2012 Prediction League; Game 27 v Dagenham & Redbridge FC (home)

Div3North · 03-01-2013, 00:06

Accrington Stanley

V

Dagenham and Redbridge FC

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 27; v Dagenham and Redbridge (home)

How many of you – like me – remember the romantic days when footie was played on Saturday afternoons

, and when the likes of (Sir) Tom Finney , and many others like him, got on the bus with their dubbin-ed boots in their knapsack

and their soap in their pocket

, and travelled to t'match in company wi' the fans?

Well, times is hard for many clubs down at the basement end of the League without – how shall I put this? – a pot to pee in

, and no-one more than the Daggers; and as my old mother used to say, “needs must when the devil drives”, so in true Corinthian – nay, Churchillian – spirit, players and staff of Dagenham and Redbridge First XI set out to save some pennies when they met York (away) in mid-October

…………..No luxury coaches or pampered fancy-dan air-travel for them

; oh no ……. The physio drove the kit up in the van the night before the game

, and the lads caught the morning train

(“stopping at Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Rugby, change at Birmingham New Street ………”), and after a two hour trip through the rolling greenswards of Olde England they departed their carriages for a pleasant ¾ mile stroll through Fair York to the Football Ground, where they took on their jovial hosts in firm but fair contest …………….Bingo! Result? £1300.00 saved ………..

And did the Dagenham Corinthians get their just reward for such selfless fiduciary endeavours? Did they hellers-like ……….. they lost 3-2!

The Daggers, like many clubs, survive in no small measure on selling on players they’ve found/developed; Craig Mackail-Smith, Paul Benson and Solomon Taiwo were all theirs, and put about £750,000.00 in the coffers when they left; and they’ve done it again, as you may have seen ………. In July 2011 they signed Dwight Devon Boyd Gayle from Stansted FC (you have to duck when the planes come in to land!

) where he’d hit 57 goals in the season just ended; they were strapped for cash, were the Daggers, and couldn’t afford to keep him, so they loaned him out to Bishops Stortford in the BSB North, where he scored 42 more in the year 2011/12. Then he came back to the Daggers, played 20 games in the First team, went out on loan in November to the Posh, got 5 in 6, and has just signed for an initial fee of £500,000 ………… which might go up by another £250,000. It’s a lot less work than a Cup run ……………

They haven’t done much in the markets ………….the only new moves are the loan signings of attacking midfielder Josh Wakefield (18) from Bournemouth and Blackpool’s ex Palace RB Jake Caprice (19); outside of that – and the sale of 22 year-old striker Gayle – it’s “as you were”.

Their Cup runs have matched ours, more or less; they went out of the Capricorn One Cup 1-0 at home to Coventry (now undergoing a real resurgence); they left the FA Cup with equal rapidity, losing 4-0 at Bournemouth in Round 1 (perhaps that’s why the Cherries lent them Josh Wakefield, as a sort of “sorry” present); in the Paintball Cup they did manage to beat Stevenage 3-2, before going out in the next round 2-0 at Southend ………P4 W1 L3 F3 A9 ………….and not a lot of money earned ………..

We drew 1-1 at their place on 15th September (our goal by Peter Murphy ); we had 56% of the possession (they had 29%, the rest going in VAT

); they had 19 shots, 7 on target

; we had 9 shots, 2 on target

; they went home singing “we wuzz robbed!”

Since then they’ve been on something of a run; the 19 games in the League since that draw have resulted in 8 wins, 4 draws and 7 defeats – and since 3 of those losses have been in their last 3 games, you can see why they’d got themselves up to the dizzy heights of 12th by the close of play on 15th December, three points off the playoff places ………… At home, over the season to date, they’re at P13 W5 D4 L4 F19 A14; away, not so good – P12 W3 D3 L6 F18 A24; overall, P25 W8 D7 L10 F37 A38 for 31 points and 16th place, one ahead of us. Their games usually have goals; wins by 3-2 over Stevenage, by the same score at Oxford, and by 3-0 over Wycombe, and a 4-3 home success against Bradford, were trumped by their 5-0 demolition of that nice Mr Evans’s Rotherham

………on the down side, apart from the 4-0 at Bournemouth in the Cup, they’ve conceded 3 goals no less than six times

– defeats at home by Vale (3-2) and Southend (3-0), and away by 3-1 at both Northampton and Southend and by 3-2 at York and Burton. The worse news from their point of view is that from the Christmas/New Year games (26th, 29th Dec and 1st Jan) they got nul points

, scored three

and conceded 9

– three in each game; that two of the games were at home didn’t make it any better ………and suddenly they’re back in the room marked “struggling” on the door.

Leading scorers are striker Sam Williams (25), who started out at Villa, and by various loan moves ended up at Yeovil, from whom he signed for D & R (who has 8), the departed Dwight Gayle has 7 (and he’s been removed from their list of goalscorers, too ……see the last game thread

); ex MK Dons and Lincoln MF Luke Howell (25 – it’s his birthday on the day of the game!

) has 6; Michael Spillane (23) – Jersey born, Republic of Ireland u21 international, defender or MF, who arrived via Norwich (Hello Delia!

) and Brentford (Hello Uwe!

) – has 5; defender Luke Wilkinson (21), who only made his debut against the Wombles on 1st September, has 4; and three others have two each, and three more have one each; 39 goals in 29 games.

Our “head to head” (not to be confused, Mr Rachubka, with a headbutt ) shows that we’ve won 3, drawn 3 and lost 3; two of the losses came in 2009/10, when they went up to League 1 (but didn’t like the view, so they came back down); two of the draws (0-0 both times) were in 2008/9; two of the wins (3-1 at home and 1-0 away) were in 2007/8; last season we lost 2-1 chez eux (Bobby Grant putting us ahead, only for 2 in the last 5 to cost us the game), but we won the home fixture 3-0 (Lindfield on 57 and Podge on 82 and 83) …………We’re ahead on goals scored (10 against their 8), but it’s not a good return over 9 matches when you consider that we’ve scored 3 twice, 1 four times and nil thee times; the two 3s, and two of the ‘nils’ have been at home ……….feast or famine!

As always, the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 5th January. We surely have to start favourites here? Hands up if you’re a touch fed up of reports that say “we were the better side but we couldn’t score ……” or some such; say after me, “Ball. Net. In. Stick” We got the win we wanted against Hissing Sid , they’re on a bad run; our next three games are all very winnable, and where would we be then?

Keep the Faith!

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