2023-24 Prediction League; Game 22 v Crewe Alexandra (away)

[Div3North]

Crewe Alexandra

V

Accrington Stanley

2023/24 Prediction League Game 22 v The Mornflakes (away)

“Up the Shots!” (hashtag snigger) *

Starter for ten; we all saw that Man U bombed out of the Champions’ League this week to Bayern Munchkin ………. you may not have seen that they were the joint highest scorers in their group (alongside said BayernMunchkins) with 12 scored, but that they conceded more (15) than every other team bar Royal Antwerp (17) and Red Star Beograd (also 15) in the Groups ……… not the first time in CL history that a team has finished top scorers in the group games but still ended up bottom of their group, though: so who, in 2000/01, top-scored with 13 in their group but finished plumb last?

And another Prediction League Triumph Week (not) as Greger predicted a half-Desmond, pompeylass (welcome!) went for a full Desmond (each getting four points for the correct outcome), and ossy kid and accytom 18 each got one bonus for Donnie’s zero goals, and the rest of us got nowt ……….. and having had 16 entries the game before, we hit another new low with just 13 “old timers” (and pompeylass) taking part …….. and I have to tell you it’s very disappointing that half our original players of this season have deserted us, temporarily or not ……..

Crewe is a town in Cheshire, and stands 158 miles north west of London, 28 miles south of Manchester city centre, and 31 miles south east of Liverpool city centre. Being in Cheshire it is, by definition, Posh: not as Posh as Wimmslow or Olderly Hedge, but still Posh……… it once had loads of trains (but they’ve mostly been cancelled over Christmas), and they once made Big Posh cars there ……… and that’s pretty much it ……………..

Second Starter for Ten: trolling through the footie fixtures this week I saw that Rochdale were playing Gateshead at home in the FA Trophy (they lost 5-1). The original Gateshead club, of course, GreasyPoled out of the League in 1960, although they actually finished third-bottom (above Oldham and Hartlepools), to be replaced by Peterborough (posh again, see?) who promptly won Division Four at a canter in their first season; between 1960 and Rochdale following them out of the League they hadn’t met competitively, except in 2018, in the FA Cup (Dale 2 The Heed 1) …………the Gateshead club had been in the League since 1919 (formed in 1899), but they weren’t formed as “Gateshead”; what were they called and where were they from between 1899 and 1930, when they moved?

Those who’ve followed me over the years will remember that Crewe FC was named in honour of the Danish Princess Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, (Queen Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia, Queen of the United Kingdom and British Dominions, and Empress of India - wife of King Edward VII); we can probably count ourselves lucky that they settled for just “Alexandra”, I suppose, otherwise match programmes would have been about 3’ square ….. Crewe Alexandra Football Club was formed in 1877 as an offshoot of Crewe Alexandra Cricket Club and played their first match on 1 December 1877, drawing 1–1. In 1883, their first match in the FA Cup was against Scottish club Queen's Park of Glasgow, which they lost 10–0. In 1887–88, the club reached the FA Cup semi-finals, defeating Swifts, Derby County and Middlesbrough en route, before going out to Preston North End. In 1891, the football club split away from the cricket club and on 5 March 1892, John Pearson became the first Crewe player to win an England cap, playing against Ireland in Belfast; he remains the only Crewe player capped for the full England side while playing for the club (although here have of course been a number of ex-Crewe players who gained international caps)

In and out of the Leagues, they were founder members of the FL Second Division in 1892, but only lasted four years; they rejoined the FL (Third Division North) in 1921. Between 1894 and 1982, Crewe finished last in the Football League eight times, more than any other league club. On 25 December 1954, the club began a sequence where they didn’t win away from home for 56 matches; the run ended with a 1–0 win at Southport on 24 April 1957. Crewe finished bottom of Division Three North three times in a row from 1955–56 to 1957–58, getting just 28, 21 and 23 points from 46 games in each respective season. They were placed into the newly formed Fourth Division in 1958–59 (no surprise there!)

From 1969, they spent 20 years in Division Four, finishing bottom in 1971–72, 1978–79 and 1981–82, and not achieving a top half finish until 1985. In 1977, Tommy Lowry played his record-setting 475th and last game for the Railwaymen. From February to September 1979, the club went a record 16 matches (15 league, one League Cup tie) without winning at Gresty Road …… In December 1979, then-manager Tony Waddington signed goalkeeper Bruce Wobblylegs Grobbelaar, who kept eight clean-sheets in his 24 matches played, and, on 5 May 1980, scored a penalty—his only professional goal—to close out a 2–0 victory over York City.

