Search the Community

This was a game of two halves. We scored twice in the first half, might have put the game beyond doubt and were a constant threat to the visitors who appeared to be there for the taking but we then snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. I suspect that our players thought that they would be able to comfortably coast through the second half but Simon Grayson’s half-time words stung Preston into second half action and they dominated the second half as much as we had controlled the first. They got into our faces and scored the vital third goal of the match on 64 minutes which led to our players showing the anxieties and frailties that they are still prone to. Our visitors ran the show in the second half and were level on 76 minutes with their second goal in 12 minutes. We were fortunate that they did not push too hard for a winner that would have shattered our unbeaten home record. Each game we play seems to put a play-off place further away from us. We are now 9 points off sixth place. Defeats for the fourth, fifth and sixth placed clubs gave us an opportunity to close the gap on them further but we squandered that chance yesterday. We need to go on a run of wins now to make up the gap between us and sixth spot and to leapfrog the teams (including yesterday’s visitors) that stand between the top six and us. Sadly, we draw too many home games and lose too many games away to make us going on such a run look a realistic prospect. Before the game, I along with others were left wondering why on earth Gabby was in the starting line-up yet again. We now know. He was in the team because Ross McCormack has in recent weeks developed the sort of fitness and attitude issues that he had himself displayed over recent years. It is almost amusing that the recent behaviour of McCormack which mirrors that of Gabby over a longer period has ensured Gabby’s extended run in the side at a time when we had hoped McCormack might take the opportunity that the absence of Kodjia and Ayew on international duties offered him to show he could get goals for us as regularly as he has for others in the past. We now have some time available to reinforce further the team that will travel to Brentford with new signings and players potentially returning from international calls. That time will also offer McCormack an opportunity to begin to change his attitude and to try to seek the forgiveness for his misdemeanours that Gabby has been granted for his by Steve Bruce. My player ratings from a game before and during which we remembered Graham Taylor are: Sam Johnstone – 6 – Had the quietest of first halves. He appears to like to take the option of punching rather than trying to catch the ball when he has the choice doesn’t he? Given that, he needs to try to get some more distance on those punches on a more consistent basis if they are to become a reliable safe option. Grabbed an 82nd minute header near the goal line and has a level of confidence about him. Alan Hutton – 7 – Made some decent forward runs particularly early on and this must go down as one of his better games for us. James Chester - 7 – Won everything in the air. Was left flat footed on the edge of the box as Hugill took the ball to his right and hit their opener before Amavi could get a challenge in. Nathan Baker – 7 – Another competent performance by what is our most improved player this season. He certainly learnt some good things during his loan to Bristol City last season and has now become one of the first names on our team sheet. Jordan Amavi – 5 – Lost possession more often than he would be expected to and disappointingly looked less effective as the game wore on prior to his late substitution. Albert Adomah – 7 – MOTM – Albert scored a brace of goals which should have been enough to secure the win. His first was a tap in from around a yard when unmarked but he was in the right place at the right time to put us ahead on 22 minutes and the referee let it stand despite vociferous appeals from the visitors for a foul by Gabby on the keeper. Sent Maxwell the wrong way from the spot after 36 minutes for his second. He had been found on the edge of the box by Amavi and ran on only for McGeady to win the ball but bring him and concede a penalty that incensed the visitors. Had an 88th minute shot kept out by Maxwell at his near post. Henri Lansbury - 7 – Pinged a couple of excellent passes and looked comfortable on the ball. He also takes a good corner which makes a pleasant change to what we have grown accustomed to. His lack of recent games started to tell in the second half as Preston took control of the midfield and he was substituted on 77 minutes. He will get even better with games and with another new midfield maestro alongside him shortly. Ashley Westwood – 6 – Started well and looked to be enjoying playing alongside Lansbury but faded somewhat as the game wore on and the opposition found him less of a barrier to their progress through the middle than they would have the injured Jedinak. Hit the ball just over on 32 minutes after Lansbury had played a terrific ball to find Adomah. Jack Grealish – 6 – Needs to try to impose himself more on games than he did yesterday and to remember as he had started to do up until yesterday that he has a role to play when the opposition have the ball as well as when we do. Given little protection from some rough treatment from opponents by a referee who appeared unconcerned that they were using this tactic to nullify his undoubted but too rarely seen talent. Hit a stoppage time cross behind Gabby when a late winner had for a fleeting moment looked possible. Might have won this one for us at times but didn’t quite produce the final touch to do so. Andre Green – 6 – Missed a good opportunity to open the scoring on 12 minutes when he headed Gabby’s cross wide when he really should have at least been on target. He clearly has potential and the ability to take on and beat defenders. He needs games and the increased confidence that a run of first team appearances should give him. Gabby Agbonlahor – 6 – Gabby’s starting place is now unlikely to come under any serious threat until Kodjia or Ayew or both return from international duty or we sign another striker. Gabby did well enough yesterday and worked very hard. It was asking a lot of him to play as a lone striker but he did win a couple of balls in the air and pressed defenders. He does not have the pace he once had and what goal threat that he once possessed has now almost entirely been extinguished but he will no doubt claim an assist for our opening goal. Grealish chipped a ball over a defender for Gabby to run onto inside the box but his attempt to chest the ball down only led to the ball bouncing out of his reach. He tried to get his foot to the ball as he collided with the keeper and the ball ran loose to be tapped home by the unmarked Adomah near the line for our first. The ball ended up in the side netting on 33 minutes when he looked to have an opportunity to add a second. His best display for us in a long, long time but that is not saying that much, is it? Substitutes: Leandro Bacuna – 6 – Replaced Henri on 72 minutes. Hit an 83rd minute shot from the edge of the box that Maxwell held easily enough. Gary Gardner – Replaced Amavi on 89 minutes. Not on long enough to merit a rating. Keinan Davis – Replaced Grealish on the 93rd minute and was also not on long enough to get any sort of rating. Perhaps he should have been given a chance earlier? Up the Villa! John Lewis

