Road to Wembley - Wembley dream over

One round that is all that Wembley FC's rather expensive dream left after they were thumped 0-5 by local rivals Uxbridge in the Preliminary Rd replay last night.

315 fans watched as Ux's Matty Woods scored a superb hat-trick and Nicke Kabamba bagged a brace, as Ian Bates' side were put to the sword, with Technical Advisor Terry Venables helpless from the sidelines.

Wembley’s squad this season has boasted the likes of former Arsenal duo Ray Parlour and Martin Keown, as well as Chelsea great Graeme Le Saux, ex-Aston Villa defender Ugo Ehiogu and former Aregentina star Claudio Caniggia.

Uxbridge were never star-struck though and smashed our boys all over the park and the The Evo-Stik League Southern - Division One Central Division team now play Berkhamstead in the next round.

We look forward to following the Ux all the way to Wembley, after er, Wembley bid us goodbye!

Henry and Ricky share first MoW

Week 1 MoW
Henry Williams and Ricky Wood will share the first fiver for the best weekly score. 47 points form our man in Sydney and our current N&R FL Champion.

Div 2 leader Ben Guarino scored 43, Steve Merchant hit 42, Barry Paull 41, Neil Reynolds 40 and Mitesh Patel 39.

The owner of the lowest first week's score was 15 with both Neville White and Chris Minchell having the privilege.

Woody starts where he left off

N&R Division 1 - Week 1

Most people used to not even publish a league table before 3 or 4 games have been played but both Socceroos and Woody's Round Up will be pleased we did as they jointly lead the Div 1 table after the first week of Premier League results.

I hate Mark Hughes is 5 behind the leaders with Paris Eagles, Gooner Win League and Bingo following up close behind.

Last year's runner up Boys on tour are 19th.

Two managers share bottom spot. They are Ollympic Games and John Terry loves a choc ice.

The Billion and a Half Man in 32nd with RvP's Red Army winding Gooners up in 31st.

Good Morals

N&R Division 2 - Week 1
Moral Hazard sit top of the Div 2 table after the opening week. Jager Bombers are 2nd with Fulham Roadsters and Hammer Nation joint 3rd.

FC Song Roi, Leave Myarsealona, Forest Green Gingers, Anfield 2nd XI, Kings of Leon Osman, stwike him centuwion vewy woughly and Morgan and Hannah's Newco were amongst the good early starters.

Cobra and Norfolk 'n' Chance are bottom with a long, long way to go.

Stat of the week

Rangers NewCo are finding life a little tougher than expected in the Scottish League Div 3.

Stat of the week:

Only once in the SPL did Rangers have as few points after three games as they do this season in Division 3.

Week 1 reminder

The first week when Aguero got injured and each of the promoted teams picked up points, with Southampton the most impressive losing after being ahead at City's Eithad Stadium.

Man U lost with RvP starting on the bench, Arsenal disappointed but Swansea and Fulham glowed whilst Mark Hughes' odds in the sack race dramatically fell!

And Liverpool showed that replacing your manager every 5 minutes is not the key to success, but how Steve Clarke must have enjoyed his Saturday night.

Monday 20th August 2012
Everton 1-0 Man Utd

Sunday 19th August 2012
Wigan 0-2 Chelsea
Man City 3-2 Southampton

Saturday 18th August 2012
Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
Fulham 5-0 Norwich
QPR 0-5 Swansea
Reading 1-1 Stoke
West Brom 3-0 Liverpool
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa
Newcastle 2-1 Tottenham

N&R Weekly Predicitions

Not a great start. We both went for it in Week 2 but....

Nobby

Swansea v West Ham HOME YES

Man U v Fulham HOME YESNorwich v QPR HOME NO

Stake £2

Potential Winnings £12.56

Balance £-4

Ready

Aston V v Everton DRAW NO

Swansea v West Ham HOME YESSouthampton v Wigan HOME NO

Stake £2
Potential Winnings £29.34
Balance £-4

Road to Wembley - Wembley pulled back by Ux

I know you were all looking out for Wembley FC's progress in the FA Cup on Sunday. Well it finished all square with Uxbridge (video here).

Wembley FC will have to face Uxbridge again for a place in the first round proper of The FA Cup with Budwesier after throwing away at two-goal lead at Honeycroft on Sunday.

The Combined Counties League outfit, who featured former internationals Ugo Ehiogu and Claudio Caniggia in their starting line-up, in addition to former Three Lions pair Terry Venables and Martin Keown on the bench, thought they’d secured a berth in the next phase of the competition after goals from the talismanic pair of PAUL SHELTON and DARYL ATKINS handed them a seemingly unassailable lead.

However, two goals in two minutes in the second half turned the tie on its head and earned Uxbridge another chance at trying to make the First Round Qualifying.

Uxbridge, who were playing in front of their largest crowd in 23 years, 754, now go to Wembley for the replay tomorrow night.

Wembley: Pearce, Hailstones Hopkins, Edun, Ehiogu, Hale, Finnegan, Bates, Carroll, Atkins, Shelton, Cannigia.
Subs: McComb, Mitchell, Waugh, Mierett, Keown, Amaegbe, Korten.
Attendance: 754

Photograph of the summer

Last year's winner Ricky Wood shaking hands and receiving the coveted trophy form a mystery man in Leadenhall Market at this summer's end of season drinks.

