GHF Predictathon
Aug 11th, 2026 by goonerholicsforever
Matchweek 5: First five-week form guide posted
Scores mostly improved in Matchweek 5, thanks to the Hull, Villa and Leeds results. Those of Pangloss, bt8 and Early Bird all shed more than 160 points.
That catapulted Early Bird into the lead, Pangloss into fourth and bt8 out of the relegation zone. For all three, the neighbours and the boys from the Bus Stop are living up to their low pre-season expectations.
As a result, Dr F and Dr F Jnr both dropped back a place to second and third, respectively. Your correspondent and Bath complete the spendiferous sextet beating the Crowd.
Trev is now best of the rest, comfortably clear of the tightly bunched Uply, Aristocrat and SHD, with 21st CG, CER and Ollie in close attendance.
The tail fans out behind TTG — an image perhaps best not lingered on. However, the first five-week form guide of the season shows that positions are still very fluid.
The neighbours and the Tigers occupy the bulk of the naughty step, with Leeds, Villa and the Red Mancs taking up the rest of it.
Your Matchweek 5 leaderboard and five-week form guide:
Matchweek 4: A Late Leeds Lapse
Scores mostly worsened in Matchweek 4, with Leeds United’s win in the final game of the round adding an average of more than 100 points to players’ scores.
For the fourth week, the early lead changed hands. Dr F took up the front-running, with Dr F. Jnr in his wake, making it a Boston one-two. The result from Elland Road did them far less damage than most.
Early Bird dropped back to third, followed, at some distance, by your correspondent.
Uply, who had the least worsened score of the week (Notts Forest was his secret sauce), CER, the second least worsened score, and Ollie stepped up to get ahead of the Crowd.
21st Century Gooner is the best of the rest, narrowly ahead of the Ol’ Kent Cayote, Bath and Pangloss, while Trev took a breather, dropping back to 13th, two points ahead of Steviehyperdee.
Behind them, the tail fans out, with six players now on scores in excess of 1,000. It is too early to talk of a relegation zone forming. At this stage last season, our back-to-back champion was just four places off the bottom.
Hull still occupies most of the naughtly step, but Leeds now join Villa in the space that is left, at the expense of the neighbours, who are now restored to the PL position they are making their own, 17th.
Your Matchweek 4 leaderboard:
Matchweek 3: Starting to settle down
Scores continued to shrink in Matchweek 3 as the PL table began to take on some semblance of normality.
Every player shaved at least 144 points off their total, mostly thanks to the Scousers, though Villa, the neighbours and Ipswich also contributed significantly.
Yet again, a new frontrunner took up the pace, our debutant Early Bird. The wise old owl, Trev, held second. Last matchweek’s frontrunner, Dr F. Jnr, dropped to third. Dr F. and Pangloss completed the quintet beating the Crowd.
Your correspondent was the best of the rest, but only just ahead of the Aristocrat, who had the most improved score of the week, and Bath.
The tail fanned out behind the trio of 21st CG, Ollie and TTG, with Ollie, Dino and Steviehyperdee noticeably moving up the ranks.
Hull continues to dominate the naughty step, with the neighbours, Villa and the Red Mancs sharing the other end.
Your Matchweek 3 leaderboard:
Matchweek 2: Chaos continues
The second matchweek of the Predictathon brought a general lowering of scores, although the early-season chaos has still to sort itself out. If nothing else, half the field got their scores back into three figures.
Dr F Jnr took over the early pace-making from Pangloss, while Trev remained tucked in in second. Early Bird and Dr F completed a leading pack of five beating the Crowd.
The chasing pack comprises the distinguished company of Bath, CER, TTG — with the most improved score of the week — and C100, with your correspondent interloping.
21st Century Gooner heads the rest of the field, which stretches back to Hertfordshire’s Handsomest, playing a canny long game.
Yet, not much to read into anyone’s position at this point.
Hull, the neighbours and Villa occupy the bulk of the naughty step, costing players an average of 288, 157 and 155 points, respectively.
Your Matchweek 2 leaderboard:
Matchweek 1: And we are off…
We are underway for the fourth time. Welcome to Early Bird and Fred 41, who join last season’s returnees.
Game on!
We are on track to raise more funds for Willow than last season—many thanks to everyone for their generosity. [We’re not going to look at last year, but this year (though we’re yet missing one donation) we’re at £835 in donations and £107.50 in gift aid…well done everyone! – eds.]
Players are nearly unanimous that we will be back-to-back champions and that Hull City will finish bottom. One contrarian has the title going to the Bus Stop, another to the Scousers, while a third has the wooden spoon floating up the Orwell, not the Humber.
