2021/22 Prediction League Game 40; v Gillingham FC (home)

Div3North · 25-03-2022, 19:55

Accrington Stanley

v

Gillingham FC

2021/22 Prediction League Game 39; The 7-4s

Mark Cooper, you may have seen, has Mutually Consented with Barrow AFC ("League Two Strugglers Barrow", that is), and left the club on Sunday 20th ... apart from a run of one win in nine, and being quite close to the Extinction Rebellion Exit, he was also recently given an eight-game ban by the FA after telling a Lady Liner (Helen Edwards) that she needed to "realise that it's a man's game" during a 91st-minute incident in their goalless Desmond at home to Exeter last August, which saw him sent off by the Ref ........ he denied it (which may be why it took until March to fettle)

The FA "deemed him to have been in breach of Rule E3" after finding that he had "referenced her gender" (making it an aggravated breach)........... he was also fined £3k, and ordered to attend a face-to-face education course, and to write out 200 times, "I must not reference her gender" ............ he's been replaced by Phil Brown, ex of all sorts of places including South End

And in other news this week, Lee Clark (once of Sunderland and also of Newcastle, and former manager of the Terriers, Blackpool, Bury and Blyth Spartans) was sacked by Sudanese side Al Merrikh after just 51 days in charge, during which he led them to three wins, three defeats and a draw, and failed to progress in the African Champions League ........ what they'd have done to him if he'd referenced anyone's gender I don't like to dwell on, frankly .... And after 83 days in charge at Brizzle (Nov 20 to Feb 21) and now 107 days at Stevenage (Nov 21 to March 22) Paul TisWasDale was sacked and replaced by That Nice Mr Evans ...... Club owners can "replace" (sack) their manager because they're anxious, or worried, or concerned about possible GreasyPoling, but to replace anyone with That Nice Mr Evans, Stevenage must have been feckin beside themselves ........... And it appears that Ruud van Nistelrooy may well be the next manager of PSV (Philips Sport Vereniging) Eindhoven in the Dutch First Division ..... Thought you might want to know!

And this week's Starter for Ten - this time a cricket question (oh yes I can - my game, my rules!) ....... The wicket ("wycket", originally) consisted in the early days of two stumps, and one long bail across the top of them both ........... two stumps became three in 1775 following a match in which the bowler bowled three consecutive deliveries which each passed between the two stumps without hitting either of them; so what was the name of the unlucky bowler?

I promised you hat-tricks, so here goes ................ in season 1995/96 Alan Shearer scored five hat-tricks for Blackburn: is it as record? Well, no, it isn't ...........

First up, Wolves striker Steve Bull scored six of his 18 career hat-tricks in the 1988-89 season, although two of these were four-goal hauls against Preston and Port Vale; matching that feat are Jimmy Greaves (for Chelsea in 1960-61), Ayr United's Jimmy Smith (1927-28) and Altrincham's Jackie Swindells (of whom I wrote a few years back), who scored 82 goals in 63 games during the 1965-66 campaign in - as I recall - the Cheshire County League, 18 of which came from six hat-tricks.

Of course, when famous goalscoring achievements are mentioned, William Ralph 'Dixie' Dean's name is usually close behind; as is the case here. Dean scored seven of his record 37 career hat-tricks in 1927-28, but went one better in the 1931-32 season ....... Incredibly, even that doesn't claim the record, which instead belongs to Framwellgate Moor's most famous son. George Camsell, a Middlesbrough legend whose talents were reportedly first spotted at a "pithead kickabout during a miners' strike", banged home nine hat-tricks in the 1925-26 campaign. They helped towards a season's tally of 59 goals from just 37 games, a record that was, in turn, eclipsed by Dean the very next season. Camsell also scored a remarkable 18 goals for England in just nine appearances .......

