2013 Prediction League; Game 1 (Newport County away)

Div3North · 28-07-2013, 23:01

Newport County

V

Accrington Stanley

2013/14 Prediction League – Game 1; v Newport County (away)

So it’s “welcome back” to Newport after a 25-year absence from the League

; originally (1912) they were a Southern League side ("The Newport and Monmouth County Association Football Club" – “Give us a T ………..”); re-formed in 1919, and elected to the Football League in 1920, they won promotion to the Second Division in 1939, beating Southampton 3-1, and drawing 1-1 with Spurs, but after three games (in joint 9th place) the League went into cold-storage for the duration …………………

In the 1946 - 47 season they resumed in the Second Division but suffered a host of defeats, including a joint Football League record 13–0 loss

at Newcastle United, (the great Len Shackleton apparently claiming "they were lucky to get nil"

), and went down again. They stayed in Div 3 South until 58/59, when they made Division 3 rather than Div 4, although in 62 they went back down, staying in the bottom tier for 18 years; they also set an unwanted Football League record by not winning any of their first 25 matches, losing 21 and drawing 4.

The 80s were glory and despair for “The Ironsides” (a reference to the local steel works); glory because, in 1980, they won both promotion to Div 3 and the Welsh Cup, which qualified them for the Cup-Winners Cup

(where they lost in the Quarter Finals to East German side Carl Zeiss Jena

(now a fourth-tier club in Germany)); despair because of back-to-back relegations in 87 and 88, which dropped them into the Conference (not, please note, the BSP anymore – it seems that “online payment company” Skrill are the new sponsors

(The Wonga Premier League can’t be far away!

); they folded part way through the 88/89 season, reforming later in 1989 as Newport AFC (they went back to “County” 10 years later), and playing in the Hellenic League; home fixtures were played, over the next few years, at various places – Moreton in Marsh, Gloucester, and back at Somerton Park; they became “The Exiles” instead of “The Ironsides” ; various promotions eventually brought them to the Conference in 2010; manager Dean Holdsworth left for Aldershot (bad move, Dean ), and was replaced by Spurs’ Reserve team coach Anthony Hudson, who lasted not quite 6 months and was in turn replaced by ex-Spurs fullback Justin Edinburgh (I always assumed that his parents had named him after the place where he was conceived

– you know, like Brooklyn Beckham and Paris Hylton; in fact I was only discussing it very recently with my own two oldest children – Kitchen Table and Back Alley ………………..) ; he remains at the helm …..

In 2012 they reached Wembley, losing the FA Trophy Final 2-0 to York; they relocated to the town’s rugby stadium (Rodney Park); and they got a new Chairman, who very luckily had won something over £45 million on the Euro Millions Lottery

; in their Centenary season (2012-3) they finished 3rd in the BSP, beat Grimsby 2-0 in the Semis, and won the Playoff Final, beating (strong favourites?) Wrexham 2-0…………….. Welcome home!

Famous former players include Liverpool legend John Aldridge, free-scoring Tommy Tynan (remember him?

), Kenny Morgans (ex Busby Babe, injured in the Munich crash), Tony Pulis (ex Stoke manager) and Welsh International centre forward Trevor Ford; ex managers include Jimmy Scoular, Len Ashurst, Colin Addison and Welsh International wing half (who remembers wing halves?) Billy Lucas, who managed them for 18 years in three separate spells …………..

Unusually, they kept most of the squad (at least 12) which won them promotion – best known being, perhaps, Ismail Salami Yakubu (28), a Nigerian central defender with Barnet and Wimbledon on his cv; 29 year-old striker Aaron O’Connor (ex Grays, Mansfield, Rushden and Luton), who’s formed a useful strike partnership with Christian Jolley (25) – also ex Wombles; defender Byron Anthony (28), for a number of years at Bristol Rovers, and most recently at Hereford; and GK Lenny Pidgeley (29), once of Chelsea, but also of Watford, Millwall, Carlisle, Bradford and Exeter, who came as back-up for Alan Julian, but did it so well that Julian was released and Lenny got the jersey …….

To them have been added ex Oxford CB Harry Worley (24), much-travelled

(!) 26 year-old striker Chris Zebrowski (Cheltenham, Bristol Rovers, Wycombe, Oxford, Millwall and Plymouth), former Oxford MF Adam Chapman (23), who had loan spells at Mansfield and Newport (and can obviously spot a winner at 100 paces!

), and two GKs – former Swindon and Liverpool keeper Jamie Stephens (19) and ex Hereford GK James Bittner (31) – the latter on a month’s loan. Apparently Pidgeley has missed pre-season “for personal reasons”

, so who starts is anybody’s guess (my money’s on Bittner )

Justin also wants to sign former Wombles and Macc defender Ryan Jackson (22)

; the problem might be compo

, because Macc offered a new contract, Ryan declined, and then they released him

; under 24, offered new terms usually equals compo

………. Ryan’s agent has apparently got a letter saying “no compo”

…………Justin wants to check

………just in case

....... Good move, Justin!

Robbie Willmott (23), one of their MFs, injured a shoulder in a friendly against Reading and is likely to miss the game against us (out 2 - 4 weeks), and O’Conner has a groin injury ………….. starting line-up TBA!

I did check when last we played each other; it seems to have been the heady days of season 1959 – 60 (which I remember well, because I was - aged 11 – on my own in the crowd of 65,981 at Maine Road on Monday 2nd May when Burnley beat the Sky Blues 2-1 to win the First Division title

) …………… It was a season that the Stanley might well prefer to forget (we finished bottom of the Third Division with a season-long record of P46 W11 D5 L30 GF 57 GA 123 Pts 27; we also conceded 6 goals at Southend, and 5 at Barnsley, Colchester, QPR, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Tranmere, and at home to Halifax

) ……… Those were the days, of course, when you played the same team on Good Friday and Easter Monday (and did the same over Christmas); our Easter opponents that year were Newport County

, and although we drew 0-0 at home on the Monday, we’d beaten them 3-1 away on Good Friday

……..Actually, 7 of our 11 wins that season were on the road ……… Omen? Who knows ……………..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 3rd August 2013. Looking at their forum, most of them think (1) it’ll be a sell-out

, and (2) that they’ll beat us

; are we going to settle for that, ladies and gentlemen? I think not …………………. Shall we show them what we’re made of? Shall we make League 2 quiver before King James’s Mighty Army?

Only one of last season’s top five scorers in League 2 is still playing in League 2 (Jamie Cureton, now at Cheltenham – Pope (Vale), Wells (Bradford), Nardiello (Rotherham) and Akinfenwa (aka You Fat Bastard

) playing in League One – albeit that YFB is at Gillingham again, not at the Cobblers), so there’s plenty of opportunity for new heroes to emerge; Danny Webber? Josh Windass? Why not?

Good luck to everyone ………………. Keep the Faith ………..And thanks for playing!