2022 NFL DIVISIONAL WILD CARD PLAYOFF WEEKEND 15th-18th JANUARY 2022

 

With the regular season over the end of season playoffs await as all teams still standing look forward to an appearance in Superbowl LVI. In the NFL's expanded playoffs for the 2022 postseason, seven teams from each conference make the field. That's different from recent years, when six teams from the AFC and NFC each participated. This changes the bye scenario too while in the past two teams received first-round byes, it's only the top seed in each conference receiving a bye week now. Green Bay Packers captured the #1 seed position in the NFC and will have a bye week into the playoffs, while over in the AFC the #1 seed was claimed by Tennessee Titans. After that, things proceed as they classically have, with four teams playing on each side of the divisional bracket before the conference championship games and Super Bowl.

NFL playoffs schedule

Wild-card games: January 15th-18th

Divisional games: January 22nd-23rd

Conference championships: January 30th

Super Bowl LVI: February 13th

We are down to the final fourteen teams of which the top seed in each conference await the wild card winners, The NFL announced that beginning in the 2021 season, Super Wild Card Weekend (January 15-17, 2022) will conclude with a Monday night game. Last season, the NFL expanded the playoffs for the first time since 1990, adding a third wild card team in each conference, thus creating "Super Wild Card Weekend" – two Wild Card games on Saturday and three games on Sunday and the final game on Monday shared across the various US Broadcasters CBS, NBC, FOX and ESPN, it doesn't appear that the UK will have any live games on Tv (channel 5 used to have Monday night football) however the BBC Radio will cover things on Sunday night here. 

We intend to update these games as they are played during the course of the weekend. Times here are GMT (Uk).

Saturday 15th January 2022
AFC WILD CARD

Las Vegas Raiders 19 @ 26 Cincinnati Bengals  [H/T 13 - 20]

21:30   Venue: Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati.
The Las Vegas Raiders [10-7] pulled off a thrilling overtime win over the Los Angeles Chargers to reach the NFL play-offs for the second time in 19 years. The Chargers fought back from 29-14 down to force overtime and the score was still level with two seconds left but Daniel Carlson kicked a field goal as time expired to clinch a 35-32 win. They will face Cincinnati [10-7] who lost their final game at the Cleveland Browns but had already captured the NFC North title, and I must prefer the form of the Bengals here even though they had similar records at the end of the season the Bengals easily outscore their opponents and I predict over 48 points.

Sunday 16th January 2021
AFC WILD CARD
New England Patriots 17 @ 47 Buffalo Bills  [H/T 3 - 27]
01:15    Venue: Highmark Stadium, Buffalo, NY.
Into the early hours of Sunday morning here in Uk, where New England will travel to Buffalo. Bill Belichick's Patriots [10-7] have bounced back from the loss of QB Tom Brady and finished runners up to the Bills [11-6] in the NFC East. Another shoot out to progress in the post season and who would bet against the Patriots going forth again? Both teams know each other well, there will be no major surprises. "Good team, obviously," said Bill Belichick on Monday morning. "They're the third seed in the conference. We know they're a good team. They certainly played well in the last game we had against them...We have a lot to get ready for."

NFC WILD CARD
Philadelphia Eagles 15 @ 31 Tampa Bay Buccaneers  [H/T 0 - 17]
18:00    Venue: Raymond James Stadium, Florida
Philadelphia Eagles [9-8] surely have it all to do here as they travel to the current Superbowl champions Tampa Bay [13-4], Tom Brady and all. The Eagles faced the Buccaneers earlier this season back in Week 6, won by Tampa Bay 28-22. After winning the Super Bowl in the first season having acquiring quarterback Tom Brady in free agency, the Buccaneers enter the playoffs as winners of seven of their final eight games to capture the NFC South Division title and the #2 seed. Looks like a comfortable win at home for Tampa Bay [-7.5pts h'cap] and over 45 points scored.

NFC WILD CARD
San Francisco 49ers 23 @ 17 Dallas Cowboys  [H/T 16 - 7]
21:30    Venue: AT&T Stadium, Texas
San Francisco [10-7] head to Texas to take on the Dallas Cowboys [12-5] who are the #3 seed in the NFC thanks to demolishing Philadelphia 51-26, on Saturday, in what was a tune-up game for the NFC East champs. San Francisco 49ers, impressively whipping the NFC West champion Rams, 27-24 in overtime to earn the second wild-card entry. Looks very possible that CBS will cover this game and that means Tony Romo commentating on his former side. Can also see this being a high scoring affair so over 50 points the call.

