no one predicted the 3-2 score over Australia in the first match of Day 7 in Porto Alegre. However 10 entrants had gone for either 3-0 or 3-1 which was enough to pick up two points each. Everyone else picked up one point with the exception of Pete Foster who went for 1-1.
   
Chile’s 2-0 win to send defending champions Spain home after just two games certainly upset the odds and with 23 out of 25 having predicted a win for Spain, the match became the lowest aggregate points scoring  in the World Cup Prediction Competition to date.

Derek Wilshaw’s Wilmslow Wanderers were the only team to pick up a point with his prediction of a 3-2 win for Spain

Croatia’s 4-0 stroll in the park following Song’s sending off for Cameroon meant that no one made a correct prediction in any of today’s games.

In a low scoring day the best performers were The Flaggers and GC XI who both picked up 4 points. Only one person failed to pick up a point, and as a consequence Pete Foster returns back to the bottom of the table having reached the dizzy heights of 20th yesterday.

At the top end of the table, over night leaders Gilmore and Sarah Rowley have now been joined by son of (S)alty’s Rio De Timperley on 26 points. Am I in for some earache ? All three also have the same amount of correct score predictions (3).

The latest table reads as follows:

Gilmore   26
Sarah Rowley   26
Rio De Timperley   26
Groucho's Gooners   25
The Hand of God   24
Potters Mould   24
The Flaggers   24
Mauritian Flyer   23
Good Guessers   22
GC XI   22
Pukka Is Best   21
Phil Jones   21
Shortdean United   21
One Over The Eight   21
Barkley's Brave Harts   21
Foz   20
I'll Beat George   20
Timperley Toon   18
Wilmslow Wanderers   18
All Roads To Rio - BR - 116   18
Hardly Athletic   18
They Think It's All Over   17
We're On The First Plane Home   17
Super Doopers   17
Pete Foster   16

It’s a case of ‘England Expects’ on Day 8, with England taking on the other beaten team from the first round of matches, Uruguay in Sao Paulo at 8.00 pm.

8 people have gone for a draw ( 7 predictions for 1-1), 10 people have predicted an England victory, with a 2-1 score the most popular with 6. That leaves 7 entrants expecting a Uruguay win with 5 predicting a 2-1 win for Louis Suarez & Co.
     
The early kick off sees Columbia v Ivory Coast in Brasilia.  The most favoured result is a 1-1 draw with 10 predictions. Second favourite outcome is either a 1-0 win for Columbia or a 2-1 win for the Ivory Coast with 5 predictions each.

Japan v Greece is the final match of the day at 11.00pm, with 10 predictions for a Japanese win, and a similar number going for a draw.
 
The most ambitious prediction has got to be a 6-0 victory for Greece.

Hmmm ?  Should I make a similar offer of a bottle of champagne again should that prediction come up or should I keep it to celebrate an England victory over Uruguay ? ?