Villa v Preston Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=852604438 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- Name Result Points Score Points Total Points Chewie 6 9 15 TheAuthority 5 9 14 rubberman 5 6 11 Demitri_C 5 6 11 Rodders 5 6 11 Villaphan04 4 6 10 chappy 3 6 9 knoppy1987 4 3 7 Hornso 2 3 5 andykeenan 1 0 1 Daniel 1 0 1 For the leader board of GW24 results we see the magnificent Chewie top the table, with TheAuthority in second. rubberman, Dem_C, and Rodders all managed 11 points, with Villaphan04 the final person on double digits. Name Result Points Score Points Total Points rubberman 6 9 15 andykeenan 5 6 11 imavillan 3 6 9 chappy 6 3 9 Demitri_C 5 3 8 Chewie 3 3 6 Villaphan04 6 0 6 TheAuthority 3 3 6 knoppy1987 4 0 4 Rodders 1 0 1 For the leader board of GW25 results we see rubberman top the table, with andykeenan making up for an awful GW24 being the only other person on double digits. Name Points from Correct Results Points from Correct Scores Total Points GWs Played Avg Points per GW rubberman 119 108 227 24 9.5 Demitri_C 130 96 226 25 9.0 TheAuthority 120 99 218 24 9.1 andykeenan 136 81 217 25 8.7 Chewie 138 78 216 25 8.6 Daniel 127 84 211 24 8.8 Villaphan04 133 73 208 25 8.3 chappy 107 84 191 25 7.6 imavillan 97 84 181 22 8.2 Rodders 113 66 179 25 7.2 Czechlad 88 78 166 17 9.8 knoppy1987 94 69 163 19 8.6 Hornso 67 42 109 12 9.1 villianusa 32 18 50 7 7.1 kurtsimonw 27 18 45 5 9.0 Nigel 8 6 14 1 14.0 meme 6 3 9 1 9.0 villalad21 5 3 8 1 8.0 theboyangel 3 0 3 1 3.0 Richard 2 0 2 1 2.0 And would you Adam & Eve it? We go away for a nice Christmas break to reflect on the birthday of our Lord and Saviour and it's all bloody change! rubberman out of nowhere takes the top spot in the overall table. Dem_C stays in second with TheAuthority jumping into 3rd. andykeenan drops down 4th with Chewie in 5th, and Daniel's missed week costing him a drop down to 6th place. And it's tights lads, tighter than the virgin Mary's mary before Jesus popped out! The second half of the season is sure to be scintillating stuff. -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Reading 2 0 QPR Reading Leeds 2 1 Derby Leeds Bristol 1 1 Cardiff Draw Birmingham 1 0 Forest Birmingham Burton 2 1 Wigan Burton Fulham 3 1 Barnsley Fulham Ipswich 2 0 Blackburn Ipswich Preston 0 2 Brighton Brighton Rotherham 0 3 Norwich Norwich Wednesday 2 1 Huddersfield Wednesday Wolves 1 1 Villa Draw Brentford 0 3 Newcastle Newcastle Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. None placed during this busy period. -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl Games start Thursday, finish on Monday. -- Special Request -- Would any of you guys be willing to help me out with the Google Sheet? I need someone to go through and put in all the upcoming fixtures for the second half of the season. It'd just be one off data entry, and i'd continue to do the calculations each week and stuff, it's just listing out all the fixtures is taking up too much of my time. Anyone?

