2012 Prediction League; Game 37 v Fleetwood Town (home)

Div3North · 11-03-2013, 00:19

Accrington Stanley

V

Fleetwood Town

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 37; v Fleetwood (home)

At the business end of any season it becomes not just a question of who’s picking up scraps from the table; it becomes a question of who’s in free-fall; who are this season’s Macclesfield?

If you take the last five games, Barnet have taken 10 points out of a possible 15, Aldershot (who actually haven’t lost in their last 6

) have taken 9/15, Wimbledon have 8, we’ve taken 5

, Plymouth 4, York (who haven’t won in 10

) took 2, and Torquay (8 lost of their last 9

) took 1; not many weeks ago, Torquay were a comfortable 13th – 37 points from 27 games, and York had 37 from 29 (16th); now Torquay have 38 from 36, and York have 40 from 37 ………. I’d rather be us than them

………………. OK, it’s very worrying, but we’re not hurtling down the table at this point …………and we still have to play Barnet, Wimbledon, York and Bristol Rovers – all games we can win – as well as having the chance of taking something from our other six games (6 of our last 10 being at home)

While we’re doing the maths; Fleetwood have taken just two points from their last five games; two draws – both at home (1-1 against Cheltenham and 0-0 against Exeter) – and three defeats (0-4 against visitors Burton, and losses on the road at Aldershot (2-0) and Wycombe (1-0); and if you look carefully, there’s another favorable stat from our point of view; they’ve only scored one goal in 450 minutes of football

………………. Now 9th, 7 points off the playoffs, they’ve got 52 points, and head Oxford by goal difference (+4 to -5); their overall record of 13 wins, 13 draws and 10 defeats (43 scored, 39 conceded) breaks down into a home record of 6 – 8 – 5 (for 22, ats 23) and an away record of 7 – 5 – 5 (21 for, 16 conceded) …………..half a season ago, after their first 18 League games (you’ll remember, where they were one of the Bookies’ favourites to go up) they were 4th, with 31 points; since then – starting with our 3-1 win at Highbury – they’ve won 5, drawn 6 and lost 7.

Their first foray into the Cups didn’t result in much; out of the Capon Cup 1-0 at home to Notts Forest, they left the Tinpot in Round One as well (4-2 on pens at Rochdale after a 2-2 draw), and their only Cup win all season was against Bromley in Round 1 of the FA Cup (3-0, at home) before they lost in Round 2, 2-3 at home to Aldershot – a defeat which cost Micky Mellon his job as manager, despite them lying in the playoff spots at the time ………….

In came ex Scunthorpe, Luton, PNE and Burnley defender Graham Alexander – only the second outfield player to make over 1000 professional appearances (the first being Rochdale’s Tony Ford – “He’s big, he’s bad, he’s older than me Dad, Tony Ford, Tony Ford” ….). He visited the transfer market a few times, bringing in ex PNE team-mates Paul McKenna (35, a MF now with Hull) on loan, and GK David Lucas (also 35) who was at Deepdale for 5 years, who signed up from Birmingham as GK coach and back-up keeper, plus (on loan) Blackburn CB Ryan Edwards (19), who played 29 times for Rochdale during a loan spell there earlier in the season; Rotherham winger Gareth Evans (24) signed up; Serbian-born ethnic Hungarian Canadian u21 international

MF Mozesh (“Mozzi”) Gyorio (23), arrived via FC Tampa Bay; and 22 year-old Jamille Matt, a striker from Kidderminster Harriers, was signed for a six-figure fee

(which certainly exceeded the £150,000 Fleetwood paid FC Halifax for Jamie Vardy (now of Leicester) in 2011, being described as “the highest fee ever paid” by Fleetwood); Matt scored 8 in 8 for the Harriers, having seemingly been unable to play between February and November last year because of “issues” over his work permit.

Out recently on loan to Hyde Utd in the BSP went ex skipper and MF Jamie Milligan (33), who’s been with Fleetwood since 2006, but only played 11 times this season, 8 of those coming from the bench ………….. On the subject of skippers, did you notice that Rob Atkinson (now the Fleetwood Captain) was an unused sub in their last two games? So much for ‘regular starter’ and Captain ……….

Our League form against them is impeccable; played one, won one

(3-1, you’ll recall, our goals coming from James Beattie from the spot, George Miller and Rommy Boco) …………….. and long may it continue!

Their games aren’t without incident; they’ve won 4-0 at Morecambe, 4-1 at home against Aldershot, and 3-0 at home against both Oxford and Plymouth; they’ve also lost 3-0 at home to Bristol Rovers, 4-0 at home to Burton, and 5-2 at home to Port Vale …………….

interestingly, they've failed to score on new fewer than 13 (yes, thirteen) occasions in the League so far

. In all, they’ve hit the target 50 times in 40 games; leading scorers are ex Crewe and Northwich MF Junior Brown (23) with 11, striker Jon Parkin (31), who’s played for PNE, Cardiff, Doncaster, Stoke, Scunthorpe, York, Macclesfield and Hull (plus various others), with 9, and fellow striker David Ball (23) – Swindon, Posh and Rochdale - with 7; for those who want to know, Andy Mangan is back in training after his injury, but not – as it appears – ready to play yet ……….

They can, by the way, do us a big favour in their remaining games, since they go to Plymouth on Saturday, Barnet next Tuesday, and Wimbledon on the last day of the season ……………………..

Deadline is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 12th March. Two points and one goal in their last five outings

……….the second half of their season much less productive than the first

…………and no real likelihood of the playoffs

……………against our need to put together a run and get clear of the relegation dogfight ……………… This is winnable ………… !

Good luck to everyone

…………… Keep the Faith! ……….….

and thanks for playing!