Transfer rules

Just a timely reminder with the deadline approaching on our transfer rules.

*You can make a maximum of 12 transfers during the season.

*The weekly deadline is Tuesday at 6pm GMT.

*Players changed before the deadline will be available for any games that night. If the deadline is missed, they won't be available until the following Tuesday.

*Email me your transfers to: simon.newport@aon.com

*At all times your team cannot exceed £50m in value.

*You can change formations at any time but they players have to play in their listed position and the formations need to be one of: 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-5-1, 3-4-3 or 5-3-2.

*We will regularly send out a player list, obviously it is regularly updated particularly after a transfer deadline.

*A player list is always available on request.

*If you lose your team, then we have it. 

Photograph of the week

Ouch. Cue hundreds more N&R FL transfers on the back of City's Aguero getting knacked last weekend.

Welcome to the 17th N&R FL

69 teams will contest this season's N&R FL, our 17th year. Welcome to you all, some old, some recent and some new.

This Blog is where you will find everything you need to know, and things you probably never wanted to know, so please always refer to these pages.

I will prompt you by email weekly with the latest scores and I update this Blog at least weekly (usually) with the latest N&R FL scores, regular articles and photos and anything else that comes into my mind when I get the chance. Mostly football related but sometimes a little off the wall.

The N&R FL 2012/13 will again be split into 2 divisions, called N&R 1 and N&R 2.... I know we are not just pretty faces!

The first weekly email alert will list how the 2 tables break out, with any new manager beginning in the basement the remainder of you will be aware of where you begin after last year's relegation and promotion battles.

Keith and I like this to be a very interactive experience and we have both lived overseas, me still in Bermuda and Keith is often in Thailand, so this is a perfect vehicle to share stories, gossip and keep in touch. So please don't feel shy and emails, texts, blog comments or calls are always welcome especially if you have some snippets of gossip, work or otherwise.

So, with that all being said, Nobby and Ready would like to wish you all the very best for the season. Good luck.

N&R Weekly Predictions

A return of Ready and Nobby's Weekly Bet starting this weekend:

Nobby

Arsenal v Sunderland HOME

Newcastle v Tottenham AWAY
Man City v Southampton HOME

Stake £2

Potential Winnings £8.88

Balance £0

Ready
Arsenal v Sunderland HOME
Wigan v Chelsea AWAY
Man City v Southampton HOME

Stake £2

Potential Winnings £4.96
Balance £0

Road to Wembley - Caniggia carries Wembley through

Our boys Wembley cleared the first hurdle on Saturday beating Langford Town 3-2 - highlights here.

In front of a bumper crowd and TV cameras, goals from former Argentinian star CLAUDIO CANIGGIA and two from fellow striker DARYL ATKINS saw the Lions safely through the Extra Preliminary Round and into the hat where they were drawn against Uxbridge on Saturdat 25th August in the Preliminary Round of the world's greatest knock-out competition.

Graeme LeSaux, Ray Parlour, Brian McBride, Caniggia all played whilst David Seaman and Martin Keown watched with advisor El Tel.

Wembley Team: Lee Pearce, Phil Mierritt, Graeme Le Saux, Ray Parlour, Chris Korten, Kristian Hale, Ian Bates, Jason Finegan, Daryl Atkins, Brian McBride, Claudio Caniggia.
Subs: Conor Carroll, Taiwo Edun, Ini Amaegbe, Jumo (JJ) Mitchell, Paul Shelton, Paul McComb, Bryan Marshe.
Attendance: 654

The Road to Wembley - Wembley, Wembley, we are the famous Wembley and we're going to Wembley!

Here we go. The looonnnng Road to Wembley and who best to be our starting team this year than Wembley themselves!

Wembley hit the news earlier this year when they appointed Terry Venables (EL Tel) as the club's Technical Advisor.

Then with El Tel's help and a cash boost from new club sponsor and FA Cup sponsor Budweiser, Wembley announced in Juen that ex-pros David Seaman, Graham Le Saux, Martin Keown, Ray Parlour, Claudio Caniggia (yes, you read that right) and Brian McBride agreed to join the club for the FA Cup games only.

A bit of a pisser if you're the local postie and are a Wembley player and was looking forward to your day in the sun, but to make up for it Seaman, Parlour, Keown, Le Saux, McBride and Claudio will help with the coaching of the Wembley squad.

There is also a new TV documnetary programme being filmed called Dream. On. The Journey of Wembley FC on ESPN and not to miss a marketing opportunity, Wembley have unveiled a new team crest and a motto: "A Posse Ad Posse." Which in North London cockney translates to "From Possibility to Reality Guv."

Umbro have been hired paid to be the new kit suppliers and Ray Parlour interviewed on the way the bookies recently said: "I've always believed grass roots football is essential to the game." Said the bloke who played 400 league games all in the Premier League.

Don't know about you but Wembley FC from the Combined Counties League Premier Division have to be an obvious N&R FL choice.

Tomorrow they play at home to Langford Town, from Bedfordshire, who play in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One. Good luck to Wembley Lions.

Welcome back

With the Euro's seemingly a couple of summers ago, and the Olympics coming to a close, welcome back to the N&R FL Blog, slightly updated for the new season.

Remember, this is the page you will need to bookmark to keep fully up to date with all the whose shagging who fantasy football stories for the 2012/13 season.