Accrington Web - Prediction League Game 19; Shrewsbury (home)

Accrington Stanley

Shrewsbury Town

Prediction League – Game 19; v Shrewsbury (home)

7 out (including players gone to Peterborough, Southend and Preston (!)); 5 in; defenders Ian Sharps from six years at Tranmere and four at Rotherham and David Raven (Liverpool, Tranmere and – most recently – Carlisle); much-travelled striker Matt Harold from Wycombe (now at his 7th club); Bolton-born Sean McAllister from 5 years at The Owls; and goalkeeper Ben Smith (who played three games last season on loan at Morecambe) from Doncaster. On top of that, they signed midfielder Mark Wright – no, not that one! - (ex Walsall, MK Dons and – briefly – Brighton) on loan from Bristol Rovers; former Birmingham, Cobblers, Watford and Stockport defender Mat Sadler from Watford; and (yesterday) Andrew Tutte from Manchester City. Main goal threat, apart from Matt Harold, comes from Jake Robinson and Mark Wright ………….

Since we came back into the League (they won the Conference in 2003/4), they’ve finished 7th, 18th, 7th again and – last season – 12th; 3 places, 2 points and 13 goals better off than us. They lost the Playoff Final in 2007 (3-1 to Bristol Rovers) and again in 2009 (1-0 to Gillingham).

We’ve met 8 times in the League and once (last season) in the JPT; in the League, we’ve had 2 wins, one draw and five defeats; the first game back was a 3-3 draw at Fortress Crown – our goals from Andy Todd, Phil the Tan and Rockie Williams, their third being scored by one Michael Symes (!), and then we lost the return and both games the season after; our first success was Oct 08, when we went 2 up inside 6 minutes (Terry Gornell and Paul Mullin), and held on to win 2-1; we lost the return 2-0, and then the first game between us the next year by 3-1 (our goal being scored by one Michael Symes). We hold current bragging rights, though, because we took them out of the JPT in October 09 by 2-0, and then won at Greenhous Meadow (still don’t think it has the same ring as “Gay Meadow”) 1-0 (Bobby Grant) in January.

They’re out of the Carling (2-1 at Stoke, having done Charlton 4-3 in Round 1), the JPT 6-5 on penalties (0-0) at Bury, having seen off Oldham away 1-0 in the First Round, and the FA Cup 2-0 at Southampton in the First Round. Their League record so far is P18 W9 D5 L4 F31 A18 Pts32 for 4th place; at home, it’s an impressive W6 D3 L0 F18 A6, away it’s W3 D2 L4 F13 A12; highlights away have been a 4-0 win at Stockport (not that good, since they’ve gone down 5-0 three times in their last 5 league matches), 2-1 at Crewe and 1-0 at Macc; draws 2-2 at Wycombe and 1-1 at Stevenage, and defeats by 4-3 at Chesterfield, 2-0 at Gillingham, and 1-0 at both Port Vale and Morecambe make up the rest. Overall they’ve hit the net 37 times in 23 games in all competitions; leading scorers (interestingly) are midfielder Mark Wright with 10, followed by strikers Jake Robinson with 9 and Matt Harold with 6; they’ve conceded 4 goals once, 3 once, and 2 on four occasions; the other 17 games have seen them give up one goal ten times, and keep 7 clean sheets (although only one – at home to Hereford last time out – in their last 7 games)

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 4th December. Another draw? 8-3 win? (or 5-4, 4-0, 4-1, 3-2 or any of the other damn silly guesses made for the Cup game)? Squeaky win? Spectacular hammering (either way)? Who’d like to put their money where their mouth is?

Good luck to everyone ………… and thanks for playing!

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