2021/22 Prediction League Game 33; v Crewe Alexandra (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley FC

v

Crewe Alexandra FC

2021/22 Prediction League Game 33; v Crude Alexandra (home)

Goals win games, we all know that ............. and lots of goals win lots of games, and earn promotions, League Titles and the like ........ so your team's Goal Difference is likely to be a strong indicator of your successes .... or not

But have you ever wondered about the sides who end the season with substantial GDs and come up short, winning nothing? Question: what's the best GD a team has had and not been promoted?

Well, there's Huddersfield Terriers ...... 1980/81, cocking their Terrier legs over all and sundry; GF 71, GA40 = GD +31 ............. and they finished fourth, behind Rotherham, Charlton and Barnsley. Mind you, twenty-some years later (2016/2017) they won the Championnat Playoff Final and were promoted to the Prawn Sandwiches with a GD of -2, beating the Owls 4-3 on pens in the semis before beating Reading 4-3 on pens in the Final.

Brentford finished third in the 2019-20 Championship with a goal difference of +42, but they weren't promoted (two automatics and the Playoff winners; The Bees beat Swansea 3-2 in the semis, and lost 2-1 to Fulham in the Final). In the old Third Division North, where only the winner was promoted to the Second Division, Stockport County finished runners-up in 1929-30 with a goal difference of +62. The Bananarama also offers examples, including Wrexham (+52 in 2011-12) and Luton (+44 in 2009-10 and also +48 in 2010-11). Worst of all, perhaps, from their archives is 2003/04, when Hereford United finished second with 91 points and a +59 goal difference, but finished a point behind champions Chester and lost to Aldershot in the play-offs.

Tough, but not as bad as the Highland League in Sconnie Botland: in 2016 Formartine United finished second with a GD of +102 (32 better than the League winners Cove Rangers), but of course only the League champions got through to the play-offs for a league place. And the year before that, Brora Rangers won the Highland League with a goal difference of +121 ........ but lost to Montrose in the play-off final. No promotion, but at least they got a trophy. Formartine got nothing.

And did you read about Janus Wagonback (85), a Nottinghamshire grandfather? Known as George, he was originally from Budapest, but moved to the UK as a political refugee after the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. A few days ago he put his stake on a 10-match footie accumulator at a bookies in Sutton-in-Ashfield: all ten of his selected matches ended as draws, and that included Millwall's home tie with Preston North End, the Dundee derby and a World Cup qualifier between Lebanon and Iraq ........ he won £12,000.00, did George ............ Starter for Ten, then: what was the amount of his stake that won him the twelve grand?

Until the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) company chose Crewe as the site for its locomotive works and railway station in the late 1830s, Crewe was a village with a population (1831) of just 70 residents. Crewe railway station was built in fields near to Crewe Hall and was completed in 1837. Although the name Creu first appears in the Domesday Book, the modern urban settlement of Crewe wasn't formally planned out until 1843, and so Crewe was formally named after the railway station, rather than the other way round. The name "Crewe" derives from an Old Welsh word 'criu', meaning 'weir', or 'crossing'. Isn't it. Look you. Eisteddfod. Chimer.

You'll remember from previous threads that the club was named after the wife of King-Emperor Edward VII: I had it in mind that she was called Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia (aka Princess Alexandra of Denmark); something I read yesterday evening though seems to suggest that her full name was actually Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia 1 December 1844 to 20 November 1925, so I thought I'd share that with you (need to know!) ........

Having agreed to marry the future King, Alexandra travelled from Denmark to Britain aboard the royal yacht "Victoria and Albert" and arrived in Gravesend in Kent, on 7 March 1863. The first thing that happened on her landing was that Sir Arthur Sullivan (of G&S fame) composed music for her arrival, and Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote a monstrously boring Ode in her honour:

"Sea King's daughter from over the sea,
Alexandra!
Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!"

Not "The Charge of the Light Brigade", is it? ............... "Into the Valley of Death rode the Six Hundred"

... and the second thing was that someone named a football team after her: I'd have thought we were very lucky that Denmark didn't invade us again.....

Alexandra, you might not be aware, was also responsible for the construction of the Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace), was heavily involved in the formation of the BBC, and invented the "Palais Glide" ......... ok, well maybe not all of those are wholly true ............bit of invention ...... can't touch you for it

You might struggle with the question of Crewe's "best ever position in the FL", too .... In fact, you might actually wonder if they've ever played in the Second Tier (in any of its guises) previously .......... or even made the Top Tier? Well, they've never been in the Top Tier, but in 1997 they won the Playoff Final of the FL Second Division (what's now League One), finishing sixth in the table, beating Brentford 1-0 at Wembley, and joining Bury and Stockpot County in the First Division (ie Le Championnat) ........ the Crewe team that year included Ashley Westwood, Dele Adebola and Danny Murphy (the bald scouse pundit off Sky .... or the Beeb) ....... in 1997/98 The Alex finished 11th in the second division - 59 points from 46 games (and Man City were GreasyPoled at the end of that Season into Tier 3); the year after they finished 18th, the next year they were 19th, 2000/01 they were 14th, and in 2001/02 they went down again (in company with Stickpit) to Level Trois

David Artell - an ex Crewe player, Rotherham born but a shown as a Gibraltar National (with seven caps for his native land in 2014/15) - has been manager since January 2017 ...... making him number 8 in the Managers' List of Longevity (Coley's still fourth) ... and in the last 38+ years they've only had four managers (although one - Dario Gradi - has been manager about 57 times .....)

