Paullow

I wasn't going to go again, but I see Prudhoe's home match was postponed today due to power failure. It was called off around 5 hours before kick off. Some interesting results in Division 1 Redcar Ath continue to stumble, crazy contrast in form from earlier in the year, and they were very well backed on the northern league forum during the pre season predictions thread, so I wonder if they've lost any players / investment or something. Neither Shildon nor Blyth were playing today, Boro R lost (to Kendal), Newcastle BS won at North Shields who have now lost back to back home matches against promotion / play off rivals in quick succession.

It's definitely much more relaxed now. We play on the 26th, 30th and 4th, whereas back in the day it was common to play the Thursday and then 2 days later on the Saturday. In 2004/05 we had 4 PL matches in 8 days, including a Thursday-Saturday turnaround on NYD and the following Saturday:

After beating Man City (which looked much better at the time) and then winning at Bournemouth, Brighton have only collected 4 points from the following: Southampton H Fulham A Leicester A Palace H West Ham A Brentford H They'd probably be looking at 11-12 points from those, maybe even 13 after those 2 great wins.

The last 10-15 mins of Brighton vs Brentford has been class.

Leeds 2-0, just after Stoke missed a good chance to level. It's very refreshing to watch knowing that unless a goal has been disallowed within 2 or 3 seconds then it's going to stand.

They've only lost 3 times in half a season and are averaging almost 2 points per game. I'm more concentrating on 2 of Leeds, Sheff U and Burnley finishing top 2, and then the one who misses out and maybe Boro, if they hit a bit of form stopping them in the playoffs. There's only one bookie with live top 6 odds since the Leeds match is on going (and are 1-0 up) and Sunderland are 1/8 with BetVictor to finish in the top 6, so it's looking almost nailed on they'll at least make those, but hopefully there's some strong sides in there with them.

Switching to Stoke vs Leeds.

The odds have naturally been a lot closer since the takeover, but not sure I've seen Newcastle betting favourites to win at Old Trafford.

I know it's all about ratings, but a shame that they have put Liverpool and Arsenal at home to promoted sides in the bottom 3 in standalone spots. You never want to see a team 33/1 in a one off Premier League games. Would have much rather this was at 3pm and then one of the Newcastle, Forest or Chelsea matches been on when there was nothing else on.

Misses our match

Gateshead 4 Hartlepool 3 Darlington 4 Scarborough 3 Spennymoor 1 South Shields 1 Blyth 3 Whitby 4 (was 0-3 last time I saw, so was thinking this could have been 0-5/6) Stockton 1 Hebburn 1 Workington 2 Morpeth 2 Bishop Auckland 3 Consett 1 Dunston 2 Newton Aycliffe 1 Heaton 1 Ashington 3 For the Stan lads on here, has anything obvious changed since the start of the season, or just starting to find it tough? I think in their first 11 league games they W4 D3 L4 so around 15 points (if that's what they did), but in their last 12 games they have only W1 D2, so just 5 points. They could have just had harder fixtures, or momentum gone from promotion or something, but that's a hell of a contrast from one period to the next. Bishop Auckland, who were also promoted from the Northern League last season, have kind of done the exact opposite. They started the season with just 6 points from their first 10 matches (W1 D3 L6), but since then have taken 24 from their last 11 matches (7W 3D 1L).

I went to Prudhoe vs Ryton earlier. Ryton won 1-0 and deserved to win. Hell of a slope at Essity Park, 10x more obvious than SJP. Ryton scored when shooting up hill, and then went down to 10 men with about 25 mins to go, but Prudhoe never looked like scoring and they eventually had a man off themselves in injury time. 286 there apparently, but Ryton brought a lot with them and certainly around me outnumbered the home support. I was thinking Ryton's number 5 looked half decent - he looked older than 30, but was quite comfortable at the back and organised well (he was their captain), and I looked him up when I got home and he came through Wallsend Boys and signed with Burnley when he was 17 12 years ago, but had some sort of condition which has obviously hindered him. Quotes from wor Eddie there: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/349979/Burnley-s-Jack-Errington-needs-heart-surgery

If we let this slip after all these chances. Just need a second yellow to Joe or Tripper and it will still be edgy at 2-0.

I think I might actually go to Prudhoe vs Ryton/Crawcrook on Boxing Day. My nephew was a mascot during the same match last season, which was an evening. I didn't go to that, but I think there were over 400 there. 10.30am is quite appealing, can go and then get on with the rest of my day. I was surprised to see there is only 2 and a half miles between the 2 grounds. They are adjacent in the table and in playoff contention, which makes it more appealing.

Quite surprised, thought there would be an issue with the dew or something, plus no lie ins . Mind just seen your Prudhoe's derby with Ryton is kicking off at 10.30am on Boxing Day.

There's loads of local fixtures in tiers 6, 7, and 8 over the coming days. 3pm unless stated. NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH (tier 6) Boxing Day Darlington vs Scarborough Spennymoor vs South Shields NYD Scarborough vs Spennymoor South Shields vs Darlington NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE - PREMIER (tier 7) Boxing Day Stockton vs Hebburn 1pm Blyth vs Whitby NYD Morpeth vs Blyth 1pm Hebburn vs Workington (Workington are at home to Morpeth on Boxing Day, but a bit of a stretch including that). Whitby vs Stockton NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE - EAST (tier 8) Boxing Day Heaton vs Ashington - 11am apparently - that can't be right, surely? Dunston vs Newton Aylciffe 1pm Bishop Auckland vs Consett Monday 30th December Ashington vs Dunston - 7.45pm Newton Aycliffe vs Bishop Auckland - 7.45pm New Years Day Consett vs Heaton Saturday 4th January Bishop Auckland vs Ashington

Looking grim for Blyth Spartan, lost 3-1 away at Hebburn in front of 660. 11 points off safety and unless there's significant changes somewhere, pretty much nailed on for a second successive. relegation Heaton continuing to struggle in tier 8, but a great win for Ashington. With 4 going down this season, it will probably be hard for both of them to stay up. Consett moving in the right direction. Not sure what's going on at Redcar Athletic in tier 9. They were well fancied and absolutely flying at the start of the season, but they've lost 4 of their last 5 league matches, as well as 2 recent cup exits, and suddenly that league is looking tight. Could still get a Blyth derby in tier 8 next season, but Blyth Town were battered 0-5 at home to Shildon today, and Blyth are also not in great form with only 5 points from their last 6.

They still managed to get 23 points from their final 23 games last season, so even if they had another mega marra mackem meltdown they would still probably just about sneak into them, but here's hoping.

Extremely likely they will get at least a playoff spot now. It's usually around 70 points for 6th place, so they'll only really need to average not much more than a point per game in their final 24 matches to get there, but at least there's a few other sides doing well, and if they did finish 3rd to 6th then more chance than not they wouldn't come up.

Up the Cumbrians though.

Good start to this Palace Arsenal game. 1-1, no idea what result I'd prefer