2021/22 Prediction League; Game 11 v Ipswich Town (home)

Div3North · 30-09-2021, 11:26

Accrington Stanley

v

Ipswich Town

2021/22 Prediction League Game 11; v The Pauls (home)

And now there are three ......

With Monday's passing of "Sir" Roger Hunt, only three of the Class of 66 starting line up are still alive - Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Bobby Charlton and George Cohen, and if you add the reserves, it's seven - Ron Flowers, Terry Paine, Ian Callaghan and George Eastham ............. Sir Roger was eleven years with Liverpool, and was the club's record goal scorer with 286 goals until being overtaken by Ian Rush. Nonetheless, he remains Liverpool's record League goal scorer with 244 goals. Under Bill Shankly, Hunt won two league titles and an FA Cup; in August 1964 he also scored the first ever goal seen on Match of the Day. He played in all England's six games in '66, scoring three times (one v Mexico, two against Les Grenouilles), and was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2006. Consistently referred to as a Gentleman, he was yet another of the true Legends of the game .............. RIP, Sir Roger; thanks for the memories, and know that we'll miss you

Football is often described as a simple game - "played with the feet, won with the head"; and with the current focus on heading the ball and its causal link to dementia, you might have seen the reports of the adult 11-a-side game played at Spennymoor Town's ground last weekend between two teams of current and ex-pros under a set of rules which (in the first half) only allowed players to head the ball in the penalty area and (in the second half) banned heading the ball anywhere on the pitch ............ the major issues it caused seemed to have been at set pieces (especially corners), but it was by all accounts an interesting experiment .......... the game, I should record) was won on pens after a 5-5 draw (or two-and-a-half Desmonds)

AND; your Starter for Ten; I've referred in the header to Ipswich Town as "The Pauls" in deference to their Managers rather than their players ........ but how many managers called Paul have the TractorBoys had since the beginning of 2011 - and who is he / are they?

And - statistics don't lie - the Stanley has, as at now,

1. Conceded more goals in League One than anyone else this season (19 - Sunderland, Wigan and the Owls are on 7 goals conceded, although in each case in 9 games)

2. Conceded 12 goals in three games (taking one point in our last four games) - our worst in at least ten years, and probably since we re-joined the League in 2006; before that, in 2012/13 we let in 11 in three (2-3 v Rochdale, 1-3 at Torquay, and 0-5 at Oxford), and in 2011/12 it was - not for the first time - 10 in 3 (1-4 at Cheltenham, 1-1 v Shrewsbury, and 1-5 at Brizzle)

3. Got the joint second-worst GD in the Division (-7)

Our leading goal scorers - The Bishop of Wham, Matt the Butcher and Michael, Sheriff of Nottingham - have three each; the stats on shots on Tuesday were fair enough, but "on target" was something entirely else .... To be scrupulously fair, ours was actually only the third-worst thrashing of the night (sounds like "Tom Brown's Schooldays"), given that Cheltenham lost 5-0 at Roker Park, and you have to sort of feel sorry for Donnie - when you're rock bottom of the League, a 6-0 hammering (including four in ten minutes) isn't what you want ........ and our issue might be that the hammering was handed out by Ipswich, and Donnie's issue might be, once again, the stats - 33% of the possession, one shot (which was at least on target) against Ipswich's eleven (7 on target, six goals), and no corners to Ipswich's eight ..... P9 W1 D1 L7 GF4 GA17 GD -13, Pts4 .......... and Saturday they've got a visit from the MKDonuts, who keep getting 2s and 3s (scored 20 - Best in Show - and conceded 13 ..... "We're going to score one more than you .......")

And here's one for the Historians; in the 1930 World Cup semi-final between Argentina and the Good Ol' US of A, the American team trainer, one Jack Coll, raced on to the pitch to treat an injured US player; unfortunately he dropped his trainer's bag of tricks .......... but with what result?

Nothing to tell you about Ipswich that you don't already know; as for the Footie Club, it was formed in an amateur way in 1878 as Ipswich AFC (which in these more posey days would no doubt have been "AFC Ipswich"); they merged with Ipswich Rugby Club and became Ipswich Town FC; they didn't join the Football League (Div3South) until May 1938, when the replaced the not-re-elected Gillingham, whose record on the road for the1937/38 season was P21 W1 D1 L19 GF11 GA52 Pts3 (and by the way, Accie were bottom of Div3North but WERE re-elected)........... in 1938/39 Ipswich finished a decent 7th, in a group of 5 who all got 44 points .... in 1939 they had only played (and drawn) three games when the war put an end to the Football League in its then-current form; Accie were top of Div3North - so Les Sauers have a lot to answer for! ("Two World Wars and One World Cup, doo dah, doo dah ....")

