2018/19 Prediction League; Game 6 v Scunthorpe Utd (home)

Div3North · 28-08-2018, 01:00

Accrington Stanley

V

Scunthorpe United

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 6 v Scunthorpe Utd (home)

And so – before the Bank Holiday, as ever – the Annual Cull of Managers began in earnest, and – as my literary friends will know – there’s an importance of being earnest ............. Walking Gary Bowyer was followed by trotting Gary Johnson at Cheltenham, and now Nick Daws (who spent ten years as a player at Bury) has cantered out of Scunthorpe’s Glandford Park, followed by Kevin Nolan (and I did say, if you remember ....) who galloped out of the County of Nottingham over the weekend as if he was being pursued by the Sheriff. Daws was Scunnie’s caretaker manager, following the departure of Graham Alexander in March 18 (GA’s now at Salford MoneyPots, if I recall), and got the Iron to the Playoffs, where they lost 4-2 on aggregate to Rotherham, after which he became the full-time (if short time) incumbent, but after four games in the League this season (2-1 at Coventry, a half-Desmond against Walsall, a 3-0 pasting at Sunderland and a 0-5 spanking by Fleetwood last Tuesday, on which I did also pass comment), plus a 2-1 defeat to Donnie in the EFL Cup, Chairman Peter Swann announced Nick’s departure on Friday last (24th) in generous and appreciative terms as follows:

• "This was not a great decision by me. For us we're just not seeing the returns we would hope to at this particular stage. It's not just down to the poor results, it's something we feel is necessary to get us back on track. I think a lot about Nick, he's a great coach but sometimes you make a mistake."

I imagine Nick agrees with that, Mr Swann; he probably made the mistake of thinking that he’d get more than five games into the season before he got the bullet ......... Mind you, probably so did Brian Laws in 2013/14, when he was turned to a Pillar of Salt by the same Mr Swann after a run of five defeats ......…

This week’s starters for ten, then;
• The Iron have played at Glandford Park since 1988, but what was their previous ground called?
• Secondly; in 1959, Scunthorpe was the first English club to do ......... what?
• And Thirdly, name the three England Captains who have played for Scunthorpe ...... You may refer to Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly if necessary ...................

Since they joined the League in 1950 they’ve had three spells in Tier Two, nine spells in Tier Three, and five in Tier Four ........ they did the Greasy Pole of Oblivion in summer 2013, finishing 21st on 48 points, and being accompanied by Bury, Hartlepool and Pompey; and consequently we met in League Two in season 2013/14 – the only time since we rejoined the League we’ve been in the same Division; they went straight back up that season, finishing 2nd on 81 points (3 points behind Chesterfield) and have stayed in League One ever since; they lost only five League games all that season 13/14, what’s more .............. one of which was at home to us (0-2), our goals by George Bowerman (last heard of in 2017 playing for Rushall Olympic) and Kayode Odejayi (believed still to be at Guiseley in the Bananarama North) ........ mind you, they did do us 3-2 at our place in the return fixture .............. head-to-head is apparently nine wins each; they also put us out of the League Cup at Our Place in 2011 (2-0)

They finished 5th last season (see “Playoffs” above), with 19 wins, a +15 GD and 74 points ..........over the summer, though, they lost some influential players; overall, eleven left, including LB Conor Townsend, who went to the Baggies for a reported £840,000, striker Tom Hopper and MF Sam Mantom who hitched to Sarfend, MF Andrew Crofts, who hopped it to Newport (not literally – and did I ever mention my Brother Rupert who played scrum-half for Newport?), a Scot called Wallace (to Millwall), American MF Duane Holmes shimmied to Derby, LMF Hakeeb Adelakun (Bristol Citty), and three who went non-League .............. in – ProperSigned - came just seven, one of whom was from NAC Breda in Dutchland and one of whom came from Mickleover Sports (the Breda one was free, the Mickleover one was £undisclosed); GK Jonathan Flatt arrived from Wolves (would you want a Flatt Goalkeeper? But then again, would you want a Hopper for a striker?) – and did you see that Betts played for Fulham in their 4-2 defeat of Burnley? And anyway I thought they’d signed two “Johnny Foreigner” GKs in the summer?; RB James Perch fell off his (perch) and landed in Lincolnshire (from QPR, so he was likely relieved to move); Burton coughed up CM Matty Lund, the Saints provided striker Olufela Olomola (who spent half of last season on loan at Yeovil and scored 7 in 21, two of which were against us in a 3-2 win in Game 2!) and Wigan advised winger Ryan Colclough to “Go East, Young Man” – so he did.

