2020/21 Prediction League; Game 42 v Rochdale AFC (away)

[Div3North]

Rochdale AFC

v

Accrington Stanley

2020/21 Prediction League Game 42; v #They'reNotTheHoudinisFC (away)


Rochdale have, to date, played 24 games at SpottyDogLand this season (who else remembers the Woodentops?) - 20 in the League, Stockport at home in the FA Cup Round One, The Owls in Round Two of the Milk Cup, and Man Utd u12s and Salford in the Grope - sorry, Group - stages of the Troffy ..... They won Tuesday's game at home to Swindon 2-1, which caught them up to the bottom of the League table (still 24th, though), but - Starter for Ten; setting the Swindon match aside, how many of their other 23 home games (in all competitions) have the Doodles won so far this season?

And Mark Cooper got a Vegan Heave-Ho from the manager's chair at Forest Green, having been there since 2017 and having got them into the League. Sadly Saturday's defeat at Walsall was VGU's fourth in a row and sixth in their last 10 league games, with the club now five points off the automatic promotion places, and that was enough for the Chief Nut Cutlet to sack him (a month before his contract expires anyway), saying,

"This decision we've made is about giving ourselves the best chance of promotion. Despite our collective efforts, we've been unable to halt our slide in form, which has the potential to take us out of contention this season. I've enjoyed working with Mark these last five years. In football sometimes you just need to make a change - and with Mark's contract ending next month, and us needing a change in the next six games, this feels like the right decision."

For " "we've" been unable to halt our slide in form", read "he's been unable ..." and you've pretty much got it .... and did you also see that Mark Molesley's 239 day tenure at StrugglingSarfend ended on April 9th, to be replaced by the Return of Phil Brown, who was the Roots Hall boss from March 2013 to January 2018? There must be a reason why they say "Never go Back", and I suspect it's relegation - although he can't really be blamed if they do GreasyPole ..... hope the money's good, Phil, because the job's cr*p!

And every week I blithely write stuff about teams in the fourth tier of the UK Football pyramid, or the seventh tier; it's a big pyramid - room for plenty of Pharoahs and the like ....... but have you ever wondered which is the smallest recognised League in the world? Well, it's the The Isles of Scilly Football League (affiliated to the Football Association), and it only has two clubs..... So eighteen times a season the Woolpack Wanderers play the Garrison Gunners in the League; there are also two cup tournaments (The Wholesalers Cup and the Foredeck Cup), which are each played over two legs. An "Old Men versus the Youngsters" match is played on Boxing Day, and the season itself starts with the Charity Shield. All the matches are played on the Garrison football field, on the island of St. Mary's. With there being no sixth form on the Isles, most of the fit youngsters move to the mainland and can't afford the housing costs to return, so the average age of the teams is somewhere around the mid/upper 30s ... and the same bloke apparently referees every game ...............

And here's one for the Referees (or Wannabee Referees) ..... You are Henning Erikstrup, a Danish Ref (I though that said "Jockstrap" when I first read it); you're in charge of the Norager v Ebeltoft game ..... Norager are 4-3 up and the clock's just reaching the end of 90 minutes + FergieTime; Ebeltoft have the ball and are attacking; seconds remaining; you put your whistle to your lips to blow for full time, but before you do, your false teeth fall out; you scrabble round for them, find them, go to put them back in place .......... and Ebeltoft score! 4-4! We wuzz robbed!

Erikstrup disallowed the goal and blew the final whistle, giving Norager the 4-3 win. Ebeltoft protested immediately following the loss and took the result to the equivalent of what is the Football Association in Denmark, but their protests were denied. Goal disallowed (don't know why, since the whistle - whatever his intentions were - hadn't blown) Final score: Norager 4, Ebeltoft 3.

Could never happen here, of course ...... unless Mr Kettle was the Ref, mayhap ....

If you look up "famous Rochdale Players" you'll find, amongst others, Adam le Fallover (the man who individually won more penalties in a season than most clubs win in ten), and Tony Ford MBE ("He's big, he's bad, he's older than me Dad, Tony Ford, Tony Ford") ... much of Ford's career was at Grimsby, but he played at Rochdale between 1999 and 2002; he is also one of only three outfield players to play more than 1,000 games during their career (his ran from 1975 to 2002, when he was 42 and in all he played 1080 games) ... the other two are Scott McGleish (1010) and Graham Alexander ...... GA finished his career at PNE, and his last game was supposed to feature a cameo "farewell to the fans" appearance; he subbed on after 84 minutes, with North End 2-1 down at home to Charlton ....... but the cameo appearance turned into something rather more memorable .......... Second Starter for Ten; why - apart from the obvious reason that it was his final EFL appearance - was that appearance memorable?