Wolves v Villa Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=820209386 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- I'll update in the next gameweek. -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Birmingham 1 0 Brentford Birmingham Blackburn 0 3 Newcastle Newcastle Bristol 2 1 Reading Bristol Burton 1 1 Preston Draw Cardiff 1 2 Villa Villa Fulham 2 2 Brighton Draw Leeds 2 0 Rotherham Leeds Norwich 3 2 Derby Norwich Forest 2 1 Barnsley Forest QPR 1 1 Ipswich Draw Wednesday 2 1 Wolves Wednesday Wigan 0 1 Huddersfield Huddersfield Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. None placed during this busy period. -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl Games start Monday 2nd Jan.

Tottenham v Villa Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

What time does it start? The draw should begin at around 19.10 this evening and could last a good 10 minutes with 64 balls to pull out. Which channel is it on? To watch it on television, you've got a choice of BBC Two (coverage begins at 19.00) or BT Sport 1 (same time) 1 AFC BOURNEMOUTH 2 ARSENAL 3 ASTON VILLA 4 BARNSLEY 5 BIRMINGHAM CITY 6 BLACKBURN ROVERS 7 BRENTFORD 8 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 9 BRISTOL CITY 10 BURNLEY 11 BURTON ALBION 12 CARDIFF CITY 13 CHELSEA 14 CRYSTAL PALACE 15 DERBY COUNTY 16 EVERTON 17 FULHAM 18 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 19 HULL CITY 20 IPSWICH TOWN 21 LEEDS UNITED 22 LEICESTER CITY 23 LIVERPOOL 24 MANCHESTER CITY 25 MANCHESTER UNITED 26 MIDDLESBROUGH 27 NEWCASTLE UNITED 28 NORWICH CITY 29 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 30 PRESTON NORTH END 31 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 32 READING 33 ROTHERHAM UNITED 34 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 35 SOUTHAMPTON 36 STOKE CITY 37 SUNDERLAND 38 SWANSEA CITY 39 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 40 WATFORD 41 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 42 WEST HAM UNITED 43 WIGAN ATHLETIC 44 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 45 AFC WIMBLEDON 46 WYCOMBE WANDERERS 47 MILLWALL 48 MACCLESFIELD TOWN OR OXFORD UNITED 49 BOLTON WANDERERS 50 BLACKPOOL 51 STOURBRIDGE OR NORTHAMPTON TOWN 52 NOTTS COUNTY OR PETERBOROUGH UNITED 53 CAMBRIDGE UNITED 54 PORT VALE 55 BARROW 56 ACCRINGTON STANLEY 57 LINCOLN CITY OR OLDHAM ATHLETIC 58 LUTON TOWN 59 SUTTON UNITED 60 EASTLEIGH OR FC HALIFAX TOWN 61 SHREWSBURY TOWN OR FLEETWOOD TOWN 62 CHARLTON ATHLETIC OR MILTON KEYNES DONS 63 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE OR NEWPORT COUNTY 64 ROCHDALE http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/12/05/fa-cup-draw-live-manchester-united-arsenal-liverpool-await/

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

Cardiff v Villa Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

This poll will be open for the first week of the month.

