2012 Prediction League; Game 10 v Rotherham Utd (home)

Div3North · 30-09-2012, 17:26

Accrington Stanley

V

Rotherham United

2012/3 Prediction League – Game 10; v Rotherham Utd (home)

Item 3 on the Agenda – to receive apologies for absence from the Rotherham Manager, who is regretfully unable to attend tonight’s match at Fortress Crown.

That nice Mr Evans missed his team’s - then Crawley’s - game at our place last season too, moving jobs from them to Rotherham shortly before the end of the season. This time he can’t attend the game because he’s still serving the 6-game ban imposed on him earlier in September for an incident at the Bradford v Crawley game on 27th March (the one when 5 players got red cards)

; the FA charged him with, and he was found guilty (after a hearing) of, ‘using abusive and insulting words and behaviour towards a participant in or around the dressing room area at the end of a fixture which included a reference to gender’ and was given a 6 stadium ban and fined £3000

. He didn’t appeal

……….. They didn’t find him guilty of dropping his trousers, which seems to have featured in the original allegations somewhere ……..

The Stadium ban prevents him ‘from attending the ground where Rotherham’s first team are playing at any time during a match day’, which means he can still go and annoy the Reserve Team

…………so that’s alright then.

No stranger to trouble, isn’t Mr Evans; actually, his photo on Wikipedia shows him standing next to a Policeman

– which, of course, he did back in 2006, when he and the Boston Utd Chairman pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to cheat the public revenue – paying players on contracts which provided for much more than had been declared (one, for example, was paid £625 a week plus a £16,000 signing-on fee, whereas his ‘registered’ contract showed he was paid £150 pw

); that allowed Boston (unbeknown to most there) to afford to sign players out of their real money-range, and cheat the Taxman out of £1/4 million into the bargain. Evans was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended, and later to a 20 months ban from football management; Boston – who had pipped the Daggers to promotion on goal difference – were fined £100,000 by the FA and given a 4 point deduction - which took effect the following season, allowing their promotion to stand.

Stephen J Evans (he’ll be 50 on 30th October) is Glasgow born, and played as a professional footballer for Clyde, Albion Rovers, Ayr, Hamilton Accies and St Johnstone, until injury ended his career at the age of 24; he managed Stamford, and Boston (twice – pre and post his suspension); in May 2007 Boston came to the last game of the season with a very depleted squad, needing to beat Wrexham to stay up; they lost, and went down; Evans - it is reported - pledged his future to Boston on 8th May, resigned on 27th May, and joined Crawley as their manager on 29th May. Nothing like sticking to your word, is there?

In his first season at Crawley he was apparently sent from the dug-out six times

. The first two incidents resulted in a four game ban, but at the end of the season he was hauled in front of the FA to answer the other four red cards, which he amassed in just seven games

, and was given a suspended ban for the start of the following season. He appealed the four game ban and had it reduced to two, but then appealed the suspended sentence. The FA responded by slapping him with an immediate ten match ban and another suspended ten match ban on top of that.

He clearly felt the need to build ‘his’ Rotherham squad in time for the move to their new (New York) Stadium – as well he might. Out went 10, including defender Ryan Cresswell (24) to Southend, fellow defender Michael Raynes (also 24, and who signed in 2011 from the Iron on a two year deal) who was released half way through (presumably on parole, for good behaviour

) and joined Oxford, winger Marcus Marshall (22) who had been on loan at Macclesfield last season (no longer top of the BSP, I see

) and is now at Bury, ex Tranmere MF Danny Harrison (29), who left and joined Tranmere, and last season’s leading scorer Lewis Grabban, signed from Brentford, who hit 18 in 43 last time out, and who signed for the Cherries for a fee of about £300,000. Bournemouth seem to have signed every striker with more than 10 goals to his name recently

; Matt Tubbs (who got 49 in 65 for Crawley, and was just about to go out on loan before Bournemouth gave him a starting role again) and Wes Thomas – also signed from Crawley – who’s now out on loan at Portsmouth, are the two who immediately spring to mind. More money than sense ………….

