2024/25 Prediction League Game 2 v Harrogate Town (home)

Div3North · 15-08-2024, 22:36

Accrington Stanley

V

Harrogate Town

2024/25 Prediction League Game 2 v The Sulphurites (home)

Well that didn’t start too well, did it? Played two (including the TinPotCup), lost them both by a three-goal margin in each case, eight debuts in the Donnie game, and on GD we’re 23rd, which is because Carlisle starts with a “C” not an “A” ………….. with an average of 0.5 goals scored per game, and 3.5 conceded, with another 49 games to play, if we lose them all we’d score in all 25.5.goals and concede 178.5 …………. Couldn’t happen?

Starter for Ten, then …… We’ve all seen and heard about disgruntled fans throwing stuff on the pitch to express their anger – fish cakes, half a dead cat, pants at Reading (because they were, apparently), a car door (New Zealand v Chile in 1998), a pig’s head, sausages, rubber ducks, and a live chicken (at Blackburn v Wigan in 2012) – but in the late sixties there was incident in the Scottish Highland League game at Clachnaccudin in Inverness which struck a chord with me ……. The ground had very limited distance between the stand and the touchline, and as the Liner (Asst Ref, but they weren’t, then, I don’t think) was idly waiting for a throw-in or such to be taken, something thrown from the stand struck him on the shoulder ………. But what was it?

Founded in 1919, Harrogate gained their EFL place in season 2019/20, beating Notts County in the Playoff Final 3-1 before a crowd of 0000 ………… Head to head is limited, because when they got promoted we were in League One (remember that?) so our record relates only to last season’s two meetings (one x 2-1 win each plus our 5-3 win in October 23 at their place in the FL Trophy) ……….. Over the summer they released four (three of whom went to non-League and eight who didn’t) plus striker Emmanuel Ilesanmi who moved to Derby ….. three came in – RMF Stephen Duke-McKenna from QPR, CB Zico Asare from Maidenhead, and LW Ellis Taylor from the Black Cats …………. No loans as yet

They had the honour of hosting New Boys Bromley in their opening game, and did them the honour of losing to them 2-0 …… and then they won their EFL Cup at Lincoln 2-1, meaning they play managerless PNE (well, someone had to be first) in Round Two

And by the way, have you seen the crowds at various Bananarama games last Saturday? 5552 for Oldham v Braintree, 7962 for Sarfend’s half-Desmond against York, and 3646 for Yeovil v Hartlepool …………….. I wish (and I bet AH does too)

Second Starter for Ten; in the line started by Charlton v Huddersfield back in the 50s, in 1982, Borussia Dortmund played Armenia Bielefeld ……. After 45 mins it was 1-1 … but what was the full-time score?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time (or maybe Sky Sports time) which is 3.00pm on Saturday 17th August …………….. I wonder how many of you tried Sky sports Plus on Saturday? I was glad that I hadn’t paid extra to try and watch it, because it was a shambles ….. my screen glitched, and froze twice in the first 40 minutes, at which time I had to go out, for which I was grateful when I saw the score ……. Frankly, the first 40 was two teams not on the ball (gerrit?) …………… And the object thrown at the Clachnaccudin liner was a live tortoise (who on earth takes a tortoise to the match, and did he have to pay for it on the bus?) which was apparently re-homed after the game ……….. And Dortmund turned a half time 1-1 draw at Armenia Bielefeld into an 11-1 romp

And only 14 playing is very disappointing (again), but congratulations to the half of the players who didn’t keep the Faith and who therefore got 4 or 5 points in the PL table …. I got none!

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