It's Zamora

The Championship play off Final.

I have to admit I wasn't that bothered who won as I'm not really a fan of either.
I suppose I was slightly on the side of QPR just down to them having a few ex-Hammers like Bobby Zamora and Rob Green who I think did a great job for us, plus Morrison and O'Neil.
On the other hand I don't have much sympathy for Joey Barton and Harry Redknapp who seemed to be taking another team into financial meltdown like he did with Pompey.

Derby probably deserved to win after dominating the match especially after O'Neil's last ditch foul earned him a red card, but it was the fairytale end with Bobby Z's last minute goal sending QPR back for a season in the Prem.

Request

2012-3 Predictions winner Biopunk requested a picture of DiMatteo and Lampard playing together as his prize, I failed miserably to find one. So a year on and we reached this compromise of Jose kicking Rafa out of Stamford bridge ... hope you like it :)

Thought you might also like this video I found recently :)

Upton Park Hotseat

If the rumours are to be believed one of these people will be West Ham manager next season.

Ronald Koeman looks like the interesting one, it's rumoured he wants to try his hand in the Premier league and West Ham might be a good fit.
The rest in my opinion are no great improvement on Fat Sam, Benitez and Moyes would want big wages and lots of available money which we don't have.
Poyet and McClaren are decent managers but neither would inspire a big improvement.

My prediction (don't put your money on it) is that there won't be a change, although the Koeman one does interest me :)

Fantasy Football

The season is over so here are the final standings.
Thanks to the few who joined in the NBTF leagues, hopefully get a few more next season?

Fantasy Premier League 2013/14
Thanks to Paul for getting me into this competition this year, hadn't really given this one a go before.
The work league ended up pretty interesting with me scraping a one point victory courtesy of my nearest challenger using an extra transfer in the last week (costing him 4 points).
The NBTF league was sadly just me and Longy.

FPL (NBTF - 2 Teams)
1 Lee - Cockney Rejects 2350 (Overall 31,697, Transfers 38)
2 Longy - Longy's Longshots 2097 (Overall 654,535, Transfers 30)

FPL (Works League - 17 Teams)
1 Lee 2350 (Overall 31,697, Transfers 38)
2 Steve 2349 (Overall 32,270, Transfers 34)
3 Paul 2329 (Overall 48,595, Transfers 47)
4 Richard 2230 (Overall 212,909, Transfers 59)
5 Hamish 2168 (Overall 392,677, Transfers 36)

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Ultimate FPL (NBTF League - 1 Team)
Nobody else joined up so just me :(
A good new game which was free this year, but might be a pay game next season.

1 Lee's Team 954
(Overall 677th, England 302nd, West Ham 12th, FISO 20th)

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Telegraph Fantasy Football 2013/14
A competition I've been playing since the 2000/01 season.
Usually do well in Works leagues (9 wins in 11 goes) but nationally not so good I've managed to win about £200 but have never been near the bigger prizes.
This season has been a bad one, briefly hit 2nd spot early in the season but ended up with all my teams outside the top 2000 which is the worst ever.

Congratulations to John for winning the first NBTF league :)

TFF (NBTF - 8 Teams)
1 John - Runcorn Reds 1875
2 Neil - Part Vole 1759
3 Lee - Mad Eyed Screamers 1697
4 Lee - Nutty Boys 1686
5 John - Hard Luck Story 1567
(League 3,028th)

TFF (Works League - 27 Teams, 5 Team Max)
1 Lee - Two Tone Town 1779
2 Lee - Life On Mars Bars 1768
3 Lee - Krypton Supermen 1763
4 Lee - Headless Chickens 1716
5 Shane - Laurens Loafers 1678
(League 2,085th)

TFF (Lee League - 20 Teams)
1 Village Idiots 1841
2 UK Subs 1835
3 Zero Tolerance 1820
4 Two Tone Town 1779
5 Life On Mars Bars 1768
(League - 387th)

World Cup Squad

The England squad for the World cup has been announced today.

Goalies - Hart, Foster, Forster
Defenders - Baines, Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Shaw, Jones, Smalling
Midfielders - Gerrard, Lampard, Lallana, Sterling, Barkley, Wilshere, Henderson, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Forwards - Rooney , Sturridge, Welbeck, Lambert

On Standby - Ruddy, Flanagan, Stones, Carrick, Cleverley, Carroll, Defoe

Mostly predictable with Ashley Cole being the best known to miss out, Michael Carrick is slightly unlucky as Roy is going with the injury prone Arsenal pair of Wilshere and Chamberlain. Both are great players if they can stay fit but there must be a worry.
Defence is a bit of a concern with Jones and Smalling not showing any form and Johnson having been taken apart by the Germans 4 years ago and now worse. Flanagan and Stones were surely better options to have in the squad?
Good to see Barkley, Sterling and Lambert in but did think Frank Lampard might have got the call last night telling him to book a summer holiday instead.

Premier Predictions Facts

The complete final table

Congratulations Paulo :)

Facts and figures
Most weekly wins - Paulo 6
Most correct scores (3 points) - Paulo 33
Most correct results (3+1 pointers) - Gobshyte 190
Most games predicted - Lee 389
Best Average (points per game predicted) - Paul 0.715
Highest weekly score - Paulo 15

Premier Predictions (Week 38)

Here we go the final week, All games due to kick off at 3pm on Sunday.
A few things still to settle all of them unlikely, Man City need a point for the title so all the scouses will be hoping for a Hammers win :) Liverpool obviously need to win to hang on to 2nd place (or better!!).
Norwich just need an 18-0 win over Arsenal and hope West Brom lose to Stoke ...
Man U could grab a Europa league spot if Tottenham lose to Villa, and they win at Southampton.
.... as I said all unlikely :)

Good luck all for the final time this season :)

Cardiff v Chelsea
Fulham v C Palace
Hull v Everton
Liverpool v Newcastle
Man City v West Ham
Norwich v Arsenal
Southampton v Man Utd
Sunderland v Swansea
Tottenham v Aston Villa
West Brom v Stoke

Site Login

For some reason Google have decided that anyone who logs into Google services (Blogger, YouTube, Picasa etc) will not be able to use their Virgin e-mail addresses soon?
From Monday anyone using a Virgin.net e-mail address will have to set up a new mail account to access their blogs and videos, they are trying to persuade you to use Gmail,
Virgin.com, NTLWorld and Blueyonder addresses will be phased out over the next few weeks :(
I guess Google continue their quest for total control over the internet wanting to ram their adverts down your throat every time you turn your computer on.
I use one of these to login so hopefully I won't suddenly disappear.

Championship

Congratulations to Leicester (102 points) and Burnley who are promoted to the Premier league.
Play-offs will be QPR v Wigan and Derby v Brighton.
Brighton grabbing the last spot with a 92nd minute winner at Forest after Reading failed to beat Burnley.
At the bottom Birmingham got a 93rd minute equaliser at Bolton to send Doncaster down with Barnsley and Yeovil, nail biting stuff for the Brummies :)