2013 Prediction League; Game 38 v Plymouth Argyle (home)

Div3North · 21-03-2014, 00:54

Accrington Stanley

v

Plymouth Argyle

2013/14 Prediction League – Game 38; v Plymouth Argyle (home)

Tuesday 22nd October – the day we got our first League win of the season

; 13 games played; Plymouth manage a goalless draw at home to Newport, the highlight of which – according to the BBC – was the ten-minute delay caused by floodlight failure

. They lie 19th, with 12 points from 13 games; their Devon rivals Exeter are 3rd, with 24 points from 13 …………

Roll on to mid-March; Plymouth, off the back of a run of 6 wins in their last 9 games

, slip into the last play-off place, with 54 points from 37; their Devon rivals Exeter are a very dodgy 22nd, having won just one of their 14 League games in 2014

(against Southend, 3-2 away) drawing 6 and losing 7 the other seven ………..Other Devon rivals Torquay prop up the table, 5 points back from the Grecians, and with the worst GD in the League (-20) …………And who do Plymouth play on Tuesday next? Correct! Exeter

……….. Go Team Devon!

Plymouth’s last 14 – the 2014 games – gave them 7 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats; the away games (of which there have been 6), have given them wins at mid table Dagenham (2-1), 4th place Fleetwood (4-0), 19th placed Wycombe (1-0) and 23rd placed Northampton (2-0); they losat at Rochdale (3-0) and at Brizzle Rovers (2-1); they’ve done ‘up and down’ since the turn of the year – winning 5-0 against Morecambe and 4-0 at Highbury, losing 4-0 at home to York and 3-0 at Spotland. Overall their record is P37 W15 D9 L13 F42 A41 for 54 points and 7th spot …………..Rommy Boco

has played 7 of their 8 cup games, but only 25 of 37 in the League (and many of those from the Bench

), scoring just 2 ……..Their Cup games had them lose 3-2 at Brum in the League Cup, beat Cheltenham on pens after a 3-3 draw away in the PaintPot, only to go out 2-1 at Swindon in the next round, and in the Proper (FA) Cup they drew 0-0 at Conference Lincoln, winning the replay 5-0 at home; beat Conference Welling 3-1 at Home Park; did the hard work in Round 3, taking Port Vale to an away draw (2-2) before screwing up the home replay, losing 3-2 ……..Interestingly they’ve hit 18 in 8 Cup games, but only 42 in 37 in the League!

They brought in two from Palace – defender Matt Parsons (22), who would have signed last summer but for a kidney problem

, joined to the end of the season, and MF Jason Banton (21) until the end of 2014/15; winger Nathan Thomas (19) – once an apprentice at the Black Cats – also joined until the end of the season. They’ve loaned Bury forward Tope Obadeyi (24) – who’s also been at Bolton, Swindon, Rochdale, Shrewsbury and Chesterfield – and Sheff Wed GK Cameron Dawson on a Youth loan, as cover for Jake Cole, promoted to first choice when Luke McCormick’s season ended early with a fractured and dislocated finger in the Mansfield game ……………… and talking of injuries, Lewis Alessandra – once of Oldham, Chester on loan, and Morecambe – who’s formed an effective strike partnership with Reuben Reid, starting every League game and hitting 30 goals between them in total

, is out for an undetermined period, having done his hamstring in Tuesday’s win over Chesterfield.

We drew 0-0 at their place on 28th September (when they were 15th with 10 from 9, and we were 24th with 2 points (and some of the crowd – now very quiet indeed – baying for JB’s head on a plate). Last season it was 1-1 at home (James Beattie with our goal) and 0-0 at Home Park; the year before it was 2-2 away, and a 4-0 stuffing at our place ……… Played 5, drawn four, stuffed once

, goals for 3, goals against 7…………… Time for a win, Lads!

Their 60 goals in 45 games have come from 13 different scorers (at least – the stats never match up!); half the total comes from Reuben Reid (25), who started at the Pilgrims before playing for Rotherham, the Baggies, Oldham, 7 sides on loan, and Yeovil (from whom Plymouth have loaned him) who has 18, and the aforementioned Lewis Alessandra who has 12; 23 year-old Republic of Ireland u19 and u21 MF Conor Hourihane (you couldn’t really be anything but Irish with a name like that

) has 5, Luke Young has 4

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 22nd March. Certainly they’re one of the form teams, but also certain is that they’re beatable (ask the 13 sides who’ve done it so far); I’m with Cashy on this one; someone has been going to get a smacking from us for a while now, and if we play again the way we did on Tuesday – a cross between Brazil and Barcelona

according to my mate Leylandii – then the world’s our oyster

………..and we’re only 10 points off the playoffs!

Good luck to everyone ………….Remember; passion overcomes logic ………….Keep the Faith! ……………..and thanks for playing!