Yes, it’s back! The Preliminary Round of the Predictorship Cup, featuring players ranked 17th-49th in the current league table, kicks off this coming weekend (January 6-7).

The Predictorship Cup works in exactly the same way as the Predictorship. You submit your scores in the usual way and the points you accumulate count towards your Cup score as well as your league campaign. Easy!

So, for example, if you score seven points on a Cup weekend and the opponent you are drawn against scores six points, you progress to the next round.

It’s a straight knock-out competition, with the big guns (i.e. the top 16 teams in the Predictorship as at December 31) joining the 16 winners of the Preliminary Round ties in Round 1 (January 27-28). All Predictorship Cup weekends correspond with FA Cup weekends, with the final coming to a venue (or a TV screen) near you on May 19.

Replays are staged the following weekend. If the scores are level after the replay, the team with the highest number of correct scores in the replay (or over both weekends if they still cannot be separated) will be declared the winner. In the unlikely event that there is still no winner, the match will be awarded to the highest-placed team in the latest Predictorship table.

In a final that miraculously mirrored the 2004 FA Cup Final, the 2006 Predictorship Cup was won by Millwall (John Collins) against Manchester United (Hope Arnold). John bagged a beautiful trophy for disposing of Hope 1-0 in a replay after the first match ended 1-1. Will John make it two in a row or will there be a different name on the trophy? (And yes, there IS a trophy.)

Preliminary Round Draw

1. BUNCH OF LOSERS (Michael Whitty) (36) v METROSTARS (Paul Dolan) (44)
2. TRICKY TREES (Alex Iskandar Liew) (39) v NEWCASTLE UNITED (Basil Bradley) (31)
3. SUNDERLAND (Trevor Morris) (43) v SOUTHAMPTON (Tom Palmer) (27)
4. CYPRIARKOS F.C. (Neil Hayes) (17) v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (Simon Gold) (32)
5. LIVING THE DREAM (Paul Bentley) (40) v LINFIELD (James Bradley) (38)
6. HORNETS FOREVER (Mark Davies) (46) v ABERDEEN (Scott Christie) (30)
7. WATFORD (David Roberts) (19) v SEATTLE GOONERS (Maziar Sattari) (33)
8. PURPLE HAZE (Brian Dunlop) (35) v DONCASTER ROVERS (Sanjiv Sachdev) (42)
9. DC ADUNITED (Patrick Bevilacqua) (18) v WEST HAM UNITED (Wendy Nathan) (34)
10. LIVERPOOL (Joe Zalewski) (29) v FARNBOROUGH TOWN (Rob Molloy) (41)
11. BOURNEMOUTH (Della Torra) (47) v BENFICA (Steven Dunlop) (20)
12. CRYSTAL PALACE (Dave McAleer) (37) v READING (Stuart Claxton) (49)
13. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (Gabe Bevilacqua) (22) v ARSENAL (Ted Warland) (26)
14. WINCHESTER CITY (Nicola Savage) (21) v CHELTENHAM TOWN (Rob Dimery) (28)
15. CHARLTON ATHLETIC (Nigel Birrell) (23) v WEST BERGHOLT WANDERERS (Jodie Kemp) (25)
16. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (Janet Jones) (24) v STADE RENNAIS (Ronan L’Heveder) (45)

* figures in brackets show current league position