2011 Prediction League; Game 2 Southend Utd (home)

Div3North · 08-08-2011, 21:21

Accrington Stanley

V

Southend United

2011 Prediction League – Game 2; v Southend (home)

Perhaps the thing you least want at the start of a new season is injured strikers

; the Shrimpers (or the Seasiders, or the Blues – take your pick) have got two – Blair Sturrock (son of manager Paul) who injured his ankle in the last match of last season and has just started training, and Barry Corr – ex Exeter – who missed the whole pre-season as well, with a knee injury from around the same time. With Liam Dickinson not a certainty to do better than the bench, that means they’ll have one fit 34 year old striker (Neil Harris) and one central defender-cum-emergency striker in Tunisian Bilel Mohsni.

Pre-season hasn’t been a whole barrel of laughs; good wins over Dartford (3-0), Great Wakering Rovers (5-0)

and Needham Market (also 5-0)

were slightly tarnished by losing 2-0 to Dundee in a 4-team competition at East Fife, and drawing the 3rd place play-off 0-0 against Raith Rovers; Gordon Brown must have been thrilled

……….. two games, no goals, and no-one playing Fox in the Box

Six of the squad left at the end of last season, including club captain Craig Easton, who – after a career at Dundee Utd, Livingston, Leyton Orient and Swindon – lasted just one season at Roots Hall, scoring 4 in 31 from central midfield; Louie Soares, a Barbadian International forward in 2007, spent 4 years at Aldershot but only one at Southend; Miguel Commingues (29) only lasted 6 months, having signed from Cardiff in January, played eight games, didn’t score, and hasn’t added recently to his international caps with Guadeloupe; and Adam Bouzid, a French player of Algerian descent (his brother Ismael plays for Hearts and Algeria), most of whose career has been with junior sides in France and Germany apart from the season before he joined Southend, which he spent with Moroccan side Moulouda Oujda

(“Give us an “M”, Give us an “o”……..”)

Six players joined, all on frees; Congolese defender Jean Paul Kalala from Bristol Rovers (where he spent just half a season

); 19 year old defender Ryan Leonard from Plymouth, for whom he only made one senior appearance

; French midfielder Alessane N’Diaye (21), on loan from Crystal Palace; Jermal Johnson (26), an American winger who’s played for 9 other sides in his time, including Preston (2 games), Blackburn, Stockport, MK Dons and Lokomotiv Sofia

(anyone know the Bulgarian for “Over ‘ere son, on me ‘ead!”?

); 34 year old striker Neil Harris, who made his debut at Millwall in 1997/8 season and has put in over 140 goals (mostly at the Den), including 25 and 28 in seasons 99-00 and 00-01 respectively); and finally the above-mentioned Liam Dickinson, a 25 year old striker who is ex-more or less everywhere (Stockport (35 goals in 106 games), Derby (who paid £750,000 for him and for whom he then never played), Barnsley and Brighton, plus 6 loan teams, including Blackpool, for whom he got 4 in 7 outings). Oddly, Southend was the second team he signed for in this transfer window; first he joined Plymouth, then he left again in slightly less than a week; then he joined Southend

; makes Cloughie look like a right stick-in-the-mud at Leeds …

Last season they finished 13th; P46 W16 D13 L17 F62 A56 Pts 61; they were the only side in the bottom half of League 2 with a positive goal difference, though. You’ll remember – won’t you - that we drew 1-1 at their place last November with a 25th minute goal from Jimmy Ryan (Bilel Mohsni getting the equaliser), and that we did them over 3-1 (with our 8th straight home win) on an April Tuesday night during The Run, with goals from Ian Craney, and two in the last 10 minutes from Terry Gornell, and from Sunbeds (pen). Southend opened their account this season against Hereford on Saturday with a 1-0 win – perhaps not a fair test of their abilities; and who got the goal? 24 year old, 6’ 3” “defender/forward” Bilel Mohsni, no less; 5 in 26 last season, 1 in 1 this term. Just to complete the picture, they play Leyton Orient at home on Tuesday in the Carling Cup, which – incidentally - they’ve never won in any of its guises. But then, to be fair, nor have we ………………

The deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 13th August. Thumping win? Struggling sneaky win? Any kind of a win? 0-0 draw? Who knows? Maybe you do; get your entries in early – gives you longer to change your mind ……………..

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