In between, the spread of predictions is wide, implying another high-scoring Predictathon and dramatic week-to-week shifts in players’ positions.
A few big contrarian calls will either prove winningly prescient or blow up spectacularly.
The consensus is that there will be nothing in it between Chelsea, Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs in the battle for the remaining CL places. The Crowd favours a blue, red, blue, red final order, though with little confidence.
Only one player appears to anticipate either a points deduction or a post-Pep implosion (or perhaps both, we can only hope) at the Emptyhad, predicting a 10th-placed finish for C115y.
Many players see daylight between the top five and Villa in sixth, with even more daylight between them and the neighbours and Brighton, who are foreseen battling it out for Thursday night football in parts of Eastern Europe even Eastern Europeans have never heard of.
Brentford and Bournemouth are expected to round out the top ten, but the order is a toss-up. However, one player has the Iraola-less Cherries to be relegated
Mid-table mediocrity is the foreseen fate of Everton, ‘Toon, Forest and Sunderland.
Leeds, Palace and Fulham are expected to flirt with the drop without getting into the actual dogfight, although all three have at least one relegation prediction against their names, as does Forest.
The three promoted clubs are most tipped to return whence they came.
Your predictions make us the overwhelming favourite for the FA Cup ahead of Chelsea, and a strong favourite for the League Cup, which is otherwise expected to end up in Mancy hands.
There are no clear favourites to be first for the tin-tack. Too many new faces and too many unknown quantities. Twelve of the league’s 20 managers are tipped for the chop by someone.
Your first leaderboard of the season, with Pangloss and Trev leading the pack off the starting line:
Predictathon 2026-27
Enjoy the new season by joining GHF’s enthralling prediction game.
Can Potsticker make it a three-peat? That is the big question. Or are you the one to thwart our back-to-back champion? The only way to find out is to enter the fourth edition of the GHF Predictathon.
Again, the game’s purpose is twofold. First, to enhance enjoyment of the upcoming season by providing a light-hearted, competitive rivalry as the season progresses. Second, to support Bob Wilson’s Willow Foundation with another generous collective donation.
The rules of the game are straightforward:
- The aim of the contest is to predict the final 2026-27 Premier League table.
- The winner will be the player whose predictions are closest to the table at the end of Matchweek 38.
- This will be determined by a points score calculated using the Difference Squared method. The lowest total score wins (see below for how the scoring works). The reward for winning is a full year’s bragging rights as the bar’s top know-it-all.
- We shall post weekly updates and a leaderboard here in the GHF Predictathon tab throughout the season so players can track their progress. However, the final table at the end of the season determines the game’s winner, as in the PL.
- If more than one player has the same score, the tie is broken by the highest number of correct predictions. The second tiebreaker is the highest number of predictions that are out by one place, then by two, and so on.
- Download the entry blank here. Email your completed entry form to ghfpredict@yahoo.com. We must receive your entry no later than one hour before the season kicks off, i.e., by 1900 UK time on Friday, August 21. No changes to entries or new entries are permitted after the deadline (see also the special guidance for this season below).
- To participate in the Predictathon, contestants are honour-bound to donate at least £25 to the Willow Foundation (link here). This covers entry to the main game and the three bonus predictions (the first manager to get the tin tack and the winners of the two domestic cups). You can donate more to Willow — we strongly encourage you to do so — but this will not guarantee a higher placing!
- TTG will confirm with Willow that players are in good standing by the end of Match Week 1. Players who have not donated by then will incur a 100-point penalty in Match Week 2, with a further 100-point penalty for each subsequent week of non-payment. If players have not donated to Willow by the end of Match Week 4, they will be removed from the game.
- In the event of any dispute, TTG’s decision will be final (right or wrong!).
Scoring System
This game will use the Difference Squared method. This is how it works: Players’ predictions for each club are awarded points equal to the square of the difference between the club’s predicted and actual place. For example, if a team were predicted to be in sixth place and ended up fourth, the points scored would be 4, i.e., the difference between sixth and fourth is two places, and two squared is four; if a team was predicted to be in fifth place and ended up 15th, the points scored would be 100, i.e., the difference between fifth and 15th is ten places, and ten squared is 100. The worse a prediction, the more the system, by design, penalises it.
Each week, each player’s 20 club scores are totalled. The leader is the player with the lowest total that week, but the overall winner of the game is the player with the lowest total relative to the final league table.
Special guidance for the 2026-27 season
This season’s game carries added jeopardy for players because of the 115 charges against Manchester City, which could lead to a points deduction. Players are advised to take this into account when making their predictions. As a reminder, changes to predictions will be accepted up to the deadline, but not after it.
Good luck!
TTG & NBN
