2021/22 Prediction League; Game 3 v Doncaster Rovers (home)

Div3North · 15-08-2021, 13:56

Accrington Stanley

v

Doncaster Rovers

2021/22 Prediction League Game 3; v The Famous Donnie (home)

Depending which websites you visit (football ones, of course) you've probably seen that fans of certain clubs have been bragging about how great they are, how they're 'certs' for top two at the end of the season, and how many star signings they've made; foremost among the braggadocio (a word, I think, of Italian origin, meaning "boastful or arrogant behaviour") are the supporters of Ipswich (who are about to sign their 15th new player (Cameron Burgess), all 15 of whom are apparently world-beaters) ........... Pre-season favourites all - in their own eyes

Lovely karma, then to see that Ipswich are 16th (1 point, scored three, shipped four); Bolton are 14th (2 x 3-3 draws, against MK Dions and the Wombles) ; Wigan are 12th (one won, one lost); Lincoln are 8th (four points) and only Sunderland grace the Upper Echelons (3rd on GD), whereas the Top Six include Wycombe, Burton and Morecambe ...

Four teams with 6 points from 2 games; 6 teams with four points; seven teams with one point, and three teams with nul points - The Long-Nosed Pointy Things, Donnie, and Fleetwoof ............... and have you seen who are 2nd-bottom of League Deux (alphabetically, I think)? Brizzle Rovers, that's who (shouts of "Sack the Manager") P2 L2 GF1 GA4 Pts zero......... It's a cruel world out there, Joey Boy, as you may find out in due course on your upcoming trips to the Courts ..............! And on that topic, I wouldn't fancy being Ryan Giggs' defence brief, either .......

Donnie - as 'appen tha' knows - was once in the West Riding of Yorkshire; they had three Ridings, then, if you don't count Little Red Riding Hood, and Donnie nestled happily in the WR of Y from 1899, until - in 1974 - Local government reform saw the three ridings abolished and replaced with the present day ceremonial counties of the East Riding, North, South and West Yorkshire. The term 'Riding' is apparently of Viking origin and derives from "Threthingr" (equivalent to "third-ing", meaning one part of three) ..... The three Ridings in Yorkshire were the East Riding, West Riding, and North Riding; each of the historic Ridings included wapentakes, which were local meeting points, often at a cross-roads; urban areas of Yorkshire later became independent county boroughs and other areas becoming districts. And Donnie moved from the West Riding to South Yorkshire .....

Did I ever mention, by the way, that I can speak Yorkshire even though I'm an Essex / Mancunian / Lancastrian? Oh aye ....

So nah then, ‘ere’s a guide to chattin’ reight Yorkshire!
(Hello, here is a guide to proper Yorkshire dialect)

Firstly, ye ‘ave tuh drop yer ‘H’ as in ‘has’ and ‘her’, and yer ‘T’ as in ‘that’ and ‘cat’, replacing the ‘T’ with a slight ‘h’ sound, known as a Glottal Stop (try not to choke!). Everyone's heard of the phrase “Tin Tin Tin”, usually spoken as if it means something. Actually, it should be written : ‘t’in’t in’t tin.. as in “It isn’t in the tin”. See how it works?

Other rules of Yorkshire speak
⦁ They tend not to say “OUR”, instead they say “US” as in “Where’s us car?”
⦁ "THE" almost always becomes a Glottal Stop, as in in "A'M OFF T’ SHOP" ("I’m going to the shop") ("GOING" usually gets replaced with "OFF".)
⦁ TH can be dropped into a Glottal Stop at the end of a word. "WITH" would become "WI’" – as "A'M ‘ERE WI’ JOHN."
⦁ Anyone can be called “LOVE”, “M’LOVE” “PAL” or “FELLA”. it’s one of the things that makes Yorkshire folk seem so friendly.

Ready to practice some Yorkshire phrasing?

⦁ ‘er ca’ ‘ad a fa’ ra’ stashed in t’coil ‘oyle
TRANSLATION “Her cat had a fat rat stuffed in the coal cellar”.

⦁ ‘ere, wot’s f’r us tea Mutha?
TRANSLATION “Excuse me Mum, what are we having for dinner?”

⦁ eee, tha’s a reet gradly brew tha’
TRANSLATION “oh my goodness, this is a wonderful cup of tea. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart”

But to show yourself a True Son of York, you just need to remember the Yarkshire Fella's Creed ........

"'Ooooow mutch?"

And never forget:-

"Yarkshire born and Yarkshire bred,
Strong i'th'arm and weak i'th'head"

Only kidding Lads ............. (No I'm not !) ....... Yes I am ! ..... (Non, ne suis pas!)

The other thing Donnie has in abundance is Prisons ......... in fact, four of them; HMP Doncaster (many vulnerable prisoners at risk of self-harm), HMP Lindholme (almost all prisoners serving 4+ years, and 20% with links to organised crime), HMP Marshgate (mainly local, short-sentence, resettlement) and HMP Moorland (20% foreign nationals and 1/3 sex offenders) ....... And many of Doncaster's streets - as those who've visited will know - contain the suffix 'gate', derived from the old Danish word 'gata,' which meant - helpfully - "street". During Medieval times, craftsmen or tradesmen with similar skills tended to live close to each other in the same street(s); 'Baxter' being an ancient word for baker, "Baxtergate" was the bakers' street. Historians believe that "Frenchgate" may be named after French-speaking Normans who settled together in that area.

