[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Newport County

2015/16 Prediction League; Game 17 v Newport County

This week’s starter for 10; how many League Two managers have departed so far this season? The Championship has got rid of eight, League One has unseated 5, and the Premier League and League Two have sacked three each ..........In League Two the merry-go-round began on the 1st October with the termination of Terry Butcher (well, you know what I mean ), and was followed by the elimination of York’s Russ Wilcox (who, you may recall, began his managerial career at Scunthorpe by going undefeated for 30-odd games and has never achieved anything much since) on 26th October and then the cashing in of Richard Money’s chips five days later at Cambridge. Butcher, still best remembered for that night in Stockholm when he bled all over the place , bandaged as he was, in the cause of getting us the point we needed to qualify for Italia 90; without him, Gazza would have had nothing to cry about ..................

Not to suggest, of course, that there was a replacement lined up before the “You’re Fired!” button was pushed, but John Sheridan (a player with Leeds, Sheff Wed, Bolton, Donnie and Oldham, and previously the manager of Oldham (three times, twice as caretaker), Chesterfield and Plymouth) signed on the dotted the very next day ; his record to date is two wins, three draws (including throwing away a two-goal lead to draw with the mighty Brackley Town of the Conference North in the First Round of the FA Cup), and two defeats ............Jury’s still out, John ..........

They sold 17 year-old CB Regan Poole to Man U for £undisclosed (but £undisclosed with lots of noughts!) and signed 14 in his place, including Welsh-born ex Chelsea GK Rhys Taylor from Macclesfield (but they appear to have loaned him out to Wrexham), defenders Scott Barrow (also Macclesfield, also Welsh – there’s an invasion planned , I’m telling you; isn’t it. Look you), Tranmere’s Danny Holmes, Nathan Ralph and Seth Nana Twusami from Yeovil, Matt Taylor from Cheltenham and Matt Partridge from Basingstoke Town (who lost in the Cup last weekend by the odd goal in one at Cambridge); in MF they brought in Alex Rodman from Gateshead, and Zaire-born Medy Elito (Colchester, Cheltenham and Dutch side VVV Venlo, whose nicknames include “The Good Old” and “Venlose Trots” – don’t ask); up front it was Scott Boden, from Chesterfield, Macclesfield and FC Halifax (he does pick attractive places to play, don’t you think?) and Lennell John-Lewis (Lincoln, Bury and Grimsby) .............. Mr Sheridan added eight more on loan, the best known probably being Notts County’s Scot Bennett, who spent 6 years at Exeter, and the most delightfully named being, unarguably, 20 year-old defender Jazzi Barnum-Bobb.

Their season started badly; after their first seven League games they had one point (from a Desmond against Stevenage) and five goals; they’d also gone out of the Carling 2-1 at Wolves and the PaintyThingy 7-6 on penalties at home to Swindon after a 1-1................Currently they lie 21st, four points above Dagenham and Yeovil, with a record on P16 W3 D4 L9 GF15 GA26 for 13 points .........the three wins were all on the road; 1-0 at Carlisle (their first win in League game 9), 2-0 at Wycombe and 4-1 at Brizzle; three home draws (Stevenage, Northampton and Exeter) and one more away (Daggers, 0-0) ,,,,,,,shame we’re not the away side; you’d be fairly optimistic, n’est-ce pas? Adding in their three Cup games gives 19 played, 3 won, 5 drawn and 11 defeats, while the goals move on to GF19, GA 31 ..........their leading scorer is Scott Boden with 4, followed by John-Lewis with 3 .............our leading scorer – “££Milllion + Windass” has more than that on his own!

Our head-to-head shows that we haven’t beaten them since they got back in the League; two draws (3-3 at ours, 1-1 at theirs) and two losses (4- at theirs and 0-2 at ours) ..............very poor; see me! It’s also fair to point out that they haven’t lost in their last 3 ......................

Deadline for entries is, as always scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 14th November; despite an unbeaten spell of three games, these are the games where we used to wobble but now can’t ......”No wobbling, Lads” ..... They’re bound to have their eyes on Tuesday’s FA Cup replay, where a Glorious Victory will give them a home tie against Barnet in Round Two .................Oh, the excitement! Where are my smelling salts, Nurse! And while we’re on sacked (or sacking) Managers, apparently Gary Monk is 1-4 to be the next, with The Chosen One 3-1 second favourite ..............How fickle is football!

Good luck to everyone! .................... Keep the Faith! ............... And thanks for playing! ............Oh, and may I be the first to wish you a Very Happy Christmas! (I rather liked the picture I saw recently of Santa, over a caption which read, “There are Twelve Days of Christmas, and none of them are in effing November!”)