2023-24 Prediction League; Game 20 v Swindon Town (home)

Div3North · 26-11-2023, 22:43

Accrington Stanley

V

Swindon Town

2023/24 Prediction League Game 20 v The Spartans (home)

First and foremost, RIP Terry “El Tel” Venables, one of the best players of recent(ish) times, and in my view right up there amongst the best England Managers …….. I still maintain we should have won Euro 96!

He played for Chelsea, Spurs, QPR, Palace and Barcelona; he got just two England caps, but I’ll never understand why, and he managed Palace, QPR, Spurs, Barcelona, England, Australia, Middlesbrough and Leeds …… Among the tributes so far was this, from Gareth Southgate:

“He was open minded, forward thinking, enjoyed life to the full and created a brilliant environment with England that allowed his players to flourish and have one of the most memorable tournaments in England history” …….. and Gary Lineker added, “He was charming, charismatic, witty but he was also tough - and that’s what you needed to be. He understood football - he had an incredible football brain”

He played some 528 games, scoring 50 goals …………. Thanks for the memories, Tel

And once again we didn’t cover ourselves in glory in Saturday’s Prediction League - no-one thought we’d lose at Bradford (we ALWAYS lose to teams that haven’t won in a few games!), and no-one thought that we’d fire blanks all day …………. five for the draw, twelve for the win ………… no win bonuses in sight (4 pts), and no-one got a bonus for our “0”, although nine people thought we’d win “something - one” and thus managed a measly one point each …. Bah Humbug!

Starter for Ten; who said, “When you’re a kid, you dream of playing for your local team. I’ve been a shareholder and I started off here as a programme seller. I’d love to have been manager of Raith Rovers”

Swindon is a large town in Wiltshire; at the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located in South West England, it lies on the M4 corridor, 71 miles to the west of London, 36 miles to the east of Bristol, and about 195 miles south east of Accrington by the M6 and the M5 (or 154 miles as the crow flies, if you can catch a passing crow). The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south.

The Anglo-Saxon settlement sat in a defensible position on top of a limestone hill. It’s referred to in the 1086 Domesday Book as “Suindune”, believed to be derived from the Old English words "swine" and "dun" meaning "pig hill",or possibly “Sweyn's hill”, Sweyn being a Scandinavian name akin to Sven, and the English word “swain”, meaning a young man.

The arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed Swindon from a small market town of 2500 into a thriving railway hub that would become one of the largest railway engineering complexes in the world at its peak. This brought with it pioneering amenities such as the UK's first lending library and a 'cradle-to-grave' healthcare centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. Swindon's railway heritage can be primarily seen today with the grade II listed Railway Village and Steam Museum. The McArthurGlen Designer Outlet is housed in the renovated former works, and the Brunel Shopping Centre is one of several places in Swindon that bears the name of the famous engineer generally acknowledged with bringing the railways to the town (hello, Isombard!)

Notable Swindonians past and presnt include footballer Dean Ashton, Julian Clary, Diana Dors, Mark Lamarr, Justin Hayward (lead singer of the Moody Blues), Gilbert O’Sullivan and Billie Piper; among the places that the town’s twinned with is Disney World in the good old US of A; and Oxford Brookes University has had a campus in Swindon since 1999. The campus offers degrees in Adult Nursing and Operating Department Practice …..

Second Starter for Ten; Celta Vigo, in their Centenary Year, decided that they needed an experienced, elite coach; they found and appointed their man ……. he had a task on his hands (they only avoided greasypoling last season by winning their final game away to Barcelona), and this season has been …….. erm ………… “disappointing”; they’re 18th (of 20) and their record to date is P14 W1 D5 L8 GF14 (third lowest) GA24 for 8 points; they sold their star player Gabri Veiga) to Al-Ahli in Saudi, lost to Osasuna, Real, Mallorca, Las Palmas and Barca (squandering a 2-0 lead to three goals in eight minutes) …… most recently they played Getafe at home; Getafe had a player sent off, but all Celta could manage was a Desmond …. at the final whistle the Celta Elite Manager blamed Getafe’s “cynical/clever game-management tactics”, ranting at Getafe’s defender Damian Suarez, “You’re going to destroy football like this”

Oh, and they're being picked on by Referees, VAR and God, but not necessarily in that order

Name the Elite Manager …………..

