2018/19 Prediction League; Game 37 v Wycombe Wanderers (away)

Div3North · 09-03-2019, 23:15

Wycombe Wanderers

V

Accrington Stanley

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 37 v Wycombe (away)

Well that was a weird Saturday, so it was ............Bottom side Wimbledon did 6th placed Doncaster 2-0, leaving the Belles 8 points behind the 5th placed side (see below); 23rd-placed Bratfud did 7th placed Posh 3-1, thereby doubling their goal tally for the previous five games; 22nd-placed RochdaleDoodles beat (now) 20th placed Shrewsbury 2-1; Oxford lost in the last minute (1-0) at Gillingham and managed by doing so to drop back into the GreasyPole places (21st); 4th-placed Pompey, who won 14 and drew 5 of their opening 20 games – so that on 8th December they topped the table with a 6-point lead over the Louts plus a game in hand – lost 2-1 at 5th placed Charlton, and of their last ten have won 1, drawn 5 and lost 4 (8 points of a possible 30 = relegation form); Brizzle did the Iron 1-0 away and moved out of the DropZone to 19th; Walsall – still basically in free-fall – managed a 2-0 win over the 10th placed Codpieces, and leapt from the GreasyPole Places into 16th (one place above us); Luton managed a goalless Desmond at Plymouth ......

And then we have the games at Blackpool and Wycombe .................. 15,871 saw Blackpool take on Sarfend and go one down on 20, before Sarfend got two ................. on 96 minutes, courtesy of an OG, the Seasiders managed to salvage a point, and their Little Stick of Blackpool Rock Runneth Over ..................... but the doings at Adams Park outdid everything else ................ on 72 Matt Bloomfield was subbed; at that point the ChairPersons were one up, and looking good value to inflict only a third defeat of the season on the Moggies; then Whatmore equalised in the 94th minute, Honeyman (Slumberland) and Tyson (chairmen) – both of whom had been subbed off in the second half – were red-carded on the sidelines on 90 + 8 after a touchline melee, followed on 90 + 10 by Wanderers’ Marcus Bean for a second yellow ........... which means that neither Iron Mike nor Mr Bean will be available to play against us on Tuesday ...................But I think you probably had to be there ..........................

There are now only 5 points between Wycombe (12th – 44 points) and Oxford (21st – 39) ................... Rochdale are on 37; Bratfud are on 36 ..... We’re now down to 17th, and in the Dog Fight – if not the Dog Doo - that people were fearing weeks ago; we’re two points above Oxford (21st) with a worse GD (-13 plays -11) ............. as I keep saying, we’ve got a game in hand (but it was, you’ll remember, three games in hand not long ago); we’re the second-lowest scorers (35, with only the Wombles (30) having scored fewer), only three sides (Shrews, Oxford and the Wombles) have won fewer games than us, and of our last 21 League games we’ve won 3, drawn 6 and lost 12, which is about 0.75 points per game ...................... after Wycombe we play Rochdale (h), Burton (a), Fleetwood (h), Sunderland (h), Wombles (a), Walsall and Luton (h), Donnie (a), Plymouth (h) and Pompey (a) ........... and our sometimes much-maligned defence is actually, statistically, 13th out of 24 .................. and if we start to believe in ourselves and to convert our chances, we can pick up the 12 or so points we need from those games to stay in League One ................... so Keep The Faith!

Wycombe’s recent record – last 15 games – is 3 wins (consecutive January weeks, 3-2 over Donnie, 1-0 against Plymouth, and 1-0 at Brizzle), four draws, and 8 defeats (in two batches of four-in-a-row) .......... their point against The Moggies in their only point in their last five games ............ their home record is W8 D4 L5 GF 22 GA18, and overall they’re on P36 W11 D11 L14 GF45 GA53 for their 44 points and 12th place .............. for comparison purposes only, we have a game in hand and currently stand at P35 W10 D11 L14 GF35 GA48 for 41 points .............. if we can beat them by 3 goals we’ll jump them into 12th place ............. but we’ve only scored three or more four times in 35 attempts (3-2 at Oxford, 3-1 at home to Bratfud, 3-0 at Plymouth, and 4-2 in the return leg against Oxford) ......

And now for the Bad News .................

Darren Moore has walked the Involuntary Plank of Deemed Failure at the Baggies (they’re 4th in the Championship, with a 17-10-9 record and 61 points, 7 points above 7th placed BristolCTs – what do these owners want? Is that a mark of failure? In 4th place and looking good for the Playoffs and he gets Terminated?) ............. looking at League Two, MKD beat Macc 3-1, Morecambe beat Vegan Greenpeace 3-0 (Piero playing the full game) for VG’s fourth loss in five, Notts County – bottom of the League, managed by Neal Ardley, who left the Wombles when they were bottom of League One – is there a message there? – went to the Mighty Cheltenham and lost 4-1, so that they’re now 7 points from safety (Macclesfield are 6 points from safety on 30) ............... in the Bananarama, Leyton HewittOrient beat Wrexham by the odd goal in one to go top; Fylde are in the Playoff places, as are Salford Moneybags and – blast from the past – Gateshead! Aldershot are in the DropSlots, and Barnet are five points above them in 19th, with Chesterfield in 18th, two points better off .............. Chorley top the Bananarama North, one point ahead of Stockport, and 74-goal Torquay head the Bananarama South on GD with 9 games to play ..............

As we know, the ChairYoungPersons (don’t think you’re allowed to say “Boys”) don’t dabble a lot in the Transfer Pond ........... no ProperSignings since the summer; MF Sam Saunders MutuallyConsented to AFC Anonymous; LoanSignings – not counting lots of Temporary Goalkeepers – consist of Man City RW Luke Bolton and QPR DMF Charlie Owens, with Craig Mackerel-Smith going on loan to Notts County ................ and I bet he wishes he hadn’t!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 12th March; So - it’s getting to Crunch Time; this is one of quite a few games we have left that we can look to get something from, it seems to me................

They did us 2-1 at our place earlier in the season (our goal by Sean McYellowCard – how many has he got now, does anyone know? He’s had two this week, I seem to remember); last season we did them 1-0 (Hughes) and 4-0 (Jackson, Brown, McConville and Zanzala); in 2016/17 we drew 1-1 at their place (Sean McCaptain (again!)), and shared a Desmond at ours, our goals from Sean James Kweku Clare, who we had on loan from the Owls and who’s now at Hearts, and Matty LutonLout Pearson, so we’ve slightly got the upper hand of recent times ............ so maybe, just maybe ...................

We need to watch for their leading scorers, who are, believe it or not, Joe Jacobson and You Fat Bastard, each with 6 ............... we may not have a lot of trouble recognising YFB, but historically (or hysterically) we’ve never been brilliant at stopping him when we have recognised him ................... although currently he’s on a goal every 305 minutes (which is three games 35 minutes)

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