Famous people from Donnie? There are about eleventy-billion of them ....... (which book is "eleventy-billion" from?) ....... Douglas Bader, BRIAN BLESSED, Tony Christie ("Amarillo"), TV writer Roy Clarke, Jeremy Clarkson, Thomas Crapper, who invented the .... err ....crapper, Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders), Lesley Garrett, Kevin Keegan, David Pegg from the Busby Babes, Gordon Turner (Luton's leading ever goalscorer, who died aged 46 from Motor Neurone Disease), boxer Bruce Woodcock (the only other sportsman apart from Stanley Matthews that my wife has heard of), striker Len White (although in the fifties and sixties they were centre forwards) who played for Rotherham, Newcastle, Huddersfield and Stockport, scoring 229 in 467 games) and - linking back to the previous paragraph - Stephen Wade, one of England's executioners in the War and the ten years after, who assisted Albert Pierrepoint on 30+ occasions, and despatched 28 as principal hangman, generally at Armley, and whose last assignment was to hang Alec Wilkinson for the murder of Clara Farrell, his mother-in-law

The Rovers - formed in 1879 - were first elected to the Football League in 1901 as a replacement for New Brighton Tower. Their first season in the League was in fact the one in which they achieved their highest position ever (7th in the Second Division). Sadly they only lasted two seasons in the league before being voted out in favour of Bradford City, finishing the 1902 season in the bottom three. They spent the following season in the Midland League, only managing 11th place out of 18, but were elected back to Division 2 anyway. This time Doncaster finished bottom with W3 D2 L29, adrift by 12 points, gaining only 8 points – (an unfortunate still-standing record), and they were voted out again again.

The Club reformed after the war in 1919, re-joining the Midland League a year later, playing at their new temporary Bennetthorpe Ground. The first two seasons Rovers finished lower-mid table. The third season they moved to Belle Vue, finished runners up and were accepted into the Football League Division 3 North for 1923–24 to replace Stalybridge Celtic; their first match back in the League was a Goalless Desmond against Wigan Borough at Belle Vue on 25 August 1923

They've had some managers, over the years; Paul Dickov, Dean Saunders, Kerry Dixon, Sammy Chung, Joe Kinnear, Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner; the list goes on ... currently it's Richie Wellens (as of May), who took over from caretaker Andy Butler after Darren Moore moved Owl-wards in March, Wellens having got Swindon promoted and then moving to Salford Moneybags for a Short (!) Stay ... Butler, (37 and a qualified referee), had a 19-year playing career, taking in Scunthorpe (twice) for 150 games, Donnie (twice) for over 200, Walsall for over 150, and all points in between; he also managed the Doncaster Belles, and is now Head Coach at the Posh)

This week's Starter for Ten, then; given our last game and this one (Cambridge and Donnie), name the Manager / player Manager who connects Doncaster Rovers with Cambridge United?

They dropped out of the EFL into the Bananarama in 1998, but regained their EFL status by winning the 2003 Conference play-offs, and then went on to win the Third Division in 2003–04. They've been up and down like a bride's nightie since then, hitting le Championnat for a few years before going "down, up, down" like the pushbike in The Mixtures classic No 2 chart success ("Pushbike Song") of 1970 ....They GreasyPoled in 2016, UpPoled again in 2017, and have been a Ligue Un fixture since

Last season they ended up 14th with 64 points from 46 games, having been 3rd, 4th or 5th between Christmas and March, but winning only 2, drawing three and losing eleven of their final 16 games ....... we did the double over them (1-0 at theirs' (Paul Smyth), 2-1 at the Wham (Dion the Wanderer with two pens, the second in FergieTime) ... They released nine, including Brad Halliday to Fleetwoof, Madger Antonio Gomes Ajú (to no-one, as I read it) and GK Ian Lawlor to Dundee - and by the way, Fort William lost on Saturday (you'll remember that their only game last season ended 0-10) but only 2-3 to Forres, and Brechin started life in the Highland League with a Desmond at home to Rothes - and LB Reece James, who joined the Tangos at Blackpool

Seven ProperSigned (with a few loans); RB Kyle Knoyle (no, really) arrived from Cambridge; CB Ro-Shaun Willams arrived from Shrewsbury; midfielders Ben Close and Dan Gardner signed from Pompey and Wigan respectfully, and striker Jordy Hiwula signed up, also from Pompey .......... their record League win is 10–0 v Darlington (Division 4, 25 January 1964); record Cup victory is 7–0 v Blyth Spartans (FA Cup 1st Round in November 1937) and again v Chorley in November 2018; biggest ever defeat was 0–12 v Small Heath in Division 2 in April 1903 .... Appearance record holder is the just-retired James Coppinger (607 League games, 688 total games); highest goal scorer is Tom Keetley with 180 League goals in 231 appearances in the 1920s

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 17th August ..... Oddly, they're in a bit of a slump. carried over from last year, although Donnie have won this season - they beat League Two Walsall away on pens (4-3 after a 0-0) in the EFL Cup First Round (they're away at Stoke next week in Round Two); that said, Walsall are 92nd in the League at this moment - P2 L2 GF1 CA4 - so that's not a lot to brag about! And in the Troffy they play The Millers, The Iron and Man City Boys Brigade ...

And the manager/player-manager who links Donnie and Cambridge is Bill Leivers, who went from Man City to Donnie in 1964 as P/M, and then on to Cambridge in 1967 as Manager, via on year at Workington - which no doubt felt like a lifetime! ......... Oh, and "eleventy-billion" comes from Gill Sims' (very funny) "Why Mummy Drinks"

Winnable, this one ............... COYR!

Good luck to everyone! ............. Keep the Faith! ............ Thanks for playing! ....... And remember, Tin Tin TIn!