2024/25 Prediction League Game 16 v Swindon (home)

Div3North · 15-11-2024, 14:17

Accrington Stanley

V

Swindon Town

2024/25 Prediction League Game 16 v Suindune Town (“Pig Hill”) (home)

Scottish Starter for Ten; League Two side Bonnyrigg Rose – also known as “The Rosey Posey” – were deducted six points on Tuesday by the Scottish FA, which dropped them from a challenging 5th to a worried eighth place ………………. But what heinous crime caused the points deduction? …………. And for your bonus question, which international film star played as a right winger for the Rosey Posey in the early 1950s (although maybe not in the First XI) ?

Until 25th October, The Robins were managed by Mark Kennedy ………. On retirement as a player, he began coaching the Ipswich under-21 side; he was there for four years, at Man City for two, was head coach at Macclesfield for 12 games until Covid b*ggered everything up (he turned down a new contract offered following their GreasyPole to the Bananarama), then assisted Lee Bowyer at Brum until on 22nd May 2022 he became Head Coach at Lincoln City (being sacked in October 2023), and finally he signed a two year contract at Swindon on 29th May 2024, lasting five months of the 24…………….. his replacement is the perennial Ian Holloway

Founded as Swindon AFC in 1879, the club became Spartans the next year, before settling on the name Swindon Town in 1883. It became 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. They remained in the third tier for 43 years (!) until finally being promoted into the Second Division in 1962–63, where they remained for just two seasons. The team lifted the League Cup after beating Arsenal 3–1 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.

Second Starter for Ten, then; which long-serving football manager said, in an interview with the media,

“Ronaldo is six-foot something, fit as a flea, good looking ………. He’s got to have something wrong with him …………. Hopefully he’s hung like a hamster: that would make us all feel better …….”….. and also

“Roy Keane’s like a shark. He has those eyes. You don’t know if he’s going to buy you a drink or eat you"

Located in South West England, Swindon lies on the M4 corridor, 71 miles to the west of London and 36 miles to the east of Bristol. The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south. Its population is 183,638

Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Suindine, the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed it 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. The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is 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 English swain, meaning a young man.

Swindon is recorded in the Domesday Book as a manor in the hundred of Blagrove, Wiltshire. It was one of the larger manors, recorded as having 27 households and a rent value of £10 14s, which was divided among five landlords. It was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, now known as Old Town. The Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of the town’s growth. Construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810 and the North Wilts Canal in 1819 brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to grow.

Starter for Ten number Two; Apart from Play-Off Finals and the like, what is the highest recorded attendance for a FL second tier match, and who was it between?

Swindon hit League Two at the end of season 2020/21, GreasyPoling in 23rd place with 43 points and a -34 GD, five points and some goals from safety, above Brizzle only (Rochdale also went down that season, and look where they are now!) …… last season they finished 19th on 54 points, and in the summer they sold three players you won’t know and released 13 others, including former crowd-pleaser Charlie Austin (now at AFC Totton) and George McEachran to Grimsby ………….. they signed 13, including LB Billy Kirkman from The New Saints, and Ros Longelo from us, who has played 12 in the League plus six in cups and sub appearances …….. Their record is P15 W2 D6 L7 GF16 GA23 for 12 points and 22nd place, a point above Carlisle and two above Morecambe ……… away, they’ve won once (3-2 at Cheltenham), drawn 4 and lost 3, scoring 9 and conceding 12 ……. their other win was 4-0 over Newport, but they’ve lost three and drawn one of their last four ….. they did put Colchester, whose record is much the same, out of the FA Cup aet, and in the next round they play ………… erm ………us (chez nous)

With our current form we should do ok, depending on Kiwi and Valairian

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm tomorrow, 16th November ……….. I think they’ve only ever won twice at Our Place …….. and the referee is Ollie Yates (is he a known anti-Accie ref? Does he like Jurgen Klopp? And the Rosey Posey’s six point deduction is because they have a sloping pitch which they haven’t fixed yet (and anyway, what about the Great Slope at Yeovil all those years ago?); and on their books in the early 50s was one Sean Connery (later, James Bond) …………. and the interviewee with the ready quips was Ian Holloway (yes, the self-same Olly Holly) ………… and the highest second-tier crowd ever recorded was 70,302 for a game between Spurs and Southampton in 1950 …………..

Good luck to everyone! …………… Gardez la Fidelite! ……………And thanks for playing!