2023-24 Prediction League; Game 16 v Colchester United (home)

Div3North · 26-10-2023, 22:26

Accrington Stanley

V

Colchester United

2023/24 Prediction League Game 16 v The Ewes (baaaaaa) (home)

And in the news this week;

1.Joey Bad Boy Barton gets the old heave-ho from Brizzle after two years 8 months, having only won one in their last five and four all season

2.First Team coach Andy Mangan takes over in an interim capacity … apparently, he said that Barton was “not happy” when they discussed his departure …........ people due to meet Mr Barton soon are advised to stay away from upstairs hotel windows ….........

3.The Court for Arbitration of Sport has considered Mr Valairian’s appeal on behalf of Mr Kiwi John for being refused 8 Prediction League points for a “good guess” when Stanley whopped the Wombles (it’s in the 1928 Olympics, I understand – Womble Whopping) 4-2 on Tuesday, the said Mr Kiwi having courageously predicted a 3-2 win ….. In dismissing the appeal, The CoAfS said, “You’ve got to be piggin’ joking!” …..

4.Wigan and Stevenage have been fined for a Session of Handbags after Stevenage’s Alex McDonald was red-carded (two of diamonds) for fouling Charlie Hughes and laddering his tights

5.Current interim manager for the Us since Ben Garner was sacrificed to the Voodoo gods of Football a week or so back is former Spurs, West Ham and Stoke winger Matthew Etherington (who lasted three games as Crawley manager at the end of last year)

Starter for Ten, then; many of us remember the days when there was live footie on Christmas Day and Boxing Day; that stopped years ago, but every now and then a game is played on Chrissymas Eve ….................. This year, Wolves will host Chelsea on 24th December following a date change ….......... but when was the last time that there was a PrawnSandwich game on The Night Before Christmas?

Colchester is – as of the late Queen’s Platinum Celebrations, and like Milton and Keynes - a city; unlike either Milton or Keynes, Colchester is in Essex. It’s actually the largest settlement in Essex, having a population of 130,245 in 2021. The inhabitants are called Colcestrians; it occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain, and its first capital: it therefore claims to be Britain's first city. It’s been an important military base since the Roman era, with Colchester Garrison currently housing the 16th Air Assault Brigade.

Lying on the River Colne, Colchester is 50 miles northeast of London, and is connected to London by the A12 road and the Great Eastern Main Line railway. It’s also less than 30 miles from London Stansted Airport and 20 miles from the port of Harwich. Colchester is home to two of the five Roman theatres found in Britain; the example at Gosbecks (site of the Iron Age royal farmstead) is the largest in Britain, able to seat 5,000. In the reign of "Bloody Mary" (1553–1558) Colchester became a centre of Protestant "heresy" and in consequence at least 19 local people were burned at the stake at the Castle, at first in front, later within the walls. They are commemorated on a tablet near the altar of St Peter's Church.

Pause and draw breath; Second Starter for Ten............ fifteen games in, and we’ve already scored four league goals on two occasions …...... the last time we scored four at home was the Burton game in August 2022; but how long before that was it that we last scored a four in the first third of the season?

Colchester has been an important military garrison since the Roman era. The Army's only military corrective training centre, known colloquially within the forces and locally as "The Glasshouse" after the original military prison in Aldershot, is in Berechurch Hall Road, on the outskirts of Colchester. The centre holds men and women from all three services who are sentenced to serve periods of detention.

Persons of note who have lived in Colchester include Thomas Audley (Lord Chancellor of England from 1533-44), Jane Taylor 18th / 19th Century poet, who wrote the words to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, (now there's a claim to fame) Mary Whitehouse, football referee Ken Aston, Margaret Thatcher, John Cooper Clark, and me ……. my late father was a 22-year Army man, and was stationed there from the late 1940s until 1955, when he stopped taking the King’s Shilling and moved us all to Manchester (hence I’m a Colcestrian by birth and a Mancunian by adoption)