Our 5-game winning home run came to an end last night but we remain the only team in our division not to be beaten at home. We can thank the linesman who pointed out the hand ball from Liam Cooper that referee Roger East had missed or ignored in much the same way as had the Leeds defence and their manager for that. But justice was done when we scored our now familiar late goal to take a point. We refreshingly started this game by pressing our visitors during the opening minutes. We shaded the first half but Leeds then bossed the second half. The first goal always looked as though it might be crucial and it was our visitors that claimed on the 54th minute only to be pegged back by a late equalizer. We needed a better performance than this one against a Leeds side that are currently on a terrific run but we failed to produce it. What we did show was resilience and the ability to get something from a game in the last few minutes of it. Leeds will claim with some justification that they were worth a win. They had looked likely to get it for most of the game but it was Villa that ended up the more likely side to find a late winner. My player ratings from a game we needed to win but could not afford to lose are: Mark Bunn – 5 – I have always felt that he has an error in him waiting to come out and so it proved in the 54th minute when Jansson was left unmarked and unchallenged to put Leeds ahead. Bunn with Roofe’s outstretched leg nearby allowed the header to squirm through his hands and over the goal line. Was relieved to see the scorer’s shot rattle against the bar a couple of minutes later after a Chester header had fallen to him unmarked inside of the box. Did well to come out and block Sacko’s effort with his legs on the 77th minute. Alan Hutton – 6 – Alan was steady at the back but he was the closest player to Jansson when he scored their goal without being challenged. Likes a cross as much as Count Dracula does. James Chester - 7 – Headed a nice ball into the box from Amavi just wide of the post in the 32nd minute. Nathan Baker – 7 – Another solid display. Jordan Amavi – 5 – Was fortunate not to pay a heavy price when he lost possession inside the box when trying to let the ball go out for a goal kick on the 40th minute. Was also relieved to see Sacko’s 88th minute shot hit the bar after losing possession and being brushed aside by the striker who was a constant thorn in his side. Jordan Ayew – 4 – Hit a shot wide on the 74th minute. Had a couple of fleeting moments but this was a noticeable drop on the performance he gave and the energy he produced when appearing as a substitute in our last game. Ashley Westwood - 6 – Had a decent game particularly in the first half. Mile Jedinak – 6 – A solid enough midfield performance and won more than his fair share of headers. Tired prior to his substitution and hit his usual share of stray passes. Leandro Bacuna – 5 – Did not reach anything near the level he produced in his last outing. Jack Grealish – 6 – Substituted on 49 minutes having been unable to run off a first half knock. Leeds became increasingly dominant in his absence. Jonathan Kodjia – 7 – MOTM - Took the ball off Phillips in the middle of their half and then beat the same player before hitting a 30-yard shot that took a deflection off a defender before Green parried the ball away to his left. Three minutes earlier he was found on the edge of the box by a poor attempted pass from Phillips but Jansson did well to get across to block his effort that deflected wide of the post. Got in a cross in first half stoppage time that was too firm for anyone to get on the end of after some good work on the edge of the box. Had a 67th minute shot pushed away by Green. He was as cool as a cucumber on the 86th minute when he sent Green the wrong way from the spot for our equalizer and the ball thudded into the right-hand corner of the net. He might have gone on to win it for us in the 91st minute when the ball ran to him on the edge of the box after an aerial challenge between Gestede and a defender but his shot deflected off Green’s shoulder to safety. Jonathan might have considered the alternative of playing the ball to the unmarked McCormack who was in a great position to tap it in on his left. Will be much missed during his coming absence on international duty. Substitutes: Ross McCormack – 6 – Replaced Jack on 49 minutes. Played his part in the build up to our penalty award. Rudy Gestede – 5 - Replaced Jedinak on 78 minutes in what may prove his last appearance for us. It was his head that Cooper decided to push the ball away from with his hand to concede a late penalty after McCormack had played the ball over his head for both players to challenge for. Albert Adomah – 7 - Replaced Ayew on the 78th minute and gave us pace and a threat down the flank that we had been previously missing. Up the Villa & A Happy Promotion New Year to all readers! John Lewis

