Prediction League Game 34; Torquay Utd (home)

Div3North · 20-02-2011, 00:16

Accrington Stanley

V

Torquay United

Prediction League – Game 34; v Torquay (home)

The transfer window was a busy time for the Gulls (remember that they’d already let Kieran Charnock go to Morecambe); leading scorer Elliot Benyon left for the dizzy heights (?

) of Swindon, and former Barnsley midfielder Nicky Wroe signed for Shrewsbury, ex Aldershot and Brighton striker Jake Robinson going the other way on loan (so far he’s started 5 times and scored just once); they also signed (on loan) Morecambe’s midfielder Craig Stanley (played 5, scored 0) and Northampton Town’s 24 year old midfielder Ryan Gilligan (who played 25 times for the Cobblers, but has only made 3 sub appearances since his move) …………. Benyon’s departure seems to have cemented Billy Kee’s starting role up front (13 starts, having previously made 18 appearances from the bench)

They sit 9th in the League, with 43 points from 29 games; four points behind 8th place Oxford and 7th placed Gillingham, but with 3 games in hand on both of them; they travel to Cheltenham on Tuesday. Overall in the League they’ve won 11, drawn 10 and lost 8; their away form is P14 W5 D6 L3 F22 A15 (1.50 points and 1.57 goals per game), whereas at home our record is P12 W5 D4 L3 F24 A18 (1.58 points and 2.00 goals per game)

Since the turn of the year they’ve played 2 FA Cup games (beating League One Carlisle 1-0 at home, then losing in Round 4 to Crawley at home by the same score and missing out on a trip to the Theatre of Dreams

); in the League they’ve won 4 of 10, drawing 3 and losing 3 (4-3 at home to Oxford, 3-1 at home to Hereford and 2-1 away at Morecambe). In all 36 games played they’ve scored a fairly poor 49 goals; the best they’ve managed in any game is 3 goals, although they have done that six times (at home, beating Northampton 3-0 and Morecambe 3-1, but losing 3-4 to both Bury and Oxford, and away, drawing 3-3 at Crewe and winning 3-1 at Wycombe); they’ve failed to score 8 times in all, although only twice in the last 23 matches played ……..

Leading scorers are the (departed) Elliot Benyon with 14, ex Chairboy Chris Zebrowski with 9, Billy Whizz with 7, 20 year old ex Everton trainee midfielder Eunan O’Kane (who was signed twelve months back from Coleraine) with 5, and the (also departed) Nicky Wroe with 3; 7 others have scored one or two each.

Jimmy Ryan reckons 10 wins – which would be 63 points – would see us in the Play Offs; I’m afraid it wouldn’t, Jimmy – only twice in the last few years has less than 70 points been enough, and the lowest is 66 …..

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 26th February. They haven’t scored more than 3 in any game; we’ve done it but once. Another nil-nil? Hammering? If so, who for? Seven goal thriller? Seven goal beating? We’re on W8 D12 L8; can we get ahead of the numbers? On the stats we may start favourites; our two leading scorers (Terry Gornell with 10 and Phil the Tan with 8) have a better total than their best two

, added to which we’ve beaten them 3 times out of 5 games

, losing only one, and drawing earlier in the season at Plainmoor during our “goalless draw phase”). Enter your scores on the doors, if you please …….. Everything to play for ……..

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