2021/22 Prediction League; Game 21 v AFC Wimbledon (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley FC

v

AFC Wombledon (FC and bar)

2021/22 Prediction League Game 21; v The Wombles of ........... where?


This week's Starter for Ten; in the first four of Elizabeth Beresford's Womble books, and in the sixth and last one as well, the Wombles lived on Wimbledon Common, but in Book 5 ("The Wombles to the Rescue") they moved somewhere else; but where did they move to?

And isn't it interesting listening to the pre and post match interviews with The Gaffer? I didn't know, for example, that every League win before Fleetwood had been by a single goal, or that every time in the League when we've scored first, we've won ........... but two wins on the bounce (best run of the season so far is 3 in a row, which became four out of five) and five goals (best in League games had been three, twice, at Charlton (3-2) and Morecambe (3-3) and suddenly we're all smiling again .......... well, I am - don't know about you lot ....

"The Sun has got his hat on,
Hip hip hip hooray,
We put five goals past Fleetwood
And at last we're on our way"

And some Ritual Humiliations dished out by the Vegan Gods of Football in Round Two of the FA Cup (Vegan Gods of Football? That doesn't sound right..........) .... I give you Burton Albinos 1 Portly Value 2: Donnie 2 Mansfield 3: Lincoln Pimps - err, Imps - 0 Hartlepool 1 (is that four games without scoring now?): high-flying Pompey 1 (6 wins on the spin, and no defeats in 9) Harrogate 2: Yeovil 1 Stevenage 0: and Salford 0 TwistySpires Utd 2 ...... and of course, Ipswich 0 Barrow 0 - Barrow thus emulating St Patrick, by clearing all the snakes out of Suffolk (St Patrick had already done Ireland)......... and He (Snake, not St P) appears to be in the betting for the Fleetwood job Cashie - thought you'd like to know ......

Women's FA Cup weekend too .......... why are some teams "Ladies" and others are "Women"? .......... Chorley Ladies beat Bradford City Women, and Notts Forest Ladies did Wolves Women, but apart from those two, every other "Women v Ladies" tie was won by Women - perhaps the Ladies Teams are too genteel? Reminds me of "Gentlemen v Players" in many ways ........ and while I was taken by "Brighouse Town Women" (all rolled up sleeves and rolling pins), Crawley Wasps Ladies ("The Sting is in the Tail"), and Lye Town Ladies (no, Lye Town, not Lye Down), and in admiration of Leafield Athletic Women FC (which I'd hope they are ... athletic, that is, not women .... well, that too, of course) .... my favourite team of the round has to be "Norton and Stockton Ancients Ladies" (which I actually read as "Ancient Ladies" the first time round), who sadly lost to Leeds Ladies (1-2)

And there are records for everything these days, but I wondered who knows - Second Starter for Ten - the official record for the highest-altitude game of football ever played?

AFC Wimbledon was formed in 2002 from the "ashes" of The Crazy Gang aka Wimbledon FC. In their first season (2002–03) they competed in the Combined Counties League Premier Division, managed by former Wimbledon F.C. player Terry Eames: their first ever game, a pre-season friendly against Sutton United on 10 July 2002, resulted in a 4–0 loss in front of a crowd of 4,657. At the end of their debut season they finished third in the league and narrowly failed to win promotion to the Isthmian League First Division .... In 2003–04, they won their first 21 league games before a 2–2 draw against Sandhurst Town on 10 January 2004, giving them 32 consecutive wins in league games over two seasons (they won their last 11 of 2002/03). Manager Terry Eames was suspended on 13 February 2004 and sacked five days later on the grounds of gross misconduct and Assistant manager Nick English took charge with immediate effect.