Promoted to Division 2 in 1954, you'll recall, they won Division One for the only time (although they were runners-up twice in the early 80s) in 1961/62 under Plain Mister Alfred Ramsay ........ Second Starter for Ten, then; Ipswich won the League that year; but who finished second?

Into Europe in 1962/63, they beat Maltese side Floriana 14-1 (4-1 and 10-0) in the European Cup Qualifying Round before succumbing to AC Milan (who beat Benfica 2-1 in the Final to win the trophy) in the First Round Proper, 4-2 on aggregate ....... well, not actually on aggregate, you'll understand, because they played on grass, but you get my drift .........

In 2002 they were GreasyPoled to the Championship - which is often what happens when you only win one of your first seventeen games ...... they remained in Le Championnat until 2019, when they 'Poled into League One ....... they finished 11th in Covid season 2019/20, and 9th last season ......... they also bought every male player with a pulse over the summer, so their League position will disappoint their fans (who thought promotion was a God-given right this year), and hack off (which is "Disappointment Plus") the owners even more ............. watch the "Sits Vac" columns for a vacant job near you any time soon!

They sold, released or gave away 23 players in the summer, four of whom signed for Colchester and 19 of whom didn't; Irish LB Stephen Ward went to Walsall, striker Gbenga Tai "Ben" Folami joined Melbourne Victory (and I don't think has come out of lockdown Aussie-style since) ... the rest were scattered far and wide, with French MF Allan Viral ("Allan has a Virus", I believe that translates as) joining Flekkerøy Idrettslag, also called Fløy, which is a Norwegian sports club from Flekkerøy in Kristiansand who play in the third tier, and MF Andre Dozzell going to QPR

They ProperSigned shed-loads (15), including Cameron Burgess from us for a fee reported as £750k ..... they also got striker Joseph David Wozencroft Pigott from the Wombles, MF Kyle Edwards from the Baggies, forward Conor Chaplin from Barnsley, and others even less famous.

It may be, thinking about it, that their signings would better suit one of the older tactical formations ... In the sport's early days, football was very much focused on attack and, as such, many teams (such as Royal Engineers, 1872) played with a 1–2–7 formation (one defender, two midfielders and seven attackers). The single defender was known as the three-quarter-back, and he was supported in part by two half-backs from midfield who would be in charge of orchestrating the game with short passing. Up front, the seven forwards were split into four wing forwards and three centre forwards, which might have got a bit crowded. The wingers' main task was to use their pace to pick up on the long balls sent forward by the half- and three-quarter-backs, whereas the centre forwards were charged with taking the short passes from the half-backs.

They're not having a good time so far, aren't Les Jeunes Hommes Tracteurs ........... P9 W2 D4 L3 GF18 (mostly because of Tuesday's half-dozen) GA16 Pts10 for 19th place ..... of their nine League games six have been at home (W1 D4 L1 GF15 GA12) and three away (W1 L2 GF3 GA4) ...... the other win was 1-0 at Lincoln, but then Bolton stuck it up 'em 5-2 at Portman Road ("and they don't like it up 'em, Mr Mainwairing, they do not like it up 'em") .......... EFL Cup journey lasted one round, losing 1-0 at home to Newport; Troffy saw them lose at home 1-2 to The Hammers' "Small Anvils" in mid September ...... Leading scorers are Macauley Bonne with 7 and Lee Evans (having a night off from the Comedy Club) with 3 ....

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 2nd October ("Soon be Christmas"!) ......... Head to head favours them, although we famously stuffed them on TV in 2019/20 with a Bishop of Wham Double incl a Penalty, although they did us 4-1 at their place (our goal from a Zanzala pen on 86; last season they won 2-0 at theirs and 2-1 at Ours, The Absent Prince Charles getting our goal on four mins, Seamus getting a red card on 16, and Nathan Baxter saving the ensuing penalty ....

And on the Suffolk Managerial Front, "The Pauls" are four in number since January 2011; Paul Jewell (Jan 11 to Oct 12), Paul Hurst (May 18 to Oct 18), Paul Lambert (Oct 18 to Feb 21) and Paul Snake (March 21 to date ..... between Nov 12 and April 18 it was Mick McCarthy ......... and to amuse Cashy, I can confirm that Mr Snake's win-percentage record in the hot seat in Suffolk is 22.2% - 6 wins in 27 games as at today!

And USA trainer Jack Coll's Magic Bag contained - among other gubbins, including no doubt a sponge and some smelling salts - a bottle of "Pinkston and Scruggs Chloroform Linament", which smashed on impact, resulting in the chloroform fumes knocking poor Jack out cold ......... and maybe the team got some too, because they eventually lost 6-1 .....!

And the Runners-Up to Ipswich in Division One in season 1961/62 were The Dingles, three points behind although - academically - ahead on Goal Average (they scored 101 and conceded 67 for a goal average of 1.507, against Ipswich's 93 scored. 67 conceded, and goal average of 1.388)

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

COYR!