A rather dull restart to the competition last night from a football point of view as the game between Botev Plovdiv v APOEL Nicosia a 0 - 0 draw, but not so dull for one of our players!

It must wreak havoc with a teams pre-season training to have to get into these qualifiers so early, the players must barely geta break before they're off again into full-blooded competition but I guess for the fans of these smaller teams, the chance of getting an away game at the likes of Barcelona must be a huge draw.

From a financial point of view too, the clubs can draw in a little extra revenue which for a tiny club struggling to make ends meet must be a big help.

I do wonder whether there is too much football though, especially this year with an interesting season ahead as we break in November for the much maligned world cup in Qatar. I'm going to have a new competition all prepared before that starts but before then, let's get back to the Europa Conference League Qualifiers 2nd Round, 1st leg between...

@nathen007's Prediction

This is the first leg of the second round of qualifiers and my prediction is :-
Motherwell 4 : 0 Sligo Rovers
Kevin van Veek to score the first goal

I really can't see Motherwell getting anything less than a resounding win after finishing 5th in the Scottish Premiership last year which is of a much higher level than the League of Ireland Premiership where Sligo Rovers finished 5th of just 10 teams last season and where way off the top.

*Simply write the name of the FIRST GOALSCORER, and the CORRECT SCORE AND as a comment. The competition closes 5 minutes before kick-off which is 19.45 BST (UTC+1) *

In the first goal scorer competition, own goals do not count. In the correct score competition, it's the score after 90mins. Extra time and penalties do not count and the pot for each competition is fixed at 50K. If more than one person chooses the same first goal scorer or correct score, the prize is shared, and everyone gets a little upvote! Don't forget, you can't choose the same prediction as me! It seems I also need to add, one entry per person. Don't forget new rule that only people with a rep of 50 or above are eligible to enter unless they have been approved. My game, my decision is final.

Upvotes and Reblogs are NOT necessary to join in but gratefully received.

Also remember that...

YOU CAN'T CHOOSE THE SAME PREDICTION AS ME!!!

And the Winners Were...

Just the one and up pops @chrisparis with his usual 0-0 scoreline to take 50K tokens on the first game of the season!
Well done mate, not a chance today though ;-)

That's it as we get underway again. Hopefully a few more of the old team will see the post and join in today's game.

Good luck and thanks for playing along ladies and gents!

Marching On Together

@nathen007