2017/18 Prediction League; Game 12 v Lutom Town (home)

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Accrington Stanley

V

Luton Town

2017/18 Prediction League; Game 12 v Luton Town (home)

Form team over the last five games of League Two is, sadly, Luton Town – W4 D1 (13 points); next come Coventry and Notts County, each with 4 wins and one defeat (12 points); next are Stevenage, Wycombe, Mansfield, Cheltenham and us – W3 D1 L1 (10 points); then Newport, Swindon and Exeter with records of W3 L2 (9 points)............... my word it’s tight at the top; 6 points covers first to ninth ............and it’s tight at the bottom – Barnet, Chesterfield and Vegan Greenpeace Utd each have 1 point in their last five games, and Crewe – fresh off a 5-1 thumping of Chesterfield on 9th September – have lost their last five, scoring in only one of them

The good news is that Billy Whizz is joint top of the scorers’ table with 7, alongside Jorge Grant of Notts Co and Reuben Reid of Exeter (but Billy has the best “shots on target” ratio with 82% (14 of 17)), and SpecialK Jackson is one of a group of six players on 6 goals, also with the best shots on target ratio (14 of 19 in his case – 74%) ........... Top scoring team is Wycombe (22 scored, but 17 against), followed by Notts County, Stanley and Luton, each with 21 .......... Luton have let in 10, Notts Co 11 and us 13 ......best defence in the League is Coventry (6 only scored against them) ............ we haven’t lost in four – and for once we beat the bottom three teams in the League, instead of helping them out; Luton haven’t lost in 5! Too tough to call, this one .............but if we stop James Collins (6 goals) and Danny Hylton (4), we’ve got a good shout ................. ‘cos they’ve got to shut down Billy Whizz and Our Kayden – assuming he’s fit again .....

They finished last season in 4th place, with a record of 20 wins, 17 draws and only 9 defeats – the fewest in the League – on 77 points, 8 points and 4 goals off the automatic promotion spots and most people’s favourites to go up via the Playoffs ..............except Blackpool’s, because the Clementines promptly did them 6-5 on aggregate in the Semis.......... and by the way, Blackpool are currently 9th in League 1 on 18 points from 11, Pompey are 15th (14 points), Donnie are 19th on 9, and Plymouth are bottom on 5 .......... And AFC Fylde won 2-1 at Leyton Orient! Last season the Hatters beat us 1-0 at theirs (75th minute winner from MF Cameron McGeehan), and in the penultimate game of the season they came to Fortress Wham (shortly after Joshua had blown the Walls down), and they comprehensively stuffed us 4-1, even though we’d gone ahead on 39 through Matty Pearson .......................

At the end of the season they released six, including striker Craig Mackail-Smith (who joined Wycombe) and ex Partick Thistle defender Stephen O’Donnell (who went to the Killies); during August MF Jonathan Smith (Forest Green, York and Swindon) was released as well, and went to Stevenage, striker Isaac Vassell (once of Truro City) joined Brum for £undisclosed, and 18 year-old MF Tyreeq Jamal Adeshina Oliveira Bakinson, with one game at Luton under his belt, went to Bristol City for the same amount (where his appearances haven’t increased by many .........actually, none) ............. Mackail-Smith, by the way, is 33, and he forms a “veteran” ( = “very old indeed / decrepit”) strike force at the Chairboys alongside Nathan Tyson (35) and You Fat Bastard (also 35) ........between them, so far, they’ve got 10 for the season – of which YFB has six (his career tally is 184, many of which he’s planted past us!) .......not so decrepit, then ........


Ten arrived to replace them, eight of them from League clubs and one from Sparta Prague (and they paid good money for five of the ten!) .......def Jack Stacey (with a long loan at Exeter under his belt) came from Reading, striker James Collins, once of Hibs, twice of Shrewsbury, once of Swindon and variously of loans (see “6 goals” above) exited the train from Crawley; Alan McCormack (PNE, Southend, Charlton, Swindon) signed on from Brentford; Marek Štěch jetted in from Prague, having prior to that played for Yeovil; ex Wombles GK James Shea joined to give him some competition between the sticks; striker Elliot Lee – two games in four years at the Hammers - left the fleshpots of Barnsley for the fleshpots of Luton (“Stupid Boy!”); Harry Cornick (wasn’t he a Band Leader?) winged in from the Cherries to pitt his skills (Get it? Cherries? Pitt? ....... Oh suit yourselves!); and MF Luke Berry left Cambridge for the second time (where he’d made over 220 appearances) to sign on the dotted ..........

Luton were, as I may have mentioned, the first southern team to turn professional (in 1891); when they joined the FL in 1897 the only other southern-based team was Woolwich Arsenal .............Ooop North they all got paid a whippet, a black pudding and a flat cap per season (but none of them ate the flat cap); history doesn’t record what they got paid down South; no wonder, anyway, that Man U’s Charlie Roberts, in company with Billy Meredith, laid down the foundations of what later became the PFA back in the pre-WW1 days, partly following the death during a game between Man U and St Helens of United’s Scottish defender Tommy Blackstock ...... and Roberts certainly paid quite a price career-wise for his selfless commitment

The Luton Chairman, so their wiki page says, is “vacant” ..........I think they may mean that the POST of Chairman is vacant, but you never know ..... Their biggest wins were a 15–0 victory over Great Yarmouth Town in November 1914 in the FA Cup, and a 12–0 win over BrizzleRov in the Third Division South on 13 April 1936 (ten of those being scored by Joe Payne, who – if I remember rightly - later became Band Leader Jack Payne). Payne, you might be surprised to hear, only played once for England, in May 1937, scoring twice against Finland .............Their worst loss (to date) was a 9–0 defeat by Small Heath in the Second Division in November 1898. The youngest player to make a first-team appearance for them is Connor Tomlinson (15 years 199 days old) in last season’s EFL Troffy, coming on as a 92nd minute sub after the club were given permission for him to play by his head teacher ....... and he was given 100 lines for missing an open goal ............. (no he wasn’t – I made that bit up!)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm this Saturday, 7th October; if, on the day, our defenders shackle their attackers, and our attackers escape their defenders, and our keeper plays a blinder, and the Ref has a clue, isn’t blind and stupid, and doesn’t play for them, and if the Gods of League Two Football smile on us, then we might get a result ............. of sorts ..........but don’t bet your mortgage on it!

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

[cashman]

2-1 Stanley fer me.

[ferret man]

As this is game 12 I will try 2-1 ACCY

[AccyMad]

Tough game this one - gonna go with my heart & say 2 nil to Stanley please

[DaveinGermany]

2-0 to the Stanley please D3N.

[Tom D]

3-2 to stanley

[Stevie R]

3-1 to Stanley please

[Lord Stiffupperlip]

2-2 draw

[Revived Red]

A 2 - 2 draw for me also. Thanks D3N.

By the way, as there now seems to be a correlation between my presence at a Stanley game and the final result, perhaps I should make it clear that I will NOT be at the Crown on Saturday.

[Wynonie Harris]

4-1 to the Stanley please.

[Tommy McQueen]

Stanley 2 Luton 1 please

[Chrisr]

I am fearful of a Stanley loss. 3-1 to Luton.

[MikeA]

Sitting on the fence with a 1-1 draw.

But hoping for summat different, obviously!

[andyd]

2-2 draw please.

[accybeme]

Stanley 1 Luton 0 please