2015/16 Prediction League; Game 10 v Yeovil Town (home)

Div3North · 27-09-2015, 21:47

Accrington Stanley

V

Yeovil Town

2015/16 Prediction League - Game 10; v Yeovil (home)

According to the BBC, “Accrington Stanley thrashed Crawley Town 3-0 to move up to fifth in League Two and extend their unbeaten run to seven games”

.................How good does that look? “Thrashed”

........”unbeaten run”

..........”fifth in League Two”

.............. 65% of the play, 15 shots (9 on target)

to their 3 (1 on target)

, and Josh now joint third in the list of leading League Two scorers on 5

, level with Barry Corr of Cambridge and Jake Jervis of Plymouth, and behind Simpson of Leyton Orient (6) and Jabo Ibehre of Carlisle (8) ..............Let the Good Times roll!

Amen to that! .......

So, on to Tuesday, and the visit of Yeovil ............They were founded in 1890 as Yeovil FC, becoming firstly Yeovil Casuals

(sounds like a brand of shoes!) in 1895, and then Yeovil Town in 1907, then Yeovil and Petters Utd (no comment

), and, in 1946, back to Yeovil Town. Their fame, of course, was (1) their ability to cause Cup upsets

(most famously, probably, in 1949, when they beat Sunderland in front of a home crowd of 17,123, going on to play Man U at Maine Road in front of a crowd in excess of 81,000 (we wish!), and (2) their old ground, which had a pitch which sloped 8 feet from one side to the other

....... They footled around the non-League scene for many a long year

, eventually being Conference founder members, yo-yo-ing between there and the Isthmian League, and ultimately gaining promotion to the FL in 2003 (under Gary Johnson) by winning the Conference by a margin of 17 points (they’d almost got there by election in 1976, but it wasn’t to be).

Their first League match was a 3-1 win away to Rochdale, and at the end of their second season as a League club (2004/5) they won League Two, and thus promotion

. In 2006/7 they made the League One playoffs, beating Notts Forest 5-4 on aggregate (0-2 and 5-2) before losing 2-0 to Blackpool

at Wembley; in 2012/3 they repeated the feat, this time beating the Blades 2-1 (0-1 and 2-0), and then beating Brentford 2-1 in the Final .......They lasted only one season in the Championship, though, going down in 24th place with 37 points from 46 games

, and last season – despite replacing Gary Johnson with Paul Sturrock – they slid into a second consecutive relegation

, back to League Two after 10 years, again in 24th place, this time with 40 points, but a GD of -39 (36 scored, 75 conceded

).

Currently they lie 21st, with a record that reads P9 W2 D1 L6 GF10 GA16 for 7 points, one above both Dagenham and Crawley, and two above Newport (who eventually won a game on Saturday at Carlisle

) ........actually, only Newport has lost as many League games as Yeovil, who lost 5 of their first 6 ............ Their away form is crap, really; defeats by 3-2 at Exeter, 1-0 at York, 2-0 at Oxford, and a 1-0 win at Crawley .........that said, their home form isn’t thrilling (a win by 3-2 over Luton, a 1-1 draw against the Wombles, and defeats by Brizzle R (1-0), Morecambe (4-2), and Hartlepool on Saturday (2-1)); they also lost 3-0 at home to QPR in the CapitalOne, although they did win 1-0 against Barnet in the PaintyThingy; four points in their last five games, three points in four away games, eleven goals in 11 games in all ...............

Previous managers include Alec Stock, Malcolm Allison and Ron Saunders, as well as Steve Thompson four times, Terry Skiverton (twice) and Gary Johnson (twice); their biggest League win was 6-1 against Oxford in 2004, their heaviest defeat was 6-0 by Stevenage in 2012, and their most expensive signing at £sillymoney

(£250,000) was (now) 32-year old Argentinian forward Pablo Bastianini (who?

) who shipped up in 2005 from Quilmes Atletico Club

and who left in 2006 for Greek Third Division side Ionikos FC; they’ve also won the Somerset Professional Cup 23 times in the last 103 years (that’s Yeovil, not Ionikos

) which – since they’re the only League club IN Somerset – isn’t as good a record as it might be

.........Seven of their players – including Graham Roberts and Andros Townsend – have played for England; sadly, none of them were playing for Yeovil at the time!

AJ Leitch-Smith left in the summer for Port Vale, and David Norris left on 1st September (he’d only signed on 21st August, and played just the once in a 2-0 defeat) for Blackpool (“This boy’s a fool!”

); in came 15 new players (well, used players, but new to them

) including forward Ryan Bird (27) from Cambridge, Northampton defender Ben Tozer (25), MF Wes Fogden (27) from Pompey, 6’ 5” forward Mark Beck from Carlisle, Bradford City’s MF Matthew Dolan (22) and ex Plymouth, Brentford, Southampton, Colchester and Crawley def Ryan Dickson (28), who was made captain. As well as the free signings (although they paid £nominal

(which isn’t the same amount as £undisclosed!

) for Mr Dickson ), they’ve LoanSigned Stephen Arthurworrey from Fulham (anyone know how Marcus is?

), forward Harry Cornick and MF Josh Wakefield from Bournemouth, Connor Roberts and Josh Sheehan from Swansea, and Jake Howells from Luton .................and with 21 new players who haven’t even met properly yet, it’s no wonder they’re struggling!

And that doesn’t include Wonder Boy Ollie Bassett, who became their youngest-ever player on the 19th September, when he played 73 mins against Crawley aged 17 years 6 months and 13 days; apparently he did very well, which is nice; Harry Cornick (see above under “Bournemouth”) said,

• “He only joined us on Thursday and he tore training up so we can all see he’s got a bit of talent”

And all credit to him .......as long as he doesn’t do it to us!

No previous League meetings between us, of course, and I’m not being drawn on any questions regarding previous Cup meetings, thank you very much!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 19.45 hours on Tuesday 29th September. We’re the form side over the last seven games – W4 D3

; Pompey have W3 D4, Wycombe have W3 D3 L1, Leyton Orient have too, although their last four have been D3 L1, and Plymouth have W4 D2 L1; Oxford (6th) are W3 D3 L1, and Morecambe are W3 D2 L2 .........Wycombe have conceded 5 in 9, we’ve conceded 6 in 9, and no one else has let in less than 7; only the top 4 have won more games than us (one more in each case), and we’re one of four teams with a single defeat

(Wycombe, Leyton Orient and Oxford), with only Pompey undefeated. I’m rather enjoying this!

Good luck to everyone!

.........Keep the Faith!

................Keep the goals coming going forward, and the DA tight at the back

(ask your Dad!) .......And thanks for playing!