2013 and the Welsh football teams

Firstly Swansea City.
First major trophy competed for by English and Welsh clubs and only the second time a major trophy has been won by a Welsh team. A brilliant start in Europe beating Valencia comfortably away followed by just qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa league. League form in 2013 has been patchy with only 39 points from 37 league games this year. Swansea still sit in mid table and 5 wins and 4 draws should leave them  safe.

Secondly Cardiff City
A very intersting year that has included promotion to the premiership, the sacking of the manager and ending 2013 only 2 points outside the relegation zone. Whilst the sacking of Malky Mackay was expected and whilst he was not the combination of Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough that some Cardiff supporters thought he was, he was a good young manager and Cardiff will find it difficult to replace him with a better manager.Would you want to be employed by Vincent Tan?

Thirdly Newport
Promotion back into the football league and currently in the fourth play off place in Division 2 . This is a year to savour for Newport supporters. Could they go on to a second succesive promotion in 2014. They have an excellent manager and team and will look forward to 2014 with confidence.

Wrexham
2013 started brightly and they got to the play off final before losing to Newport. This seaso has been tough and sees them nearer to relegation than promotion as the year end. I along with Wrexham supporters hope for a good run to get into the playoffs with the momentum taking them back into the football league.

Predictions
Swanseas end the Season in Mid table
Cardiff end the season in danger of relegation
Newport go up again via the playoffs
Wrexham to end mid table
Of course predictions are normally wrong!

Malky Mackay

It is slightly strange for a staunch Swansea City fan to write something nice about anyone associated with bitter rivals Cardiff City. I have never met Malky Mackay so all I have to go on is what fellow managers say, the Cardiff fans reaction to his proposed sacking  and his public persona via the media.

On the playing side Malky Mackay has got Cardiff into the Premiership and even Jimy Scoular whose side beat Real Madrid and got to the semi final of the European Cup winers cup and were just a goalkeeping error away from the final didn't achieve top division football.

Malky Mackay comes over as an individual committed to the club he manages and he has shown great restraint despite everything. On  transfer market activity and on results all I can say is so far a job well done.

Perhaps someone should have told Vincent Tan if you want a small fortune after owning a football club you need to start with a large one

A new structure for rugby union

Why can't the current English league and the current Welsh,Scottish, Irish and Italian league. The top half of each league  would form a new premier league and the bottom half a championship. We could have 4 up and 4 down for he first three years so that the leagues would sort themselves out. A pyramid system with playoffs could be created below. This structure I am sure would attract crowds and more importantly a bt and sky bidding war. Of course the above William not happen, too many vested interests

South Wales football

As Swansea city progress to the last 32 of the Europa cup, Cardiff city stay well above the premiership relegation zone and Newport are in one of the play off positions in division 2 (division 4 as was) Welsh club football in south Wales is in good health.
If the second half of the season  follows the first then next season will have two premiership teams for the second successive year and Newport could well progress to division 1.
Each club has taken a different route Swansea via local people and the supporters trust, Cardiff via a very rich foreign owner and Newport have benefitted from a local lottery winner.
The problem of relying on one rich individual is what happens when they lose interest?

Pisa

If Pisa results are the all important results at key stage 3 should we not ensure that schools practice them before the children take the tests
I can think of no test where practice and learning techniques will not improve the result.

Other key questions
How many substitute students were used in Wales as opposed to other countries
How many Welsh schools refused to do the test compared to other countries
How much practice did other countries do pre  test
We're examination conditions identical in all countries
Was the linguistic difficulty the same in each country