Monday 17th January 2021

AFC WILD CARD
Pittsburgh Steelers 21 @ 42 Kansas City Chiefs  [H/T 7 - 21]
01:15    Venue: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City
Could be the final swansong for 'big' Ben Roethlisberger after a final round win for the Steelers [9-7-1] against Baltimore to seal this play off place. Will have to be on their A game against a strong Kansas City [12-5] side who have been to the last two Super Bowls. The two sides met on Christmas Day and the Chiefs ran out an easy 36-10 victory, can see plenty of points here again with the Over 46 points including in various accumulators this weekend. Have already got Kansas as the winners this season, though they have to go the long way around to reach a third consecutive Superbowl.

Tuesday 18th January 2021

NFC WILD CARD
Arizona Cardinals 11 @ 34 LA Rams  [H/T 0 - 21]
01:15    Venue: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
The final wild card game sees the Arizona Cardinals [11-6] travel to the LA Rams [12-5], Rams played in the regular season at Arizona on another "Monday Night Football" game with the Rams securing a 30-23 win. The Cardinals won their game in Los Angeles earlier this season, 37-20. Of the pair though the Cardinals second half of the season was not as strong as their opening, and the Rams have improved their roster heading towards the post season playoffs and would be slight favourites. Rams to win and also cover the -3.5 points handicap.

Will update with the final scores later over the weekend and then look forward to the AFC and NFC Divisional Round next weekend 22nd - 23rd January.

AFC WIMBLEDON vs MORECAMBE - LEAGUE ONE HOME FIXTURE 2021/22 SEASON [15th JANUARY]

Saturday 15th January 2022  KO 3pm
AFC Wimbledon will host their latest League One game at Plough Lane for the 2021-22 season against Morecambe, With both sides in the bottom end of the table it's an important game for survival after the recent disappointment of the FA Cup exit. We haven't made a great start to 2022 so far and are currently in 20th position in the League One table on 25 points after 22 games played. Went out of the FA Cup last weekend to non league opposition and playing 'them' in midweek which ended in a 1-0 defeat and the sending off of Nesta Guinness-Walker didn't help matters in the first half. Yet still have a few games in hand over many of the teams above us and hopefully we can secure some more points to move us up a little further away from the drop zone. 

Team News - Friday the Dons completed the loan signing of Lithuanian Under-21 international Tomas Kalinauskas from Barnsley. Tomas joins us for the rest of the season after impressing Robbo during a recent training spell.
“Tomas came in for a week with us and he did very well,” said Head Coach Mark Robinson. “Technically, he’s very exciting on the ball. The thing that impressed me the most about him was his confidence - he’s got real self-belief. In wide areas he looks like he can be very effective. It helps bolster us and gives us two players in every position.”.

Recent League One Results
Franchise FC 1 - 0 AFC Wimbledon
Morecambe 4 - 3 Doncaster Rovers

Looking at today's game itself this Saturday day in League One and our opponents today; Morecambe are currently managed by Stephen Robinson a former Luton Town and Northern Ireland international has been in control since June 2021. Morecambe played Tottenham last weekend in the FA Cup and performed well leading for much of the game before going down 3-1 once Spurs brought on more of their first team, they did a lot better than us anyway. Prior to that they came back from three goals down at the break to seal a thrilling 4-3 victory over fellow League One strugglers Doncaster at the Mazuma Stadium. Morecambe are currently in 21st place in the League one table on 23 points, so are two points below the Dons having played more games, this is a big winning opportunity for the Dons as we need to begin climbing the table again after the disappointment of the FA Cup loss to Boreham Wood. Men to watch for the opposition; Very simply it's Cole Stockton, the 27 year old forward has 18 goals this season well clear of Adam Phillips (6). 

Head to Head

Our head to head form against Morecambe since our return to the league as AFC Wimbledon amounts to a fairly even record, eleven games played and four wins for the Dons, four wins for Morecambe and three draws so it's all very level and up for grabs.

