[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

v

AFC Wimbledon

2020/21 Prediction League Game 41; v The Wimbles of Wombledon

George Henry Thomson will, I hope, forgive me if I describe him as a journeyman footballer; now 28, he's graced the pitches of Hinckley, Histon, King's Lynn, Chester, FC United of Manchester and, currently, Harrogate Town ........ He helped them gain their place in the Top Bananarama in 2017/18, and scored the first of their three goals when they Did It Unto Notts County in last year's playoff final to progress to Ligue Deux ..... but aside from those two claims to fame, he's recently acquired a place in history which he will never lose; Starter for Ten - what was it?

And which League One side appointed a new manager on 22nd February 2021, and since then have won 3, drawn one, and lost eight (including their last five straight, before they beat Donnie 2-1 on Easter Monday), having over the season won 10, drawn 7, and lost 23 - losses column only beaten by Swindon on 24; said team are currently 21st, level on points with 20th placed Swindon but having played a game more, level on GD but back on goals scored .......... said new manager said of (it has been inferred) his two immediate predecessors this season;

“Whatever has gone before me has been negligent. If they were doctors, they should certainly be struck off for what’s gone on here before, but we can’t do anything about that. At some point those coaches will probably want to take me to task on that and I’ll have absolutely no issue in showing them exactly what they got wrong and where they got it wrong, and they’ll be better coaches for it, so if they want to get on the phone and have a conversation with me, no problem at all. But the job that’s been done before we got here is negligent and they’ve set these boys up for failure and we’ve got to try to reverse that trend.”

Not sure that 10 points from a possible 36 makes him the Messiah; does it, Mr Barton?

And did you know that there was once a League game of three halves? Played in 1894, it was between Sunderland and Derby County..... The match kicked off with someone standing in as a "substitute referee", as the original referee was late; they played 45 minutes; then the original referee turned up and promptly ordered a full 90 minutes to be played. Sunderland won 11-0 ....There's a moral there somewhere, but I haven't worked out what it is yet .......

And spare a bit of sympathy for Adrián Jesús Bastia Beruzzi, an Argentinian/Italian footballer; it was 1-1 in a game between Panathinaikos and Astreas Tripolis in 2008; Bastia had scored Astreas's goal, and the home fans were getting very disgruntled, so started to run riot .....one evaded the Police cordon and invaded the pitch in protest ..... as he ran past, Bastia stuck out a leg and tripped him up, allowing the Police to catch and remove him. Did he get a word of thanks? No, he got a red card for violent conduct........

Rule 12.34 of the FIFA manual for referees:

"It is violent conduct when a player (or substitute) is guilty of aggression towards an opponent (when they are not contesting for the ball) or towards any other person (a teammate, the referee, an assistant referee, a spectator, etc.). The ball can be in or out of play. The aggression can occur either on or off the field of play."

Bit harsh, though? Home fan invades pitch, away player sent off for helping to detain him?

Streakers at sports grounds (not that the Greek bloke was one) always put me in mind of Erika Roe (and her less well endowed friend Sarah Bennett), who streaked at half time during an England/Australia Rugger game at Twickers in 1982 ..... Erika was reputed to have a 40" Front Row, although they did by all accounts collapse the scrum quite a bit ... scrum half Steve Smith told England skipper Bill Beaumont - whose half time team talk wasn't getting full attention from the lads - "There's some bloke on the pitch running around with your arse on his chest", and Roe's déshabillé arrival on the pitch was greeted with huge cheers, and captured for all to see on BBC television. Cue Bill McLaren - simply one of the best commentators ever - who gently said, "I'm not sure which side this lad's playing for....."

Later, Erika moved to Portugal with her husband, where they set up an organic sweet potato farm ........... you might have hoped for melons, I suppose, but it was probably too much to ask ........ Happy Days!

We went to Loftus Road (Plough Lane wasn't quite finished) on 3rd October 2020, went one down on 18, and won it 2-1 with goals from Big Ross (a season-singleton, but a goodie) and Matt Butcher (one of the two he's scored) ... last season we half-Desmonded (it's a verb, if you didn't know - "I half-Desmond, You half-Desmond, He/She/It half-Desmonds") chez eux (in Norbiton - don't they get around?) with a goal from the Bishop of Wham, and then we 2-1'd them at ours (Clark on 14 and Dion on 21) .... they ended Covid season 2019/20 in 20th, with a PPG figure of 1.00 (35 points from 35 games) - 0.06 above relegated Transylvania (32 from 34) ...... Only one player has tunnelled out since we last met (forward Adam Roscrow, to The New Saints), while three have ProperSigned - CB Ben Heneghan from the Blades and Dutch striker Shayon Harrison from Almere City (both for nowt), and Corie Andrews, an English striker from Kingstonian, who cost £MYOB ....

Almere City, by the way, play in the Eerste Divisie in Dutchland - which, oddly, is Div 2 - and their nickname is "The Black Sheep"; they can trace their history back to 1976, with the merger of Amsterdamsche Football Club Door Wilskracht Sterk (which translates as "Amsterdam Football Club Strong Through Willpower", and a very stupid name it is too!), AVV De Volewijckers, and Blauw-Wit, to form FC Amsterdam. Disgruntled DWS supporters founded their own club, De Zwarte Schapen (The Black Sheep). City quickly rose through the ranks of Dutch amateur football, eventually reaching the Hoofdklasse. After several violent incidents on the pitch and a six-month suspension by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the club moved from Amsterdam to nearby Almere and changed its name to Sporting Flevoland, and then again in 2001 to FC Omniworld, to reflect its desire for World Domination

Los Wombles are, yet again, flirting with the trapdoor; 22nd, with a home record of W4 D4 L10 GF19 GA31 and an away record of W4 D8 L8 GF17 GA30, for an overall P38 W8 D12 L18 GF36 GA61 (worse GD then everyone's except Wigan's -27) .... Rochdale are bottom (33 from 38), Wigan next (35/39), Wombles (36/38), Brizzle (37/40), Swindon 37/39) and The Cobblers (39/40) there's a gap then to the peloton, propped up by Burton (45/38), with the Pointy-Nosed Furry Things on 49 from 37 ... Uncle Bulgaria's last 8 games are Us (A), Ipswich, Swindon and Oxford (all H), Ipswich (A), Rochdale and Pompey (H), and Lincoln (A) and they've won 1, drawn 5 and lost 4 of their last 10 ........... 5 still to play at home, three away, and you'd think they'd want to win at home to Swindon and Rochdale for absolute bankers ... looks like nowt for them on the road (I hope) ... they've been managed by Mark Robinson since 30th January, with a tally of 14 points from his 14 games.

For the record, AFC Wimbledon is the first (and so far the only) team formed in the 21st Century to make it into the EFL; they were promoted from the Combined Counties League Premier Division (Tier 9) to League Two (Tier 4) in their first nine seasons, hold the record for the longest unbeaten run of league matches in English senior football, having played 78 consecutive league games without a defeat between February 2003 and December 2004, and had but four managers in their first ten years, who together managed for 540 games, of which they won 319 (none of those four had a win-percentage lower than 49.26%, and Nicky English won 19 of his 21 games (90.48%))

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 10th April ......... a bit of confidence is a Good Thing (ask Winnie the Pooh about Good Things), so we could be on for summat here, mayhap ... and Journeyman Thomson was the first, and only, player shown a Yellow Card by Rebecca Welch when she refereed Harrogate v Port Vertigo on Easter Monday - so that's his everlasting Claim to Fame ..... ProperBooked by a Lady Ref!

Good luck to everyone! .......... Stay safe and keep well! ............ And thanks for playing!