And because I like you, a Third S for 10; Rochdale were relegated from the Third Division at the end of 1973/74 - a season they'd probably, even now, prefer to forget ............... Why was that?

They finished the 2019/20 Covid season in 18th place - four points below us - with a PPG score of 1.06, 36 points and a -18 GD from 34 games (which included beating us 2-1 both home and away (our goals from Pritchard at Rochdale when we were already 2-0 down, and by Zanzala at Accie when we were already 2-0 down (something of a theme developing here))) ....

Someone mentioned they're a jinx (and a Pixie and Dixie) side to us; of the 17 League games played between us since 2006 we've won 3, drawn 1 and lost 13; the draw was in August 2006 (1-1); the wins were October 2009 (2-1 at Spotland), February 2013 (3-0 away - well done to Mrs Mad for that one) and October 2020, 2-1 at Ours (Pritchard on 64 and Russell on 66)

Since we last played they've sold Portuguese forward Fábio André Tavares Desidério to Coventry and bought Republic of Ireland MFs Conor Grant from the Owls and Conor Shaughnessy - now that's a fine ol' fightin' Irish name, so it is - from Leeds (for £MYOB and £Free respectively) and Monarchy of England MF Abraham Odoh from the Addicks (also for nowt); they've also LoanSigned English CBs Haydon Roberts from the Seagulls and Gabriel Osho from Luton (so they now have Odoh and Osho, which might confuse a few Refs), plus Blackburn's striker Jack Vale (I know his shipboard drinking buddy, Port (Vale) ......

Coley mentioned in the pre-march that the Doodles have sprayed a few goals around this season (and let a few in!); they've won 4-0 at Plywood Argyle and 5-0 at Wigan; in an 8-day spell at the turn of the year they drew 3-3 with Crewe, 4-4 at Charlton and 3-3 with Wigan, and a week later they lost 4-3 to Oxbluud United - and since then they've shared 6 goals with the Posh .... current record, that said, is P40 W8 D12 L20 GF49 GA71 for 36 points and last place, and time's running out .... as far as the bottom six go, they've scored more than any of them, and conceded more than all of them except Swindon (74) .... but every other side has won at least two more than they have ............ after us they play Blackpool (H), Crewe (A), the Wombles (A), Donnie (H) and MK Donuts (A) ....... and you can't see Huge Joy for them there (nice girl, Huge Joy)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is - isn't it 12.30 pm on 17th April..... Please do not do a Revived Red (especially if you're still in with a chance of winning the PL) ............ And of their other 23 home games this season in all competitions, the Doodles have won ............. ONE! (Fleetwood 2-1 in the fourth game of the season) ............. And Graham Alexander's final game as a pro (28th April 2012) is SuperMemorable because it ended with North End winning a free kick 25 yards out in stoppage time ..... which he took, curled the ball round the Addicks' wall and inside the near post, scoring (and winning them a point) with the very last kick of his career ............... and The Rochdale Season 1973/74 ended with a record of P46 W2 - yes, two - D17 L27, giving them 21 points, and putting them a further 21 points and a shed-load of goals from safety; they beat Southend 2-1 away at the end of September 73, and Shrews 3-2 at home in mid January 74 .... they also contrived to lose an FA Cup 2nd round replay against Grantham Town 5-3 at home, following a half-Desmond away ....... and they got a Right GreasyPoling!

Good luck to everyone! .... Stay safe and keep well! ..... And thanks for playing!

[DaveinGermany]

2-0 to the Stanley please D3N.

[cashman]

3-0 stanley for me. we are due a win yon.can i object to you calling Kettle a MR. it begins with T his title.

[Stevie R]

2-1 to Rochdale please

[Tommy McQueen]

Rochdale 2 Stanley 2 please

[ossy kid]

STANLEY 2-1 ROCHDALE Interesting report on the Isles of Scilly, in 1958 our scout troop from St Pauls Accy camped on St Mary's. The island football team heard that we had a team so challenged us to a game. We were all 14 years old but when we got to the field they were 16-17 years with all the gear. The score was 27-1 and they wouldn't have scored if our goalie hadn't gone up to try and get a goal for himself.

[Taypot]

Rochdale 1 Stanley 1

[AccyMad]

After much deliberation, I'm going for a 2 - 1 win for Stanley (surely we must be due a win at Spotland)

[monkey hanger]

2 all draw.

[MikeA]

3-0 Accy, please...

[Watchdog]

Draw 2-2 please

[Chimer]

Think I have to believe for this one, so 3-0 Stanley

[choirboy]

Rochdale 1- 2 Stanley please. It is defo time that we won in Scotland!

[Outback Ozzy]

Whilst I agree it IS time we won at Spotland, we have a nasty habit of losing against teams lower than us in the league. I hope we win, therefore, Rochdale 1 Stanley 3

[LongLostSon]

Stanley 3 Rochdale 4