FA CUP 2018-19 FIFTH ROUND DRAW MONDAY 28th JANUARY [ONE SHOW BBC 1 7:00pm]

This Monday night it will be time for the draw to be made for the 5th Round of this seasons FA Cup. After the weekends outstanding 4-2 victory over West Ham my side AFC Wimbledon are in the draw for the 5th round of the competition for the first time and we hope for another big Premier League side away, maybe one of the Manchester sides would be nice on TV as the additional revenue would be very useful. What an amazing weekend of cup games, Millwall beating Everton, Spurs beaten again in the cup, but the Dons winning against a strong West Ham side was outstanding and the money banked from that run including a fair chunk of TV money will be most welcome in helping improve the squad if we can.

We will update here on Monday night with the details of the 5th round draw while it's being made, which I understand will be made during the BBC ONE SHOW broadcast from 7pm the draw will probably towards the end of this broadcast. The final Live game between Brentford and Barnet, the lowest ranked team left in at present, is live on BT Sport 19:45 ko. Mark Chapman will host the draw, which will be conducted by England legends Ian Wright and Alex Scott.

AFC Wimbledon are ball no 2.

FA Cup Fifth Round Draw

    Bristol City  vs   Shrewsbury or Wolves
    AFC Wimbledon  vs   Millwall
    Doncaster Rovers  vs   Crystal Palace
    Middlesbrough or Newport County  vs   Manchester City
    Chelsea  vs   Manchester United
    Swansea City  vs   Barnet or Brentford
    Portsmouth or QPR  vs   Watford
    Brighton or West Brom  vs   Derby County

The Dons have another home tie, against fellow giant killers Millwall. Ties to be played over the weekend of 15th - 18th February and the live games will be selected and announced later.

FA CUP FOURTH ROUND -- AFC WIMBLEDON vs WEST HAM UNITED SATURDAY 26th JANUARY 2019

The FA Cup comes into town once again with the 4th round now upon us, and having beaten Fleetwood Town 3-2 in round three the mighty Dons have progressed into round four of the FA Cup for the first time since being resurrected in 2002. We have drawn a home fixture and face Premier League opposition in the shape of West Ham United. This tie has also been selected for Live TV broadcast and will now be on BT Sport on Saturday night with the kick off planned for 19:45 the additional revenue from this live appearance is most welcome in our current predicament.

Premier League West Ham currently sit in 10th place and even if they play a second string it will still be full of Internationals and top academy players. We've played them in the League Cup earlier in the season losing 1-3 at home but that was a strong Hammers side that day and we lost a player to an early red card which didn't help.

FORM GUIDE (Last 6 matches in their respective leagues, starting with the most recent result)
      AFC Wimbledon  --  LLDLDW
      West Ham United  --  LWDLWL






LAST TIME OUT
AFC Wimbledon 0  Fleetwood T 3  (Tues)

AFC Bournemouth 2  West Ham United 0

The Dons arrive into this important FA Cup game still sat at the bottom of League One although the performances have improved since the arrival of Wally Downes and coach Glyn Hodges. This will be a nice little distraction and a live TV game to hopefully show that we are still able to battle. Who knows what will happen, it's the magic of the cup, and as long as we pull together and try our best anything is possible. 

Updates will be published with team news and more as and when it comes through. Midfielder Anthony Hartigan is suspended for the Dons, while Steve Seddon is cup tied. West Ham full-back Ryan Fredericks could return after three months out with a calf injury.

West Ham's back-up keeper Adrian will start, with youngsters Xande Silva and Grady Diangana expected to feature. Marko Arnautovic, who wants to leave the club, has trained this week but boss Manuel Pellegrini has not said if the forward will play - He Doesn't.

Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 8/1 (William Hill) 

Ramsdale (Gk),  Watson,  Thomas,  McDonald,  Oshilaja (c),  Nightingale,  Wordsworth,  Connolly,  Pinnock,  Wagstaff,  Appiah

Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  Jervis,  Garratt,  Trotter,  Sibbick,  Soares,  Piggot

WEST HAM UNITED 

Odds -- 1/3 (William Hill) 

Adrian (Gk),  Antonio,  Diop,  Ogbonna,  Masuaku  ,  Noble (c),  Obiang,  Snodgrass,  Diangana,  Carroll,  Hernández

Subs – Fabianski (Gk),  Fredericks  ,  Pérez,  Holland,  Rice,  Coventry,  Anderson 

H/T Score – 2 - 0  (Appiah 34', Wagstaff 41')

First Half Comment;

West Ham kicked off tonight in the rain and wind and we're underway. A strong West Ham side here so they fancy this, but Millwall did beat Everton so it's all possible. The Hammers start positively and win a corner in the first minute but it comes to nothing, then Dylan Connolly makes himself known with a good run and cross resulting in a Dons corner a shot from Thomas goes over. Looks like we are up for this with Connolly creating chances sadly they fall to a defender then West Ham break and Hernandez hits the post (save by Ramsdale) and we're still 0-0. Pinnock has chances but straight at Adrian it's still very even this half with half hour played and Dylan Connolly is causing all sorts of trouble. 

GOAL #1 ... Wimbledon take the lead albeit with a deflected shot from Kwesi Appiah on 34 mins. Kingsmeadow goes wild, and another upset on the cards. Keep Calm. 

GOAL #2... OMG we've only gone and scored again. Scott Wagstaff waltzes through unchallenged and beats Adrian to double our lead. Why cant we play like this in the league. 

F/T Score – 4 - 2
(Appiah 34', Wagstaff 41', 46' , Sibbick '90    Perez 57', Anderson 71')

Match Summary;

West Ham make a triple change at Half Time but within a moment of the kick off it really doesn't matter Goal #3 ... Scott Wagstaff scores again in the first minute of the second half and this is unbelievable Jeff. Three nil and surely this is all over as a contest. That is until the Hammers get one back from Lucas Perez and it's 3-1 with about half hour to go. Nervous last 15 mins as a wonderful free kick from Anderson makes it 3-2 and maybe the dream is beginning to fade? Still time but we done well to take it to the last ten minutes with the lead but hanging on.

Tony Sibbick comes on and scores !! And that's the game done. 4-2 Dons, bring on Man U or someone in 5th Round.

My Man of the Match – Scott Wagstaff.

Referee -- Our referee for this important fourth round FA Cup tie will be Anthony Taylor, from Manchester, the 40 year old official has been in charge of games since 2002 (when we reformed) and has been a Premier League official since 2010 as well as holding a FIFA listing too. Hope he has a good game and gives us a few decisions.

Attendance – 4,777. Should be sold out.

Next match:
Saturday 2nd February vs Sunderland (Away)
League One 3:00pm

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #3 23rd JANUARY

And we're back again for the next installment of what I hope will prove to be a productive year in 2019.

January coming to an end, if you been "Dry" then don't worry Feb 1 is the start of the six nations so get a few drinks in you !! Personally I've been doing "Wet" January to keep up the balance and the status quo ... you're welcome. Things are back to normal with work and the cold dark mornings and equally murky nights. The lights will still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week. Cheltenham Festival and the the new flat season proper is only a few months away and we started the year on a relatively positive note after the opening week.

Lets continue with our third Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one available. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1 point level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds than this but for the purpose of these results here we simply record SP returns only. Following last week's disappointing results we are behind -14 point to SP. 

Once more this year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures, last year we had a 66% strike rate 22/33 and as we begin the new year we will once more keep accurate figures win or lose. We were successful with our first selections so far and are 2/2 a 100% record I wonder how long that will last into 2019. 

This Wednesday is meeting number Three for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting a bumper eight race card tonight with no less than Six Handicaps this week for us to look through and enjoy,  the action which will commence at 16:40 with a 6f handicap contest and the card ends around about 20:15 with another handicap over a mile.

