2019 FA CUP FIRST ROUND DRAW -- MONDAY 21st OCTOBER

The draw for the First Round of this seasons Emirates FA Cup will be made later on Monday night live on BBC TV, another sure sign that winter is soon to be upon us. While we are currently struggling in the lower reaches of League One it will be good to mount a reasonable Cup run again having done well against Premier League sides as we did last year beating West Ham before losing to Millwall in the next round. 

Due to Bury FC’s removal from the English Football League and subsequently the Emirates FA Cup, there will be an odd number of clubs entering the draw. As a result, the final club left in the draw, that isn’t drawn to play in a tie in the first round, will receive an automatic bye to the second round and will also receive the prize fund payment applicable for the first round.

As a result of Bury's exclusion there are now only 79 Numbers in the "hat" for the first round proper, the draw is live on BBC Two from approximately 7pm hosted by Mark Chapman, with the draw itself being made by two footballing guests, Karen Carney (Chelsea and England) and Jermaine Beckford (Leeds + many more) will be drawing the balls out. Plenty of non league interest and stories from amongst the sides that have made it from qualifying, these include our previous tenants at Kingsmeadow; Kingstonian who won 3-2 away at Dartford also of interest are Notts County who won their game 2-1 and would mean a return for Neal Ardley while I would want to avoid the likes of Bromley and Sutton. 

Was very disappointing to read about the abandonment of the Haringey Borough vs Yeovil Town's FA Cup fourth qualifying round match, after reports of racial abuse aimed at Haringey's goalkeeper. Yeovil were leading 1-0 through a Rhys Murphy penalty when the game was halted in the 64th minute. There was a long delay for that spot-kick to be taken, with Haringey keeper Douglas Pajetat reportedly initially struck by an object from the stands. Shortly after Murphy scored, play was suspended as the hosts left the field. Around 35 minutes later, it was confirmed the match had officially been abandoned, with BT Sport reporting that Pajetat was racially abused and spat at by visiting fans. This on the back of the England vs Bulgaria game and we await further news from the FA on this but believe the game is to be replayed.

My team AFC Wimbledon have been assigned ball No. 2. A home draw would also be nice for a change, and I just hope we avoid the Franchise scum for obvious reasons In fact I wouldn't mind hosting Chichester (Ball No.71) perhaps at this stage with the ambition for a lucrative tie in rounds three and four perhaps but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves?

The Full 1st round draw will appear here during the evening as the ties are confirmed ... matches to be played over the period of 8th - 11th November the winners in round one will pick up £36,000 in prize money for their efforts.

    AFC WIMBLEDON        Vs        Doncaster Rovers
    Ipswich Town        Vs        Lincoln City
    Oxford City        Vs        Solihull Moors
    Crawley Town        Vs        Scunthorpe United
    Harrogate Town        Vs        Portsmouth
    Colchester United        Vs        Coventry City
    Sunderland        Vs        Gillingham
    Dulwich Hamlet        Vs        Carlisle United
    Bolton Wanderers        Vs        Plymouth Argyle
    York City        Vs        Altrinham
    Chesterfield / Wrexham        Vs        Rochdale
    Maidstone United        Vs        Torquay United
    Leyton Orient        Vs        Maldon and Tiptree
    Chippenham Town    Vs        Northampton Town
    Haringey B / Yeovil        Vs       Hartlepool United
    Cambridge United        Vs        Exeter City
    Whitley T / Stourbridge        Vs        Welling U / Eastleigh
    Salford City        Vs        Burton Albion
    Forest Green Rovers        Vs        Sutton U / Billericay T
    Bristol Rovers        Vs        Bromley
    Ebbsfleet U / Woking        Vs        Notts County
    Walsall        Vs        Darlington
    Nantwich Town        Vs        AFC Fylde
    Hayes and Yeading / Poole T        Vs        Oxford United
    Shrewsbury Town        Vs        Bradford City
    Grimsby Town        Vs        Newport County
    Gateshead        Vs        Oldham 
    Mansfield Town        Vs        Chorley
    Dover Athletic        Vs        Southend United
    Tranmere Rovers        Vs        Wycombe Wanderers
    Carshalton Athletic        Vs        Boston United
    Cheltenham Town        Vs        Swindon Town
    Accrington Stanley        Vs        Crewe Alexandra
    Potters Bar Town / Barnet        Vs        Fleetwood Town
    Macclesfield Town        Vs        Kingstonian
    Maidenhead / Wealdstone        Vs        Rotherham United
    Blackpool Town        Vs        Morecambe
    Franchise FC        Vs        Port Vale
    Stevenage        Vs        Peterborough United

1st Round bye - No 71 Chichester 

Good luck to all teams (except Franchise FC obviously).