Starting XI's [Confirmed]

AFC WIMBLEDON 

Win Odds - 17/20 [William Hill]

Tzanev (Gk),  Alexander,  Heneghan,  Nightingale,  Osew,  Woodyard(c),  🟨Marsh,  Assal,  McCormick,  Rudoni, Palmer

SUBS - Oualah (Gk),  Lawrence,  Chislett,  Awokoya-Mebude,  🟨Ablade,  Kaja,  Oualah,  Cosgrave

MORECAMBE
Win Odds - 29/10 [William Hill]
Carson (Gk),  McLaughlin,  O'Connor,  Bedeau, 🟨Leigh,  McLoughlin,  Diagouraga,  🟨Wildig,  Ayunga,  Stockton,  Gnahoua

SUBS - Letheren (Gk),  Jones,  McDonald,  Delaney,  Cooney,  Gibson,  McCalmont

Selected Bets On This Match;

• Over 1.5 goals in 1st half @5/2.
• Ben Heneghan to score at any time @9/1
• Penalty to be awarded and scored @9/2.
• Bookings over 45 points @12/5.

⚽Half Time Score - 0 - 0

First Half Comments;

Kick Off 3pm today at the Cherry Red Records, Plough Lane Wimbledon stadium, the Dons get us underway on a cold afternoon, the mist might have cleared we still need an early goal to warm us up. While the Dons might have the best of the opening 10-15 mins the only clear chances have been wide of the mark, though a single shot from the visitors is easily saved by Nik Tzanev. Sadly there is very little to update in the next part of the half, I would have thought we would have gone for it today, seems like we have to fall behind to wake up, so far it's a boring goal-less draw.

⚽Full Time Score - 0 - 0

Match Summary;

Another dismal performance against a poor side also in the bottom third, I know people bang on about low budget, and lack of squad depth, but please we don't even look like scoring now, other sides have clearly found us out and yet another season on struggle will surely find us drop sooner or later. No surprise the crowd figures are dropping too. Only upside I suppose is that we didn't lose, and onto the Pompey game on Tuesday. 

My Man of the Match - George Marsh.

Attendance - 7,128.

Today's Referee - Our match referee for this afternoon will be Mr Benjamin Speedie, who hails from Merseyside, now in his third season as an EFL referee. Averages around three bookings a game so far, this is our first game with him in charge this season. Assistance on the side lines from both Damith Bandara together with Darren Blunden while our fourth official will be Anthony Da Costa.

Next league one fixture;
  vs Portsmouth (Home)
  Tuesday 18th January @7:45pm.

KEMPTON PARK FLOODLIT HORSE RACING 2022 - MEETING #2 WEDNESDAY 12th JANUARY

Welcome to Kempton Park racecourse as we begin 2022 with a fresh season of Wednesday evening meetings on the all weather flat track under the lights. We had a decent 2021 here on these Wednesday nights with a profit for the year to SP and shall aim for further success in 2022. Away the racing we've had our FA Cup tie against Boreham Wood and lost 2-0 to non league opposition, a really poor effort, so although the draw for the fourth round will be on Sunday it will no longer concern us, instead we continue to formulate plans for some days out and events including a visit to Cheltenham in March.

Returning to the horse racing all results here are reported to 1pt at Starting Prices (SP) we will be keeping a rolling record of profit/loss all the way through from January till the Boxing Day 'King George' fixture in December. Last season saw an overall profit for the year to the tune of +25.465 points to SP. We will continue to keep a record to SP throughout the season again and week one was a winner so a +2.5 points profit to take through to week two.

Throughout the 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 we had been fairly successful with our selections throughout last year managed to get plenty of favourites beat so we finished on 38/52 (73.07%). We shall reset everything for the new year so that 2022 will begin afresh as it should be. Started well enough in week one with both lays beaten into second, so 2/2 (100%) and hopefully we will have another successful season from January - December.

This week will be our 2nd Wednesday evening meeting of the year. Tonight's meeting will now begin earlier than expected with an eight race card to enjoy, we will now have six handicaps tonight with the division of the mile race at 16:30. We will begin late in the afternoon with our opening race which will now commence at 16:00 with the opening 3yo handicap on our card run over six furlongs, then we should end the card around about 19:30 with the final contest stayers event over just under two miles. The best grade of race tonight is the Class 3 fillies handicap over seven furlongs [18:00].

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

Going and Weather -- The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a somewhat cloudy afternoon, but dry into the early evening while the temperature is not likely to get much higher than around 6C tonight.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:00  Unibet New Instant Roulette Handicap (3yo)
6f  [Class 6  10 runners]

Our opening contest is for 3yo only a field of eleven where last years nursery winner Exceling [Won @6/5] looks to be a short price today for trainer Richard Hannon. Ran well when just being caught on the line at Lingfield last time out, a repeat of that should be sufficient here. Looking elsewhere at a bigger price is Madame Fenella [3rd @6/1] who was 80/1 last time when fourth after a difficult start, might run well again here if allowed to settle better early. 