Here's a link to this Wednesday's race card; RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a cold day with some cloud cover and a top temperature will only be about 4C by the time the meeting gets underway so please wrap up warm, take a hip flask too.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:40 -- 6f Handicap.
We open tonight with a sprint handicap over 6f and will be interesting to see how top weight DEER SONG [10th 10/1] fares tonight having won here last time out and has gone well off similar marks in the past. Will pair that with CRAZY PAVING [Non Runner] a seven year old that has campaigned off higher marks and should appreciate this drop into class seven company.

18:15 -- 7f Handicap (3yo).
Our next handicap event is for three year olds and only the seven declared which is disappointing for the grade, top weight Brandon looks too high for his three maiden events even though was runner up in the final of these attempts over at Wolves. 

We side with the pair of HUA HIN [5th 20/1] who won first time up for Richard Hannon and also URBAN HIGHWAY [3rd 10/1] who was consistent as a 2yo and worth a look at this first try as a 3yo.

18:45 -- 6f Handicap.
Another small field of seven where our picks are RED ALERT [4th 14/1] and LAST PAGE [2nd 13/2]. Both off the track since last year, might be worth catching them fresh and both have reasonable claiming jockey's on board taking off a valuable few pounds.

19:15 -- 1m 2f 219yds Handicap.
A race where top weight UNIT OF ASSESSMENT [Lay] has to shoulder a penalty following his win just over a week ago. Will oppose as too short in the market and for me the proven course and distance form of ILHABELA FACT [2nd 15/8F] and MY BROTHER MIKE [6th 11/2] make more appeal here tonight.

19:45 -- 1m 3f 219yds Handicap.
The likes of EMBERS GLOW [WON 3/1] was a very creditable 2nd of 13 around here last time out and will surely have a good chance to score, however we also like another ARLECCHINO'S ARC [7th 10/1] who was runner up too and although a maiden has had plenty of experience around this course. 

20:15 -- 1m Handicap.
Our finale over the mile but still plenty of interest in MAGIC MIRROR [2nd 5/2] a course and distance winner but also winning over longer trips, seems very versatile and entitled to go well again. The likes of ELENORA DELIGHT [WON 6/1] should improve for the step up to the mile and is weighted to be involved too.

Staked -- 12 points.
Returns -- 12 points.

Results will appear here later on Wednesday night. After last week's disappointing week two, losing 13 points, we are down now -14 points. Hopefully we can improve this soon. Couple of wins in the final races meant we broke evening tonight and remain down -14 points. 

LAYS -- 3/3.  Nice start to the year with successful lays in the opening couple of meetings, will see if we can add to that tonight. Got it beat again tonight, keeping our run going, see how long that continues.

Tonight's Lays;
19:15 -- Unit of Assessment. Lost 7th.

Our fourth meeting for this year will be held on Wednesday 6th February so hope to see you then and throughout 2019 too.

2019 NFL LONDON SERIES GAMES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED

The NFL Games in London have been a big success over the last few years and what started out as an experiment is really an established series of fixtures in the regular season calendar. In recent years this was extended to four games here in London at Wembley, Twickenham and we'll soon see another site added when Tottenham Hotspur open their newly revamped White Hart Lane ground. 

The NFL has confirmed plans to play four times in London in 2019, including two more games at Wembley Stadium and the League's first two games at the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium. It will bring the total number of regular-season games played in London to 28 since the series began in 2007. It will be good to have this announced so early and have something to look ahead to once the play offs and Superbowl LIII are concluded in the coming weeks. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "London is the world's sporting capital and hosting NFL matches here is fantastic for fans of American football in the UK as well as supporters from all over Europe. The NFL brings huge benefits for our city and showcases London to millions of viewers overseas. We've staged some mouth-watering matches here and hope to host even more in the years to come as we demonstrate that London Is Open."  The NFL's London Games achieved an average attendance of 85,031 over the three games held in 2018 and brought the total number of teams to have played in London to 29 out of the NFL's 32 clubs. "The games in the past few weeks have once again demonstrated the incredible passion of NFL fans in the UK," said Mark Waller, NFL Executive Vice President, International. "The support of our stadium partners, the Mayor of London and the Minister for Sport gives us a great foundation for further development of the sport and the ability to give our fans even more NFL games in the coming years."

