2013 Prediction League; Game 23 v Southend United (home)

Div3North · 27-12-2013, 22:08

Accrington Stanley

V

Southend Utd

2013/14 Prediction League – Game 23; v Southend (home)

Whisper it very quietly, but since Southend were relegated to League Two at the end of 2009/10, we’ve actually got a winning record against them

……… Indeed (and this is the good bit) we’ve only lost once in the six games played

– at home in 2011/12, when Proccie (whatever happened to him?

) scored the goal in a 2-1 defeat; we’ve won twice – 3-1 at home in 2010/11 (Craney, Gornall, and Sunbeds with a penalty) and 1-0 away last season (Karl Sheppard, on loan from Reading, scoring) ……..The other three games have been drawn – one each away in 10/11 (Jimmy Ryan), 2 each away in 11/12 (Devitt and Amond), and 1-1 at home last season – our goal coming from James Gray, the only current player to have hit the net against them for us ……… P6 W2 D3 L1 F9 A7 ………..I think we’d take that, wouldn’t we?

They were founded in 1906, and made it into the Football League in 1920; they’ve spent, in that time, seven seasons in the second tier; the rest have been in the lower Leagues; they play at Roots Hall, and Phil Brown is the current manager …………..well-known former incumbents have included the one and only Barry Fry , Bob Jack and David, his son, Arthur Rowley and Bobby Moore , and – remember him? – ex Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan

, who played all but 500 games for the Reds and then went to Roots Hall as Player-Manager and stayed as manager (95 to 97), before he went to Panionios (who got to the Quarter-Finals of the Cup Winners’ Cup), then on to Olympiakos Nicosia

…………. “Hall of Fame” players include Harold Halse, who scored 91 goals in 65 games

in their first season before being sold – for the maximum fee then allowed (£350) - to Man U; one Jimmy Shankly, of whose brother you may vaguely have heard

, who got 100 goals in 147 games but apparently never the devotion of the fans; David Jack (see above), who played for Bolton, Arsenal and England, and scored the first goal in the 1923 “White Horse” FA Cup Final

; Peter Taylor (Gillingham Manager); Stan Collymore; and Freddy Kruger (sorry, Eastwood

) who made his debut in Oct 2004, scored after 7.7 seconds

(still a record), and finished that game with a hat trick against the then League-leading Swansea in a 4-2 win ……………Eastwood was previously with Southend until signing for Wolves in 2007 for £1.5 million, then went to Coventry between 2008 and 12, before re-joining the Shrimpers

They seem to have several nicknames; “The Blues” (original or what!

), The Seasiders (thought that was Blackpool?

) or “The Shrimpers”, courtesy of the local area’s “maritime industry”

……..on which basis Colchester should be “The Oysters”

and Norwich City – like Bernard Matthews's turkeys – “Norfolk an’ Good”

…….Which is sometimes a fair assessment !

Out, in the summer, went my Southend favourite, the anarchic CB Bilel Mohsni – Parisian born of Tunisian descent – who somehow finished up at Rangers (!?

); also off to pastures new went striker Gavin Tomlin (30) to Port Vale; fellow hit-man Elliot Benyon (25) went back to Torquay; Neil Harris – now 35 and another goalscorer – hung up his boots and other miscellaneous nick-nacks

; 6’4” CB Ryan Cresswell (once of Bury and Rotherham) joined Fleetwood; 24 year-old RB Michael Spillane (and I won’t do the joke again

) signed for Cambridge; and Sean Clohessy – a 27 year old RB, once of Gillingham (where I’m pleased to see that our mate You Fat Bastard

is banging them in again) and Salisbury – left for Foreign Parts (Kilmarnock

)

They signed half a dozen; American-born Irish striker Don Cowan (24) – ex Shamrock Rovers and Longford Town – signed for a month after leaving Dundee, but found his contract wasn’t extended, so he joined Stevenage; Craig Reid (another striker) arrived via Cheltenham. Newport and Stevenage from Aldershot; Walsall, Notts Forest and Shrewsbury LB Julian Bennett (29) signed from Sheff Wed; MF Will Atkinson, who has Hull and Bradford on his list, as well as 5 loans including Rochdale (twice), joined; and former Colchester LB John White (27) arrived after 9 years at Layer Road (and whatever the hell the new ground’s called

) and has been given the Captain’s armband; three loans, two central defenders – CBs Rob Kiernan (22) from Wigan, and Watford’s Adam Thompson (20) – and Fulham striker Cauley Woodrow (18) ……………and speaking of Fulham

……………..Pretty please can we have Marcus back? Thank you ……

They went out of the League Cup (CapiOne) 1-0 at home to Yeovil, who haven’t won many since then ………….The PaintBoxShield wasn’t a lot better – they lost 5-2 at home to the Daggers

; the FA Cup, though – that’s a different kettle of shrimps

; wins by 3-0 at Morecambe and 3-1 at Chesterfield have given them Millwall at home in Round 3 ………local derby (nearly) and winnable, maybe …. In the league their record is P22 W11 D4 L7 F27 A19 for 37 points and 6th place (on GD); if you look, there are 3 sides on 38, 3 on 37, and two – Fleetwood and Morecambe – on 35, all chasing Chesterfield at the top …………their last 10 games have resulted in 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, but their most recent four games have given them 3 goals for, three against, and 5 points

; 1-1 at home to both Cheltenham and Rochdale, a 1-0 defeat at Torquay, and on Thursday gone a 1-0 win at the Wombles.

For a team where they are, they don’t scored shoals

of goals ……… 27 in the League and 8 in the Cups; 35 in 27; they haven’t score in 3 League games, have managed one goal a dozen times, two six times, and three just once

; leading scorers are MF Kevan Hurst (Scunthorpe, Carlisle, Morecambe (loan) and Walsall), who has 8; Freddy Kruger has 5, as does Grenadian International MF/D Anthony Othneal Straker (25), who signed up in 2012 after 5 years and 196 games for Aldershot; Barry Corr and Cauley Woodrow have 4 each ……….. two others have two, and four more have one each ………..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 9th February. They’re definitely without Julian Bennett, out with a knee problem, and may be without Luke Prosser; that said, we go into this without two of our most influential players of the season, Kayode Odejayi and Marcus Bettinelli – both of whom, d.v., might be back

…………. It won’t be easy – but then, when did we ever do “easy”?

We played a decent game on Thursday, and can’t afford to throw away too many more home points, so here’s hoping for a Happy New Year, and that nothing fishy spoils Sunday’s game ……….

Good luck to everyone ……… ….Remember; passion overcomes logic……..….. Keep the Faith ……………… and thanks for playing!

And a very Happy New Year to you and yours, us and ours, and the Mighty Stanley and theirs!

Tom D · 27-12-2013, 22:26

1-0 to stanley please

Div3North · 27-12-2013, 22:34

That'll teach me to read again what I cut and paste; kick off isn't, of course, 3.00pm on 9th February .................But you knew that, didn't you?

Sunday 29th December at 3.00pm; unless it snows heavy or Accie floods ...........