Alan Curbishley’s Goaldash picks for this Saturday (week two)

Published 17:06 01/03/12

As this week's guest manager of Goaldash, Alan Curbishley shares his six selections:

Last week I didn’t do too well did I with my first attempt at Goaldash. I thought I had got off to a great start with Newcastle scoring but at that point, Hartlepool, one of my other selections, were already behind against Wycombe Wanderers.

Let’s just say that I’m hoping for better this week having now got the real idea of Goaldash.

This weekend there are some really interesting fixtures on Goaldash. Having seen three Barclays Premier League teams among the six quickest goals last Saturday, I’ve gone for two Premier League teams this week alongside two teams from the npower Championship and the npower League 1.

Whether you decide to follow my tips or pick your own, you can win £1million by playing Goaldash for just £1 per play!

Alan Curbishley's Selections for Saturday 3rd March 2012 are:

4 – Barnsley

21 – Everton

24 - Ipswich

27 – Manchester City

33 – Notts County

48 – Wycombe

Barnsley – They’re a good side at home and tend to score a lot of goals at Oakwell.

Everton – They’re playing with confidence at the moment and that momentum can often mean an early goal.

Ipswich – Another side who are scoring goals recently, particularly at home.

Manchester City – After last week’s game against Blackburn, City face another relegation threatened side in Bolton so you’d fancy them to win and could grab an early goal.

Notts County – They’ve had a couple of decent results and with a new manager to impress, expect to see them come flying out of the blocks.

Wycombe – They face a tough away game at Scunthorpe but Wycombe had an amazing result last week having brought in 4 new players on loan.

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After a thrilling game at the Emirates on Sunday where we all saw Arsenal come from 2-0 down to win 5-2 in the North London derby, I had to empathise with Harry Redknapp as it’s very difficult to recover from going 3-2 having been 2-0 up.

If you looked at Tottenham on Sunday, they never really looked comfortable at 2-0 up. At that stage of the game, you'd probably look to ask one of your forwards to drop back into midfield and help out there. You’d be wary about making further changes because you don't want to tinker too much with a leading team. When at 3-2 down, you are forced into making subtle changes to get your team back into the game. That said you really have to give credit to Arsenal on Sunday as they played so much better than they had done for a long time.

The game on Sunday was a fiercely contested North London derby and this Sunday sees yet another derby game, this time in the North East matching up Sunderland and Newcastle.

Derby games are always hard-fought and passionate and the following three match ups are in my opinion, the most passionate and also have the ingredients that could see things get out of hand:

Barcelona v Real Madrid – This game has become uncontrollable at times. Both teams are so good but every minute there is something happening. The players, managers and fans all have a responsibility to ensure that these games do not get out of hand.

Celtic v Rangers – This derby has an electric atmosphere and the build up to the game starts weeks in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes this atmosphere can reverberate onto the pitch and it’s always difficult for the referee to keep 11 v 11 on the field.

Millwall v West Ham – El Clásico and the Glasgow derby maybe bigger in terms of attendance and stature but make no mistake, this derby really matters to the fans. Unfortunately, this game is very difficult to manage both on and more significantly, off the pitch but it’s one of the most passionate in the world.

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To finish this week's blog I thought I'd share with you a couple of my most memorable and pleasing moments from my time as a player and a manager. As a player it has to be making my West Ham debut at the age of 17 against Chelsea. It was a massive occasion for me to make my debut at such a young age, unfortunately we lost 1-0.

As a manager it has to be the Play-Off Final of 1998. The game finished 4-4 against Sunderland after extra time. Charlton then went on to win 8-7 on penalties and finally got promoted to the top flight. It was really important that Charlton won that day because I would’ve probably had to break the team up had we not. That promotion really put Charlton Athletic on the map.

Good luck with Goaldash this coming Saturday and I look forward to catching up next week.

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For your chance to win £1Million with Goaldash, simply pick the 6 teams you think will score the 6 quickest goals. Goaldash is only £1 per play and there is no limit to the amount of times you can play each week. All matches kick off at 3pm but you must play before 2.55pm.

There are some great cash pay-outs for correctly selecting the quickest 3, 4 or 5 teams to score.

Goaldash has given Alan Curbishley a free play and he has kindly offered to donate any winnings to Nordoff Robbins – A music therapy charity for autistic children.

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