Here are the confirmed games for 2019, dates will be confirmed later, but as always demand is sure to be high and full houses guaranteed. Super Bowl finalists the Los Angeles Rams will feature in one of four NFL games to be played in London in 2019.

Dates and venues for all London matches are now confirmed;

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Sunday, 6 October 
- Chicago Bears v Oakland Raiders (18:00 BST)

Sunday, 13 October 
- Carolina Panthers v Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14:30 BST)

Wembley Stadium

Sunday, 27 October
- Cincinnati Bengals v LA Rams (17:00 GMT)


Sunday, 3 November 
- Houston Texans v Jacksonville Jaguars (14:30 GMT)

It will be the fourth time the Rams, who face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, host a London game, while the Texans and Panthers are set to make their debut in the capital.

2019 NFL DIVISIONAL (AFC / NFC) CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 
SUNDAY 20th JAN 20:05


LA Rams 26 @ 23 New Orleans Saints
Overtime win



The first of this season's Championship games will take place at the home of New Orleans (Arrowhead Stadium) and this has the best of the NFC paired up, LA Rams ended the regular season with a 13-3 record and then took care of the Dallas Cowboys last weekend. They will face the New Orleans Saints who were also 13-3 this season but took care of the defending champions Philadelphia to move one game away from another Superbowl appearance under the phenomenal Drew Brees.  

There are plenty of key players on either side, but I really think that Brees is the better leader and their defence is very sound so am siding with the Saints here in a tight match where I expect the score to swing back and forth with a single score the difference.


AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
SUNDAY 20th JAN 23:40

New England Patriots 37 @ 31 Kansas City Chiefs
Overtime win




The AFC Championship game takes place second this Sunday and will be the Patriots 8th successive title game although this season they will be the away team travelling to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tom Brady vs Patrick Mahomes, old vs new. Victory for the Patriots would mean their third Superbowl appearance in a row, while a win for Kansas City would be their first appearance since winning in 1970.

This is very tricky to call, usually I'd go with the GOAT Brady and Belichick against anyone but there is something about the way head coach Andy Reid and this guy Mahomes has gone about his business this season and the Patriots are beatable on the road this season ... so the head says Pats, the heart and the wager is going on the Chiefs to spring a big surprise.

Results and reaction will appear here later on !!
Well I thought they'd be close, and both matches were settled in Overtime, however it was a win for the LA Rams and the New England Patriots who go on to Superbowl LIII

We shall update the final scores later over the weekend and then look forward to the Superbowl itself in a couple of weeks time, that will be LIVE on BBC TV here in the UK which is great. 

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #2 16th JANUARY

And we're back again for the next instalment of what I hope will prove to be a productive year in 2019.

Trust you enjoying your first few weeks of the new year so far and that it's not to much of a burden going back to work with the cold dark mornings and equally murky nights. The lights will still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week. Cheltenham Festival and the the new flat season proper is only a few months away and we started the year on a relatively positive note after the opening week.

Lets continue with our second Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one available. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1 point level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds than this but for the purpose of these results here we simply record SP returns only. Following last week's opening card we are behind -1 point to SP. 

Once more this year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures, last year we had a 66% strike rate 22/33 and as we begin the new year we will once more keep accurate figures win or lose. We were successful with our first selection in week one so 1/1 and 100% I wonder how long that will last into 2019. 

