2017/18 Prediction League; Game 20 v Exeter City FC (away)

[Div3North]

Exeter City

V

Accrington Stanley

2017/18 Prediction League; Game 20 v Exeter (away)

When you’ve had a Bad Day at the Office, what you most want is for your Boss to put his arm round your shoulder and to say, “Don’t let it get to you – it’ll be different tomorrow”. What Exeter got from Paul ‘Longevity’ Tisdale, describing their performance as “the worst he’s seen for many years” after Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat at Crawley, was;

• "I haven't seen us play that poorly for a long time," Tisdale told BBC Devon. "We didn't play well enough, it's not one thing, the whole performance was lacking on our part and it's something you have to draw a line under."

Way to go, Paul ………………..

That said, though, both Exeter and Wycombe are on the Dunces’ Step this week, having each managed just four points in their last five games (W1 D1 L3) – alongside Lincoln and Barnet; Barnet hit two in the final three minutes of Tuesday’s game at Newport to turn 0-1 into 2-1, no doubt cheering up new Manager (who’s about their 19th in twelve months, or something) Mark McGhee , who I thought had retired years back, but apparently he was at Moitherwell until February, and with Gordon Strachan at Scotland until October …….)…….. He replaced Rossi Eames, known to everyone outside Barnet as “Who?”, for a short time holder of the title of the Youngest Manager in the Top Four Tiers; how transient is fame ……….. Not that they’re the Dunciest Dunces, those teams – that’s a role presently reserved for Stevenage (2 points), and Crewe and Newport (3 points each) ………..Form sides, by the way, are The Stanley, 7th-placed Mansfield and 9th-placed Colchester, each with 11 points from 5, followed by Vegan Greengage Untied with 10 ………. So; this week’s starter for ten; how many League Two sides currently have a GD of +10 or more, and who are they?

Despite only winning two of their first 8 (and losing the rest) they eventually finished last season in 5th (P46 W21 D8 L17 GF75 GA56 Pts71); they did Carlisle over two legs – or perhaps that should be on two legs?) – in the Play-off Semis, and then stupidly lost 2-1 to Blackpool in the Final ……….. On the way they played us twice, naturally enough, winning 2-1 at Our Place in August (our goal scored by Arron Davies, who played for the Grecians between 2012 and 2016), but we got our own back in March, goals from Shay McBratfud and Matty McBarnsley giving us a 2-0 win at St James’s Palace in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip (ok, I made that bit up!)

Quite a few left over the summer; GK Bobby Olejnik joining That Nice Mr Evans and Mansfuddled, strikers Joel Grant, Ollie Watkins and Jamie Reid joining Plymouth, Brentford and Torquay respectively, MF Ethan Ampadu going to Stamford Bridge and his mate David Wheeler signing for QPR; Matt Oakley retired and is now Assistant Manager, one went to Truro, CM Tom McCready joined AFC Fylde (who had a second game postponed (well, the other technically was abandoned) last night owing to a waterlogged pitch, and I think – and I’m not alone – that that’s a DISGRACE!) ……and finally CF Ryan Swan left for Cumann Peile Cábán (Cabinteely FC); they’re a County Dublin side who’re now in the League of Ireland First Division, and apparently have 60+ teams and 820-some members, so he should get a game at least …………….. it might be with the Girls u12s, but – hey – a footie game is a footie game

They only ProperSigned five (and loan-signed two from the Baggies) ……….. The best known of those would have to be ex Stanley loanee Jayden Stockley (if we’d still had him, we could have had a front-two of Jayden and Kayden!) who joined from Aberdeen, and Bolton LB Dean Moxey (I think I once had a course of penicillin named after him) ……… Crystal Palace provided CB Luke Croll and DM Hiram Boateng, and CF Ryan Brunt (Plymouth, BrizzleRov) signed from Free Agent

Their season to date has been – erm, well – “mixed”; home, it’s W6 L3 (Notts County, Luton and Portly Vale) ……..overall it’s P19 W10 D3 L6 GF 26 GA22 and 4th on 30 points (they can’t catch us if we lose, but we can open up a seven-point gap on them if we win) ………. they’ve lost 5 of their last 10 and three of their last five; they lose games in pairs, and last night’s defeat was the second in the present run! After 8 games they were top (7-1-0) with 22 points, so 11 from their next 11 isn’t thrilling, and relegation beckons – ok, it’s not quite that bad. Yet. ……………….. Leading scorers are Reuben Reid with 7, JaydenKayden with 6 and Liam McAlinden and Jake Taylor, each with four

On 10 September 1904, Exeter City played its first ever competitive match, a 2–1 victory at St James over 110th Battery of the Royal Artillery, in the East Devon League; four years later they were elected to the Southern League (having turned professional), and they replaced Spurs (!) ........... that same season (on 3 October 1908) they got their record highest FA Cup win - Exeter City 14–0 against Weymouth; James ("Daisy") Bell scored six of their goals, by half time they were 10-0 up - and still waiting for him to give them his answer (do) .............. they were later to become founder members of the Third Division in 1920 ............. In 2003 they lost their League status, winning it back in 2008; their best-ever League finish (1932/33) was 2nd in the old Div 3 South (equivalent, of course, to League One) – but that was the days of Div 3 North and Div 3 South, and only one from each went up ..............life’s a bitch!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 25th November. It’s difficult to get over the thought of how nice a seven point gap would be, don’t you think? Especially if Swindon, Coventry, Mansfield, Wycombe and Colchester would all be kind enough to lose as well ..................... well, you couldn’t say it couldn’t happen ........oh, and by the way, the three teams with +10 or better GDs are Luton (+29), Notts Co (+14) and us (+12) ................ and for those who are interested, Exeter go to VGU in Round Two of the FA Cup, having summarily dismissed Heybridge Swifts 3-1 in Round One, lost any further interest in the EFL Cup following a 2-1 home defeat by Charlton in Round One, and bottomed (opposite of “topped”) their group in the EFLTroffy, with defeats so far by Yeovil (3-1) and on pens (5-3) after a full-time Desmond against Plymouth; they’ve got Chelsea u9s to play, but can’t qualify (apparently) .......... not that we really care that much, probably .........

Good luck to everyone! .............. Keep the Faith! .................. And thanks for playing!

[cashman]

2-0 Stanley

[Wynonie Harris]

3-1 to the Stanley please.

[Chrisr]

3-2 to Stanley, another tough game

[ossy kid]

Stanley 1 - 0 please

[monkey hanger]

1 all draw

[AccyMad]

I feel I let the boys down on Tuesday by only predicting a draw at home (just shows how much I know!) so here goes . . . . . . . 3 - 1 to Stanley please

[MikeA]

1-1 please

[Lord Stiffupperlip]

2-2 please

[accybeme]

2-1 to Exeter

[Outback Ozzy]

Stanley like playing at St James park, so I'll go with another close 1-0 win for Stanley please

[Tom D]

2-1 win for Stanley please

[DaveinGermany]

3-1 to the Stanley please D3N.

[andyd]

Exeter 1-2 Stanley.

[Div3North]

Stanley 4-0

Live the dream!