Season 26 week 11 processing...

Welcome to the halfway stage of the season, there are, as usual, some very important games this week, plus a bit of a break from the rigours of the league, as the world's top players jet off to all corners of the globe for their respective international fixtures. So I wish everyone good luck in their continuing search for silverware and success.

Some very hefty orders to process today so I'm expecting the league games to kickoff either wednesday afternoon or thursday morning, confirmation to follow later.

No orders this week from Leicester, Barcelona and Real Madrid. I extended the deadline until 1800 hours tonite ( tuesday ) feel free to either email or message your orders up until then, or because of the postage problems you can also ring them in on 01209-860116 until 1800 hours today.

okay deadline has now passed for order submissions and I have started running the reserve and youth games. Looks like the league games may very well kickoff at 1000 hours wednesday morning after all.

Excellent work, thanks Paul.

Some fans are queueing to get into grounds already, two hours before the kickoff, some there to enjoy the pre-match entertainment, but most to enjoy some pretty important games. There are a few big games in the Premiership today with Champions Man City travelling to Charlton in what is a six pointer for sure and maybe even a title decider ? is this Charlton's chance to stamp their mark on football history, do they have the defence to handle premiership strikers ? Tom has made some tactical changes for this game which shows the opposition some real respect, but will fans agree with his changes ? Can City's ageing defence keep out Charlton's speedy attackers like Suarez, Sturridge and Walcott. Lots of questions to answer in this game and I look forward to seeing it unfold later on. We also Plymouth and Birmingham in another important game as whomever loses this one could be out of the race. Watford have a dodgy game at rejuvenated Tottenham and the new man at Chelsea will be hoping for a point at hard to beat Fulham. In spain we have Barcelona at Valencia and the Los Che fans will be crossing their fingers that Barca's wobble last week at Santander wasn't a one off as they need the three points in another six pointer, if they can win they will go above Barcelona, but they have to breach that rock solid Barca defence first, only conceded two goals in the league all season. The big six pointer games continue into Italy where Juventus must beat Napoli and Inter must survive a trip to vastly improved Roma. So good luck to everybody this week.

Quite a few possible deals this week as Schalke chase Chelsea's David Santon, Nantes chase Fiorentina's Wesley Sneijder and it looks like Graziano Pelle's time is up at Newcastle and Man City continue to chase a world class dynamo and centreback using Jamie Vardy and Fernandinho as bait. This and other questions will be answered later today.

All eyes on the dugout at The Valley then.....no pressure.  I'll be fully responsible for the result no matter what happens due to the tactical changes.  Unless someone gets sent off, then they are in for a right rocket.  Too many times I have been out-thought by Geoff who is tactically one of the best, so time to try something dfferent. Team news is out and it looks like Charlton are lining up with one up front, playing at home I'm not sure the fans are gonna be too happy with that...


Nantes look to continue their good form and a lot of goings on hopefully transfer wise......

we have kicked off...

Criciuma 0 Santos 1 Kaka on 4 minutes.

Flamengo 1 Corinthians 0 Muller on 5 minutes.

Fiorentina 1 Parma 0 Nilmar freekick on 6 minutes.

Schalke 1 Uerdingen 0 Pato on 7 minutes.

Preston 1 Luton 0 Ings on 8 minutes.

Coventry 0 Soton 1 Rondon on 11 minutes.
Alloa 1 Hearts 0 Powell freekick.

first big goal of the day at White Hart Lane...

Spurs 0 Watford 1 Costa header on 13 minutes.

Bayern 1 Dusseldorf 0 Gundogan freekick on 17 minutes.

Arsenal 1 Man United 0 Giroud on 18 minutes.
Cagliari 1 Lazio 0 Nocerino.

Wimbledon 0 Sheff Utd 1 Stead header on 19 minutes.
Scunthorpe 1 Brighton 0 Rose header.
Bilbao 0 Real 1 Hazard.

Paris 1 Cannes 0 Menez on 20 minutes.

Fulham 1 Chelsea 0 Schweinsteiger header on 21 minutes.
Wednesday 1 Grimsby 0 Forestieri header.
Schalke 2 Uerdingen 0 Khedira.
Hamburg 1 Berlin 0 Guerrero.
Roma 0 Inter 1 Vidal.
Lecce 0 Milan 1 Luiz Adriano header.

Newcastle 0 Leicester 1 Collison header on 24 minutes.
Lecce 0 Milan 2 Diego Ribas.

Cagliari 2 Lazio 0 Diego Souza on 25 minutes.
Bilbao 0 Real 2 Ramos header.

and a goal at Charlton...lets catch up with the details from our man on the spot, Clare Balding, sorry, lady on the spot...

welcome to a great game that is very evenly matched and I expect plenty of goals today the first of which has been scored by City and it was Leighton Baines up from the back to slot the ball home, taking good advantage of Charlton's wing backs, to give City an early lead, so after 26 minutes it is

Charlton 0 Man City 1