2021/22 Prediction League; Game 31 v Rotherham United (away)

Div3North · 04-02-2022, 12:52

Rotherham United FC

v

Accrington Stanley FC

2021/22 Prediction League Game 31; v Rotherham CountyTownUnited FC (away)

I was looking, a few days ago, at the February fixtures, and only then did I realise that in the 22 days starting this Saturday we have seven League games .... If I'd realised that, and if I could spell "resign", I would now be it ... But I couldn't, so I'm not .......... I am resigned, but not "resigned", if you see what I mean ....... Which you probably don't .....

And it's Sack Your Manager time once again, I see .... January has seen the departure of That Nice Mr Fatso from Gillingham, Rafael WhataMistakeatoMakea leaving Everton (218 days), Hayden Mullins departing Colchester (309 days) with the U's further down League Two than they were a year ago, Claudio WhataNiceBlokeRanieri no longer at Watford (122 days), Lee Johnson no longer the Black Cat's Mother, having had the temerity to lose 6-0 to Bolton, and ex Barnsley Boss Valerie Israel ...... no, sorry, that's Valerian Ismael ..... out of the Baggies' door toute suite after 224 days ........... some are replaced already - Frank Lampard Jnr installed at NotSoGoodison, Neil Harris in at Gillingham (who are in dire trouble, you'd guess), Woy74 at Ratford, having described the club's approach as being like "the siren call of the mermaid" (you what?), John Euseless-Sheridan - believe it or not - hiding away in the Manager's Chair at Oldham (every chance he'll take them into the Bananarama) and former Georgian (that's the place, not the era) striker Shota Arveladze (once of Rangers) in at Hull, after a career which included a whole four months as manager of Trabzanspor in the Republic (and that's a lie if you like; Republic?) of Turkey, and six months at Maccabi Tel Aviv ...........

More fun is the rumour mill about who may go where; Chris Hughton to Notts Forest, anyone? Steve Bruce allegedly nailed on for the Baggies' job (since confirmed), he being their eighth Head Coach since 2016 (Ismael, of course, plus Pulis, Pardew, Darren Moore, Scottish accordionist and bandleader Jimmy Shand - sorry, Shan - Slaven Bilic and Fat Sam ) ... and Warnock overtaking Roy Keane as frontrunner for the Wearside Wanderers .... But the one that Cashy will especially like, I think, is Paul Snake-Cook back to TwistySpires United (if he goes) ..........

And think kindly of the players of the USA and Honduras, who played a World Cup Qualifier this week in Minnesota (which BidenLand won 3-0) ......... ok so far, but the temperature there was apparently minus 16 degrees C (which is 3.2 degrees F in old money) .... the report reads:

"Goals from Weston McKennie, Walker Zimmerman and Chelsea's Christian Pulisic sealed the win in Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to -16C. As well as tights and gloves, some players wore balaclavas against the cold and Honduras said two players had to be taken off "due to the extreme weather. Visiting coach Hernan Gomez made three half-time changes, two of which were said to be because of the freezing conditions."

US Head Coach Gregg Berhalter was asked about the playing conditions; he said

"What I would say is that we provided Honduras and their staff and the referees with warm weather gear, we provided them with headgear, and we tried to make it a safe environment for them to play. When we go down to those countries and it's 90 degrees and it's unbearable humidity and guys are getting dehydrated and cramping up and getting heat exhaustion, that's the nature of our competition. When we scheduled this game and this location, you know, you have to go by average temperatures."

Maybe so, but not, surely, the average temperatures in Deepest Siberia? And why give them "warm weather gear" when it's flipping perishing?

OK, so who didn't see "Gillingham 2 Oxford 7" last Saturday (before Oxford held Wigan to a half Desmond on Tuesday) ... and in particular, who didn't see that Cameron Brannagan (whose name substitutes perfectly for "Jennifer Juniper" in the Donovan song of the same name - go on, try it) - having just taken on penalty duties - got four chances from 12 yards and potted all four; and those four spot kicks are more penalties than 78 of the 92 League clubs have scored this season ...

Which, of course, starts the mind racing; has any player ever scored four penalties in one game before? (No, is the simple answer) ...... how often have four penalties been awarded in one game? Are there any memorable matches in the past which have "multiple penalty" tales attached to them?
The last time four penalties were awarded in a game was when Man City beat Spurs 4-1 back in October 2014 ................ Sergio Aguero scored two and missed one, and Robert Soldado scored the other one .......... before that it was April 2000, when Bradford and Derby shared eight goals, Deano "DontSignAnything" Windarse scored a first half hat trick, and three of four pens were scored - two by Craig Burley for Derby and one by Peter Beagrie for Bratfud ............ and the one before that - 1989 - saw referee Kelvin Morton write himself into the record books and off Brighton fans' Christmas Card List by awarding five penalties in 27 minutes - four to Crystal Palace and one to Brighton; this was the Palace of Brightie and Wrightie - Mark and Ian, a pretty deadly pairing ............ 38 mins (Palace 1-0 up), Mark Bright was fouled in the box and despatched the penalty for 2-0 ......... Second penalty, again Bright, but this one was pushed round the post ...... Third penaty (Ian Wright having taken over duties) was smashed against the post and bounced out to Mark Bright, who missed the rebound ... Fourth penalty went to Brighton, and was tucked away by Alan Curbishley for 2-1 ...... Fifth penalty - a dubious handball call - was, after what had gone on earlier, passed to RB John Pemberton to take: he'd never taken one before, and of course he blasted it over the bar, didn't he ......... and was never asked to take one again ...... a lethal strike pairing, four penalties, and they missed three of them ......... although they did win 2-1