Villa v Leeds Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=208667537 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- Name Result Points Score Points Total Points TheAuthority 8 9 17 Czechlad 8 6 14 Daniel 8 6 14 Demitri_C 8 6 14 andykeenan 8 6 14 chappy 7 6 13 Chewie 7 3 10 Hornso 7 3 10 knoppy1987 7 3 10 rubberman 6 3 9 imavillan 4 3 7 Villaphan04 7 0 7 Rodders 4 0 4 A lovely week for TheAuthority, but really everyone has done pretty decently apart from imavillan (i owed him a mention ) amongst others Name Points from Correct Results Points from Correct Scores Total Points GWs Played Avg Points per GW Daniel 126 84 210 23 9.1 Demitri_C 120 87 207 23 9.0 andykeenan 130 75 205 23 8.9 rubberman 108 93 201 22 9.1 TheAuthority 112 87 198 22 9.0 Chewie 129 66 195 23 8.5 Villaphan04 123 67 192 23 8.3 chappy 98 75 173 23 7.5 imavillan 94 78 172 21 8.2 Rodders 107 60 167 23 7.3 Czechlad 88 78 166 17 9.8 knoppy1987 86 66 152 17 8.9 Hornso 65 39 104 11 9.5 villianusa 32 18 50 7 7.1 kurtsimonw 27 18 45 5 9.0 Nigel 8 6 14 1 14.0 meme 6 3 9 1 9.0 villalad21 5 3 8 1 8.0 theboyangel 3 0 3 1 3.0 Richard 2 0 2 1 2.0 Not too many changes in the overall table. -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Villa 1 1 Leeds Draw Rotherham 0 1 Burton Burton Brighton 3 0 Cardiff Brighton Ipswch 2 1 Bristol Ipswch Newcastle 3 1 Forest Newcastle Reading 1 1 Fulham Draw Huddersfield 2 0 Blackburn Huddersfield Barnsley 2 1 Birmingham Barnsley Derby 2 0 Wigan Derby Preston 2 3 Wednesday Wednesday Wolves 0 3 QPR QPR Brentford 2 2 Norwich Draw Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. None placed during this busy period. -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl Games start tomorrow (Thursday) with GW 25 starting on Monday

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=596238909 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- Name Result Points Score Points Total Points Villaphan04 8 6 14 imavillan 6 6 12 chappy 9 3 12 rubberman 8 3 11 Rodders 4 6 10 Chewie 6 3 9 meme 6 3 9 TheAuthority 6 3 9 Daniel 5 3 8 Hornso 5 3 8 andykeenan 7 0 7 Demitri_C 5 0 5 knoppy1987 4 0 4 Name Points from Correct Results Points from Correct Scores Total Points GWs Played Avg Points per GW Daniel 118 78 196 22 8.9 Demitri_C 112 81 193 22 8.8 rubberman 102 90 192 21 9.1 andykeenan 122 69 191 22 8.7 Chewie 122 63 185 22 8.4 Villaphan04 116 67 185 22 8.4 TheAuthority 104 78 181 21 8.6 imavillan 90 75 165 20 8.3 Rodders 103 60 163 22 7.4 chappy 91 69 160 22 7.3 Czechlad 80 72 152 16 9.5 knoppy1987 79 63 142 16 8.9 Hornso 58 36 94 10 9.4 villianusa 32 18 50 7 7.1 kurtsimonw 27 18 45 5 9.0 Nigel 8 6 14 1 14.0 meme 6 3 9 1 9.0 villalad21 5 3 8 1 8.0 theboyangel 3 0 3 1 3.0 Richard 2 0 2 1 2.0 -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Brentford 1 1 Cardiff Draw Villa 2 1 Burton Villa Barnsley 1 0 Blackburn Barnsley Huddersfield 0 3 Forest Forest Ipswich 0 1 Fulham Fulham Preston 1 2 Leeds Leeds Reading 1 1 Norwich Draw Rotherham 0 2 Wigan Wigan Wolves 2 2 Bristol Draw Newcastle 3 1 Wednesday Newcastle Brighton 2 0 QPR Brighton Derby 2 1 Birmingham Derby Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. Bets lost -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl The fixtures go crazy again next week, i will post up GW 24 on Weds 28th which is the night before the fixtures start on Thursday.

