2021/22 Prediction League; Game 6 v Shrewsbury Town (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

v

Shrewsbury Town

2021/22 Prediction League Game 6; v The Soricidae (home)


Shrews (I thought you might like to know) - or pointy-nosed furry things - are small mole-like mammals. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different families or orders. Although their external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent; actually, it's a much closer relative of hedgehogs and moles, and shrews are related to rodents only to the extent that both belong to the Boreoeutheria magnorder. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents. They're also tiny, most no larger than a small mouse (so we should win the headers). The Etruscan shrew at about 3.5 cm (1.4 in) and 1.8 g (0.063 oz), is the smallest known living terrestrial mammal.

Tell you what, though, changing the subject; we're getting a fair number of unexpected results this season, innit?; Cambridge 1 Bolton 0; Morecambe 1 Sheff Wed 0; Ipswich 2 The Wombles 2; and Shrewsbury 2 Gillingham 1, which featured the Shrews' first win, first point and first goal in the League this season; they came back from 1-0 down to win it with goals on 59 by Bloxham and 68 by Cosgrove, but it came at a price, because in FergieTime they had David Davis sent off for a second yellow (90+8) and substitute GK Harry Burgoyne followed (from the bench!) with a straight red (90+10), whereas Gillingham lost MF Daniel Phillips and their Asst Manager Paul Raynor to red cards too (or "to two red cards. Too") .......... The report of the game referred to the hosts as looking "devoid of confidence in front of goal" (sound familiar?)

Starter for Ten time; I sub-headed the intro title (above) "The Soricidae" ........ so who or what are "Soricidae"?

Round the Divisions, then ....... Ligue Deux has Vegan Greenpeace still top (12 from 5) with Harrogate, Bratfud and Swinedon on 10 (Harrogate - the only unbeaten side - have a game in hand on everyone) .... top 6 are clear (Hartlepool and the Orient plus those above); four points covers 7th (Mansfield) to 22nd (Brizzle), with Oldham (3 points from 5) and Sutton (2 points from 4 - also the only side not to have won - in the GreasyPole Places ........... VGU have 13 goals, , Bratfud have 9 and Harrogate have 8 - no one else has more than 7; Brizzle have conceded 9, Crawley and VGU eight each - which sounds like Forest Green are playing "we're gonna score one more than you" ...... as a tactic, it's ok as long as you do, but you look silly if you don't .......

League Uno has no unbeaten sides, although 9 of the top eleven have only lost once (the other two being Us and the Millers, who have 2 losses each) .......sides with no wins - and you'll like this - are Donnie (P5 D1 L4 GF1 GA7), Crewe (identical record, but they start with a 'C' not a 'D', which suggests that if Donnie changed their name to Concaster they'd be 23rd instead of rock-bottom 24th), and Ipswich (P5 D3 L2 GF8 GA10 (worst in the division) Pts3 ... Lincoln are fourth-bottom, with Charlton just above them, and Slumberland are top with 12 points from 5; again, three points cover 2nd (the Owls) to 13th (the Trotters) ... bit like your knicker elastic - too tight for comfort........

Thing is, I've done so many threads on the Shrews that I've pretty much run out of information on the town or the team ........... I did the gaol, and the man in the coracle who fielded the wet footballs from the river, and Charles Darwin, and "Scrobbesburh" ("The Fortified Place in the Bushes") ........... I'll have a look, but this might be the Shortest Thread Opener For Several Years! ("Oh good", I hear you all cry!)

Shrewsbury is about 14 miles west of Telford, 43 miles west of Birmingham and the West Midlands Conurbation, and about 153 miles north-west of London. More locally, the town is to the east of Welshpool, with Bridgnorth and Kidderminster to the south-east; the border with Wales is 9 miles to the west. The town centre is partially built on a hill whose elevation is, at its highest, 246 feet above sea level. The longest river in the UK, the River Severn, flows through the town, forming a meander around its centre (isn't that picturskew - "forming a meander around its centre"? Sadly, pinched from an article on the town, and not one of mine own .....)The town is subject to flooding from the river; now there's a surprise!

Shrewsbury Town FC's Roll of Honour includes winning the Shropshire Senior Cup (their only other claim to Cup Fame was losing the Football League Trophy Final - twice; 2-1 to Rotherham in 1996; and 1-0 to Lincoln (who beat us 3-2 in Round 2) in 2018) ...... The SSC is a county competition (so you won't get drawn away to Chelski) that's open to "professional and non-professional senior football teams in the county of Shropshire": it's one of the oldest cup competitions in the world (aren't they all?), and notably, the original trophy is still being presented to the winners some 130 years after the competition began.

The competition was first staged in 1877–78, the inaugural winners being Shrewsbury F.C, who beat Wellington Parish Church Institute 1–0. (Shrewsbury F.C aren't connected to the current Shrewsbury Town, and were dissolved late in 1879.) Over the years, the competition has been dominated by the county's two leading teams - Shrewsbury Town and Telford United (in their various guises). Other Salopian teams - if you shift the boundaries of Salop just a bit - to have featured in the cup in recent years have included Market Drayton Town, Shifnal Town, Bridgnorth Town, Ludlow Town and The New Saints (or, as they're known in Llanfairpwllgwyngogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogog och "Y Saint Newydd"). Isn't it. Look you.

