2014 Prediction League; Game 10 v Plymouth Argyle (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

v

Plymouth Argyle

2014/15 Prediction League – Game 10; v Plymouth Argyle (home)

Oh my goodness me! …………..

• “Me and me Mam and me Dad and me Gran, we’re going to Waterloo
  Me and me Mam and me Dad and me Gran and a bucket of vindaloo”

Or – more accurately -

• “Na na na na, Na na na na ……….We're gonna score one more than you”
  

I’ve got to say that if I were John Coleman I’d resign now ; 100% win record, beating the form team at their ground, where we’ve never even SCORED, let alone won, and scoring 5 away from home for the first time in hundreds of years? Doesn’t get better than that – everything now is downhill ………and isn’t it a shame that only Wynonie got a bonus point for us scoring 5 , when two of got a bonus point for them scoring 4? Cobblers, if you ask me ……………..

And so – Plymouth; the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders (or, as my late father used to say, the Argyle and Bolton Wanderers); bet they’re quaking just a little bit, given their away form (lost 2-1 at Morecambe, 2-1 at Bury, 1-0 at Cambridge and won 1-0 at Luton – P4 W1 L3 F3 A5 ); overall things improve if you add in their home form (P9 W4 D1 L4 GF11 GA7 for 13 points and 12th place), but we’ve scored more than they have (14 as against their 11 ), and – of course – we’ve won 3 of our last 4 (Tranmere 3-2, Wombles 1-0 and Cobblers 5-4); only Mansfield, Southend and chart-toppers the Bury BlackPuddings can match that ………and, of course, 8 points covers 18 teams – from 6th place Shrewsbury (who’ve just drawn Chelsea in the League Cup) down to and including Hartlepool in 23rd. They also lost 6-5 on pens after a 3-3 draw against Leyton Orient in the League Cup. Watch out, Mr Sheridan – it’s a long drive home after a thrashing!

The summer wasn’t a good time to be a 27 year-old defender at Home Park, because you probably got released – well, French-born, exFrench Third Division plus Tranmere and Plymouth defender Maxime Blanchard did (to “unattached”, a team which has an abundance of players ), as did ex Oldham, PNE, Rochdale and 6 other clubs stalwart Neal Trotman, who did at least get to sign for Brizzle Rovers – if that’s a bonus .......... among other departures, former skipper – RofI u21 MF Conor Hourihane (23) - jumped ship (get it? Plymouth? Jumped sh....? Oh suit yourselves! ) to League One Barnsley, ex GK Jake Cole moved to Conference side Woking, and a certain Rommy Boco eventually joined Chesterfield, where we all thought he was going a year ago ……

In came Lee Cox (24) a MF from Inverness Callies and Swindon Town; former Hartlepool and Stevenage defender Peter Hartley (26); Deane Alfie Michael Smalley (striker, 26), once of Oldham, and Oxford United; defender Kelvin Mellor (23), whose career has taken him to the dizzy footballing heights of Nantwich Town, Crewe, Newcastle (Town), Stafford Rangers and Leek, before a short spell at Icelandic club Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja (who’ve won the Icelandic Championship 3 times, the Icelandic Cup 4 times, and the Icelandic League Cup once, but none of them while he played for them ) led him to sunny Devon; Bradford’s Carl McHugh arrived – a CB aged 21, who has the distinction of being, I think, the only pro footballer ever to be born in Lettermacaward , Co Donegal; Brizzle Rovers’ Ollie Norburn (21, MF) signed, as did Salisbury’s James Bittner (32), ex-Exeter GK, who signed for, and rapidly left, Newport last summer, ending up playing 7 times as player/GK coach for the (are they defunct yet, does anybody know?) Whites; and on loan, in came Blackburn’s Anthony O’Connor, and Swansea winger Alex Bray, who signed on transfer deadline day, made his debut at Luton, assisted in the only goal, and then ruptured his anterior ligament – his Plymouth career lasting a whole 11 minutes; we wish him a speedy recovery …………..

Things you need to know about Plymouth include (1) it’s the largest city in England never to have hosted first-tier football (who the hell worked THAT out? ) (2) Argyle holds the record for the fastest five goals ever scored in a League game (v Chesterfield on 3rd January 2004 – the day I watched my first ever Stanley game – scoring after 4, 11, 12 16 and 17 minutes, and eventually running out 7-0 winners) (3) ex managers include Warnock, Pulis, Holloway, Peter (Reid), Paul (Mariner) but not Mary, Billy Bingham, Tony Waiters, Malcolm Allison (twice), Paul Sturrock (twice) and Peter Shilton …… and some crackpots as well (! ) and (4) their Chief Scout (Darren Sheridan) is Manager John Sheridan’s younger brother ………….Did anybody mention nepotism? Thought not!

Six meetings since we came back up and they came back down; at their place, a 2-2 draw in 2011/12, followed by 0-0 draws in 12/13 and 13/14; at our place, 1-1 draws in 13/14 and 12/13; a perfect sequence , only spoiled by the 4-0 trashing they gave us at home in 2011/12 ………I remember I got the score right in the PL; I just had it the wrong way round! Before that, you go back to 1958/59, when we drew 1-1 at home in the Third Division, and won 4-2 away; despite that, they finished as Champions that season with 62 points, and we finished 19th on 42 points; that may have been, in part, because – as well as beating them and Norwich 4-2 away - we also managed to lose 4-2 at Southend and at Hull, 5-2 at Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, 5-0 at Reading and 9-0 at Tranmere ……..we also shipped three goals away at each of Bury, Doncaster, Mansfield, QPR and Southampton.

Including the League Cup, they’ve scored 14 in 10 games; of those 14, 26 year-old striker Reuben James Reid (who’s actually signed for them, If you include loans, four times now) has 5, and nine other players have one each …..talk about “goals from all over the pitch”!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 27th September (winter draws on, if you’ll excuse the expression ). You might not expect us to get five again, but if you remember, we followed up our 7-4 annihilation of Gillingham with a 5-3 win over Crewe (should have been 5-1, but – as on Saturday – we gave away two late goals then too ), so You Never Can Tell. Be there early, Ladies and Gerbils – seats in all parts!

James Who?

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

[accybeme]

Stanley 3 Plymouth 1 please

[DaveinGermany]

3 - 2 to Stanley please D3N.

[Tom D]

2-1 to Stanley please

[cashman]

2-0 on a roll now.

[smobile]

3-1 Stanley

[Proccy fan]

2-1 to Stanley

[Wynonie Harris]

6-3 to the Stanley please!

[Outback Ozzy]

4-2 to Stanley please and Jesse McClure to miss out on the £10,000 crossbar challenge but donates the money anyway for his love of Accrington Stanley.

[Tommy McQueen]

Stanley 3 Plymouth 1 please

[Div3North]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

6-3 to the Stanley please!

Pessimist!

[AccyMad]

3 - 2 to Stanley please

[DAV007]

Stanley 0 -3 Plymouth

Coleman out

[Redash]

3-1 To The Stanley, please.

[deeayess]

2 1 Stanley