BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Scrooge-like Seagulls make Millwall draw a gift

FEEL like a midwife this week - loads of loose ends to tie up.

There's a few outstanding cup replays north and south of the border, a Championship tussle that's appeared from nowhere, a north-west spat from the Football League Trophy, a couple of Conference games, and so on.

Even the football world has got lots of little tasks to tick off to be ready in time for Christmas.

Hopefully you'll remember my thoughts on Rotherham's recent cup history from a blog last week - the fact that they aren't the most reliable side in replays, especially after being handed a dull old draw for the next round. And Aldershot away, with all respect to any Shots fans, definitely counts as a dull draw.

So there's evens around that Notts County beat the Millers and, like Mrs B faced with a double header of a Downton Abbey yuletide special and a 12-pack of Iceland's finest chicken tikka samosas, I intend to tuck energetically into that.

Oxford are even better value to beat Accrington and I've got a hankering for the draw when Brighton shackle Millwall.

The Seagulls have drawn six of their last ten, Millwall haven't, and both of these teams are defensively pretty sound. Albion are the Ebeneezer Scrooge of the Championship with a stunning lack of generosity at home - they've only shipped seven goals in 11 matches. Bah, humbug to anyone who doesn't pile on to the stalemate.