Prediction League Game 30; Morecambe (home)

Div3North · 29-01-2011, 13:30

Accrington Stanley

V

Morecambe

Prediction League – Game 30; v Morecambe (home)

Very mixed, their recent results; since the New Year they’ve played 6 (they were frozen off today the same as we were), winning three and losing the others; two home games (losing 2-1 to the Stanley

and then beating Torquay by the same score), and then 4 away games – wins by 2-0 over the increasingly doomed-looking Stockport (and Barnet must be sweating as well!) and 3-1 over Shrewsbury, but most recently losing 2-0 at Stevenage and then by 2-1 at Hereford (who are currently one of the form teams in Div 2). The sequence, then, is L W W W L L, and they lie 17th with 30 points from 25 games against our 15th position with 31 from 24 …………….

They’ve extended the loan signing of 19 year old Huddersfield striker James Spencer until the end of the season; he’s played 14 games (8 of them from the bench) and scored 3; they’ve also signed ex Plymouth and Cardiff defender Tony Capaldi until the season end (even though he’s only featured 8 times in their 29 games). In the current transfer window they’ve sold winger Mark Duffy to Scunthorpe – presumably so that he can supply crosses for Bobby Grant, who The Iron recalled early from his loan spell Rochdale to provide attacking cover.

In 29 games played in all competitions they’ve scored a total of 35 (conceding 42); they’ve got 5 goals once (against Stockport at home), 3 goals twice (beating Southend 3-2 and Shrewsbury 3-1, both away), 2 goals five times (with a 70% record in those games of 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat); if they hit two or more, therefore, they’re very likely to win – 6 wins in 8, and only one loss. That said, they’ve got one goal in a game 14 times, and not scored at all 7 times. Their away form in the League is P12 W4 D1 L7 F15 A22; our home League form is P11 W5 D3 L3 F23 A17; on the pure stats we should start favourites – but when did that count for anything?

No prolific goalscorers; Phil Jevons has 6, Andy Fleming (who joined from Wrexham in the summer) has 4, as does midfield partner Stewart Drummond, recently back where his career started in 1997, having spent some time at both Chester and Shrewsbury; four players have 3 each, among them loan striker James Spencer, and also one Paul Mullin , who’s made 16 starts (plus 10 from the bench) and hasn’t won Man of the Match anything like as often as he won it at Fortress Crown! Ex Red Kieron Charnock has one goal to his name, but gave Stevenage their 2nd in the 2-0 defeat a week or so back

with a terrible ‘shank’ ( a ‘miscue’, according to their website) – a game in which Paul Mullin is recorded as the player who committed the most fouls for the Shrimps (

) ………. Still trying to work that out!

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 1st February 2011. Our League record against them stands at P7 W6 D1 L0 F13 A7; if I say “How good is that, then?” I probably condemn us to a resounding thrashing, so I won’t! Will we maintain our bragging rights, which include winning the last four times we’ve played them

? 7-4? 0-0? Three points? One points? No points? Frozen pitch? Postponement? You pick it, they do it; we hope!

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