Prediction League Game 44; Shrewsbury (away)

[Div3North]

Shrewsbury Town

V

Accrington Stanley

Prediction League – Game 44; v Shrewsbury (away)

Some activity in and after the transfer window; midfielder Steve Leslie went out on loan to the Bulls, defender Dean Holden’s contract was ended by mutual consent, 16 year-old Youth team keeper Mason Springthorpe went to Everton for £125,000 (you'd need to be inventive to make up a song about him! ) and Jake Robinson went on loan to Torquay as part of the deal that took midfielder Nicky Wroe the opposite way; manager Graham Turner may have regretted not putting in a clause barring Robinson from playing against his parent club, because he was instrumental in Torquay inflicting the heaviest defeat of the season on the Shrews, scoring two in three second half minutes as Torquay did them 5-0 at Plainmoor. Various loan signings, none of whom have yet broken any pots; 19 year old Wolves midfielder David Davis signed (having previously been out on loan at Walsall and Darlington), Wigan’s England u19 keeper Lee Nicholls joined to replace Hakan Duyan (who’s actually English, it seems) who went to some Turkish side with an unpronounceable name (but aren't they all ), West Brom defender Paul Downing, also 19, came in, and most recently defender Niall Canavan (aged – you’ve guessed it! – 19) joined from the Iron.

It’s been in some respects an odd season for them; in December and January they played 9 games, drawing 4, losing 4 and winning just one – at Fortress Crown (when it was more of a ruin than a Fortress ); Terry Gornell gave us a lead very early in the second half, but two from Collins and one from Wright left us on the wrong end of a 3-1 defeat. Despite that run, they stayed in the top 4, where they still are, with an overall record of P42 W19 D12 L11 F66 A49 for 69 points and 4th place, 4 points ahead of Torquay, Stevenage, Gillingham and the Stanley . Their home record, worryingly, is W10 D8 L3 F33 A18 ……….

They’ve won 4 of their last 5; away wins by 2-1 at Bradford and 3-1 at Rotherham, and home wins by 4-1 against Macclesfield and a paltry 2-0 against Stockport; their one reverse in that spell was a 3-0 loss at Aldershot. All that said, they don’t score huge amounts of goals; they’ve had one five goal haul (a 5-1 win at Lincoln), but also a 5-0 defeat by Torquay; they’ve managed 4 in a game four times (two of them last August), but have failed to score twelve times, and got just the one goal in fourteen games, meaning one or less in 26 of their 47 games this season so far.

Those 47 League and Cup games have yielded, in all, 72 goals – 1.5 per game on average – the same as us (we’ve got 74 in our 47 to date ); leading scorers are 29 year old ex Walsall, M K Dons and Bristol Rovers midfielder Mark Wright with 12, the departed (on loan) striker Jake Robinson, with 9 (plus another 7 for Torquay – two fewer than Billy Kee has), the same total as ex Wycombe striker Matt Harold, and one more than midfielder Lionel Ainsworth, who – although only 23, and only having made his debut in the 2005/6 season – is at his 10th club.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Easter Monday, 25th April. Another draw? 10-1? 7-2? Lots of each way bets for our game this Saturday against Bradford are putting 50p on a 4 or 5 goal win; let’s see who forecasts 10-1 away at Shrewsbury? Squeaky win? Bore draw? Spectacular hammering (either way)? Who’d like to put their money where their mouth is?

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

[Redash]

3-1 to The Stanley, please chaps.

[K.S.H]

2-0 for Stanley

[cashman]

1-1 fer me.

[deeayess]

2 1 Stanley again please

[norwich stanley]

1-1 for me please

[jaysay]

2-1 to Stanley please

[Leylandii]

Shrewsbury 1 Accrington Stanley 2, please

[teach]

2-2 for me please

[LongLostSon]

2 apiece

[cmonstanley]

2-2 please

[Outback Ozzy]

Sorry chaps and chapesses, I think this is the one match we lose (and I certainly don't hope so) so for me it is Salop 2 - Stanley 1 and hope for the reverse really

[dabeast]

0-0 draw and I will be more than happy with that............providing we beat bratford!

[Wynonie Harris]

6-1 to the Stanley.

Doom merchants...who needs 'em?

[david1]

1-1 for me please