2011 Prediction League; Game 11 Aldershot Town (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Aldershot Town

2011 Prediction League – Game 11; v Aldershot (home)

New manager (well, technically it was last January that Dean Holdsworth arrived from Newport), new broom; who are you going to “let go” in the summer? Apart from Twitterer-supreme Marvin Morgan, (who was probably always doomed to depart after apparently telling Shots fans “I hope you die” last season ), you might not expect most of your main scorers to leave, but 31 year-old Tim Sills (52 in 126 games) left, as did fellow striker Wade Small (27), ex Palace ‘star in the making’ Jack Randall, former Cheltenham and Kettering striker Damien Spencer, and Club captain Anthony Charles – 3 spells at the EBB, and 15 goals in 229 games there. But perhaps DH knows more than the rest of us; Charles – injured, it must be acknowledged – and Randall are without a club; Sills now plays for Basingstoke , Small for Tooting and Mitcham ; Morgan is teamed up front with Terry Gornall at Shrewsbury (well he would be if Tel weren’t banned), but Spencer now plies his trade at Grimsby ; midfielder Ben Harding went to Wycombe to re-join the Shots ex-manager Gary Waddock.

In came a list of players whose names make you go “Who?” Midfielders Graeme Montgomery (23) and Jamie Collins (26) used to play for Holdsworth at Newport County, keeper Ross Worner played 11 games for Charlton last season; Anthony Pulis – another midfielder, son of Tony Pulis – arrived (he’s been on the books at four teams - Portsmouth, Stoke, Southampton and Aldershot – and made 0, 2, 0 and 2 appearances for them; his other 7 loan clubs have fared better – he actually played 10 games on loan at Stockport last season, which is a personal best that you might not shout about …………) A couple of loan signings (FB Jordan Brown from West Ham and midfielder Jake Taylor from Reading), and Aaron Brown, a centre back from Leyton Orient ………. Yes, quite …………

In the League, it’s P10 W4 D2 L4 F8 A8 for 14 points and 15th place; at home, W1 D1 L3, away W3 D1 L1; their trouble is they just can’t score – 8 in 10 games, worse only than Dagenham (7) , Plymouth (5) and Hereford (4), and level with – yes – us! At home, a 1-0 win over Cheltenham, a 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon and 1-0 defeats by Northants, Torquay and Crawley; away, a 2-0 reverse at Morecambe, 1-1 at Oxford (who they play in the JPT on 4th October) and wins by 1-0 Bristol Rovers, 2-0 at Hereford and 2-1 at Bradford. That said, in all competitions – before yesterday’s loss to Crawley – they’d won 6 and drawn 2 of their last 8 matches …….

Their real success is the Carling, where they’ve seen off Rochdale and Carlisle from League One (2-1 and 2-0) and Championship side West Ham away (2-1 again), resulting in them earning the right to play Man U at home in the next round. Or Man U Reserves, maybe ………….

14 goals in 13 games, counting the Carling; 5 for Danny Hylton, 3 for Michael Rankine, two for Luke Gutteridge, one each for Peter Vincenti and Alex Redman, and two OGs. Leaving out the Cup, their scoring record is two goals twice, one goal four times and blank sheets four times. Ouch!

Since they came back into the League we’ve met 6 times; we lost the first three, one by the single goal in one, two of them by 3-1 away (goals from Craig Lindfield and Sunbeds – back in the starting XI for Stevenage today), then we recorded our only win (by 2-1 - Proccie and Billy Kee, who’s going well at Burton with another goal yesterday); last season we shared the points twice, 0-0 at home to open the season, and 1-1 away, with our goal coming from the boot of Rory Boulding, currently of Livingston FC. P6 W1 D2 L3 F5 A9; not good …………

As always the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 1st October. Someone, surely, has to get a smacking sometime soon; is this it? Will Wynonie finally get it right? (I can talk! ) Get your predictions down asap, ladies and gents; Early Birds, and all that ……….

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

[Redash]

3-1 to The Stanley, please Chaps.

[jaysay]

2-1 to stanley please

[Outback Ozzy]

somebody is goin to fall hard and heavy before long, is it aldershot - not yet so for me 2-0 to Stanley please

[Mysteron]

I agree with Outback Ozzy as it does seem to be coming together but for Saturday I go with a 2 - 1 win to the Stanley Boys.

[Shurm]

2-1 to stanley

[sparkie]

2-1 stanley please

[david1]

3 -2 to stanley please

[Tom D]

2-0 to stanley please

[smudgie]

Accrington Stanley 2-1 Aldershot Town

[heth]

1-0 to Stanley please

[teach]

2-0 Stanley for me please.

[ukcowboy]

2-1 Stanley please.

[LongLostSon]

Stanley 3 Shots 2

[ossy kid]

Stanley 1 - 1 Aldershot and please, as I,m off south, Plymouth 0 - 2 Stanley for next week.