2016/17 Prediction League; Game 19 v Yeovil Town (home)

Div3North · 23-11-2016, 23:59

Accrington Stanley

V

Yeovil Town

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 19 v Yeovil (home)

I started the Newport thread – four League games ago – with a piece about the number of managers who’d lost their jobs in October (10); I very nearly took the start date back a week or two, which would have included then the appointment of Alberto Cavasin as boss of Clapton Orient on 2nd October, replacing The Hess, and having been out of football for five years since he took Sampdoria down from Seria A ........... well, he lasted a magnificent seven weeks and 10 games, losing five of seven in the League, two in the EFLTroffy and a Cup game 6-0 to the Blades ...........he was their eighth Manager in less than two and a half years, and won two games in all – 3-0 at Colchester and 3-1 at Hartlepool (which was better than we did!) .......... and Orient now share a League record (with Newport from 1970) of having lost nine of their first ten home games in the League .............. and we’re due there in 2 weeks time, so long may that run continue!

Well there we are; one point and one goal in our last five in the League (0-0 against Crawley, and 1-3 against Newport, for those who suffer from short – medium term alka-seltzers) ............. ignoring the Cup win at Bratfud, one goal in 540 minutes (we also lost 4-0 to Wolves u12s, you’ll remember); after the Blackpool game we were in the playoffs (7th) – 19 points from 13 games; now we’re 18th (just below Colchester, who started Tuesday’s game propping up the League, but who won 3-0 at Cheltenham) with 20 points (W5 D5 L8) ......we’ve scored 19, as have Mansfield (9th) and Cheltenham (23rd) – one more than Yeovil, Cambridge and Crawley, and we’ve conceded 24 (as have 3rd placed Donnie and Stevenage), whereas Cheltenham, Exeter, Crawley and Barnet have let in 25, Colchester 26, Notts Co 29, Hartlepool 30, and Morecambe 35 (which is about the only laugh of the night!) The stats in isolation don’t look too bad – 9 points now cover Grimsby (6th) down to and including Newport (24th again – what a shame for Mr W after all his efforts that they’re back on the bottom) – but it’s no good “battering them”, or “being robbed” by “controversial” refereeing decisions, “hitting the bar three times in the second half (!)”, or being “dead unlucky”, if you can’t stick the ball in the net ........at half time on Tuesday Hartlepool had had one shot (on target) and we’d had 13 (2) ............and who won the game? Not us! And why? Because we can’t – pardon my French – bloody score! Needs sorting JC – like now, please!

Ignoring the Man U game that never was – otherwise, our 2-0 defeat to Woevil Town in the Cup replay in December 14 – we’re honours-even in the League; we won 2-1 at home last September, and lost 1-0 at theirs on a Tuesday in March; for Somerset’s information and stats records, the pitch was diabolical, the game shouldn’t have been played, it rained all day, and the referee was an idiot (but nobody wrote in complaining). The Glovers (see also the Hatters and the Cobblers) ended last season in 8th place, 6 points outside the playoff places, and were the only team in the top half of League 2 with a negative GD (-1) ............... Striker Ryan Bird (29) left in the summer, having mutuallyconsented to Eastleigh .........two weeks ago Izale McLeod (now 32, and who started out in 2002) did the self-same thing to the same place ......... Eastleigh now have a potential front four of McLeod, Bird, James Constable and Jamie Cureton – aged 32, 29, 32 and 41 respectively ........ and they’ll score a hatful of goals if they can find people able to push their wheelchairs fast enough to keep up with play! For the record, Eastleigh are 8th in the Conference, and have 33 goals in 21 games (top scorers Mikael Mandron with 10, defender Luke Coulson (6) and MF Andy Drury (5) – so why did they sign Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb?)

In came ........... lots of people none of us will know anything about, many of whom are only young (18 – 21); striker Tom Eaves from Bolton; MF/W Otis Khan from Barnsley, who got tired of sitting on the Dock of the Bay, presumably; MF Joe Lea (18) from the Saints; Jonny Maddison (GK) from Leicester - you never know when you might need two keepers! (although their first choice GK is Artur Krysiak; CB Bevis Mugabi, also from the Saints (no idea who Butthead signed for, sorry); ; MF Alex Lawless from Luton; and MF Kyle Copp from Swansea ...... five loan signings, two from Swansea, two from Bournemouth, and one from the Baggies .....and MF Matt Butcher is out of the game, suspended for five yellow cards, which might help us ............ or might not!

They’ve played 17 in the League – their game on Tuesday was postponed because of a waterlogged Huish Park (“huish” is the noise made by the brushes sweeping the water away); where’s Somerset when you need him? At the moment they’re 12th – P17 W7 D3 L7 GF18 GA22 Pts 24; they’ve won 4 and drawn 2 of their last 6 in the League (although they did depart the FA Cup after a replay (1-1), losing 4-2 on pens to Solihull Moors); away form is W2 (1-0 at Leyton Orient and 1-0 at Crewe) D2 L4; overall they’ve kept 6 clean sheets and drawn a blank 4 times; they’ve scored four once (4-2 win over Cheltenham), two three times, and everything else has been nil or one; they’ve conceded four goals twice (4-1 defeats at Plymouth and Doncaster) and 3 at home to Blackpool ......................

As someone said to me today, “you’ll probably give someone a pasting soon”, and maybe we will .............this might be a good point to try it out? Yes? Because we can’t afford to lose five on the run; and we’ve already lost 8 of 18 in the League this season ...................does anyone remember how many we lost out of 46 last season? No? Well it was nine .............. ‘nuff said!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 26th November; this season we’ve got 20 points from 18 games; last season we got 85 points from 46 games ............the number-crunchers will tell you that our maximum available points total now for this season is 104 .......time to start worrying all over again!

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