2021/22 Prediction League; Game 27 v Milton Keymes Dons (home)

Div3North · 07-01-2022, 10:56

Accrington Stanley FC

v

Milton Keynes Dons

2021/22 Prediction League Game 27; v The Donut Squishers (away)

You might recall - if you read it - that a week or some back (the thread for the Cheltenham game, I think) I spotlighted the Hapless Vale of Leithen of the Scottish Lowland League, who'd lost their previous two games 13-0 and 11-0 to Bonnyrigg Rose and Berwick Rangers respectively... I put it this way:

"Vale of Leithen, it might be fair to say, aren't having the best of seasons; in their 15 league matches to date they've conceded seven goals against Bowness Utd at home (0-7), seven against East Kilbride at home (1-7), seven away at Civil Service Strollers (1-7), eight at home to Gala Fairydean (0-8), nine away to Rangers B (0-9), ten at home to Celtic B (0-10), eleven away to Berwick (0-11) and 13 at home to Bonnyrigg Rose (lovely girl!) - 0-13; they've scored 5 in 15 and conceded 96, and you won't perhaps be surprised that their website contains an advert for a new Head Coach ...... "

Since then they've played some more matches, and actually got a draw against Gretna 2008 and a 1-0 away win against Bo'ness Utd, so they now stand on P25 W1 D2 L22 GF9 GA126 GD -117 Pts5 ... and firmly in 18th and last place

But it was the Double-Digit Defeats that caught the eye ...... and started me wondering who might be The World Champions of the DDD ...... so step forward then Maccabi Pardes Katz who play in Israel’s Liga Gime , and who quite spectacularly lost 12 consecutive matches between 14 February 2020 and 2 April 2021.

"The run started midway through the 2019-20 season with an 11-1 defeat by Beitar Ezra and was followed by scores of 13-0 (to Bnei Yehud), 10-2 (Tzafririm Holon), 17-0 (FC Ru’ah) and 26-0 (Hapoel Ramat Israel) before the season was cut short due to Covid-19. Then the team started the 2020-21 season with another seven defeats: 11-0 (Inter Aliyah), 20-0 (Hapoel Neveh Golan), 10-0 (Beitar Jaffa), 20-2 (Elitzur Yehud), 12-1 (Maccabi HaShikma Hen), 11-0 (HaMakhtesh Givatayim) and 12-0 (Inter Aliyah again).

The streak was broken when the team lost its next match just 5-2.”

You sort of have to stand back and applaud ineptitude of that quality, n'est-ce pas? ...

And proving that there's still no sentiment or loyalty in football management - where Managers of the Month can be and have been sacked within a very short time of being cursed with a Manager of the Month Award - step forward Watford, who totalled Vladimir Ivic eight days after he won a gong - but that record is broken once more: on 8 November 2021, York City’s Steve Watson was named manager of the month for October, but he was gone five days later, with his injury-hit squad 11th in the National League North. The official statement apparently read “mutually agreed”, but it was widely reported as a sacking following the 0-0 draw with Curzon Ashton that included “ugly scenes” as Watson received abuse from supporters .... wasn't a Friday, was it, 13th November last year?

I love the Transfer Window - partly so you can go, "Oh good grief, is he still playing?", and partly for the immediately misconstrue-able and just plain odd names that appear in the daily lists (and by the way, 6+ days and The Bishop of Wham's still with us) ............ Thus far I noted that RB James "Mr Dynamite" Brown has left Drogheda (but no mention of whether the Band of Renown - "Mambo Number 5" - came too), and that ex MK Dons striker Charlie Brown has signed for Cheltenham ...... pity that they didn't take the chance also to sign Snoopy - once described as "the most dogged central defender in the League" .... (Gerrit? Snoopy? Dogged defender? Oh suit yourselves!) ......... Of local interest might be the transfer of 6' 4" defender Thomas Albert Dallison-Lisbon from Crawley to Colchester (because he came to the Wham on loan in August 2017, played six times in all, and then returned to his then parent club ........... but (Starter for Ten); which was his parent club at that time?