Swindon Town Football Club was founded by Reverend William Pitt of Liddington in 1879 as Swindon AFC: the club became ”Spartans” the next year, before finally settling on the name Swindon Town in 1883. They turned professional in 1894 as a founding member of the Southern League, later also entering the Western League between 1897 and 1902. The club was crowned Western League champion in 1898–99 and Southern League champion in 1910–11 and 1913–14, before being elected into the Football League in 1920. It remained in the third tier for 43 years, finally securing promotion into the Second Division in 1962–63, where it remained for just two seasons. The team lifted the League Cup after beating Arsenal in the 1969 final, and went on to secure promotion at the end of the 1968–69 season with the help of talismanic winger Don Rogers. Relegated again in 1973–74, the club dropped into the fourth tier for the first time at the end of the 1981–82 season.

Swindon won the Fourth Division title in 1985–86 and secured a second successive promotion the following season under the stewardship of Lou Macari. They went on to claim victory in the 1990 Second Division play-off final, but were denied promotion into the top-flight after admitting to breaching Football League regulations. Glenn Hoddle coached the team to victory in the 1993 play-off final (beating Tranmere 5-4 on aggregate, and Leicester 4-3 in the Final) to finally secure a place in the top-flight for the first time in the club's history. However they were relegated out of the Premier League at the end of the 1993–94 season (with 5 wins, a -53 GD, and ten points behind 23rd place Oldham and 13 points plus 31 goals off safety), and dropped into the third tier with a second consecutive relegation. Promoted again as champions to avoid an FA expulsion and a hat-trick of relegations in 1995–96, they remained in the second tier for four seasons, until relegation in 1999/2000

Final Starter for Ten; Kevin Keegan signed for Hamburg SV in 1977, ended the season with 12 goals, and won European Player of the Year - now the Ballon d’Or; the season after, they won their first Bundesliga title in 19 years, he got 11 goals in the last 12 games, and the fans christened him “Machtig Maus” (“Mighty Mouse”) ……… but what happened pre-season in 1977/78 that nearly kyboshed it all?

They won Covid-hit League Two in 2019/20 on PPG, but with all manner of issues going on they lasted just the one season before Greasypoling again; they changed managers and CEOs like most people change their undies, getting a suspended points deduction for late-payment of wages …. despite all that, they finished 6th in 2020/21 under Ben Garner as Manager, losing to Portly Virtue on pens in the play-offs. Garner left Swindon to join Charlton Athletic in June 2022, being replaced by his former assistant Scott Lindsey, who spent half a season in the role before moving to Crawley Town; on 31 January 2023, Jody Morris was appointed manager; he was sacked on 1 May 2023 after just four wins from 18 games. The side finished the season in 10th place, and on 8 May 2023, Michael Flynn was appointed team manager

12 left in the summer, and six came in - most notably, Tariq Uwakwe, who played for us on loan from Chelsea in 2020/21 (scoring a hat-trick in the Trophy against Leeds u21s) before moving to Crewe ……… they also signed Irish DMF Liam Kinsella from Walsall, Vegan Greenpeace’s CB Udoka Godwin-Malife, the Cherries’ RB Brooklyn Genesini and a couple of free agents ……… Low point of the season so far has to be their home defeat 7-4 by non-league Aldershot in the first Round of the FA Cup three weeks ago; they’re also out of the EFL Cup, 4-1 at Posh, and finished bottom of their Trophy group with nul points (allows them to concentrate on the League, though) …… in the League they’re 10th, with a record of P19 W7 D6 L6 GF39 GA33 for 27 points , three places and two points behind us ……… 39 scored (so have Crewe and Notts Co) is second best, just behind Stockport and Wrexham with 40 each, but only three sides have conceded more than 33 …………. they started well - of their first nine games they won five and drew four, but of the last ten they’ve won two, drawn two and lost six, most recently drawing at Harrogate and ending Mansfield’s unbeaten run on Saturday gone (Blackpool ended Pompey’s run at the same time) …. in the space of four games early doors they scored five goals twice and six goals once ……… head-to-head is 3 wins for us, four for them and one draw, although we’ve won three of the last four played, and apart from May 2018 we haven’t lost to them since 2012 …..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7,45pm on Tuesday 28th November ……….. their away League form, by the way, is W1 (at Vegan Greenpeace on 15th August) D5 and L4 (16 scored, 21 conceded) ……….and I haven’t mentioned their Famous Trollope - but I will next time we meet them ………… and the kid who wanted to manage Raith Rovers was ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown ………. and the Elite Manager at Celta Vigo this season having a real ‘mare is the well-paid Rafa Benitez ……… and Kevin Keegan nearly blew it early doors at HSV (because, it’s said, he couldn’t settle) by punching an opponent in a pre-season friendly and getting an 8-week ban!

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