Prediction League Game 38; Port Vale (home)

[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Port Vale

Prediction League – Game 38; v Port Vale (home)

A new manager in early January, Jim Gannon replacing Micky Adams, who moved to Sheffield Utd (where he has eventually won a match ); a change not without its difficulties, it seems, with Gannon (the ex Dundalk, Stockport (2005-09), Motherwell (for 25 games in 2009) and Peterborough (for 2 months in 2010) manager) already hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons – telling the press, apparently, that his staff were “underqualified” , which might not have gone down too well, and – of course – the now infamous “Elvis has just left the bus” routine following a spat with his Assistant, Geoff Horsfield (an Adams signing in 2009).

If you strip out the Cup matches, their more recent record makes you wonder how it is that they’re still in the Playoffs; their results in August and September – including a straight 5 out of 5 wins in September – left them right up there with a record of W7 D1 L1; October and the first half of November gave them 1 win, 6 draws and 2 losses, and then they won 4 on the spin, ending with their second win against the Stanley this season, this time in the 2nd Round of the FA Cup by 1-0 (after we’d seen off League 1 Oldham in Round 1). During the last three + months (December to date) they’ve played 18 (17 League), and have won only 5, drawing 4 and losing the other 9 (one being the 3rd Round Cup game which they lost 4-2 at Burnley). In that time they’ve scored only 18 in 18 games (2 goals in 6 matches, 1 goal six times, and a blank six times) but conceded 30, including a 5-0 defeat at Rotherham, as well as the Cup loss at Turf Moor.

“New Broom” Gannon did the obligatory swoop during the transfer window; two young midfielders from West Brom (Romaine Sawyers and Kayleden Brown); another midfielder - Jay O’Shea (a Republic of Ireland u21 international) on loan from Birmingham, for whom he’s played just 9 minutes in the Premier League; 6’5” defender Exodus Geohaghon on loan from Posh (he’s had loan spells at Rotherham and Shrewsbury already this season, scoring 1 goal in 17 appearances; anyone remember who it was against? ); and “home town boy” Tom Pope, a 6’3” striker signed on loan from Rotherham (who paid £150,000 for him from Crewe in 2009). Pope scored 17 in 64 for Crewe, but only 6 in 54 for Rotherham (including 1 in 13 appearances – mainly from the Bench - this season); he’s got 2 in 9 for the Valiants, but you might wonder what a team which boasts strikers the likes of Justin Richards, club captain Marc Richards and Louis Dodds needs with someone else’s (arguable) failures …….. Perhaps Gannon likes tall footballers?

We beat them twice in season 08/09, by 2-0 at both grounds ; 09/10 we drew 2-2 away, but lost 2-1 at home (Bobby Grant scoring the goal ); this season we’ve been to the Potteries twice already, losing 2-0 in the League and 1-0 in the Cup; Bobby, by the way, hasn’t scored for the Iron yet in 4 starts and 20 sub appearances, although he did get 2 in 6 games on loan at Rochdale ………..

Their away League form is P18 W6 D6 L6 F22 A20; it’s not without relevance, perhaps, that those 6 wins include their first 4 away matches of the season; overall, P35 W15 D10 L10 F42 A35 for 7th place and 55 points, one behind the three teams above them (Rotherham, Shrewsbury and Gillingham) with a game in hand on the Millers and the Shrews, and two in hand on Gillingham. 42 League goals in 35 games, and 15 more in 8 Cup matches (with 15 conceded as well); 57 goals in all matches; main scorers are Marc Richards (who played, earlier in his career, 2 games for Blackburn, and 5 games for each of Crewe, Oldham and Rochdale) on 18 goals in 33; unrelated strike partner Justin Richards, who signed from Cheltenham last summer, with 11; defender John McCombe (who played for Huddersfield for 4 years and made just 12 starts and 4 sub appearances) with 5; Louis Dodds (ex Leicester City) and midfielder Sean Rigg (ex Bristol Rovers), both with 4; four players have 2 each, and 5 more have a single strike to their names.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 19th March. Win, place or show? We’ve scored more at home than they have away, and you sort of sense unrest in the camp (Geoff Horsfield, the Assistant Manager, is seemingly well-liked by the players); is this going to be Wynonie’s 8-2? Could happen, he keeps telling me …. Yeah, right!

Good luck to everyone – and thanks for playing!

[mab]

Accrington Stanley 2 - 1 Port Vale Please for me

[theresonlyoneaccy]

1-0 to the Stanley please

[Div3North]

Cashman has this one as a 1-1 draw. From Spain .........

[Redash]

3-1 to The Stanley, please.

[jaysay]

1-1 for me please

[Outback Ozzy]

I think a 2-1 win for Stanley please

[david1]

Stanley 1 - 2 Port Vale please .

[Shurm]

2-0 to Stanley

[teach]

1-1 for me please.

[ukcowboy]

1-0 Stanley please.

[WOLVERHAMPTON REDS]

2-2 ...........thanks

[LongLostSon]

I'll join the 1 - 1 brigade for this one

[Wynonie Harris]

This is it! This is the division 2 match of the season, the one they'll be talking about for years to come! A headline grabbing, jaw dropping, record book making 9-3 win to the mighty Stanley!

[norwich stanley]

1-1 for me please