Accrington Web - 2012 Prediction League; Game 32 v Exeter City (away)

Exeter City

Accrington Stanley

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 32; v Exeter (away)

This week’s starter for 10; Leam, as you’ll all remember, was appointed as Stanley’s manager on 25th October 2012 (112 days ago) ……….. how many current managers of the 92 League clubs have been appointed since he was? Go on, have a guess; 6? 10? Want to be really bold? Maybe 14? The answer, believe it or not, is actually 23 :eek:– exactly a quarter of the total teams in the 4 divisions; what price loyalty? ;)

I mention that not because of Leam, who’s tucked in nicely in mid-table, but because of Grecians’ Boss Paul Tisdale; after a fairly unremarkable playing career (which took in FinnPa (Finland) and Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis (I thought they were the Baddies in the Bond films :confused:) which was brought to an early end by injury, he took on the management of Team Bath; four promotions there got him the Exeter job on 26th June 2006, and with a tenure of 6 ½ years he’s actually the 6th longest serving manager, behind Fergie, Wenger, Moyes, Dagenham’s John Still, and Tony Pulis, who joined Stoke 12 days before ………… In fact if you look at the list, Nigel Clough, after 4 years and 36 days at Derby, is the 10th longest serving ……….. Not a lot of gold watches for 50 years, man and boy, going round then …………………

The other thing you need to know about Exeter is that – this season, at least – they’re red hot away from home in the League, but crap at St James’s Park :D; away, their record is W10 D2 L3 F27 A19 (wouldn’t you just die for that to be our away figures?:rolleyes:); at home, they’ve won only 4 – like Rochdale, York, us, Plymouth and Barnet – and they boast (or probably ‘keep quiet about’ :p) a record of 4 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses, with 19 scored and 21 conceded (ours, for comparison, is W4 D4 L7 F14 A21). Merging those two sets of figures you get, overall, P31 W14 D7 L19 F46 A40 for 49 points and 6th place – a point behind Fleetwood and Burton, and ahead of Rotherham by virtue of a +1 better goal difference.

They broke no pots in the Cups; three competitions, three first round exits :o (2-1 to Palace in Devon in the Capon Cup, 4-3 on penalties after a 0-0 to Aldershot, also at home, in the Tinpot, and 1-0 at Bury in the FA Cup). Their last eight at home in the League gave them one win (3-0 against Southend), 4 draws (0-0 v Aldershot, 1-1 v Plymouth and 2-2 v Barnet and also Fleetwood – all, bar Fleetwood, in the bottom 6 of League 2), and the three defeats were by 1-0 to Rotherham, 1-0 again to Torquay, and 3-1 to Oxford. Played 8, won 1, drawn 4, lost 3 – 7 points in 8 matches …………….. They do sometimes know where the net is, though; they have 3 goals in a game 7 times, and also a 4 scored at Oxford; 47 goals in all, their leading scorers are 37-year old Jamie Cureton (who once dyed his hair green and yellow while playing for Norwich against Ipswich :confused:) with 16 – he having played for 12 clubs, including Bristol Rovers, Reading, Norwich, QPR and Colchester, plus South Korean side Busan IPark (owned by Hyundai, the team at one time being called “Daewoo”); second on their list is his 30 year old (former Republic of Ireland u21) strike partner John O’Flynn, who did his apprenticeshiop with the Posh before getting 68 in 138 games for Cork, followed by34 in 70 games for Barnet :); and local trainee Scott Bennett (22), a defender, who has 4.

Continuing their policy of giving jobs to aged pros, they signed ex Cherries MF Mark Molesley until the end of the season, but they haven’t done much in the market/transfer window, that apart ………………. And if you want a bit of trivia – oh alright, gossip – it’s said that they were founded in 1904, and “played on an old field used for fattening pigs” :D ……………..Personally, I don’t believe it

Our head-to-head isn’t thrilling; in 2008/9, as they leapfrogged out of League two a la Crawley, they won 2-1 at their place amd we won the return by the same margin (goals from John Miles and Craig Lindfield); in game 3 of this season they halted our two game unbeaten run, winning 3-0; P3 W1 D0 L2 F3 A6 Pts 3 ………….

As always the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Friday 15th February. They can’t win at home for toffee, our away form is no worse than our home form; we’ve surely got to have a little piece of luck one of these days? Could this be it? This is a game we easily could win ……….:D

Good luck to everyone ……Keep the Faith :D…… and thanks for playing!

:tongueout