And 3 1/2 years for YouKnowWho? 'eck! I thought I saw somewhere that Eoin Doyle was going back to Ireland, thus creating a niche for a committed, keen, inventive striker ....... which he isn't, on current form. And in case you missed it, West Ham Ladies have signed Danish international MF Emma Snerle from Fortuna Hjørring (which translates from the Danish as "Fortunate Herring") ........... She may well end up christened "Clementine"

"In a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty-niner and his daughter, Clementine
Yes I loved her, how I loved her, though her shoes were number nine
Herring boxes, without topses, sandals were for Clementine"

And if she were mine I'd not have called her Emma - I'd have named her Sonia, in respectful memory of Cyril Fletcher's Sonia Snell ....

"This is the tale of Sonia Snell, to whom an accident befell
An accident which may well seem embarrassing in the extreme.
It happened, as it does to many, that Sonia had to spend a penny
And entering in with modest grace the properly appointed place
Provided at the railway station, there she sat in meditation,
Unfortunately unacquainted, the woodwork had been newly painted"

Three signings and a loan, eh? With our luck, the loan will be Bolton's newly signed striker, so that we can get him match fit ...............

The Donuts are, of course, England's Answer to the NFL, where - for loadsamoney - franchise teams suddenly move hundreds of miles away from where they were, thus causing their former fans to either move with them or start watching the Litle League again - and don't buy a lifetime season ticket
They relocated ("My Old Man said Follow the Van") to Milton Keynes, as we know: the first season for the club as Milton Keynes Dons was 2004–05, in Football League One, under Stuart Murdoch. The team's first game was on 7 August 2004, and ended as a 1–1 home draw against Barnsley, with Izale McLeod equalising with The Plastic Wombles' first competitive goal. Murdoch was sacked in November and replaced by Danny Wilson, who kept Milton Keynes Dons in the division on the final day of the season — but only because of Wrexham's 10-point deduction for going into administration. The following season, Milton Keynes Dons struggled and were GreasyPoled to League Two ... However they won said League Two in 2007/08, and on 3 May 2015 they secured promotion to the Football League Championship for the first time, beating Yeovil Town 5–1 and leapfrogging Preston North End (who lost 1–0 at Colchester United) on the final day of the season, but they went down again in 2016, sandwiched between Charton and Bolton, and 10 points from safety, and in 2018 they went down to the basement again, returning to League One after one season following a "one game shoot-out" with Mansfield (who had ben above them in 3rd on GD before the final game of the season - Mansfield v MK Dons!) for the final automatic slot: they won 1-0

They finished last season in 13th place on 65 points, two points and two places behind us ......... Ten left in the summer, and two more (see "Charlie Brown and Snoopy the Dogged Defender" (above)) this month ......... They ProperSigned five in the summer (including GK Franco Ravioli - sorry, Ravizzoli - and Mo Eisa ("So the Eisas have it, the Eisas have it")

Record to date for this season is (home) P12 W6 D3 L3 GF17 GA12, and away it's P11 W5 D3 L3 GF25 GA 16, for a combined P23 W11 D6 L6 GF42 GA29 and 39 points, enough for 7th place ............ four defeats to strong sides (Rotherham, The Owls, Slumberland and Oxford) and two to not strong sides (The Shrews and Donnie) ........ They went out of the FA Cup in a replay at Stevenage (2-1 aet after a Desmond at home), didn't even reach August in the EFL Cup (out 5-0 at the Cherries), and they departed the Troffy 1-0 at Charlton on Tuesday night just gone in the 3rd Round (I will not say "Round of 16"!)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 8th January ............ FA Cup Round 3, eh! TwistySpires at Chelsea! Are we there? Are we fiddlesticks!

They did us in game 5 (2-0 at theirs), but they aren't out of sight, and they aren't out of reach either ... Leading scorer is Scott Twine with 11, then it's the American cross-talk comedians Matt (O'Riley), Max (Watters) and Mo (Eisa) with 6, 6 and 5 ("Who's on first?").............. Our best run of the season, don't forget, and long may it continue ........ And the parent club of Tom Dallison was Brighton and Hove Athletic United Town!

COYR!

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