Founded in 1937, CUFC spent its early years playing in the Southern Football League until they were elected to the Football League in 1950. Between 1950 and 1990, Colchester spent their time between the Third Division and Fourth Division.They were relegated to the Football Conference in 1990 following a decline in the late 1980s, but won the Conference title in 1992 to make a swift return. They achieved promotion to the Second Division in 1998 following a 1–0 win against Torquay United in the play-off final. The club was again promoted in 2006, achieving second place in League One. The following season, they achieved their highest league finish in club history, ending the season 10th in the Championship ahead of East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town and Norwich City, and also Essex rivals Southend United, despite having the division's lowest attendance. The club returned to League One in 2008 following relegation from the Championship and then made a return to the fourth tier for the first time in 18 years in 2016. They play their home games at Colchester Community Stadium, having relocated in 2008 when they moved away from Layer Road, their home stadium for 71 years.

The club embarked on one of the most notable runs in FA Cup history, as manager Dick Graham took his ageing side to the 1970–71 quarter-finals, dispatching non-league Ringmer, Cambridge United, Barnet and Rochdale following a replay. With the draw having been made prior to the replay against Rochdale, the U's knew they would face a home tie with First Division Leeds United, and duly trounced Dale 5–0. In the match with Leeds, the U's raced to an unprecedented 3–0 lead in front of a 16,000 Layer Road crowd, with two goals from Ray Crawford and one from Dave Simmons. Leeds did grab two goals back but Colchester held on for a famous 3–2 victory. They faced Everton in the quarter-finals but succumbed to a 5–0 defeat in front of 53,028 at Goodison Park.

Micky Cook is the current Colchester United record holder for most appearances, holding the record for appearances made in the league at 613, and in all competitions with 700. Mike Walker ranks in second with 524 appearances in all competitions, and Tony English third with 515. Tony Adcock holds the record for most goals in all competitions with 149, but Martyn King is the club's record league goalscorer with 132. United's biggest victory in the league was a 9–1 win over Bradford City on 30 December 1961 at Layer Road: their biggest losing margin came on 15 December 1988 when they were thrashed 8–0 at Leyton Orient. B*stards!

Famous players include Ray Crawford, Mark Kinsella, Joe Dunne, Karl Duguid, Jamie Cureton, and one Trésor Lomana LuaLua, later of Newcastle, Pompey, Olympiakos, Blackpool and half of the Turkish Football League ……………..

They’ve struggled over the last few seasons, but are still surviving; 20th in League Two last year on 49 points, 6 above relegation to the Bananarama …………. sixteen players left in the summer - some of them “picked off” by the bigger fish; RB Junior Tchamadeu to Stoke, GK Kieran O’Hara (yes, he is Irish) to the Killies, New Zealand CB Tommy Smith to the McDonuts and striker Jake Hutchinson to Queen of the South ………….. seven joined, plus 4 for the u21s; the grown up players include LB Ellis Iandolo from Swindon, Arsenal GK Tom Smith, Northern Irish CMF Cameron McGeehan from KV Ostende and Pompey’s MF Jay Mingi

I wrote about their season last time; in the bottom two, three wins, two of them against Gillingham and Notts Co when they topped the division ………they went on a long and difficult trip to Grimsby on Tuesday, and did themselves a lot of good by winning 3-2 at Blundell Park …. Currently they’re on P14 W4 D1 L9 GF21 GA 29 for 13 points and 21st place; two wins at home, two on the road: failed to score three times (including a 5-0 battering at VGU) and two clean sheets … and next week they’re at the Shrews in the FA Cup ….. and they lost 2-0 to Cardiff on pens in the EFL Cup after a Desmond

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 28th October …… the clocks go back, and I get a week off for the FA Cup frolics at the Keepmoat next Saturday ………. I’ve got to say I think it would be a mistake to crow before you’ve laid all your eggs in the one basket ………… this isn’t necessarily an easy win

And the only other Christmas Eve Premiership match was in 1995, when the Busby Babes (Class of '95) fell to Leeds 3-1 ……. and the last time (before 2022) that we scored four goals in any of our first 15 League games was in 2015/16 when we beat Exeter 4-1 (September 2015) - goals by Windass (2), Mingoia and Billy Whizz – and the crowd was 1,403 …..

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