2017/18 Prediction League; Game 5 v Morecambe (away)

Div3North · 27-08-2017, 21:37

Morecambe

V

Accrington Stanley

2017/18 Prediction League; Game 5 v Morecambe (away)

Well that was a game of three halves, wasn't it? Was I the only person who took a screen-shot of the League Two table on my iPad on Friday night? Right after my Rovers-supporting mate sent me a text saying, “Stanley on top!” He thinks we might pass them going up at the end of the season ............. God loves an optimist! I’ve kept the screen shot with the one that shows us 2nd behind Northampton with one game to play ...... ho hum!

That said, it was an interesting weekend; AFC Fylde got their first win (2-0 at Hartlepool, who also celebrated selling Podge to Newport (for whom he scored on his debut) by retaining last-but-one place in the Conference, with only Torquay below them); Hartlepool have two points from 6 games, Torquay – who were beaten 2-1 courtesy of a goal by the Solihull Moors’ GK Nathan Vaughan (“Dodgy!”), which bounced over the Gulls’ keeper’s head and into his net – have one from 6; and there are NO MOORS IN ROTTEN SOLIHULL! ....... Exeter came from two down to win a Seven Goal Thriller 4-3 and go top; Colchester won their first game (a Six Goal Thriller against Vegan United) 5-1 to move slightly further out of the bottom end; Chesterfield (3 points) lost 4-1 at Newport, Grimsby (3 points) lost 2-3 at home to You Fat Bastard United (for whom YFB scored twice, Joe Jacobson scoring the other from the spot), and the Burslem NotveryValiants (3 points) lost by the odd goal in one at home to Crewe, leaving Crawley (3-0 at “Mighty” Swindon, who from the clips seemed mighty tatty) as the only winners from last week’s bottom 6 apart from Colchester..... every team has scored, every team has now won at least once, only Exeter have won more than twice out of 4, the bottom five (see above) have all lost 3 of 4, and Exeter (W3 D1), Newport (W2 D2 – 3 of the four (plus their Cup game) being played away from home while they attended to their “pitch” – a term I apply very loosely indeed to their cow pasture), Stevenage (also W2 D2) and Crewe (ditto) are the only sides not to have lost. Yet.

PNE’s five League games have ended 1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 1-0 and 0-0, making them officially the Most Boring Team in England; Cardiff have won 5 of 5, and Leeds haven’t lost in the League; the Posh, Wigan, Shrewsbury and the Iron haven’t lost yet in League One; and Oldham and Northampton Town (with Matt McCrooks in MF) prop up the table, and are the only EFL sides without a point ..... and Shay McBratfud scored his first for the Bantams; Guiseley (Hatfield and Molyneux coming on as subs) lost again, 2-0 at FC Halifax; Orient, with Rommy also subbing on after 69, drew 1-1 with Eastleigh thanks to a 98th minute goal .............and so it continued. Exeter have 10 points; three teams have 8; five teams have 7 (of whom we have the 2nd best GD after Luton, so sit 7th); and three more teams, down to and including 12th placed Yeovil, have 6; close or what? Luton have scored 13 in 4; The Chairboys and Yeovil have 10 each (but have conceded 10 and 14 respectively, which are the two worst numbers in the League); and joint fourth in the StickItInTheNet competition lie ............. Accie and Newport! Crewe, Coventry, Cambridge and Morecambe have conceded just three goals each in four games; and the bottom two teams this week start with the letter “C”, but Chesterfield and Cheltenham have replaced Crawley and Colchester ...........mind you, we’ve got 8 to choose from!

The Shrimps ended last season in 18th place, with a record of 14 wins, 10 draws and 22 defeats, and a -20 GD (53 scored, 73 conceded - only Hartlepool, Notts and Leyton Orient let in more); they won 3-2 at ours in August (we had Mark Hughes sent off, and Billy Whizz got both our goals before we let them get three back), but we went to’t Seaside in March, went 2-0 up again (Shay McTartan with both), and this time we held on to win 2-1 (which will have got mab and Leylandii 5 points each, no doubt)...... they had two bad spells, losing 11 of 17 between September and the New Year, and then they lost 9 of 13 from March to the season’s end.

Five left the Globe in the summer (three of them having been Stanley players!); Peter Murphy sadly had to retire; his career of 244 games included 155 for us. Liam Wakefield was released, and I can’t find that he’s got a club at the moment; Lee Molyneux was “in talks”, but moved to Guiseley ......... also out went striker Paul Mullin to Swindon, where he scored on his debut at Carlisle (1 goal in four games) and CB Ryan Edwards, who joined Argyle (who took something of a stuffing on Saturday at home to Scunthorpe) ...... They brought in defenders Patrick Brough (Carlisle), Scots-born Sam Lavelle from Bolton and New Zealander (Hi Kiwi!) Steve Old from Göteborgs Atlet- och Idrottssällskap - GAIS to you and me – who play in the Superettan, aka Swedish Division Two; also arriving on the up-train were Reece Deakin, a striker from Airbus UK, Morecambe Old-Boy Garry Thompson (who came home from Wycombe and promptly blazed over the bar in Saturday’s match at Cambridge from about 3 ½ inches out), and CFs Adam Campbell (Notts County) and Vadaine Oliver (York) ... they completed their weekly shop with LoanSignings Mitchell Lund, a RB from Doncaster who joined for the long haul, CB Max Muller from Wycombe, and CMF Elliot Osborne from up the coast at Fleetwood.

At the moment they’re sitting in 15th (W1 D2 L1 GF3 GA3 Pts 5); at home they’ve beaten Cheltenham 2-1 and lost to Swindon 0-1; away, they’ve drawn 1-1 at Sincil Bank and 0-0 at the Abbey (Lincoln and Cambridge); they went out of the EFL Cup with a bit of a whimper but a 4-3 defeat at Barnsley; in the EFLTroffy they’ve got Carlisle, Fleetwood and Leicester u23s; when the FA Cup comes round they’ll hope not to draw Coventry, who did them 2-1 in a 1st Round replay at the Ricoh after a half-Desmond by the Seaside last season.

For a twelve-month spell in the mid 60s Morecambe were managed by Geoff Twentyman, a name some may recognise; he only stayed the one season before moving to manage Hartlepool, lasting there some four months and being replaced by one Brian Clough (he of the goal scoring Granny); GT having been a Liverpool player, Shanks invited him to join the Boot Room squad as Chief Scout, a role which he carried out with great success, being credited with finding Ian Rush at Chester, Phil Neal at Northampton Town and Alan Hansen ("You'll win nothing with kids!") at Partick Thistle; their combined transfer fees were under £500,000; what would those three cost now, I wonder? Priceless, probably ..............

They were runners-up in the Conference in 2002/03, were the Shrimps - the first year that two sides went up, one via the Playoffs; although they finished 2nd (17 points behind Yeovil) they lost in the Playoff semis to the Daggers over two legs and penalties, and the Daggers then promptly lost the Final to Doncaster on a Golden Goal; not that long ago, really, but how things change; the Conference in that 2002/03 season included Hereford, Scarborough, Halifax Town, Margate, Farnborough, Northwich, Gravesend and Northfleet and Leigh RMI .... Four years later, of course, they did make the League (via the Playoffs) and – without having looked it up – I think they’re the second longest consecutive-serving team .............after us! And for the record, they’ve never made Round 3 of the FA Cup since they reached the League!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 2nd September; so far we’ve done pretty well against pre-season favourites for promotion; now we need to see how we do against one of the pre-season favourites for the Greasy Pole of Oblivion ............. Onwards and Upwards, Lads – ‘cos Onwards and Downwards isn’t an option!

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