[Chimer]

Apologies for the break in service - family issues. Happy New Year .

This update covers four games, from Rotherham through to Aldershot - not the happiest part of my holiday period, with one glorious exception .

Very even prediction split for the Millers game – 11 for us, 10 for the draw, 12 (correctly) for them, of whom Valairian (inevitably) and Yerself took the full 5 points. A few other bonus points around, mostly for Craig’s first half equaliser. So after this one, everything was suddenly spread out at the top of the prediction league, with Val 4 points clear of Ossy Kid and NigeB a further 5 behind in 3rd. Enough said about that one I think ……

Turning to happier days, the snake factor made more of us follow heart instead of head on New Year’s Day – 20 cockeyed optimists compared with 6 drawmongers and 11 realists – and isn’t it nice when optimism is rewarded ! The least optimistic optimists were Mike A and Stanleyhouse, picking up max 5s, with extra single bonuses for me and Accybeme for backing our clean sheet (thank you Mr Belford). Lots of BPs for those predicting a single Stanley goal in a defeat or a draw.

None of our top 3 were feeling optimistic, but Ossy Kid and Nige B each got a BP whilst Val didn’t, so closed up on him. Quite a bit of shuffling around in the Top 20 though.

So of course that made us even more cockeyed for the Dagger in our hearts – 33 for us, just 1 (guess who ?) for them and 4 for the draw. Half a dozen people, including Val, got their 2 right, but nobody predicted we’d be firing blanks all afternoon. 4 for Val, 1 for a few, lead restored and then some, confidence shattered for the Shots game?

Well not really – tempered maybe, 18 for us, 11 for the draw and 9 for them. Of the Top Ten, only Nige B joined Val in the camp of reverse psychology, realism and pointscoring, pushing himself up to just a point behind Ossy Kid, but now 12 behind Val . Norwich Stanley was the other big mover, up from 12th to 5th equal. Top 50 table attached in 100 meg chunks …….

No Wombles game now, which might just have given us scope to get our confidence back. We don’t half need a successful trip to the Devon Riviera next Saturday.

On Stanley On!!