2017/18 Prediction League; Game 44 v Lincoln City (home)

[nige b]

1-1 for me please chaps and we're all happy!

[accybeme]

Stanley romp please 3-0 will do

[accytom18]

Accrington Stanley 1-0 Lincoln City

[Div3North]

3-2 Stanley

[LongLostSon]

4 - 4 thriller

[Chimer]

We Are The Champions!

Well that is probably the most important thing to come out of the day, isn't it?

But that's outside my remit , so what's happened about predictions? Well it was a good day to be Accy , as the only maxis went to AccyTom18, climbing from 15th to 12th as a result , and late entrant Accyborn, not changing position but consolidating as "best of the rest" in 31st, with a second maxi in only 7 goes.

As so often recently, with most keeping the faith and going for a Stanley win, the extra point depended upon belief in the clean sheet, which Tom D had , and Leylandii and Mab didn't . So Tom's lead is now 4 points over Leylandii, 5 over Mab, with one to play. No-one else is still in with a chance. And the two chasers have to get maxis to be in with a chance themselves, as Leylandii getting 4 and Tom 0 will leave them level on points (118) but Tom ahead on countback at 6 wins (maxis) to 5. On the other hand, a maxi for Leylandii and a single point for Tom would also see points equal on 119, with wins equal on 6, and Leylandii taking the title on second-level countback with 24 draws (right result, wrong score) to 23. And Mab will win on countback with what would be his 7th maxi, if Tom doesn't score and Leylandii doesn't maxi. Of course, if Tom gets the result right, regardless of score, the title is his. Got that?

Now conspiracy theorists will realise that entering late knowing what competitors have forecast means you can work out what forecasts you have to avoid to have a chance of winning. So for the Swindon game only, and for these 3 players only, I will accept predictions by Private Message if you are sufficiently paranoid to want to do this. To increase the tension, I should remind you that the prize for winning the Prediction League is ........ nothing but the glory!

Apart from this battle for the top spot, Outback Ozzy and AndyD are close enough to knock Leylandii and/or Mab off the podium if they falter, but I'll leave you to work out the maths on those possibilities yourselves . These two are level on 110 points after Andy took 4 points to Outback's 3, but Outback holds 4th on maxi countback.

Other fiddlings-about were driven by loss of faith of one sort or another , and mostly affected 11th to 16th. AccyTom's rise has already been noted. Monkey Hanger fared worst, dropping from 11th to 14th after a bold bid to profit from an unwanted (and ungained ) Lincoln victory, while Nige B and Lord S got splinters from the fence and went down from 12th to 13th and 14th to 16th respectively, with Mike A getting past Nige and MH into 11th, and Ossy Kid rising to 15th at milord's expense.

The only other positional change was Jimmy Clitheroe's single point for our goal which lifted him from 33rd to 32nd, but saw his average score plunge from 5 to 3, with only 6 points from 2 goes, as opposed to 5 from 1.

So the Champions roll on to Swindon, and I'll be there again if the office ever take my details off me on the spot instead of promising and failing to ring me back - I'll be wearing Brunhilda if it's not too hot, do make yourselves known ...... "Bring On The Champions " has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Have I mentioned we're the Champions ? Oh, I see I have .....

On Stanley On!!

[Tom D]

This had occurred to me and was wondering how we could finish the league fairly... Will take you up on the offer of PM prediction Chimer - wouldn't want to win in auspicious circumstances