This was our first Boxing Day win since 2005 and the first time we have won 5 successive home league games since season 1992-93 when we won 7 on the trot and Villa Park was a fortress, as it now threatens to become again. Burton arrived for the first ever game between the two teams to face an all but full Villa Park. We opened the scoring after 15 minutes but instead of pressing for a decisive second goal we then surrendered too much space in the midfield to our visitors. Burton came increasingly into the game and scored a spectacular equalizer 16 minutes after we had gone ahead. For much of the rest of the game they had looked the more likely of the two sides to get a winner and they were perhaps unlucky to leave Villa Park with nothing to show for their efforts. But our first two substitutions made a real impact on this game and rather than concede as the end of a game neared we continued with our new-found habit of clinching a late winner. This was not the sort of game that will have the extra visitors to Villa Park wanting to rush back to see more of the same but it again demonstrated that under Steve Bruce we have found the happy habit of winning games when we are below par. That gets teams promoted but we may need more than that later this week to win a sixth successive home game against high flying Leeds United. We owe them one after our recent defeat at Elland Road and we need to cut the gap between us and them sooner rather than later. My player ratings from a Boxing Day game that 41,337 fans attended and which took us above the club that dwell on the dark side of the city are: Mark Bunn – 7 – Reacted very well to get a hand to a Brayford header in the fourth minute of stoppage time having got down low to save a shot from the edge of the box from the same player on 25 minutes. Had no chance with Ward’s 31st minute equalizer from a Brayford cross but although the finish was sublime he was allowed too much space with both Hutton and Gardner staying static some way off him. Mark was relieved to see Dyer’s shot hit the post on 73 minutes when beaten. Made decent saves from Ward on 35 minutes and from O’Grady on 77 minutes. Alan Hutton – 5 – Not the easiest of afternoons for Alan and he found some difficulty in coping with Dyer at times. James Chester - 6 – Solid when he needed to be. Nathan Baker – 7 – A rock in our defence who did the simple things right without any unnecessary frills. Jordan Amavi – 6 – Seemed to have his mind elsewhere early on but got more into the game as it wore on. Albert Adomah – 6 – Hit the ball harmlessly over on 62 minutes after a Bacuna cross had fallen to him after Kodjia had failed to connect with it. Gary Gardner - 5 – Substituted at half time having picked up a knock on 43 minutes. Mile Jedinak – 6 – Solid as a barrier in front of our defence which is what he is there for but he cannot be expected to do the whole of our midfield’s job on his own. Leandro Bacuna – 7 – MOTM - A good hard working all round display if still a little bit below the Champions League standard that he set for himself last year! Scored our opener on 15 minutes. He started and finished the move playing the ball out wide to Adomah who hit an inviting cross into the box which Leo headed home powerfully having run on into the box. Hit an effort just wide of the post 4 minutes earlier after the keeper had pushed out a Hutton cross to him inside of the box and McCormack had not got a touch to help the ball in as it sailed past him. Ross McCormack – 6 – Hit our late winner on 78 minutes. Adomah fed Ayew on the right who hit a nice low cross that evaded both McLaughlin and Brayford before Ross controlled the ball at the far post with his left foot and hit it home with his right. I hope he will take confidence from this goal as we will need him to have his shooting boots on next month. Jonathan Kodjia – 5 – Hit a fierce shot from the left on the 80th minute that was off target. Some way off his excellent penetrative best yesterday. Substitutes: Jack Grealish – 7 – Replaced Gardner at half time and brought us some needed creativity. Played a one-two with McCormack before jinking into the box and hitting the ball with his left foot which deflected off McLaughlin into the path of Kodjia who tapped the ball in on the 52nd minute only to be adjudged to have been offside. Jordan Ayew – 7 - Replaced Jedinak on 75 minutes and looked keen to make a positive impression in the short time that he had available to do so. Claimed an assist with the low cross that produced our winner and proved a significant threat to Burton following his introduction. An impressive few minutes and a marked improvement on what he had produced in recent games that he has started. Gabriel Agbonlahor – Replaced Kodjia on the 86th minute and showed some energy by chasing down opponents but was not on long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa & A Happy Promotion New Year to all readers! John Lewis

