Accrington Web - 2023-24 Prediction League; Game 29 v Forest Green Rovers (home)

Accrington Stanley

Forest Green Rovers

2023/24 Prediction League Game 29 v Vegan Greenpeace United (home)

Starter for Ten; by the end of January, how many League games will we have we played so far this season against teams who had sacked their managers/head coaches within the ten days prior to us playing them, and who are the teams/ex managers?

For sure you’ll know that Troy Deeney has been extinguished by Dale Vince at Vegan Greenpeace after 29 days in the job; Deeney was red-carded by Ref Scott Simpson shortly before the final whistle when VGU played Swindon (his second game in charge – second of six) for language that was “improper and/or abusive and/or insulting and/or threatening” …. He was also becoming known for slamming his own players publicly, claiming that he’d “rather watch Antiques Roadshow” than his side, that there were “too many babies top to bottom”, and that the players were “inmates running the jail”, and that Fankaty Dabo was “faster than everybody on pure ability, but he gets ran past every game, he never makes a tackle and every time the ball comes to him it looks like he kicks it with his shin pads”

Eventually TD appeared before the Authorities for his red card, and he received a four-match touchline ban and a fine of £1500 ………. That, plus three draws and three defeats in his six games, led to Dale Vince – never a man to retain a manager when he could sack one (as shown by the fact that VG have had four managers during 2023 and eight in all since 2021) - gave him his P45 ……… ironic, because Troy claims that he was sacked before he’d even received his first payslip …… He also claimed that he was only hired for his contacts!

And I don’t know if anyone saw him on an episode of Celebrity Mastermind just before Christmas, when he picked as his specialist subject Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film trilogy, and scored nul points in his allotted minute and a half ……… to be fair, he got six in the general knowledge section, thus beating Dana by two points overall …………

Second Starter for Ten; everyone, I think, knows that the shortest-ever duration of an EFL manager’s contract was when Leroy Rosenior lasted ten minutes at Torquay (they offered him the job, and then sold the club!) ………… but apart from him, and ex Man Utd GK Jack Crompton’s first team coaching job at Luton in 1958 (he resigned after eight days on medical advice), who holds second place in the “Shortest Tenure as Manager” list, and at which club?

More managerial changes, you’ll not be surprised to hear ……… Notts Co’s new manager is Stuart Maynard, previously with Wealdstone, Matthew Taylor (of who there are two, if memory serves) is now out at the Long-nosed Pointy Things (Shrewsbury, for those new to my peculiar sense of humour), and Michael Appleton has walked the plank at Charlton ….. new incumbents include Martin Paterson (who?) at Burton, Gavin Gunning (Who? - an internal appointment) is Interim Head Coach at Swindon, and Steve Cotterill is the latest Boss at Vegan Greenpeace (think Lady Jane Grey etc etc) ……… of 42 departing managers this season so far in the EFL, 14 have been from League Two, including two each from Colchester and VGU - oh, and by the way, Paul Hurst’s back at Shrewsbury!

Forest Green Rovers are not, I should make clear, based in Forest Green - which doesn’t exist, as far as I know …… they come from Nailsworth in Gloucestershire: they were, for a short period, known as Stroud FC, and they’ve been in existence since 25th October 1889 …. They reached the Bananara in 1997/98 ……….. they were twice reprieved from relegation from the Conference National due to the demotion of other clubs, but (or is that “and”?) the club was transformed following investment from green energy industrialist Dale Vince in 2010.

Under Vince's chairmanship Forest Green became the world's first vegan football club in 2015, and the New Lawn was installed with numerous eco-friendly innovations. Investment in the playing squad saw the club compete for promotion into the English Football League, which they achieved with victory in the 2017 National League play-offs, finishing third, and seeing off The Daggers 3-1 in the semis and Tranmere 3-1 in the final (having been beaten in the semi-finals in 2015 and in the 2016 final).They were then promoted to League One in 2022 for the first time in their history, following an EFL League Two title win. They were relegated after one season.

Nailsworth (in Gloucestershire) is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road (the Roman Fosse Way), 4 miles south of Stroud and about 25 miles north-east of Bristol and Bath. The parish had a population of 5,794 at the 2011 census. In ancient times it was a settlement at the confluence of the Avening Valley and the Woodchester Valley, on the Nailsworth Stream, and from the 1st or 2nd centuries on the Roman Fosse Way. Among many notable historic medieval buildings in the area are Beverston Castle and Owlpen Manor. Nailsworth Town Hall, built as a chapel for a dissenting congregation, was completed in 1867. In the modern era, Nailsworth was a small mill town and centre for brewing. It was connected directly to the UK national rail network between 1867 and 1947, as the terminus of the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway.

These days Nailsworth is visited in the summer by walkers. It holds a farmers' market every fourth Saturday in the month. Local events such as the market and the Nailsworth Festival are still announced by a town crier. I think we should go one summer’s day; worryingly, the iternet says it’s 4hrs 10 mins by air ………………

Their leading goal scorer this season is Matty Stevens, who has two goals, which is good to know ….. … since we last played them they’ve ProperSigned CMF Alex Rodriguez from Oxford and RMF Emmanuel Osadebe from Bratfud; they also have three in on loan (courtesy, he would say, of the pulling power of the name of Mr Deeney), they being Stoke GK Tommy Simpkin, Blackpool LB Domenic Thompson, and Man U DMF Maxi Oyadeye (who apparently has two brothers called Mini Oyadeye and Incredibly Tiny Oyadeye) …….. as things stand they’re 24th of 24, with a record reading P27 W4 D7 L16 GF27 GA49 and 19 points ……… Grimsby and Salford have both conceded 49 as well, while Colchester and Sutton have let in 55 ……. they won 1-0 at Harrogate on 12th August and 1-0 at Sutton on 2nd September, and 5-0 at home to Colchester and 2-1 at home to Crawley, both in October …. of their last 12 games they’ve drawn 6 and lost 6, and Time is Running Out; at home they’ve won two, drawn two and lost nine, and on the road, won two, drawn five and lost 7

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00 pm on Saturday 27th January (and note the new date for the thrashing at Walsall, which is Tuesday 27th February (is that right, Mrs Mad?) …………….. we need this one, and Colchester (my home town team who are Languishing) need us to need it too …………. And so far we’ve played four teams within a week of their having sacked their then-incumbent managers (Graham Alexander, sacked by MK Donuts on 16th October as we met them on 21st October, Ben Garner at Colchester (totalled on 21st October, we played them on 28th October), Neil Wood at Salford (fired 27th December, we met on NYD, and of course Mr Deeney, sacked on 18th January as we play them on 27th …….. And the second shortest duration as manager on record was by Bill Lampton in 1959, who resigned as Scunthorpe manager after three days to take over at Grimsby instead (next shortest was Dave Bassett and his Four Days at Crystal Palace) …………….

COYR!

Good luck to everyone! ……… Keep the Faith! …….. And thanks for playing! ….. And welcome back to Kiwi and Ossy Kid after their sojourns in the wilderness ….

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