SCALEY SAYS: WEEK 24

  .......We didn't have the run of the mill....."

Glenn Hoddle England Manager.

I'M COMING YOUR WAY SWEDEN!

"

Pete The Trophy Man

EIGHT DAYS TO GO and it will be prisutdelning time. Tomorrow I am going over to get the trophies from Pete in leighton Buzzard who is a thoroughly good bloke and operates his business from his workshop at the back of his house. Pete was thew man who supplied our trophies last year too and he was amazed to hear the astory of Swengland. I don't think he had heard anything like it!

I'm looking forward to next week and a few beers. I am staying at Hotel Örgryte in Danska Vägen as usual and if any one wants to meet me at The Ölkompaniet at Redbergsplatsen between Wednesday and Saturday, just give me a message on WhatsApp or Messenger.

So what's happening in Swengland? Well It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote something on these pages and before this week my Bongo Furies were doing pretty well, but typically, this week are NOT Team Of The Week alongside Keith Lee's Glory Glory. Let's have a look at this week's Honour Board:

HONOUR BOARD WEEK 24

Good to see me old mate Andy as Manager Of The Week. He used to be a regular and usually pissed visitor to Sweden but tells me his visits are over as he can't stand the hustle and bustle, stress and fucking about at airports any more , which is a pity, he was always good company.

Team of the moment has to be Dave Lloyd's COYS. Dave, a previous Champ, is on a good run of form and is still in the Bror Lefin.

ALLSWENGLAND TOP 11

Mr. Lloyd is handily placed for an assault on the topspot, a mere two points behind Don John Williams, but trailed by equally capable assassins, Ton and Jamie.

IN THE REAL WORLD things go from bad to worse for Luton town. Although they had brought a few new players in during the transfer window, a one nil reverse at home to the dreaded, Millwall followed by a one hour draw at Sheffield Wednesday was not enough to pull them out of the relegation zone. Matters went from in the relegation zone to bottom of the table last night when they lost at promotion, hopefuls Sunderland. I didn't see the game, but by all accounts it was another abject performance. They have a new manager now and to me he looks a little bit like the one they got rid of Rob Edwards. I don't know why they didn't bring in somebody who could've got them out of trouble, someone with championship pedigree who has managed both Championship teams and in the Premiership. There are quite a few of those out of work!

BOTTOM OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP

At home on Saturday to Sheffield United is another tough match, followed by another home game on Wednesday against Plymouth Argyle who are full of the joys of spring after having dumped Liverpool out of the FA Cup.

THE SAINTS whose future also looks fairly bleak have been on an unbeaten six match run at the bottom of the Nationwide South. The trouble with that is the five of those games were draws, yielding only five points from a possible 15. Add 10 to the total they do have in the league below and you can see it would've been a much happier place, especially as their last game was a one nil win. That of course, yielded another three points, so add 13 on and see what happens:

NATIONWIDE SOUTH BOTTOM

A couple of those games they drew were also against teams, just above them, for example, Welling United and Salisbury! I can't see that they're gonna get out of this. They are a significant number of points behind and they need to start winning quite obviously.

I thought I'd cheer myself up by having a look on a weekly basis at how Barton Rovers are doing. As many of you know they play just for miles or 8 km down the road from me in the next village, although I don't really consider it to be a village it's halfway between the town and the village, nevertheless they are having a good season and although it's hard to see any one apart from real Bedford, getting the automatic promotion spot, with their millions of Cryptocurrency pounds behind them, and a determination from their owners to get to the Premier League in the next 10 years! Barton are a really good club with a decent little ground and a really good clubhouse with some good beer and very welcoming and friendly supporters. They are three leagues below St Albans city, but nevertheless the football is really enjoyable.. Here is the league table:

SOUTHERN LEAGUE CENTRAL ONE

THE F. A. CUP TRAIL

Here we go again with the ever popular FA Cup Trail. Let's see who wins the cup this year and if swengland can follow them all the way from the preliminary round to the final and victory! Here is how it works, I've chosen my local team Barton Rovers as the team to follow from the extra preliminary round qualifying all the way through to the final. As they get knocked out we follow the team that knocked them out and so on, until we end up at Wembley in May with our very own team.

At the moment we have won three 2019-20 Arsenal, 2020-21 Leicester and 22-23 Man City  and lost three 2018-19 Watford, 2021-22 Chelsea, 23-24 Man City

THE STORY SO FAR:

THE F.A. CUP TRAIL 2024-25

Forest were only able to get past Exeter due to a penalty shootout. With Only the two Manchester clubs left in the competition from 'The Big Boys' (Although I am sure Newcastle, United and Aston Villa have something to say about that). Many people think Nottingham Forest are serious contenders this year.