Villa v Burton Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=595284059 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- Name Result Points Score Points Total Points Czechlad 7 12 19 rubberman 8 9 17 Demitri_C 9 6 15 Daniel 7 6 13 Chewie 8 3 11 imavillan 5 6 11 Villaphan04 8 3 11 Hornso 7 3 10 Rodders 7 3 10 knoppy1987 5 3 8 chappy 4 3 7 andykeenan 6 0 6 TheAuthority 6 0 6 Well a high scoring week across the board with Czechlad swinging his big Czech dick around and grabbing 19 points. rubberman (who doesn't know what he is doing) gets 17 points, and a whole host of us reach double digits. andykeenan & TheAuthority prop everyone up at the foot of the GW table. Name Points from Correct Results Points from Correct Scores Total Points GWs Played Avg Points per GW Daniel 113 75 188 21 9.0 Demitri_C 107 81 188 21 9.0 andykeenan 115 69 184 21 8.8 rubberman 94 87 181 20 9.1 Chewie 116 60 176 21 8.4 TheAuthority 98 75 172 20 8.6 Villaphan04 108 61 171 21 8.1 imavillan 84 69 153 19 8.1 Rodders 99 54 153 21 7.3 Czechlad 80 72 152 16 9.5 chappy 82 66 148 21 7.0 knoppy1987 75 63 138 15 9.2 Hornso 53 33 86 9 9.6 villianusa 32 18 50 7 7.1 kurtsimonw 27 18 45 5 9.0 Nigel 8 6 14 1 14.0 villalad21 5 3 8 1 8.0 theboyangel 3 0 3 1 3.0 Richard 2 0 2 1 2.0 With that, Daniel jumps into first, Dem_C's nose starts bleeding at the dizzy heights of second, and andykeenan drops down to third. rubberman heads up into fourth with TheAuthority dropping down to sixth. -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Norwich 3 0 Huddersfield Norwich Blackburn 1 1 Reading Draw Bristol 2 0 Preston Bristol Burton 0 4 Newcastle Newcastle Cardiff 2 1 Barnsley Cardiff Fulham 1 1 Derby Draw Leeds 2 0 Brentford Leeds Forest 2 2 Wolves Draw Wednesday 3 0 Rotherham Wednesday Wigan 1 0 Ipswich Wigan Birmingham 1 2 Brighton Brighton QPR 0 2 Villa Villa Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. Forgot to bet last GW -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl First game tomorrow through Sunday. I'll post GW 23's thread up on Tuesday night ready for boxing day's fixtures on Monday 26th.

QPR v Villa Please do not mention streams in this thread. Please note that there is no distinction between legal or illegal, video or audio. If you aren't sure, it doesn't go in this thread. You will receive warning points if you ignore this.