Five hat-tricks in one season? Hardly worthy of a mention ................ so I won't

Gillingham FussballKlub was founded (in 1893) as New Brompton Football Club, a name retained until 1912, and played in the Southern League before joining the Football League in 1920. After 18 unsuccessful seasons, Gillingham were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, and returned to the Southern League. The club was voted back into the League in 1950, when it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 they narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. Between 2000 and 2005, Gillingham were in the second tier of the English football league system for the only time in their history, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03. After a number of further relegations and promotions, the team have competed in League One since 2013. Memorably (for the wrong reasons), in the 2009–10 season the Gills slipped into the bottom four on the last day, and were GreasyPoled to League Two, having failed to win a single away game in the league all season (D6 L15 GF13 GA44), conceding four goals at Tranmere, Leeds, Southampton, Brentford and Millwall ......

Starter for Ten time; in that same season (2009/10) Gillingham made Round 3 of the FA Cup, having seen off Southend 3-0 and Burton 1-0; but who beat them in Round 3 at the third attempt, the first two being lost to the snowy weather?

Second Starter for Ten; how many times have Accie conceded four or more goals in the League and /or Cups this season?

For their player-trading last summer, please see the earlier game between us; in the January Transfer Window in January they acquired a new manager (Neil Harris - ex Millwall), who replaced Fatty Evans, and CMF Ben Thompson, also from The Den, plus four loanees, being Norwich's Scottish striker Thomas Dickson-Peters, Swedish GK Pontus Dahlberg from Watford, Yankee Doodle Dandy striker Charlie Kelman (QPR) and Eire-ish CB Conor Masterson (so they did), also from QPR .... striker John Akinde (once of Ebbsfleet ("Own the club, pick the team") left for Colchester, CB Rhys Bennett joined the Morecambe Cocklers (having only arrived in July), and CMF Kyle Dempsey went to The White Trotting Wanderers for a reported £150,000 ....

They're flirting with the Devil's Trapdoor, are Gillingham; currently 20th, with 34 points and a -30 GD from 39 games ........... the Wombles are a point behind with a better GD (-21) and a game in hand: Morecambe are two points behind with a worse GD by -2 and nothing in hand; Donnie (30 points and -45 GD) and Crewe (25 points and -41) still look dead and buried ..... Donnie play Crewe on 9th April, and Crewe host the Wombles on Good Friday, very appropriately, but the rest don't play each other so can't hope for Uno Grande Miracle on the last day of the season ...........

On the road, Gillingham are W3 D7 L9, and at home, it's W4 D6 L10, giving them an overall P39 W7 D13 L19 for their 34 points, and two goals conceded for every one scored in the League (GF29 GA59)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 26th March ........... I thought I saw a suggestion somewhere that we might do our second double of the season against the Gills, but the results and fixtures page says we drew 0-0 on 30th October, so I don't think we can ............. Last season, for the record, we won 2-0 at theirs (The Bishop of Wham and The Bolton BarSteward), and lost the return chez nous by the odd goal in one

And the hat-trick of no hits on the stumps resulting in the addition of two bails and a middle wicket (I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm not risking it) was bowled by the wonderfully named Lumpy Stevens .............. correctly Edward "Lumpy" Stevens (1735 – 7 September 1819) ....... who was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from around 1756 to 1789.

How he came by his legendary nickname is uncertain, but it may have been because he was adept at choosing a pitch to suit his very subtle variations of pace, length and direction. In the 18th century, it seems, choice of pitch was granted to one team according to the rules in situ - presumably the home team - and it was generally the leading bowler on that team who chose the place where the wickets would be pitched. According to the famous verse (so famous that I'd never heard of it):

"For honest Lumpy did allow
He ne'er would pitch but o'er a brow"

And Gillingham's Cup Run in 2009/10 was ended by the Stanley at the third attempt (1-0) .......... and so far this season in the league we've conceded four at home to Wigan and Plymouth, and four away at Burton, Pompey and Plymouth, plus five at Oxford, and for good measure, we also shipped five at Portly Value in the FA Cup .............. Enough, Gentlemen!

And Rest in Peace to the late Andy Lochhead, a goalscoring Dingle, and to former Oxford legend Joey Beauchamp, who died very tragically at home in February at the age of 50 ...........

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

COYR!