Three in on loan for the season; Fulham striker Stephen Humphreys (who’s leading goalscorer with two!), Man U LB Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (whose name goes right round his shirt – twice) and Leicester RW George Thomas aka Viscount Tonypandy, who used, I think, to be the Speaker of the House of Commons before taking up football as a career ...............…

A sticky start to their season; one win (Coventry), two draws (Walsall and Barnsley) and two right smackings (Sunderland and Fleetwood); P5 W1 D2 L2 GF5 GA12 Pts5 for 18th place, at the bottom of the group of five-point teams, one point above Rochdale, two above Brizzle Rov (who’ve lost 3/3 at home so far); against Barnsley they were 2-up on 51, but managed to turn a winning position into a draw ..............Plymouth are 24th, Shrewsbury 23rd; Plymouth with 4 goals, Shrewsbury have 3 – as do Bradford, the Wombles and Coventry; Oxfud’s GD is -8; Scunnie and Rochdale are both -7 ..... and their (so far) five League goals have come from five different players, which may be good from our point of view, or may be not!

It seems to be the case that the club mascot is Scunny Bunny (which is a tad worrying, and probably an offence); their record crowd at Glandford Park is 9,077 for a League Cup game against Man U in 2010; the record crowd in the days when they played at The Old Showground was 23,935 for a 4th Round Cup match against Pompey ............... and that’s your first answer – their former ground was The Old Showground (although what was shown there isn’t recorded); at one time they were known as “Scunthorpe and Lindsey United” (I remember them – and “Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic” (from 1923 to 1972) .............. and I glanced at the Bananarama North table today (Chorley top with 21/7 – seven straight wins - 13 scored and only one conceded and 5 points clear of Bratfud Park Avenue) and there are no less than NINE former League clubs playing there (Chester, Bradford PA, Boston Utd, York, Stockport, Darlington, Kidderminster, Hereford and Southport) .............. notable former players include Graham Alexander, Keith Burkinshaw, Neil Warnock, and – of course – three former England Captains in Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence and Ian Botham (the question didn’t say three former England Football captains!) ....... and in 1959 they were the first English club to build a cantilever stand (their old one burned down, apparently); second, I think, were the Owls ...........

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 1st September, and five days later is the 60th anniversary of probably the most exciting game I’ve ever seen live – Man City 4 Wolves 6 – and I still remember it now!

I thought a draw at Blackpool was a decent result (even though I put us down for a mab-leylandii (2-1 win!) in the PL) .............. and we’re still 8th (which we’d have taken pre-season), although only one of the top six sides has lost a League game so far this season (Fleetwood – which means that Posh (15 points) , Sunderland (13), Walsall (13), Pompey (13) and Barnsley (11) haven’t lost yet, showing what a tough, tight League this is going to be this season ....................... and your Stop Press news is that Scunny are now managed by Stuart McCall, ex of Bradford, Rangers and Motherwell, and a man who’s been up and down the Leagues like a whore’s drawers in a career spanning several hundred years (420 games as a manager, let alone his 763 games (plus the 40 internationals) as a player, and he’s only 5’ 7”) .............. but did you know that his other two fore-names are Andrew Murray? And where the hell is the TV coverage of the US Open, cos I’m damned if I can find it anywhere .............. “Streamed on Amazon Prime”? What’s going on in the World? NURSE!

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