2023-24 Prediction League; Game 42 v Crewe Alexandra (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Crewe Alexandra

2023/24 Prediction League Game 42 v Crewe Station (home)

Well, it seriously never rains but it pours, doesn't it, especially if you’re Senor Luis Rubiales, once President of the Spanish FA, and a man who is now not only subject to criminal proceedings for grabbing his crotch and forcibly and non-consensually kissing the Spanish Lady Midfielder Jenni Hermoso when Spain won the Women’s World Cup (“No significa no!”), but has just been arrested again for allegedly dipping his snout in the Brown Envelope Football Trough …………. facing a possible prison sentence for helping himself regardless, he is now also accused of receiving illegal commissions when negotiating a lucrative deal to stage the Spanish Super Cup competition in Saudi Arabia ……….. Oh dearie me! Well, oh dearie him, anyway ………… Apparently his defence to the sexual assault and coercion charges is “you’re only accusing me because I’m a man” ………… Don’t know about that, but he’s certainly a RichardHead

Starter for Ten, then; what strikers’ record is shared by Mick Channon (1973/74) in English Division One for Southampton, Enrique Castro Gonzales (1975/6) in La Liga, Igor Protti (1995/96) in Serie A, Thomas Dalgaard (2013/14) with Viborg in the Danish Super Liga, and Giorgos Giakoumakis (2020/21) with VVV-Venlo in the Dutch Eredivisie?

Crewe - originally “Creu” - is the day to day responsibility of Sir Topham Hatt (“The Fat Controller”) who keeps an eye on the doings and mis-doings of Thomas the Tank Engine and his Coal-Fired Friends ……… there are lots of tunnels on the North Western Railway, and on one occasion Mick Miller, the balding comedian, reported to an audience that Thomas had chugged into one of these tunnels with a “puff”, and had come out with a tender behind ……… this is not confirmed …………

Crewe was at one time east of where it is now; it applied unsuccessfully for City Status during the Platinum Jubilee; it has a crater named after it on Mars; the civil parish of Crewe had a population of 55,318 in the 2021 census; during the 1940s and 1950s it was the main crossing area for trains N to S and E to W, so that many of the Music Hall and Variety artists of the time would meet on the platforms on a Sunday on their way to next week’s gig …..

And you may have seen that Plymouth, who appointed Ian Foster, Steven Gerrard’s assistant at Al Ettifaq, to replace Steven Schumacher as their manager three months ago, have now un-appointed him, largely because they’ve only won once in their last eleven, and are flirting with the pointy end of the Championnat table - one place and one point off the Greasypole places ………..

Crewe Alexandra Football Club was formed in 1877 as an offshoot of Crewe Alexandra Cricket Club (established in September 1866 by Thomas Abraham and other workers at Crewe locomotive works), and named after Princess Alexandra. They played at the Alexandra Recreation Ground, adjacent to Crewe railway station, 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, 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, and in 1891, the football club split away from the cricket club—a step that was condemned by Francis Webb, chief engineer of the town's London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Crewe works, who supported the exclusion of professional sportsmen; following the schism, Webb and the LNWR said the company would 'refuse to find employment in the Crewe Works for any professional football player'. 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.

Crewe secretary J.G. Hall helped found the unsuccessful Combination (launched at Crewe's Royal Hotel in early 1889) and then the Football Alliance (1889–1892), but when the latter merged with the Football League, Crewe were a founding member of the Football League Second Division in 1892. They lost their league status in 1896 after only four seasons—finishing third from bottom, fourth from bottom, then bottom twice—possibly due to a player budget that was a quarter of that of other clubs. They rejoined the FL in 1921

Between 1894 and 1982, Crewe finished last in the Football League eight times, more than any other league club. On Christmas Day 1954, they embarked on 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, tallying just 28, 21 and 23 points from 46 games in each respective season. The club was placed into the newly formed Fourth Division in 1958–59. Quelle surprise!

They have, of course, hit the Championnat, and for eight or so seasons they survived there comfortably; they have a history of finding and developing players, and the likes of David Platt, Bruce Grobelaar, Rob Jones, Craig Hignett, Neil Lennon and Danny Murphy all helped fill the coffers and had excellent careers

Starter for Ten number Two; what was remarkable about GK Lewis Patching’s career at AFC Rushden and Diamonds during this year?

They lost only three of their first 20 games this season in the League (losing away at Bradford 1-0, at Salford (4-2) and at home to Stockport (now back on the rails) 2-0, and they’ve only been out of the playoff places once since the sixth game of the season ……….that said, they’ve W1 D2 and L4 of their last seven, including 3-0 at home to Vegan Greenpeace last time out, and also to Morecambe, Donnie and the MKDonuts …. at the moment they’re 6th on 66 points from 41 games, with a slight cushion over Crawley but with four other sides sniffing around …………. They signed LW Charlie Kirk from Charlton and free agent GK Keiran Westwood in the window, and loaned two CMFs (Lewis Leigh from PNE and Josh Austerfield from Huddersfield, plus CB Ed Turns from Brighton ….. Leading scorer is Elliott Nevitt with 16, followed by Courtney Baker-Richardson on 10, with Mickey Demetriou and Chris Long on nine ……..we shared six goals at Gresty Road before Christmas (theirs on 4, 29 and 90+8), ours on 6 mins (Nolan), 87 mins (Ben Woods) and 90+6 (Josh Woods) …… play to the final whistle, lads!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 6th April (Happy New Tax Year!) After us they've got Morecambe, Grimsby, Wrexham and Colchester ……. Colchester are in the bottom two, a point behind Sutton with three games in hand, and two points ahead of VGU with two in hand, plus the best GD, and since the Morris Cowleys took over in early January they’ve W2, L2 and drawn eight! Nil Desperandum!

And Mick Channon (73/74), Enrique Castro Gonzales (75/76), Igor Protti (95/96), Thomas Dalgaard (13/14) and Giorgos Giakoumakis (20/21) were each, in their turn, their team’s leading scorer for that season, but each of their five teams were relegated come that same Season’s End ….. And Lewis Patching’s career at AFC Rushden and Diamonds was short but nonetheless spectacular ……….. R&D had lost their GK, so they signed Patching on match day to play in goal against Lye Town …………. he had a bit of a ‘mare - well, a lot of a ‘mare - and they lost 4-0 ……….. after the game Patching found himself in a local bar where - in circumstances not fully clear - it is said that he headbutted a fan who was also there, and within the 24 hours from signing he was sacked ……………!!!!!!!!!!

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

[ossy kid]

1-1 please

[Watchdog]

Accrington Stanley 1- 2 Crewe Alex.

[MikeA]

3-1 Stanley, please

[pifco]

2-1 Stanley

[AccyMad]

1 apiece please

[teach]

Crewe win 2-1

[Greger]

Doesn’t the relegated team’s leading goal scorer get relegated every year?

I know that you meant their League’s leading scorer. Just being difficult and trying to prove that I actually read your opener.

Stanley 2 Crewe 1

[choirboy]

Stanley 2-1 Crewe Alex for me please.

[choirboy]

Stanley 2-1 Crewe Alex for me please.

[Kiwi John]

3-1 Stanley please.

[VALAIRIAN]

3-1 to Crewe......

[Div3North]

Stanley 2 Crewe 0

[mab]

All the way from sunny Tunisia 😎 Accrington Stanley 2 - 1 Please for me

[Chimer]

We do all seem to be being a tad optimistic this week, but we're bound to spoil some promotion hopeful's day one day soon (surely?) so why not? 3-0 Stanley!!