Cornish Steve

Solid and deserved win. We're now getting the results we've deserved all season. Our defence was outstanding, and all four (plus Onana) deserve joint MotM. I don't understand the complaints about lack of subs, for several reasons: 1) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We defended well throughout, and that's what was needed after we'd scored. 2) Our first-choice players need to play together as much as possible, so keep them on. 3) Not all players have a great game every game, so just accept that some will have an off game.

Predictable and best lineup. I would hope we’ll claim at least one point if not all three.

What a heart-breaking day for New Zealand. So close, but no cigars.

Six to win off the final ball. What a game!

You can always predict in advance and change it just before the game.

Bailey asked that I make his prediction 0-0 every week in case he forgets. That would soon get confusing. By all means let me know your prediction in advance if you know you'll be away, but no blanket requests.

I've made a change to the rules. This season, a point will be deducted when you fail to make a prediction - unless you made a prediction the previous week. This penalizes habitual criminals but gives a week's grace for occasional forgetfulness. I can assure you that the totals are now correct using this new scheme. Since I've not gone back and corrected earlier result tables, you may find inconsistencies with them, but all is correct now and everything will be correct going forward.

Let me check what’s happening. Sorry.

WHam 1-2 Everton DC-L

Congrats to Bill, MikeO, and Romey for scoring 10 points this round. As a result, Bill has moved within striking distance of Boston Toffee to lead for the season.

There's a difference between the person who occasionally misses a prediction, because of illness or travel for example, and the person who only shows occasionally. The point deduction is a way for me to identify those in the latter category since they eventually have a negative total so I can remove them from the game. Let me think about this. Maybe I can automate my spreadsheet in such a way that no point is deducted if the player made a prediction in the previous round. Bailey gave me advanced notice this time around, so his 0-0 prediction is valid - but it won't be for the next round.

Well done to Luton for their comeback against Forest. They were written off before the season started, but I think they'll survive. The bottom three teams right now are truly awful.

He's young, and he's a pleasant guy. Wasn't he laughing with the player whom he tackled so brilliantly? I'm not reading anything into this at all. A derby is a derby, but that shouldn't stop individuals from simply being good-natured. There's enough ill-will in the world without letting derby games promote bad attitudes. I'm not going to blame Young either since he saved a goal and the yellow card was harsh. Neither am I going to blame Keane, who's too often a punch-bag. This was a good team performance, and the players and manager should feel proud. This is a team on the up and up, and any worries about relegation will soon be consigned to the past.

You're right that I'm a mainstream Protestant Christian. While I embrace all statements in the historic Christian creeds (e.g., the Nicene Creed), I'm much more left-wing than today's vocal Christians. The church worldwide used to be very left-wing, but the influence of the American church has moved it significantly to the right and pulled it away from its roots. This is relevant to your question. Jesus was a Jew. His disciples were all Jews. All Christians in the first generation of the church were Jews, and they continued to attend the synagogues. Only when Constantine made Christianity the religion of Rome did the great shift occur to non-Jews. Today, of course, a big majority of the church are non-Jews. Jesus' teachings were firmly rooted in the Jewish traditions (and the Sermon on the Mount should be required reading). He put it succinctly: He didn't come to abolish or change the Law but to fulfill it. I would put it this way: The Old Testament Jewish Law was not so much a prescription for living as a description of a person. The Jewish Law was a pointillist image, where Jesus was the full picture - the fulfillment of that Law. In both senses, the Christian faith cannot be separated from the Jewish faith. Its origins are Jewish, and its teaching is Jewish - but with an important twist: Most Jews continue to await their Messiah, whereas Christians claim their Messiah already walked the earth. Yes, you could say this makes me "defensive" of another, older, religion. That passion could not apply in the same way to Buddhism (although I know several Christians who do embrace important tenets of Buddhism). From a personal perspective, it's been quite an epiphany in recent years for me to discover that one of my family lines (the only non-Cornish line) is descended from an orthodox Jewish family in Germany. It was a painful personal moment to discover that at least 300 of my fifth cousins perished in Auschwitz or other death camps. This personal factor has served to heighten my earlier respect for and support of the Jewish faith. Moreover, I have many friends and former colleagues in Israel, and so many in recent days have shared details of friends or close family members who were targeted and slaughtered in recent terrorist attacks. My heart bleeds for them. Sorry that I was so long in answering your question, and I hope this helps to explain my position. If not, you can sod off!

Liverpool 1-1 Everton Harrison

Close but no cigar to Formby and myself, predicting 3 Everton goals but not predicting a clean sheet. No-one predicted that Garner would score our first goal or that Harrison would score, too. Better the great result than great predictions this round. Can anyone catch Boston Toffee?

Not a great result in round 7, and those predicting a loss scored well. Matt won by predicting a loss and our scorer. Boston Toffee has quite a lead for the season, although dunlop9987 and Bill are both outscoring TT Average.

Happy to do so

What this is saying is that we did the right thing during the transfer window, and it really should pay off.

We should add DC-L to that list. He came in around the same time as Lookman and their potential seemed similar at the time.

Against Italy, Southgate has started Kalvin Phillips, a player who hasn't played a regular league game for the longest time, when there are many more deserving starters. He seems to be a stubborn manager with definite favourites.

How exactly do we define youth versus young players? Chermiti is 19, Branthwaite is 21, Onana and Garner are 22.

Touche.

It's always exciting to see underdogs do well. In this case, though, England lost.