2019/20 Prediction League; Game 28 v Burton Albino (away)

Div3North · 23-01-2020, 01:47

Burton Albion

v

Accrington Stanley

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 28 v The Biscuits (away)

This week’s Starter for Ten is dedicated to My Mate Chimer, who confessed this week to failing to get any Sf10s right until the answer to a question was Stanley Matthews – who incidentally is the only footballer my wife had ever heard of; Nigel Clough (Notts Forest, Man U etc) has managed Burton’s the Tailors for in excess of 833 games over a lot of years; his current win ratio is 30.4% So – ignoring FA Cup matches. EFL Cup, Milk Cup (or whatever the hell it’s called now) etc, and just considering league fixtures - how many had he won as at Monday of this week?

If I were to say, “The current Stanley side are an enema”, I think it would be hard to disagree ………………. No, hang on …………. If I were to say, “The current Stanley side are an enigma”, I think it would be hard to disagree ……….. Form team in December, beating Burton (2-0), Blackpool (1-0), Pompeii (4-1) and murdering Bolton (7-1), with two draws in between, we’ve now lost four January games in a row - bottom-half rivals Rochdale and Southend, both 2-1 at home, Ipswich 4-1 away, and then League Two SalfordMoneyBags 2-1 in the Quarter Final (and how many times have we gone away from home and supplied more than half the crowd?) Apart from (1) stopping Kiwi starting the Match Threads (2) making sure we don’t score just one goal – because if we do, we lose (3) making it illegal for Coley to win the Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month, and (4) putting Cashie in charge of match-day substitutions, I’m at a bit of a loss ….. but it’s more than a little worreting! And it needs to be February asap, because – so far – we haven’t lost in February!

Perfidious (Burton) Albion were formed in 1950, and joined the Birmingham & District League; in 1958–59 they moved to the Southern League North Western zone (which is geographically quite difficult, based just on 16 compass points) …… In 1965–66 they were promoted to the Southern League Premier Division, avoiding relegation in 1968 only because of Stevenage Town folding, and they spent the next few years GreasyPoling in both directions, until in 1976/77 and due to League rearrangements they were transferred to the Northern Premier League, returning to the Southern League in 1987–88. They finally made it into the EFL in 2008/09, taking the automatic spot in the Bananarama by two points from Cambridge (supplementary question; which team you’ve never heard of before or since came third?)

They won League Two in 2014/15 by 5 points from Shrewsbury and 9 from BuryRIP, and the following year they went up again from League One into the Championnat, in second behind Wigan; after one sort-of successful season in which they finished 20th (their highest-ever position), they were then to GreasyPole again (this is becoming a habit!) in 2017/18 in 23rd position, above Slumberland and level on points (but not on goals!) with the LambChops ……………… Last season they finished 9th with a record of W17 D12 L17, a +3 GD and 63 points …………. They drew 1-1 at ours (Billy Whizz on 84), and did us 5-2 at theirs, our 2-0 lead (Billy Whizz and Sean McInjured) being clawed back after 65, and totally trashed by 3 goals in the last 12 mins …………………. And I have to say that the Pirelli Stadium is no place to have your wheels come off! (Gerrit? Pirelli? Wheels? Oh, suit yourselves!)

For Ins and Outs in the summer, see the earlier thread; since we last played them they’ve paid West Ham £MYOB for AMF Joe Powell, and LoanSigned Leeds’ Irish CB Conor Shaughnessy and Rangers’ LW Jamie Murphy, re-loaned RB Ben Hart to Kidsgrove, and sent FW Jack Holmes to Halesowen on Work Experience (bet he loved that!) ………………… Work Experience, you may remember, was a Governmentally-formalised version of Boy Scouts’ “Bob-a-Job Week”, where you put your cub/scout uniform on and went knocking on strangers’ doors, asking if there was anything they’d like you to do for a shilling – Oh, the Innocence of yesteryear……………… One year I made £1-5-0 – but that’s a different story!

We got some kind of revenge against them this season, winning 2-0 at the Wham on 29th December (Sean McWasntinjuredthenbutisnow and Ross “Tiny” Sykes with the goals ) …………… and that, worryingly, is the only one of their last six games they didn’t win (3-1 v Rochdale, 4-2 v Tranmere, 1-0 v Fleetwood and the MKDonuts, and 4-3 at Bolton) ……………. Over the season their home record is P12 W6 D3 L3 GF13 GA8, and away it’s W5 D3 L5 GF21 GA22, giving them a Julie Walters (Mrs Overall) of P25 W11 D6 L8 GF34 GA30 for 39 points and 9th place – a bit of a Groundhog Day, really ……….. They beat Salford 4-1 (after a half-Desmond) and Oldham 1-0 in the FA Cup before going out 4-2 at home to yet another League Two side (Cobblers); they won three rounds in the EFL Cup and then lost at home to Leicester, and they came last in their Troffy Group and won a teapot (as the saying used to go) ………….they don’t score millions, or concede millions either ………….. as well as 34 in the League, they hit 21 in 11 Cup games – so 55 in 36 …………… leading scorers are Liam Boyce with 14, Lucas-Jordan Akins and Scott Fraser, both with 8, and Ryan Edwards with 6 ………….. and in the League they’ve failed to hit the Barn Door with their Hats on 9 occasions out of 25 goes!

All-time record goal scorer is Richie Barker (217 in 456 games, 159 in 270 for the Brewers); second leading scorer is Round Stan – sorry, Stan Round - who averaged three-quarters of a goal a game without ever scoring three quarters of a goal in any game! (149 in 199 games); “most appearances” record is held by Darren Strides ("Struth"!) who scored 124 in 654 games, and captained Burton for 12 of his 17 years there; famous former managers include Ian Storey-Moore and Neil Warnock; most successful manager has to be PinkFloyd-Hasselbaink with 33 wins from 54 games (61.11%); well-known ex-players include Zander Diamond, Bryan Hughes, Rory Delap, Lord Sunbeds, Romy Bocu, Bertie Mee (one-time manager of the Arsenal) and Calvin “Couldn’t hit the floor with his hat” Zola

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 25th January …………. Current form sides are Rotherham (5 wins from their last 5), Coventry and the BlackMoggies with 13 points from 5 games, and Burton with 12/5 ………………. Blackpool and Bolton - minus Matthews and Loftyhouse – and BrizzleRov are top of the NumptyBoys League, with one point each from their last five games, and Tranmere have 2 ……. And Wycombe have four …… And we have six, but they’re from a while back ……………… Can we do the double? Certainly! Will it be this season? Now that’s a Horse of a Different Colour!

And Nigel Clough’s League Win Record with Burton is 38 out of 125 (drawn 32, lost 55) – because when he managed them from October 1998 until January 2009 they weren’t a League Club (he won 310/709 in that tenure), gaining their place in the EFL just twelve years back! Nah na na na na! ....... And the 3rd-placed Bananarama team in 2008/09 was Histon – known as The Stutes because they were originally Histon Institute (although it could as easily have been The Hisses) – who now play in the Isthmian League Northern Division (tiers 7 & 8) ………….. and Billy Whizz is now only their second all-time League scorer, having been overtaken by Lucas-Jordan Jeremiah Akins ………………..

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