UK Football Weekly – The Gurgler’s Own Goal

Another bumper week of football with a full round of midweek games to go with a weekend full of them.

And, we’re just pitting distance from the next round of games, pardon the pun.

Who won’t be part of the next few games will be Jonny Evans and Papiss Cisse who are up for seven to eight week bans for their feud. Spitting is a pretty ordinary crime, but is the length of the ban too much, and if you’re going to get done for a long time, why not go out in style like this lower division player.

[vsw id=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fBOwNa62hA” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

This weekend sees the EPL take another FA Cup induced break, except for losers Spurs and QPR, who face off in the only top flight fixtures for the weekend.

Talking of the FA Cup, we’re getting into the territory of semi finals and an appearance at Wembley. For regular achievers still left in the comp Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal it will be a chance to add a trophy as a back up for missing out on the Top Four. For the range of traditional EPL FA Cup under achievers like WBA and Aston Villa it will be a rare taste, unlike the fixtures which was only played on Tuesday night UK Time.

Surprisingly out of the team left outside the big teams, it is third division Bradford City who were last at Wembley after making the League Cup final a few years ago. On their way to the final they beat Arsenal and Aston Villa, a feat if achieved this time will land them the big trophy, and their long awaiting viewing live on BBC.

Further down in the Championship, the title race is as close as ever as leader Middlesbrough only have 6 points from them to seventh, and all the top 7 have lost at least one game of their last three. Unfortunately as an Ipswich Town fan this means the Tractor Boys are now 7th when a top two looked likely. They must have realised they were on track to over achieve.

At the bottom, Blackpool are getting close to being the first top four division team to be relegated, a feat that has looked and probably has been odds-on for the year since they couldn’t go on pre-season tours as they had no players.

A team who looks on track to replace the Tangerines are Bristol City who have skipped away at the right time of the year. 10 points is as big a gap anywhere in UK or even non Bundesliga European Football, and it should be a formality. Not to be outdone, their cross town rivals Bristol Rovers look to be spending only one year in the Vanarama Conference. It will mean being still 2 divisions behind, but League Two is better than the graveyard of non league football.

In the fourth tier of League Two, just one point separates the top three, and zero the next three. There is a gap of 5 between the dup of trios, but not too big a gap at this time of year. Happily for all, four teams got up and down between divisions 3 and 4.

That’s more than enough Football than anyone could ever want from a website this poor, so we’ll get on with the tips and stuff.

SAT 12:45 UK
FA CUP – BRADFORD v READING
MON 7:45PM
FA CUP – MAN UTD v ARSENAL

SAT 3:00PM UK
CHAMP – IPSWICH v BRENTFORD
CHAMP – MIDDLESBROUGH v NOTTS FOREST.

SAT 3:00PM UK
L1 – MILTON KEYNES v PRESTON

SAT 3:00PM UK
L2 – SOUTHEND v WYCOMBE

And, now for the full set of fixtures

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[soccer-info id=’20’ type=’fixtures’ style=’green_light’ title=’CHAMP FIXTURES’ limit=’12’ /]

[soccer-info id=’21’ type=’fixtures’ title=’L1 FIXTURES’ limit=’12’ /]

[soccer-info id=’22’ type=’fixtures’ title=’L1 FIXTURES’ limit=’12’ /]

Fans or fan of this weekly blab were rewarded last week if care was taken reading last week’s tips. A 100-1 League One multi saluted, giving riches galore for all those many people. Can we do it again this week? Probably not, won’t stop us though.