In came ……………… almost everybody who was available; GK Scott Shearer (31) signed from Crawley, his last game being at our place on 5th May when, frankly, he was the reason they won the game and got automatic promotion

; defender Ian Sharps (31), who played from 2006 to 2010 at the Millers before joining Shrewsbury has gone back home

; ex Morecambe LB Laurence Wilson (25) signed up, and is currently out with a knee injury (Queen of the South and currently Blackpool’s Bob Harris having come in on loan as cover this last week) ; Icelandic international MF Karl Arneson (29) – ex Plymouth – joined from Aberdeen; ex Yeovil striker Kieran Agard (22), former Man U (and QPR, Barnsley and Exeter) striker Daniel Nardiello (29), and former Cheltenham, Forest Green, Bristol City and Colchester strike partner Kayode Odejayi (30) are the new frontmen; winger Lionel Ainsworth (24) from Derby, Hereford, Watford, Huddersfield and all stations West, 28 year-old defender Nicky Hunt (Bolton, Birmingham, Derby, Bristol City and PNE), ex Arsenal, West Ham, Boston Utd (see above!), Bristol City and Exeter MF David Noble (30), and Scunthorpe’s Michael O’Connor (MF, 24) complete the dressing room …………….. Anyone know the Icelandic for “Over ‘ere, Son, on mi’ ‘ead!”?

They’ve obviously decided – like us – to ignore the Cups and focus on the League; they departed the ‘Capital Fun! Cup’ on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Hull, and the TinOfPaint 1-0 to York. In the League, their home form is quite scary

– W4, L1 F13 A5, the wins being over Burton 3-0, Bradford 4-0, Torquay 1-0 and, yesterday, Oxford 3-1 (Oxford’s 6th straight defeat, having won their first 3 on the bounce), the defeat being by Coleydale 3-2; away, though, they’re pants

; 1-2 at the Cobblers, 1-1 at Chesterfield, 2-6 at Port Vale

(4 of those by Tom Pope, who used to be a Miller; he scored a total of 4 for Rotherham in 53 games between 2009 and 2011, which may explain why they let him go, but I bet they’re sorry now!), and 0-0 at Barnet (accounting for half the Bees’ total points!) Away form is D2 L2 F4 A9, giving them, overall, a record of P9 W4 D2 L3 F17 A13 for 14 points and 10th place. Be aware, though, that 10 points covers from 3rd place (Fleetwood) to 22nd (the Wombles) …………..Their leading scorers are Michael O’Connor (4), Daniel Nardiello and Ben Pringle (3 each) and Odejayi, Alex Revell and Gareth Evans, each with 2 …………..Goals from all over the pitch …….Bit like us!

Our record isn’t good against them; we won 1-0 away in 2007/8 (Ian Craney) and 2-1 at home in 09/10 (Michael Symes and Jimmy Ryan); we’ve drawn two – 0-0 in 08/9 and 1-1 last September at home (Sean Hessey); the others we’ve lost; a sad statistic – I know how much you all love statistics – is that none of our present team (or squad) have scored for us against the Millers in the League; apart from the goals above, the only other scorers were Ryan (again) and Andy Parkinson in the 3-2 home defeat, and Captain Marvel in a previous 3-1 defeat ; 2 wins, 2 draws and 6 defeats in the League since they came down in 2006/7 …………….. by the way; quiz time ………… how many sides who were in League 2 during our first season back are also in League 2 this season? And how many of those sides have been in League 2 – like us – every season since 2006/7? Name them …………….!

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 3rd October. Tight game? 11 goal thriller? Punch up on the side lines? Red cards galore? Lots of penalties? …………… Who knows? We’ll see ………….. Keep the Faith; c’mon Team Cooky!

Good luck to everyone……………….Pretty please post on time (saves me and my mate Chimer untold problems!

) ………… and thanks for playing!