Second Starter for Ten; how many times have Shrewsbury Town won the SSC, and what odds would you get any season on them doing it again, given that they couldn't for shame lose to ShiftyShifnal Town?

They were admitted to the Football League in 1950 (Div3 North), finishing their first season in 20th place, between Barrow and Southport (oh, the romance of it all!) with 15 wins, 7 draws and 24 defeats ......... they were three places above Accy (23rd, who were re-elected) and four above New Brighton (24th) who weren't, and although we only got 32 points that year, we did get four from playing The Shrews (2-1 at home, 1-0 away) ... And New Brighton were replaced by Workington AFC (known locally as Workington Reds, to distinguish them from the Rugby League side), who promptly finished bottom in their first season, and only lasted in the League until 1977; they did, though, in 1969, give a home debut to a local-born GK legend called John Burridge (remember him? "The Cat"?) Burridge made his debut against Newport County on the last day of the 1968/69 season, although it was an inauspicious debut, since one of his very first touches saw him punch the ball into his own net from a Newport corner....

In their time the Shrews have played in the Championnat, winning the old Third Division title in 1978/79 by a point from Watford (who sold Troy Deeney to Brum this week) and Swansea ... Last season they finished 17th in Ligue Un, with a record of P46 W13 D15 L18 GF50 GA57 for 54 points .......... they won once in their first 15 games: drew 2-2 with us chez eux, our goals scored by Joe Pritchard and a 95th minute penalty from David Cassidy ("Give us a song!"): drew 1-1 with us at ours' (goal by Captain Courageous, their goal - as in the first game - by Shaun Whalley, who played for us from November 2006 until released in summer 2008) .... they released (or, in one case, sold) twelve in the summer, including strikers Leon Clarke, now 36, to Brizzle and Curtis Main to St HelenMirren, Scottish RB Donald Love to Salford Moneybags, and CMF Oliver Norburn to the Posh (who had to pay for him, but I don't know how much ......)

Six joined (plus two on loan), including Slovak GK Marko Maroši, CF Ryan Bowman from Exeter, Elliott Bennett from Blackburn, and two LBs - George Nurse from Bristol City and Luke Leahy from Brizzle Rovers ........... First manager, who reigned from 1886 - 1905, was former olympian and local man Sir Trevor Brian Evans, who took over the side from the "Castle Blues" and took the reins when they became Shrewsbury Town; later post-holders included Harry Potts, Michael Jackson (bet that was a Thriller!), Chic Murray - no, hang on, Chic Bates - (three times), and West Brom's Asa Hartford

Their season to date has been fairly sh1te - four defeats and no goals in their first four (1-0 to Burton and at Pompey, 2-0 at Morecambe and 3-0 at home to Plymouth) ......... leading scorers at that time were ........ well, no-one; they did Lincoln at home on pens 4-2 in the EFL Cup after a Desmond, before losing 2-0 at home to Rochdale, they beat the Gills (see above) on Saturday, and they kept up the good work on Tuesday in their PapaJohnsPizzaPot group, losing 1-0 at home to Crewe .... so eight games in all, scored in two of them, but no goals on the road, and 0.5 goals per game overall ...........

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 4th September ............. and "Soricidae" is the Latin name for Shrews, and they've won the Shropshire Senior Cup a modest 67 times (the football team, not the shrews).... and at the moment they're 22nd, P5 W1 D0 L4 GF2 GA8 for three points, and pending squeaky-bum time, the way things are going ........... and we wish them well - but just not this particular Saturday, if it so please the Voodoo Gods of Football! #remindmetomakeahumansacrifice

And welcome to all our new players (whose names I haven't got fixed in my tiny brain yet), and last striker to twelve goals for the season is a big soft pudding ......na na neh nah naaaaaa!

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

[choirboy]

I’ll get in first for this one….
Stanley 2-0 The Shrews for me please.

[Shurm]

2-0 to Stanley

[cashman]

3-0 stanley fer me.

[Tom D]

3-0 win for stanley please

[monkey hanger]

1 all draw but i wish i had seen the line ups first.

[andyd]

Bit of a bogey Side at the Wham go for Stanley 2-1 Shrewsbury.

[Stevie R]

Stanley1 - 0 Shrewsbury

[MikeA]

2-0 Stanley, please.

PS ShiftyShifnal Town are the current holders of the Shropshire County Cup! It was played in a 'new format' last season, that didn't include the Shrews and Telford.

[AccyMad]

3 - 2 to Stanley please

[monkey hanger]

Originally Posted by andyd

Bit of a bogey Side at the Wham go for Stanley 2-1 Shrewsbury.

thats because i do not like them.

[Div3North]

Originally Posted by MikeA

2-0 Stanley, please.

PS ShiftyShifnal Town are the current holders of the Shropshire County Cup! It was played in a 'new format' last season, that didn't include the Shrews and Telford.

Sounds like a good idea Mike - otherwise you get an annual game between Manchester United and the Red Lion, Flixton

[Taypot]

Stanley 4 Shrewsbury 0

[accytom18]

Accrington Stanley 2-1 Shrewsbury Town

[Watchdog]

Accrington Stanley to win 2-1 please