2019 FA CUP WINNERS MANCHESTER CITY 

PONTEFRACT HORSE RACING SYSTEM -- 2019 SEASON -- MEETING #16 THE FINALE !!

PONTEFRACT SEASON 2019.

Welcome to our sixteenth and final meeting of the 2019 season on Monday 21st October. 

1st race 2:20pm, gates open from around midday. 

After a great Summer of racing, the 2019 season comes to a close at Pontefract on Monday 21st October. The final meeting ends what has been a fantastic year at the West Yorkshire track with some memorable racing. And the final race day is no different with a top class Listed two year old race on the card. The 27th running of the 'Listed ebfstallions.com Silver Tankard Stakes' [15:50] has an impressive roll of honour with past winners including Comic Strip, who won the 2004 renewal for Sir Mark Prescott before being sold to race in Hong Kong and becoming one of the most successful horses in their history. D’Bai took the honours in 2016 for Charlie Appleby and the same yard sent out the hot favourite for the race in 2018 in the shape of Old Persian. The 2018 winner, Manuela De Vega (pictured below), finished fourth in the Oaks this season.

It’s the final leg of the Pontefract Stayers Championship as well. The Stayers races are always hugely popular with racegoers and a great spectacle as the equine stars set off to complete over a full circuit of the testing West Yorkshire track. It’s all up for grabs in the Phil Bull Trophy Conditions Stakes [16:50] with both Forewarning and Rubenesque still in with a chance of taking the honours. Phil Bull founded Timeform and he framed the conditions of this race to allow some of the top class stayers who regularly compete in the best staying races in the country, the opportunity to get their head in front.

We’ll also be crowning the champion jockey and trainer from Pontefract during the 2019 racing season. Richard Fahey and Danny Tudhope have been the champion trainer and jockey respectively for the last two seasons but it’s all change this year with Mark Johnston and Graham Lee currently leading the way but it’s still all up for grabs with one day to go.

The action is currently timed to get underway for the final time in 2019 at 14.20 with gates opening at midday. With a number of horses trying to squeeze in one final run for the season, there may be an additional race on the programme so please keep an eye out for last minute changes to the race times. There’ll also be a chance to buy some early Christmas presents too as the Injured Jockeys Fund will have their stand on course. You’ll also be able to purchase your 2020 Annual Badge!

ALL of our results for these fixtures are recorded to a level stake at Starting Price (SP), and will also show any forecast results too in the daily results but these do not count for the profit / loss figures. We arrive here on the back of a small loss last time which does mean we are still trailing on -43.24 points to SP as we come into the sixteenth, and final, meeting. The forecast going is now currently reported as 'Soft, heavy in places' and our weather for Monday afternoon is for a wet day with plenty of rain likely to arrive, the forecast maximum temperature around the 12C mark.

A link to this afternoon's race card can be found here

Here are our selections for the eight races on Monday afternoon, remember it's a very simple selection process using stalls one and two in every race;

14:20 1m 6y Nursery Handicap (2yo).
(1) -- MAGNA MORALIA  [2nd 5/4f].
(2) -- GUIPURE  [WON 10/1].
£32.40 f/cast

14:50 6f Novice Stakes (2yo).
(1) -- LINCOLN GAMBLE  [5th 9/2].
(2) -- SPYGATE  [2nd 11/10f].

15:20 1m 2f 5y Handicap.
(1) -- ILLUSTRISSIME  [8th 50/1].
(2) -- SODS LAW  [2nd 9/2].

15:50 1m 6y Silver Tankard Listed Stakes (2yo).
(1) -- WYCLIF  [2nd 15/8f].
(2) -- SIR ARTHUR DAYNE  [5th 11/1].

16:20 1m 6y Handicap.
(1) -- KING POWER  [2nd 20/1].
(2) -- FOX FEARLESS  [4th 11/8f].

16:502m 2f 2y Phil Bull Trophy.
(1) -- ARROWTOWN  [2nd 5/6f].
(2) -- HARTSIDE  [6th 100/1].

17:20 5f 3y Handicap.
(1) -- HAWAAM  [2nd 11/1].
(2) -- MILITIA  [3rd 3/1].

Staked -- 14 points.
Returns -- 11 points.