Crewe Alexandra FC was formed in 1877 as the football division of Crewe Alexandra Cricket Club. They reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1888 and were then a founding member of the Football League Second Division in 1892. I presume they got relegated (or similar) because in 1921 the club was invited to join the newly created Third Division North, where they stayed for the next 37 years before being put in the new Fourth Division in 1958. They achieved their first promotion after finishing third in 1962–63 but were immediately relegated; they were promoted again in 1967–68; they again lasted just one season in the Third Division. They also invented the Yo-Yo

They came up to Ligue Un in Covid-19 season 2019/20, ahead on points but second to Swindon on PPG: last season they finished 12th (P46 W18 D12 L16 GF56 GA61 for 66 points, and one place behind us). For summer transfers etc see the previous Crewe game thread: in the January Transfer Window, which took place this January, they ProperSigned German striker Bassala Sambou from Dutch side The Fortunezen (Fortuna Sittard, managed by Sjors Ultee - bet you didn't know that!), Oxford's surplus striker Dan Agyei, and Chelsea and Accrington Stanley transient star Tariq Uwakwe. Four left Gresty Road, including Donervan Daniels to Walsall, Callum McFadzean to Planet HollywoodWrexham (he's had more clubs than Arnold Palmer), and Terell Thomas to Free Agent - a bit of Mutual Consenting there .....

And speaking of managers: Second Starter for Ten ............ Name the current Barnsley Manager (and it isn't Valerie Israel - who went to West Brom and didn't stay - or Marcus Schopp)

They've been in a relegation dog-fight all season have Crewe, barely out of the GreasyPole spots ............ record is P30 W5 D7 L18 GF25 GA52 for 22 points and 23rd place ........ they're 8 points and a shed-load of goals from safety, and Time Is Running Out ......... five wins all told, against Burton, Gillingham and Lincoln (all at home, and all by 2-0), plus Charlton 2-1, and Morecambe 2-1 away - their only success on the road ... and if that weren't bad enough, they've also lost talisman striker (and leading scorer) Mikael Mandron for an "extended period" following an injury at Gillingham in last week's 1-0 loss ......... Never bloody rains, does it?

For the record, although they've given us problems at times (and we've given them cheap goals, as in the 5-3 home win that should have been 5-1), we beat them 1-0 away at the start of this season (Game 4), the goal coming from Michael Nottingham on 17 mins ...........we also pulled 7 yellow cards (including the Bishop of Wham and Joel Mumbongo, both on 90+7), and Crewe managed four yellows plus a red ........... Hmmmm .......... One red and eleven yellows: where have I heard of that before? (and I believe the fine for 7 yellows is £2,500 - courtesy of some local paper in the Pompey area ........ and Sean McSuperstar has played 31 games, according to the stats, and scored one goal - which some mathematician worked out - allowing for subs etc I suppose - at one goal every 2,559 minutes ........... Go Seanie!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 12th February ............ I don't know if any of you have spotted the Scottish League tables recently, but if you have, you'll know that Kelty Hearts are ten points clear at the top of Div2, Cove Rangers - not been around that long - lead League One by seven points, and that the Championship has part-time Arbroath (of 36-0 v Bon Accord fame) at its head, and on course to go up to the Premiership!

Arbroath being a seaside town and once (if not still) a fishing port, the team is nicknamed The Smokies or The Red Lichties ............. It's claimed that "Red Lichties" refers to the lights displayed to sea to help the ships find port, but actually I think it's to reflect the number of brothels in the town, then or now (or both)

"Lovely ladies waiting for a bite
Waiting for the customers who only come at night
Lovely ladies ready for the call
Standing up or lying down or any way at all
Bargain prices up against the wall"

And if you don't know that's from "Les Mis", you should be ashamed of yourselves!

And on the subject of George Wagonback's Accumulator, he won his £12k for a stake of three pence (yes, you did read that right) .....The odds of all of the results coming in as they did were apparently around 90,000-1.

And Barnsley's current manager is Poya Asbaghi - just; he hasn't won any of his eleven games in charge, and only has three points to his name ......... in fact, apart from beating Derby 2-1, Barnsley haven't won a League game since 14th August last year ........ You'd suspect he's toast, wouldn't you? He's Swedish/Iranian, by the way .......... 'nuff said, really ......

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

COYR!

[choirboy]

Stanley 2-1 Crewe for me please.

[cashman]

2-0 stanley for me.

[Watchdog]

Accrington Stanley to win 2-1

[Taypot]

Stanley 3 Crewe 1

[Shurm]

2-1 to Stanley

[AccyMad]

3 - 1 to Stanley

[Stevie R]

2-1 to Stanley please

[ossy kid]

Stanley 3 - 0 Crewe

[Chimer]

Someone's got to appease the voodoo gods of football by predicting a Crewe win.

Stanley 3 Crewe 0

Someone's still got to appease the voodoo gods of football by predicting a Crewe win.

[MikeA]

3-0 Stanley, please

[Kiwi John]

4-1 stanley.

[monkey hanger]

stanley 1 crewe 1.

[andyd]

Stanley 3-1 Crewe

[Div3North]

Stanley 5 Crewe 2

Oh yes we will!