2017/18 Prediction League; Game 27 v Chesterfield (home)

Div3North · 03-01-2018, 12:41

Accrington Stanley

V

Chesterfield

2017/18 Prediction League; Game 27 v Chesterfield (home)

Well, look at it this way; if we win our two games in hand (ignoring the fact that we’ve lost four of our last five), we’ll be third in the table again with 46 points ……………….. Shame about the abandonment of the Morecambe game, but the bonus was that we got to p*ss off Somerset; it was, of course, a DISGRACE, he told us, but the disgrace appeared to be the rain rather than the pitch this time, so he really needs to take that up with The Man Upstairs.

Dunce’s caps this week for Vegan Greenpeace, who now have 0/15 points in their last five games (one point worse than Chesterfield); they also created – as far as I know – a record, by having Father and Son sent off in the same match, they being MF Charlie Cooper for a foul on Luke O’Nien (that’s “Onion” to you and me) and VG (that’s Vegan Greenpeace, not Very Good) manager Mark Cooper – who happens to be Charlie’s Dad – for protesting! Apparently they’re expecting four new (loan) players before Saturday ……………and possibly a Manager? Only two sides in the League who haven’t lost in their last five – 6th placed Mansfield (W3 D2) and 8th placed Colchester (W2 D3)

After 13 games Chesterfield had one win (2-0 v Portly Vale), two draws (goalless at home to Coventry, and a half-Desmond at Colchester); they had a purple patch between 28th October and 9th December, winning 3 and drawing 3 of six), and they’ve followed that up with a run of P5 D1 (0-0 v Colchester) L4, scoring just once and conceding nine, five of them at Stevenage (5-1) ………………. Their away form, I’m pleased to report, is total cr*p; one win (2-0 at Crawley), three draws (1-1 at Colchester and 2-2 at Swindon and at Mansfield) and nine losses; away, they’ve scored 12 and conceded 28 (in 13 games) ……………overall. It’s P26 W5 D6 L15 GF26 GA47 for 21 points and 22nd place; they’re one point better off than Barnet (but -8 worse off on GD), and also one point better off than Cooper’s Brawlers, with a GD advantage of -1 ……………..parlous times ……………. They’ve also failed to score nine times, four of those being in their last five games

They were already out of the EFL Cup when we played them last time; since then they’ve departed the FA Cup (2-0 at Bratfud in Round One) and the “League Trophy” (2-0 at Fleetwood in Round Two, having at least got through the Group stage) …………….. They’d shed 16 players in the summer (see previous Chesterfield thread), but three more have gone since the start of the season, being GK Tommy Lee, who retired through injury after 300+ games for them, RB Paul McGinn (who MutuallyConsented to Patrick Thistle – well done, Patrick!), and LB Dion Donohue who went to the barmy - sorry, balmy - shores of Portsmouth ………….

Ten came in in the summer, including GK Joe Anyon from the Iron, striker Chris O’Grady from Brighton, fellow striker Gozie Ugwu from Woking, RB Scott Wiseman (also from the Iron, who must have been doing “buy one, get one free” – except that they were all free!) and CM Robbie Weir from Clapton Orient ………. Since then they’ve added Marshall Willock (I typed that name very carefully!) from Solihull Moors (***!?%^£&$%!!!), RB Drew Talbot from Pompeii and Guyanan-born LB Matthew Briggs from Colchester ………… six loans in – two from Wigan (Jordan Flores and Andy Kellett), two goalkeepers from Sheffield (which sounds like the first line of a limerick) – one from the Owls, one from the Blades – CB Zak Jules from Shrewsbury, and “secondary striker” Diego de Girolamo (pronunciation stress is on “Giro”, I understand) from Bristol City …………..

We met chez eux (French for “at theirs’ ”) in mid-September, when we defeated them (the first of six in a row, four of those at home) by mab and Leylandii’s favourite score (2-1) – the goals from Billy Whizz on 68, and Mallik Rashaun Coley Wilks on 82, the Spireites’ goal coming from the spot on 77) ………………. (| had no idea that Mallik’s names included “Coley”, by the way; accident or design? Whatd’you reckon?) And isn’t it good that we’re sticking all the penalties we get into the net? (Probably bug*ered that up, now)

Jack Lester has been Manager since 29th September; his (League) record there is W4 D4 L8 – 25% win rate …………… between January 17th and September 16th 2017 the Manager was ex Wigan Boss Gary Caldwell, who got the Bums’ Rush for winning just 3 of his 29 games in charge (win rate of 10.34) …………….they’ve won League Two/Division Four, in all, a record four times, most recently in 2014; they came back down the Greasy Pole of Oblivion at the end of last season, 24th of 24, with 9 wins, 10 draws and 27 defeats and a GD of -35; they’ve been in the relegation places in League Two for 19 of the 26 weeks of the season …………… They’ve got a total of 33 goals (6 in the EFLTroffy) this season to date; leading scorer is Kristian Dennis with 14 in all (12 in the League), followed by Jak McCourt with 6 (4 in the League); no-one else has more than 2 ………… so far they’ve used 29 players this season; settled team or what?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 6th January; we could, of course, have been in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup this Saturday, if we hadn’t lost to Bananaskin United in Round One; at home; in a replay …………….. B/Utd are currently last but one in the Bananarama Conference (22 points, in there with Soilyhull NoMoors, Chester and rock-bottom Torquay ………… and that group are cut adrift by 7 points; and did you see that AFC Fylde did Tranmere 5-2 on Monday? And Macclesfield are six points clear at the top of the table ……………..

Stats suggest we can, should and will win this, and we’ll score at least twice. Since when, you might ask, did stats ever prove anything? But if PNE defender Kevin O’Connor can win the Irish Lottery with a Christmas-present lottery ticket, netting 1 Million Euros – about £900,000 – then I live in hope. He said he had "no immediate plans" for the money and his "main focus" was helping his team climb up the league………. Yeah, right ………….

Good luck to everyone! …………….. Keep the Faith! ……………… Buy a Lottery ticket! ……………….. And thanks for playing!