As we reach the conclusion of the 2019 season it's been a sad story of chasing our losses, while the selections are out of our hands with this system we are on a deficit of -43.24 coming into our final meeting today and that's just the way things go sometimes. Just the sole winner so far today and plenty of runners up sadly. Final loss for the season is -46.24. 

This is our last meeting for 2019 we haven't done as well as expected, but it's an experiment and one I will probably continue in 2020 again. As Arnie would say "I'll be back"

AFC WIMBLEDON v PORTSMOUTH LEAGUE ONE SATURDAY 19th OCTOBER 2019

Welcome to our next home game of this season having finally found our goal scoring boots and achieved that elusive first win the other week beating Rochdale 3-2, the Dons then followed it up with a handsome 1-4 away victory at Southend United last Saturday all under stand in manager Glyn Hodges. We now look forward to this Saturday when we will be hosting the mighty Portsmouth FC at Kingsmeadow. Those wins had taken us out of the bottom three until Sunday afternoon when Tranmere won but it's still a great boost for morale and there is a strong attacking threat now from the likes of Joe Pigott and Marcus Forss who nabbed a hat trick in that latest win at Southend. Off the field our manager Wally Downes has been suspended for four weeks by the Football League for admitting a charge of betting on matches although none of this occurred while in charge of the Dons, so until mid November Glyn Hodges continues in charge of first team affairs and may his success continue.

FORM GUIDE
(Last 6 matches in league one, starting with their most recent)
AFC Wimbledon -- WWLLLD
Portsmouth -- DWWLDD

LAST TIME OUT

Southend United 1 v 4 AFC Wimbledon
Portsmouth 0 v 0 Gillingham

While the Dons were winning at fellow relegation threatened Southend United, Portsmouth were being held to a goalless draw at home by Gillingham and that will surely begin to put pressure on their manager Kenny Jackett as they were one of the favourites for promotion this season (and indeed the previous season) yet don't appear to be scoring enough goals. Their latest draw left Pompy in 16th position on 13 points in the league one table. Our last meeting with Portsmouth was back at the beginning of the year when the south coast side won 2-1 on New Years Day at Fratton Park.

Line ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 13/5 (William Hill) 

Trott (GK),  ⚽Thomas,  Delaney,  Kalambayi,  Wordsworth, Wagstaff (c),  Pinnock,  Sanders,  Osew,  Forss,  Pigott

Subs – Tzanev (GK),  Hartigan,  Stabana,  McLoughlin,  Madelin,  Guinness-Walker,  Appiah

PORTSMOUTH

Odds --  11/10 (William Hill) 

MacGillivray (Gk),  Bolton,  Burgess,  Raggett,  Brown,  Naylor,  Close,  Harness,  Evans,  Williams,  Marquis 

Subs – Bass (Gk),  Downing,  Curtis,  Cannon,  McCrorie,  Harrison,  Haunstrup  

Selected Bets on today's match;

  Marcus Forss to score first @4/1.
  Marcus Forss to score 2 or more @8/1.
  Penalty Awarded in match @4/1.
  Red Card in match @6/1.

⚽H/T Score – 0 - 0

First Half Comment;

The Dons kick us off today and with blue skies in the air we are underway at Kingsmeadow. Not much to shout about in the opening twenty minutes with an even start, couple of corners apiece and only a shot from Forss (Dons) and Marquis (Pompy) to speak of, neither of which trouble the keeper in fact as we write this there are NO Goals at all in League One yet (and then Oxford score away at Rotherham, well done). Portsmouth are carrying the biggest threat as we reach the half hour and Christian Burgess rattles the bar with a header from the centre of the area, another Pompy header is saved by Trott in the Dons goal still 0-0 though. Portsmouth pick up a couple of bookings and the first half ends all square.

⚽F/T Score – 1 - 0  [Thomas 90'+2]

Match Summary;
Wow. Three league wins on the bounce and an injury time winner for the Dons courtesy of OUR sponsored player Terell Thomas who hit the winner, and that takes us out of the relegation zone dropping Accrington in our place.

My Man of the Match – Anthony Wordsworth.

Referee -- Our referee today is confirmed as Sam Purkiss who has been both an assistant and full time referee for some seasons now, will be assisted by Paul Yates and Nicholas Cooper on the touchline and our fourth official will be Andrew Aylott.

Attendance – 4,525.  

Next league match:
Tuesday 22nd October vs Burton Albion (Away)
League One 7:45pm