2015/16 Prediction League; Game 29 v Bristol Rovers (home)

Div3North · 28-01-2016, 22:49

Accrington Stanley

V

Bristol Rovers

2015/16 Prediction League; Game 29 v Brizzle Rovers (home)

On September 12th we went to the Memorial Ground, where we beat the (newly promoted back to League Two) BrizzleRov 1-0 on their allotment; our goal was scored by Billy Whizz with an overhead kick on 68 minutes, described by the BBC as a “rare moment of quality as Accrington won a forgettable encounter” ……….miserable swine!

They went down, you’ll recall, in the Last Day Nonsense at the end of season 2013/14 which saw them lose, and end up relegated on GD from Wycombe ……. In that season we beat them twice (2-1 at home and 1-0 away); we also featured in the List of Notable Achievements of the Season by virtue of (1) sharing the longest run of consecutive losses (6, shared with Hartlepool and Mansfield), (2) having the lowest attendance for a League Two game that season (1101, at home to – you couldn’t make this up – BrizzleRov) and (c) sharing the record for the most goals scored by a team in a game, when we beat Morecambe 5-1 (they also lost 5-0 at Plymouth a fortnight before!). I’ll just repeat that stat, if you don’t mind ….”beat Morecambe 5-1” They (Brizzle) also booted Manager John Ward upstairs in late March, to “Director of Football” (not to be confused with “Director of Traffic”). However, the Gasheads only stayed down the one year, coming back by virtue of beating Grimsby 5-3 on pens after a Half-Desmond Playoff Final ….

Not much going on transfer-wise since this season began; they’ve just released Nathan Blissett (25, S) nephew of Luther, whom they signed from Kidderminster in 2014, and loaned out strikers Jamie Lucas to Boreham Wood (wherever that is) and Ellis Harrison (a Welsh u21 striker who’d scored 6 in 24 for them this season, including the winner when they beat Oxford away the day before he went) to Hartlepool …….He played against us on the 19th, and the reports I read on the forum suggested he’d played well for them; not so, according to Ronnie “Bet You!” Moore, who said after the game;

• "You are going to get your ups and downs with the young ones. They've come to us to get games, but if they don't give us what we're looking for, then they don't play."

They’ve also recently signed Cambridge Utd striker Rory Gaffney, who has a goal-per-game ration of 1 in 2, having 2 for Cambridge and 5 for Brizzle in his 14 appearances (Note to Our Defence: “Mark him!”); today they’ve signed “veteran” (= ancient and decrepit; ok, he’s 33, but he still breathes heavily and leans on the sideboard a lot – well, that’s what I heard) New Zealand striker Rory Fallon (what is it with them and players called Rory?) who last played for Scunthorpe in October 2014 ……. Manager Darrell Clarke (see “John Ward Booted Upstairs” above) said of him;

• “He's a very experienced footballer and someone who I would call an old-fashioned striker".

……. which I assume means that he barges goalkeepers into the net, ball and all, from corners, a la Nat Lofthouse ……

Final signing is a strange one; Shrewsbury’s skipper Liam Lawrence (34, MF, with 15 caps for the Republic of Ireland) – once of Barnsley, Sunderland, Stoke, Pompey and Mansfield – put his moniker on the dotted ……It’s odd (money-related, I suspect), because the Shrews also sent out leading scorer James Collins to Northampton and one Tyrone Barnett (remember him?) to Southend at the same time ………..Who – unless you’re completely on your uppers and trying to off-load the big earners – lets their Captain, their leading scorer and a former million-pound striker all leave at the same time?

Currently they’re fourth; P28 W14 D5 L9 GF39 GA28 for 47 points; they’re four points behind Oxford (who have a game in hand) and five points ahead of us (with us having four games in hand) …….odd season in many ways – they lost five of their first seven at home, beating Barnet and drawing with Notts County and losing to Northants, us, Pompey, Newport and Oxford, and then they also lost at home to Sheringham United, whereas away from home they’ve only lost three – at Barnet, Crawley and the Orient …..in the Cups they didn’t survive Round One in the CapitalOne (losing 2-1 at home to Brum) or the FA Cup, losing 1-0 at home to Chesham United (“The Generals”), who flew the flag for the Southern League (Premier Division) and whose Player-coach is Barrington (“Barry”) Hayles, whose previous employers include Stevenage, BrizzleRov (!), Fulham, Plymouth, 7 others, Truro City, Arlesey Town of the Southern League Division One Central, and Willesden Hawkeye, which sounds like a mate of Tonto and the Lone Ranger ………..they did manage a win in Round One of the PaintyThingy (2-0 over Wycombe at home), but reverted to form in Round Two and went down 1-0 at Southend.

32 games, 43 goals ………….leading scorers are striker Matty Taylor (ex Forest Green) with 14, and Billy Bodin and Jermaine Easter, each with 5......... our head-to-head is W6 D1 L2; we went down there in 2006 and lost 4-0, and again in 2012 and lost 5-1; we drew 1-1 at ours in 2007; and we’ve won the rest, including the last five meetings ....... the last three away games we’ve won by the odd goal in one, and we’ve also won the last three home games (11/12, 12/13 and 15/16) by 2-1, 1-0 and 2-1 respectively; we’ve scored 6 and conceded one in the five most recent fixtures, and always won by the odd goal in one or three .................There’s got to be an omen there, surely?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 15.00 hours on Saturday 30th January; this game seems to have “six-pointer” written on it – and speaking of Pointer, did anyone else see that ex Burnley striker Ray Pointer passed away this week? RIP Ray – you were class! So let’s close the gap on the top three, shall we lads? And welcome to Scott Brown, released by Grimsby, played for Coley at Southport, and will be looking for a lift to training because he hasn’t currently got a driving licence, which would probably make the daily commute to Grimsby a bit tough!

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