The last penalty hat trick recorded was, slightly ironically, scored for, not against, Gillingham by Josh Wright in 2017 ............. and following their 7-2 thrashing, Gillingham - then under Neil Harris - beat Crewe 1-0 on Tuesday ......... with a 16th minute penalty from Danny Lloyd after a handball by Crewe skipper Luke Murphy ! The result leaves them both on 22 points from 29 games, and 22nd and 23rd - eight points and lots and lots of goals from safety ............

Top of the Heap, of course, and the Millers have only lost five in the League all season, two at home and three away .......... they've also put five goals past Sunderland, Gillingham and Donnie, and four past Pompey ...........But one team (so far) has done the double over them, with wins by 4-2 at Millmoor (or wherever they play now, since they were only there from 1907 to 2008) and 1-0 in the return; Starter for Ten, then ....... which team has DTT (Done Them Twice) in the League, home and away, in the current season?

They were Thornhill Football Club, briefly ...... founded in 1877, they played at Millmoor from 1907 to 2008 before changing venues to New York; in May 1925 Rotherham County and Rotherham Town united as - well - Rotherham United .... Thye had played in amber and black, but changed to red and white around 1930 - not that it helped much, because in 1931 they had to seek re-election (again) .... They finished as runners-up three time in succession between 1947 and 1949 and then were champions of Division Three (North) in 1951: the club reached its highest ever league position of third in the Second Division in 1955, when only goal average denied them a place in the top flight after they finished level on points with champions Birmingham City and runners-up Luton Town (see previous thread) ........ in 2009 they signed "prolific goal scorer" Adam le Fallover, and in the 2014–15 Championship season, their first after a nine-year absence, their survival was jeopardised by a points deduction for fielding the ineligible Farrend Rawson (who we had on loan for 12 games in 2017/18) during their home win against Brighton & Hove Albion ..... Rawson's loan had expired two days prior to the match, and despite the club insisting it was an external administrative error, they were subsequently thrown back into a relegation battle with Wigan Athletic and Millwall, which they survived in the penultimate game of the season, a 2–1 home win against Reading.

Over the last few years - and not for the first time - they've been up and down like the proverbial Bride's Nightie .... In fact, they were relegated from Le Championnat to Ligue Un in 2016/17, 2018/19 and 2020/21, and promoted again in 2017/18 and 2019/20 ..... their most recent GreasyPole (2020/21) saw them finish 23rd on 42 points, sandwiched between the Owls in 24th and the Chairboys (which should have been Derby, as we know) in 22nd .......... their ins and outs are in the Game 24 thread: in the Transfer Window they ProperSigned Bohemian Georgie Kelly (a striker) ... and by the way, "Bohemian" is his former club, not a life-style choice .......... they also LoanSigned Arsenal RB Jordi Martin Emmanuel Osei-Tutu (no relation) .... in exchange, they sold Jamaican CB Curtis Tilt (which isn't a life-style choice either) to Wigan, and Irish LW Kieran Sadlier to Bolton - who'll frankly sign anyone at the moment

Looks like the Ups and Downs may well continue for another season, too ..... they top the table, with a record reading P28 W18 D5 L5 GF53 GA18 (which is likely why they're top of the League) for 59 points (Wigan have 56 from 26 games) .......... after six games they were W3 L3 and 13th ........... between losing game 6 on 11th September and us beating them on Boxing Day they won 11 and drew 5 of 16 .......... and the second scary number ("conceded 18 in 28 games" being the first) is that they've kept 14 clean sheets so far ...... Leading scorer is Michael Smith (who joined the Stanley on loan on 18th January 2012, scored a hat-trick ten days later and provided an assist for Luke Joyce as we beat Gillingham 4–3 (Leam's first game as Boss, as I recall), and who returned to his parent club (then, Charlton) in mid-March after suffering a season-ending knee injury ........ at the last count he has 18 in the League and a couple more in the Cups ......... or in his cups, maybe?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which - if Rotherham is in the same time-zone as us (well, you never know - funny place, Yarkshire) is 3.00 pip emma on Saturday the Tomorrowth of February ....... It should be recorded that we've stuffed them twice this season in two goes, 1-0 in the League (goal by Sean McSuperstar) and 2-1 in the EFL Cup in August (away) - goals by Colby on 86 and the Bolton BarSteward on 38 ... but we're NOT the answer to the Starter for Ten: they're still in the EFL Troffy (away at Hartlepool on 9th March in Semi-Final 2, for a place against Wigan or Sutton in the Final), but out of the FA Cup 8-7 on pens against QPR after a half-Desmond .... Chimer the Fantasist mused about us beating them again: if we do, we'll all drive to Portsmouth and give him a hug!

And the team that did The Double - which is known in France is "Le Double" - is Fleetwood ............ 4-2 away, 1-0 at home ..... despite which they're still stuck in what the French call "Une Guerre des Chiens du Relégation", aka a relegation dog-fight ....

Isn't this edificational?

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