The team went on to finish as champions of the Combined Counties League with an astonishing record of 42 wins and four draws in 46 games, scoring 180 goals, conceding 32, and ending on 130 points .......... In 2010–11 they finished as runners-up in the Conference Premier (now the Bananarama): in the playoff semis they faced fifth placed Fleetwood Town and thrashed them 8–1 on aggregate before beating Luton Town in the Final 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out after a goalless Desmond in extra time; it was their fifth promotion in nine years (later to become 6 promotions in 13 years), and took them into the EFL

They spent five seasons in League Two, finishing 16th, 20th, 20th, 15th and 7th, but winning the Playoffs 3-2 against us on aggregate, and then beating Plymouth 2-0 in the Final; in League One they've finished 15th, 18th, 20th, 20th and 19th ......... currently they lie 17th off a record reading P18 W5 D6 L7 GF26 GA30, with 21 points ........ happily for them, the bottom four are starting to get tailed off - Crewe with 2 wins and 12 points, Donnie with 3 wins and 13, Fleetwood with 3 wins and 15, and Gillingham with 3 wins and 17, and Morecambe and Shrewsbury on 19 points ,.... They've only won three away - 2-1 at Donnie, 4-3 at Morecambe and 1-0 at Lincoln ... home wins against Oxford 3-1 and Crewe 3-2

They beat Charlton and Northampton 1-0 away in the EFL Cup before stubbing their toes on Arsenal (3-0) ....... they're still interested in the FA Cup, having beaten Guiseley and then Cheltenham ("a seven-goal thriller"), but they're out of the Troffy at the Group stage ........ draw for Round 3 of the FA Cup is tonight, I rather think ........ Let's see who they get

Eight moved on in the close season, including striker Joe Pigott to Ipswich, CB Terrell Thomas to Crewe, MF Archie Procter to us and GK Matthew Cox to Brentford ........... Five came in (plus three on loan), the best known being CMF Luke McCormick from Chelsea and CB Darius Charles from Les Jeunes Hommes de Chaises ..........

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm tomorrow, 7th December .............. head to head (including the Play offs) show us Rampant (hands up anyone who's been Rampant recently) with nine wins, five draws and four losses - the last of which was a 5-1 whacking by them at ours on 10th April this year (our goal by Michael Nottingham) ..... their leading scorers are Ollie Palmer with seven, and Jack Rudoni and Ayoub Assal with five each ...........

And did you know that their club crest, based on the coat of arms of the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon, features a black double headed eagle in reference to a local legend that Julius Caesar once made camp on Wimbledon Common, this symbol apparently being part of his coat of arms? .......... I mean, come on - there are local legends and then there's drunken rubbish .......... Julius Caeser in a tent on Wimbledon Common? More likely a dogger on his way to a fancy dress party!

And back at the Starters for Ten, The Wombles moved (for one book only) to take up residence in Hyde Park (no idea why, haven't actually read it .... haven't read "Mein Kampf" either, come to think of it .............)

And the highest-level footie match recorded and accepted was in 2017, on Mt Kilimanjaro, at an altitude of 5,714m ..... no idea what the score was, but I bet there wasn't a lot of diving for penalties going on - but I bet there was a lot of gasping for breath!!

Soon be Chrimbo!

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

COYR!

[Watchdog]

Accrington Stanley to win 3-1

[cashman]

2-1 stanley fer me.wimbledon are always hard to beat.

[stanleyhouse]

Stanley 2 Afc Wimbledon 0

[AccyMad]

2 - 1 to Stanley please

[Taypot]

Stanley 4 Wimbledon 1

[ossy kid]

Stanley 1-0

[Tommy McQueen]

Stanley 2 wombles 2;please

[andyd]

Stanley 2-1 Wimbledon.

[Stevie R]

2-0 to Stanley please

[Tom D]

1-0 win for stanley please

[LongLostSon]

Stanley 2 Dons 3

[MikeA]

Originally Posted by Div3North

And back at the Starters for Ten, The Wombles moved (for one book only) to take up residence in Hyde Park (no idea why, haven't actually read it .... haven't read "Mein Kampf" either, come to think of it .............)

I'm glad it wasn't Milton Keynes!

1-0 to Stanley, please.

[Outback Ozzy]

Originally Posted by MikeA

I'm glad it wasn't Milton Keynes!

My thoughts exactly!!

2-1 to Stanley for me please

[mab]

🙂 Accrington Stanley 2 - 1 AFC Wimbledon 🙂 please for me