Welcome to the Championship 2016/17 VT prediction league, you can join in at any time during the tournament but please make sure you follow the instructions carefully. However, if you are just thinking about just playing for a single week, or are going to lose interest after a couple of weeks, then do us all a time saving favour and don't bother playing. -- Making a Prediction -- Head on over to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJHBdYRs_tzHsVDF1lpSoNIvr6E0nthT6nE47V_UQ44/edit#gid=595284059 Make sure you are selecting the right sheet for the Gameweek (inactive sheets will be fully locked) Find the first 'blank' entry with all scores set as '0-0' and 'ENTER YOUR NAME HERE' as the name Green Cells are for you to enter stuff into, all other cells are not! Fill in your predicted scores for each game When entering your name, make sure it is EXACTLY the same as your VT name and that it doesn't have any erroneous spaces and is CaSe SeNsEtIvE Incorrectly entered names, even if it is just a space at the start or a capital letter, will result in tracking errors throughout the tournament Once your prediction is complete, copy the cells within the dotted line and post them into this VT thread If you do not post the results correctly into this thread then your prediction will be ignored Thread banter is encouraged, but please post banter before your pasted predictions. Gameweek already started? No problem you can still play, just put the score for the games you have missed as N-A, e.g Fulham N-A Villa -- When will prediction threads be posted up? -- Generally I will try and post threads on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but this may slip at times. Just keep an eye on the forum and it'll be there before the games start. Gameweek matches will follow those as laid out on the BBC Championship fixtures page, let me know if I miss something due to a game being moved or postponed etc. -- Previous Gameweek Results -- Name Result Points Score Points Total Points knoppy1987 7 9 16 Nigel 8 6 14 Demitri_C 7 6 13 Rodders 6 6 12 Villaphan04 5 3 8 imavillan 5 3 8 Chewie 4 3 7 Daniel 7 0 7 Hornso 7 0 7 andykeenan 6 0 6 chappy 6 0 6 TheAuthority 3 0 3 rubberman 2 0 2 Czechlad 1 0 1 knoppy1987 once again comes out in first place with a very decent 16 points, new-comer Nigel makes a statement of intent with 14 points in his first week. Dem_C and Rodders (who'd of thunk?) are the only others with double digits. Name Points from Correct Results Points from Correct Scores Total Points GWs Played Avg Points per GW andykeenan 109 69 178 20 8.9 Daniel 106 69 175 20 8.8 Demitri_C 98 75 173 20 8.7 TheAuthority 92 75 166 19 8.7 Chewie 108 57 165 20 8.3 rubberman 86 78 164 19 8.6 Villaphan04 100 58 160 20 8.0 Rodders 92 51 143 20 7.2 imavillan 79 63 142 18 7.9 chappy 78 63 141 20 7.1 Czechlad 73 60 133 15 8.9 knoppy1987 70 60 130 14 9.3 Hornso 46 30 76 8 9.5 villianusa 32 18 50 7 7.1 kurtsimonw 27 18 45 5 9.0 Nigel 8 6 14 1 14.0 villalad21 5 3 8 1 8.0 theboyangel 3 0 3 1 3.0 Richard 2 0 2 1 2.0 Dem_C jumps into third and is now only 2 points behind Daniel, who is in turn slowly catching back up with andykeenan. The rest looks about the same, probably. -- My (Chewie's) Prediction for this Gameweek -- Name Home Team Away Team Guess Birmingham 2 0 Ipswich Birmingham Blackburn 0 3 Brighton Brighton Bristol 2 1 Brentford Bristol Burton 1 1 Huddersfield Draw Cardiff 1 0 Wolves Cardiff Fulham 3 0 Rotherham Fulham Leeds 2 0 Reading Leeds Norwich 2 1 Villa Norwich Wednesday 3 2 Barsnley Wednesday Forest 3 0 Preston Forest QPR 2 2 Derby Draw Wigan 1 4 Newcastle Newcastle Chewie When pasting your prediction table you might want to hit enter a couple of times before you post your prediction in. The editor makes life difficult to create a new line after you paste the table in if you haven't 'entered' a couple of times first. -- Bets -- In each Gameweek I will aim to select two predictions of my choosing, one for correct results and one for Both Teams to score (Yes/No). I shall then place a £1 accumulator on each of those bets, should they win I will give the predictor 20% of the winnings to be paid via Paypal. Forgot to bet last GW -- Good Luck -- Good luck to everyone for the week, and please don't be a bitch and mess with other people's predictions in the Google Sheet, there's a good girl Championship fixtures go full retard this week, games are Tuesday & Wednesday. GW 22 thread will be up Thursday with those games starting on Friday through Sunday.

Your ratings and reactions please. Keep it respectful even if you know everyone else is wrong. The players' names will be added to the poll when a mod gets chance.