[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Bristol Rovers

2011 Prediction League – Game 17; v Bristol Rovers (home)

Bristol Rovers’ Chairman’s office; May 30th 2011. “Welcome to the Memorial Stadium as Manager of The Pirates, Mr Buckle. By the way, we got rid of 17 of our players ten days ago ……..Hope that’s not a problem?”

And they had; well, you have it to do when you’ve just been relegated; 9 of them, to be fair, were Academy players who didn’t get contracts, but among the others to depart were midfielder Chris Lines (25), scorer of 23 in 190 games, who signed for the Owls; last season’s leading striker Will Hoskins, snapped up by Brighton; and 26 year-old Northern Ireland international midfielder Jeff Hughes, with a career record of 28 in 129 games for Rovers, who joined Notts County, where he’s hit 6 in 16, making him joint leading scorer alongside namesake Lee. Out on loan have gone Ben Swallow, a 21-year old midfielder, now languishing at the bottom of the BSP with Bath City, and ‘wantaway’ striker Jo Kuffour (35 in 139 since 2008), who will go when a club near London comes in for him ……… Hmmmmm!

Dozens out means dozens in, of course, and the Chairman’s pen was never in his pocket over the summer; Buckle went back to Torquay for goalkeeper Scott Bevan (31) and last season’s leading scorer Chris Zebroski (15 goals), who he’s now signed three times – Wycombe, Torquay and Bristol Rovers ; they also brought in ex Bristol City and Charlton striker Joe Ansinyah; Danny Woodards (27), a defender from MK Dons (and Wycombe, Exeter and Crewe); Matt Gill, an experienced midfielder from Norwich; ex Lincoln striker Mustapha Carayol (22); former Yeovil, Southend, Wycombe and Shrewsbury striker Matt Harrold (who has almost 300 games under his belt, with 50+ goals notched ); Lance Cronin (25), the ex Ebbsfleet and Gillingham keeper (who played seven times for the Gills, not many of them coming after he was in goal when we did them 7-4 last year ); two non-league prospects in Michael Boateng, a 19 year old defender from Carshalton Athletic, and Kayne McLaggon (20), a striker from Salisbury who may be the next Matt Tubbs (or who may not ……… ).

Finally, they signed a player who makes Bryan Hughes look like a YTS import; Scott McGleish – ex Leyton Orient, Colchester (he played against us for the Us in the goalless 3rd Round FA Cup match at Fortress Crown - my first Accie match, by the way - in Jan 2004), Charlton, Posh, Cambridge, Barnet, Northampton and Wycombe – who, although nearer 38 than 37, got 18 goals last season, and had a career record, when he signed, of 202 goals in 663 games.

In case they ran out of players, they also signed two on loan from Leicester (this being before Sven Dell’olio-Eriksson got sacked. Again. I’ve never met a man who’s been fired so many times ………..) they being 18 year old midfielder Oliver Norburn and 19 year old defender Cian Bolger.

They departed the JPT in Round 1, 3-1 at Wycombe, and the Carling in Round 2, 3-2 at Leyton Orient, having beaten Watford 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. They lie just below mid-table in League Two; P16 W6 D3 L7 F22 A27 for 21 points and 15th place. At home its W4 D1 L4; away it’s W2 D2 L3 – wins by 3-2 at AFC Wombles and at Morecambe, drawing 2-2 at Bradford and goalless-ly at Macclesfield, and losing 4-1 at Crawley (“We did better than you did ….” ), and – their last two away games – 3-0 at Oxford and 2-1 at Burton. Our head-to-head is short but painful ; in 2006/7 (our first season back, and their promotion year); Dec 06 we lost 4-0 away; the return game, on a March Tuesday evening, was going the same way until Shaun Whalley rescued a point with an “injury-time thunderbolt freekick”. Why are they always "thunderbolts"?

Their 19 games so far – 16 League, 3 Cup – have resulted in 26 scored but 34 conceded ; on the plus side they’ve hit 5 once (v Rotherham at home), three twice (the two away wins at Wombles and Shrimps), two goals four times, one goal seven times, and 5 times they haven’t scored at all; if you like your statistics more brutal, they’ve only scored more than a single goal in 7 of their 19 outings ……… They haven’t conceded 5 in a game (yet! ), but have given up 4 once (to Crawley), 3 on five occasions, two six times, one three times, and only 4 out of 19 have resulted in a clean sheet.

Matt Harrold has 6; Scott McGleish has 4; Lee Brown has 3; four players have two each (including Cian Bolger, Joe Anyinsah and Chris Zebroski); three others – including the soon-to-be-departed Jo Kuffour – have one each to their names.

As always the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 5th November. We haven’t won in 6 , and only won once in our last 11 ; loan strkers are coming in and out like trains into the sidings, but our leading scorer is defender Peter Murphy (who wears no 12) with 3. Bristol Rovers’ number 12 shirt, by the way, is dedicated to the “Gasheads” – their version of the Ultras, really; a derogatory reference by a Bristol City fan to the gas works which stood near their former ground at Eastville became their “core supporters’” nickname. Did you know that Rovers were formed in 1883 as “Black Arabs FC”? No, neither did I……….

Someone, surely, has to get a smacking sometime soon ; is this it? Will Wynonie finally get it right? Will Bryan Hughes hit a hat-trick on his debut (Billy Whizz got one for Burton this afternoon ……..) Get your predictions down asap, ladies and gents; Early Birds, and all that ……….

Good luck to everyone ………… and thanks for playing!