This Wednesday is meeting number Two for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting a bumper eight race card tonight with no less than Seven Handicaps this week for us to look through and enjoy,  the action which will commence at 16:30 with a mile handicap contest and the card ends around about 20:00 with an extended mile and three furlong handicap.

Here's a link to this Wednesday's race card; RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a cold day with some cloud cover and a top temperature will only be about 6C by the time the meeting gets underway so please wrap up warm, take a hip flask too.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:30 -- 1m Handicap.
Our opening handicap event over a mile has attracted a field of 14 runners and the first one that stands out for us is CAPE GRECO [3rd 11/8F] who was finding plenty when winning at Wolves last week and also won at Lingfield before that, chasing the hat trick on three different courses. 

WITH APPROVAL [7th 16/1] won here last time and was placed on a few previous course visits, while clearly a Brighton regular has to be included while in current form in a low grade event.

17:30 -- 1m Handicap.
Only the seven declared for this and John Gosden has the likely favourite with Holy Heart a course and distance winner here in December will be strongly supported. 

Will have to try and get that one beat with two other top yards in opposition SUN HAT [3rd 4/1] (S Crisford) has Ryan Moore booked which is significant when he could be off to Dubai and the sunshine, is a winner of three AW contests so sure to be up there, will pick along with ENZEMBLE [5th 4/1] (J Fanshawe) also a winner here in August and has competed well in handicaps since.

18:00 -- 6f Handicap.
The first of a couple of 6f sprint handicaps now, headed by the course and distance winner MADRINHO [7th 9/2] who might be interesting due to the respectable 5lb claimer on board who will help his cause, runs ok around here and decent price. 

SOAR ABOVE [4th 10/3] has already completed a winning trio of handicaps here and should still be supported while clearly in top order, that's our pair against the field.

18:30 -- 6f Handicap.
A disappointing field of six now for the next sprint handicap where Ryan Moore again finds himself on board a good favourite with King Robert. Again far too short a price for us in the opening markets so will look for something of more appealing value to take him on with. The bottom pair get a bit of weight in a small field and have won off higher marks so will pair BERNIE'S BOY [2nd 11/1] / PEGGY'S ANGEL [5th 4/1] against the field.

19:00 -- 7f Handicap.
Probably the best of the handicaps here tonight, a field of nine have been declared for this, and we are interested in couple of previous selections, the top weight ELJADDAAF [6th 7/1] although as an 8yo now won't be improving much more than his current mark however goes well around here. 

The other choice for us will be ROMAN SPINNER [N/R] another that runs well around this track and should be thereabouts in an open yet competitive contest.

19:30 -- 7f Handicap.
NATALIE EXPRESS [8th 25/1] might not have run since a close third in July at Doncaster and catching her fresh might be the answer, also selected against the field is CALEDONIA DUCHESS [7th 5/1] who is a bit frustrating but does regularly place here so given a chance in a weak looking contest. 

20:00 -- 1m 3f 219y Handicap.
Our finale is a fairly moderate bunch where we pick out DEMOPHON [8th 8/1] who at least has plenty of AW experience and places when in the mood, this might be low enough to give him a chance to win. And MILLIE MAY [11th 25/1] is at least a winner which in this company is worth a lot gets weight from the principals and at 10/1 looks a good ew shot at least.

Staked -- 14 points.
Returns -- 1 points.

Results will appear here later on Wednesday night. After last week's opening meeting we are behind to a single point to SP returns [-1 loss]. Disappoint week two, losing 13 points, we down now -14 points. 

LAYS -- 2/2.  We reset for 2019 and started off with the first favourite getting beat so will see if we have one or two Lays tonight they will be updated here. Another fav beaten tonight, nice start to the year. 

Tonight's Lays;
KING ROBERT -- 18:30 LOST 6th (last) 15/8F.

Our third meeting for this year will be held on Wednesday 23rd January so hope to see you then and throughout 2019 too.