Winner - (7) Exceling @6/5f  [S M Levey].

16:30  Join Racing TV Now Handicap (Div One)

1m  [Class 6  10 runners]

Three runs at big prices for Think Trigger [3rd @11/4] might not be the obvious one for many, but Gary Moore's inmate has tried three trips, the mile should be suitable and it's a lowly handicap mark to be starting off with so a decent price available too. While Mr Mac [6th @10/1] is another to consider even as an 8yo is dropping down the handicap and the mile trip looks okay with the latest run at Lingfield (3rd) showing there is still life and a race to be had, William Carver takes off another 3lb too.

Winner - (4) Dynakite @7/1  [Darragh Keenan].

17:00  Join Racing TV Now Handicap (Div Two)

1m  [Class 6  9 runners]

Division two doesn't look anything too fear Agent Of Fortune [2nd @11/8f] won last time out at Lingfield and if Mr Mac backs up that form in the first division tonight and has been running well here in the past too. Pedestal [Won @5/1] gets in at the bottom of the handicap here and runner up twice off this sort of mark could have a run in him today even if wins have been hard to come by.

Winner - (10) Pedestal @5/1  [Harry Burns].

17:30  Try Our New Price Boosts At Unibet Handicap (3yo)

7f  [Class 4  7 runners]

A winner here over the trip in December Sydney Street [Won @6/4f] beat a decent type then and could well follow up in this company, Hugo Palmer's runner tracked the leaders that day and asserted himself in the final furlong. Newbury maiden winner American Kestrel [Non Runner] represents Richard Hannon and this is only his second handicap run for a trainer that does well here, stepping up in trip to seven furlong might be a question mark but at the price in a fairly small field worth the risk.

Winner - (1) Sydney Street @6/4f  [R Coakley].

18:30  Unibet 3 Uniboosts A Day EBF Fillies' Handicap

7f  [Class 3  5 runners]

The ladies turn now although only seven declared and as there appears to be a fairly short priced favourite with Famille Rose will take two relative outsiders against the field here. Separate [Non Runner] once rated in the high 90s and now appears here off only 75, has several places in higher grades and could be one to take advantage at a decent price, also interested in Piselli Molli [2nd @14/1] with a 7lb claimer there to bring the mark down even further, faded over a mile trip at the beginning of the month so a return to seven furlongs more suitable.

Winner - (2) Epsom Faithfull @4/1  [Rhys Clutterbuck].

19:30  Try Our New Super Boosts At Unibet Handicap

1m 7f 218y  [Class 6  6 runners]

This Ones For Fred [2nd @5/4f] has been running well up at Wolverhampton and worth an interest in this stayers finale as appears to have found the longer trips to his liking for trainer Alan King. While also have a look at Liva [Won @13/2] a winner here in May last year and then runner up over this trip in June, certainly looks one of the more likely winners. Whereas Metal Man is going to go off the likely short priced favourite his staying victory came at Lingfield last time and has never run here before, also carries a penalty tonight so the call is to oppose here.
Winner - (4) Liva @13/2  [Josephine Gordon].

Staked - 12 points.       Returns - 20.2 points.

Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. All results are accurate and recorded to SP returns to a 1pt win stake only and updated each meeting. Winning start, so up +2.5 points to SP returns coming into week two. A second winning week in January with several winners and one or two near misses too, up another +8.2 points today, thus +10.7 points to SP moving into the next meeting.

Lays - Started the first meeting with both lays beaten and so we are 2/2 as we come into this second meeting of 2022.

Starting again for the new year and looking for another good season with the lays, aiming at favourites and not afraid to take on short odds on shots too. One winner and one defeated favourite tonight, shame but still 3/4 overall.

The plan will be for at least one or two each meeting and we will keep those results separate from the handicaps.

Tonight's Lays;

18:00 Tranquil Night  [7f Novice Stakes]. Won @4/5f

19:00 Bella Colorossa  [1m 3f+ Classified Stakes]. Lost 3rd @7/4f

We will have more midweek floodlit meetings in 2022, our third meeting will be held here on Wednesday 26th January 2022. Keep well.