2014 Prediction League; Game 22 v York City (away)

Div3North · 22-12-2014, 00:47

York City

V

Accrington Stanley

2014/15 Prediction League – Game 22; v York City (away)

1996 European Championship (held in England, you may recall – and yes, we lost on penalties to Germany

); Skinner and Baddiel and The Lighting Seeds sang the Anthem “Three Lions on My Shirt” ………………This week’s starter for 10; York City changed their Club Emblem in 2002; how many Lions are there on their shirt? Answer – have a look – is five – two up the base of the “Y”, one on each “arm”, and one in between the top of the “Y” – one white on red, four blue on the white letter Y……………

They were admitted to the League at the end of the 1928/9 season

, when Ashington failed the re-election test (with a record of P42 W8 D7 L27 GF 45 GA115 Pts 27

) …………The Minstermen’s first season in Football League 3 saw them finish in 6th place, with 46 points from 42 games and a goals record of F77 A64 – 141 goals in 42 games (Port Vale won the League, their 42 games featuring 140 goals (103 scored, 37 conceded), Stockport in 2nd had 150 goals (106 – 44) and dear old Darlington managed 181 (108 – 73, including scoring 5 at home twice, six twice, seven once, and stuffing Rotherham 8-1 and South Shields 8-3

) …….Match of the Day started at 10.30 on Saturday night and finished early on the Tuesday

…….They maintained their League status for 75 years – mostly in the lower reaches, but with a flurry into Tier Two – but their fame was mostly due to their Cup exploits; in 1937/8 they beat First Division WBA and Middlesbrough; in 1954/5 they reached the Cup Semi-Final

, putting out Stanley Matthew’s Blackpool on the way

before losing to Newcastle 2-0 in a replay; in 84/5 they put Arsenal out in Round 4

(1-0, with an 89th minute penalty from Keith Houchen (remember him? Coventry? Diving header to win the Cup Final?)

) and took Liverpool to a replay (as they did the following season), and then in 95/6 in the League Cup they did Man U 3-0 at OT

, and 4-3 overall, and the next season they did the same to Everton! Mind you, for some of us, the chance to do Utd 3-0 at OT is really all we wanted for Christmas

………….Cheers, Santa

……. Bastard!

It all went horribly wrong in 2003/4; no wins in their last 20 didn’t help

, and down they went …..they made the Play-Offs in 06/07, losing to Morecambe 2-1, and again in 2009/10, losing to Oxford 3-1, before finally climbing back in 2011/12, beating Luton 2-1

Nine players left in the Summer, mostly to nowhere or non-league; striker Calvin Hyden Andrew (28, and once of Luton, Palace, Port Vale and Mansfield) went to Rochdale, and Olanrewaju Olusegun Mark Bamidele Oyebanjo (try printing that in the programme!) – a 24 year-old defender who started out at Histon – moved to Crawley. In came striker Jake Hyde (Barnet, Undisclosed); 23 year-old defender Femi Ilesanmi (once a Womble and later a Dagger); Anthony Straker (26, def/MF, Grenada International, formerly of Aldershot and Southend United); MF Luke Summerfield (27), previously on the school register at Plymouth, Cheltenham and Shrewsbury Town; ex Eastwood Town and Mansfield W/striker Lindon Meikle (27 and 5’ 6”); Dave Winfield (Shrewsbury Town), Marvin McCoy (Wycombe Wanderers), and Jason Mooney (Tranmere Rovers). In the more recent transfer market they’ve picked up a veritable League of Nations; striker Carlton Morris from Norwich; Italian u20 forward Diego de Girolamo (19) from the Blades (he having hit 3 in 4 earlier in the season on a loan at Kitkat Crescent (much nicer name than boring old Bootham Crescent!); Burnley’s Aussie-born GK Alex Cisak (25) has extended his loan, and had only 3 put past him in his first 4 games; and Guadeloupe international def Stephane Zubar (28) came in from the Cherries (and aren’t they flying! – if you can have Flying Cherries

)

Outside of the top 8, nobody has lost fewer League games than York have (7)

; nobody has drawn as many games as they have (11 – the next highest being 7)

; and nobody has won fewer games than them – just 3 of 21 in the League

, and none of 4 in the Cups ……..Hartlepool have also only won 3, and Tranmere have won 4, but the next worst is 6 ……….If you put all those stats together, you get a season that reads (League only) P21 W3 D11 L7 GF 22 GA28 Pts 20 for 22nd place and if they don’t fettle it soon it's gonna be Good Night Vienna

…….The wins, for the record, are all away from home

(3-2 at Stevenage, 1-0 at Cheltenham, and 3-1 at Hartlepool); their home record is D7 L4; they went out of all three Cups in the First Rounds – 1-0 at home to Donnie in the League Cup (Capital Thingy), 2-0 at Barnsley in the Paint Thingy, and 3-1 at the Wombles in the FA Cup Thingy after a 1-1 draw at the HaveaBreakCrescent ………..25 games; 3 wins; 24 goals scored …………….We’re still 11th – joint second highest scorers on 32 – 9 wins – 30 points. It isn’t relevant, I just like being able to type it!

Since they came back, we’ve shared the points and two goals three times, and they won the first one 1-0; going back to “Before”, in 60/61 we won 2-0 at home and lost 1-0 away, 59/60 we won 4-0 at home but lost 3-0 away, and 57/58 we won 3-0 twice!

Their leading scorers are Jake Hyde with 6, Diego di Maggio with 4, and Wes Fletcher, also with four ……………. They have Cisak and Fletcher who used to play for us, but this year our former players aren’t getting a reet lot of change at the ScoreFirst (viz last Saturday), so this looks very promising on so many fronts!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Boxing Day …………if this works out, you can eat your pudding on Christmas Day and watch their Puddings the day after

……. Here’s hoping!

Good luck to everyone ……….Keep the faith! …………and Happy Christmas and Thanks for playing!