They twice lost in play-off semi-finals, to Bristol Rovers in 1995 and Notts County in 1996, then returned to Wembley in the 1997 Division Two play-off final, securing a 1–0 victory over Brentford to put the club back in the second tier for the first time since 1896.

In Covid Season 2019/20 they were promoted to League One on PPG; however, the following season was one of the worst in their modern history; the club was relegated with four games still to play after a 2-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers, and two days later, they parted company with David Artell; assistant manager Alex Morris was appointed interim manager, becoming the permanent manager on 28 April 2022; however, just over six month later, on 4 November 2022, Morris, winless in nine games, stepped down as manager "for compassionate reasons" and he reverted to assistant manager. Lee Bell became interim manager and on 1 December 2022 was given the job on a permanent basis, managing the side to 13th place at the end of the 2022–23 season.

They’ve had 29 managers since 1892; Dario Gradi managed them for 1,359 games, and he and Harry Catterick were both inducted into the Managers’ Hall of Fame; other managers included Dennis Viollet, Harry Gregg, Tony Waddington and Jimmy Melia

Final Starter for Ten; in 1937/38 Man City (in their old guise!) as defending Champions of Division One finished the season as top scorers, amassing 80 goals from 42 games; what else happened to them that year?

Last season they finished 13th (W14 D16 L16 GF48 GA60 for 58 points , ending up as the filling in a Tranmere / Sutton Sandwich )….. Ten left, including Tariq Uwakwe to Swindon, David Amoo to Ebbsfleet, and Kelvin Mellor to us ……. they ProperSigned four; Morecambe’s RB Ryan Cooney, CMF Jack Powell from Crawley. RW Shiloh Tracy from Cambridge (who christens their kid "Shiloh"?) and CB Mickey Demetriou from Newport. Isn’t it. Look you. Eistedfodd ….

Currently they’ve hit the giddy heights of 5th (P20 W10 D6 L4 GF41 GA30 for 36 points) … just having exited the FA Cup at home to Brizzle, they’re out of the Troffy in the Group stages, and the EFL Cup in Round Two (2-0 on pens to Port Vale after a 5-3 pens win at Slumberland) …. League defeats at Bradford (1-0), Salford (4-2) and Grimsby (2-1), and at home to Stockport (2-0) … that’s the same Stockport who top League Two and have just been done big-time by Aldershot in the FA Cup Second Round Replay ………………. see “*” above …………. “Up the Shots!”

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00 pm on Saturday 16th December ……….. I can give you a bucket-load of reasons why we should lose this one, but I’ll wait and see what Valairian predicts, cos I’m fed up of looking stupid! And the CL team that top-scored with 13 in their Group but who finished last back in 2001 was French side Monaco; Gateshead were formed as "South Shields Adelaides" (no, seriously!), moved to Gateshead in 1930 and took the new town’s name, before going out of the League in 1960 and folding in 1973 (ironically, the South Shields club that replaced the Adelaides was also moved to Gateshead (as Gateshead United) in 1974 and folded at the end of season 1976/77 ……… and Man City scored 80 goals in 42 games in Division One in 1937/38, but finished second-bottom, and were relegated!

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

[teach]

1-1 draw for me please. (Also, got the result right, if not the score in the Donnie game but not in the intro above).

[Greger]

Apologies for:
Crewe 3 Stanley 1

[AccyMad]

2 - 2 for me please

[Watchdog]

2-2 Draw please

[Div3North]

Originally Posted by teach

1-1 draw for me please. (Also, got the result right, if not the score in the Donnie game but not in the intro above).

Apologies to you and the Angemeister - normally I check from my record book, but I’m slightly behind

Please note that there were four correct predictions for the Donnie game, but still no one got five or ten points

Will try harder this week

Mea culpa

[ossy kid]

Crewe 2-1 Stanley

[pompeylass]

Crewe 1 Stanley 0 for me.

[Kiwi Johnny]

I was once married to an Alexandra, but thankfully no more. In honour of that 4-0 Stanley.

[LongLostSon]

Full Desmond

[mab]

Crewe Alexandra 1 - 2 Accrington Stanley Please for me

[MikeA]

1-1 please

[cashman]

2 0 stanley fer me.

[Div3North]

Crewe 3 Stanley 2

[Chimer]

2-2 4 me 2