Accrington Web - 2017/18 Prediction League; Game 31 v Stevenage (home)

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Stevenage

2017/18 Prediction League; Game 31 v Stevenage (home)

Currently Stevenage lie 14th; P30 W10 D8 L12 GF38 GA41 for 38 points – above Cambridge on GD and 3 points below Carlisle ................ after 5 games they were 2nd, winning 3 and drawing 2; after the end of September it all went downhill, and they’ve lost 10 of their last 19, including last time out (0-1 at home to Swindon). They did manage a win before that at Chesterfield, but in their last 6 in all competitions they’ve only scored twice (the other one was in a half-Desmond against Morecambe), and before they won at CrookedSpiresVille and took a point at the Globe they’d lost their previous EIGHT away League fixtures (Crewe, Luton (7-1), Yeovil, Mansfield, Cambridge, Exeter, Lincoln and Crawley), and they only managed to score at Luton and Exeter! All told they’ve failed to trouble the old scorers nine times in the League, twice in the FA Cup (although they did make Round 3, beating Nantwich Town and Swindon 5-0 and 5-2 at home before succumbing to Reading), once in the EFL Cup and once in the EFLTroffy.

It might have been the too-frequent “nil” in the “GF” column that caused them to ProperSign over the last few days ex Cobblers’ striker Alex Revell and to LoanSign current Cobblers’ striker Dean Bowditch ................ or maybe it was the fact that they sold winger Trumpet - sorry, Tom Pett (7 goals in 34 this season) to Lincoln! .............. After doing nothing in the market since August, they’ve also acquired ex Woking and Swindon MF John Goddard (permanently), and Spurs’ MF Luke Amos (temporarily) ............. Luke seems to have realised he was on the way, because he said,

"I am a midfielder, so I am a lot of hard work, tackling, running, passing. When I spoke to the manager, I was sold straight away,"

which seems a bit of a severe punishment for speaking to the Manager, but then ..................

Form teams in League Two are Mansfield (13 points from 5), and Wycombe, Coventry, Swindon, us and Crawley, all with 12 points from 5 (four wins, one defeat in each case); Dobbin the Donkey awards to Grimsby (1 point from a possible 15 – in fact they haven’t won in ten games), Barnet and PV (2), Crewe and Colchester (3), and Yeovil, Cheltenham, and – surprisingly (or maybe not) – Notts County, each with four from 15 .................. Leading scorers are Luton (66), Wycombe (55), and us and Notts Co (48); fewest defeats in the League is Mansfield (5 of 29); Duck’s Arse defences are Coventry (21) and Lincoln (28) ........... and Billy Whizz still tops the goal scorers’ list with 16 .................And Kayden J (10) and Sean McMarmite (8) are both on the list as well …………………..and by the way, 10 & 8 are the numbers of goals scored; nothing to do with
age

We played them three days after they’d been thrashed within an inch of their lives (7-1) at Luton .......... I did say “could be a bad time to play a wounded animal”, and I was right, since we led twice through Jordan Clark and a Billy Kee penalty but still managed to give them two goals in the last 7 minutes to lose by the odd goal in five ..... and to make it worse, they then lost their next two games as well! Last season they beat us 1-0 at ours, but we had the pleasure of doing them 3-0 at theirs in the final game of the season, goals from Matty Pearson, and Billy Whizz and Seamus of the Conneelys (both from the penalty spot) Doing It Unto Them Right Regally!

And as I write this, we’ve just dropped out of the play-off places again, courtesy of Exeter sticking two past Vegan Greenpeace Utd to move into fourth and push us down to 8th.........although we do have a game in hand on everyone above us (except the aforementioned Exeter), and two in hand on the aforementioned Luton (who’ve lost twice in four, so aren’t inflammable); and if we were to win that game in hand (and ignoring Saturday’s fixtures for these purposes) the worst we’d be is third behind the Hatters and the Chairboys, and if we won it by two we’d be second .................... so keep the faith! And Bournemouth have just won 3-0 at Chelsea! Way to go you Cherries (who just loaned Connor Mahony to Barnsley)

Does anyone else think that we’ve just had a really good Transfer Window (“we” being the Stanley, not the World and His Wife)? Harvey Rogers at 10.56pm looks like le icing sur le gateau. Now what we need to do is to win several in a row – Stevenage should be, dare I say it, not too difficult, and Swindon are on a run (but we do pretty well usually against the better sides at home – and I’ve just blown that one sky high!) …………………… the rest of February brings us Coventry (away), Crewe (home), Barnet (away) and Cambridge (home), and nine points from those four would stand us in good stead come March (Luton, Mansfield, Newport but also Vegan Greenpeace, Morecambe and Yeovil) ……………

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 3rd February (what the hell happened to January?) Currently Luton are 8 clear, but six points covers Wycombe (2nd on 52 points ) down to and including Newport (10th on 46pts), and only Luton (18) and Exeter and Swindon (16) have won more games than we have………………. Tight Division? Rubbish! Piece of gateau!

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

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