2015/16 Prediction League; Game 15 v Dagenham and Redbridge (home)

Div3North · 23-10-2015, 00:12

Accrington Stanley

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Dagenham and Redbridge FC

2015/16 Prediction League; Game 15 v Dagenham and Redbridge

This week’s starter for 10 …….. what connects the Stanley and the Daggers during October 2015? Well, in the old days you might have thought “five defeats on the bounce”

, or “winding up petition”

, or all sorts of similar mishaps; but - if you want a clue – it could be something to do with being 3-2 up at home and blowing it

….. Yup, in the last three weeks we’ve both lost 4-3 at home after being 3-2 (or better) ahead

; we did it against the Wombles – who scored four away for the first time in four years, apparently

; the Daggers did it against Mansfield three weeks back, losing 4-3 from a 3-1 lead

………Daggers’ manager Wayne Burnett was phlegmatic and chilled about it afterwards (not!

), saying;

• "The goals were a joke. An absolute joke. Our players were not good enough. I could single out individuals, but collectively we've all been beat.”

That’s “beaten”, Wayne, by the way

……. English like what she is spoke …….

They rang the changes, of course, in the summer, but the one they didn’t ring relates to Old Father Time

(aka striker Jamie Cureton, who’s had more clubs than Tiger Woods and is now officially the oldest man in Britain

), who was given a new contract for this season and has scored a couple, although he was pretty crap on the Channel Five Football programme as a “pundit”

………Nine moved out in the close season, most of them to non-League (Billy Bingham went to Crewe, which is pretty much the same thing

, and Abu Agogo – wasn’t he on Strictly Come Dancing?

– went to the Shrews) ….otherwise it was 6’ 1” defender Scott Doe (who played for Newbury and District Schools alongside Theo Walcott, apparently – I bet he wasn’t 6’ 1” then!)) and MF Luke Howell (Gillingham, MK Dons and Lincoln) both to Boreham Wood, def Brian Ebo Saah – once of Leyton Orient, Cambridge and Torquay – who joined Woking, two others who went to Bromley and Chelmsford, and def Matt Partridge (21), who left for the Pear Trees

of Basingstoke, stayed for two games, and signed instead for Newport ……frying pan, fire, frying pan, fire …….

New Kids on the Block started with Jamaican international Nylons Nosworthy (ex Gillingham, Sheff Utd, Sunderland and Watford) from Blackpool, Fulham’s young defender Josh Passley, and MF Matt Richards (30), whose former employers include Ipswich, Walsall, Shrewsbury and Cheltenham, moved on with Wycombe striker Matt McClure (who managed to score and get sent off at our place a few years back

) and ex Southend and Posh MF Kane Ferdinand, and concluded (pro tem) with French-born defender Clevid Dikamona (25) (qui a joue il y a quelques ans pour Le Havre, Sedan, Frejus Saint Raphael et Vendee Poire-sur-Vie Football) …….Poire play in the CFA 2, the fifth division of football in France, which contains reserve sides of league clubs and amateur teams ……and you get four points for a win

, two for a draw

, and one for losing

(unless you have that taken off you for disciplinary reasons!). Finally, recently, they persuaded, cajoled or bribed Millwall’s Justin Hoyte (ex Arsenal, Sunderland and Middlesbrough), a 32-year old RB capped by Trinidad and Tobago, to Live the Dream ……….metaphorically speaking! The squad completes with 5 loans – three from QPR, one from Charlton and one from West Ham; well, it saves on travel expenses if nothing else ……and don’t forget that they have Joss “Bite Me” Labadie

on their books; I think his six-month ban for his second bite expired about a week ago ……you have been warned!

They went out of the Carling in Round 1, losing 4-1 at Charlton; in the PaintyThingy they won 2-0 at Cambridge and then 2-1 at Stevenage. Currently they’re 22nd in League Two; they’re the only team with just one League win

(by 2-1 at the Cobblers); Newport, Yeovil and York – unsurprisingly in 24th, 23rd and 21st places – have 2 each

; they and Mighty Morecambe have conceded more goals (26) than anyone else ; next worst is Carlisle with 25 in their net, but they’ve also put it in other peoples’ nets 25 times as well

; D&R have scored 16, to be above Yeovil on goals scored …..P14 W1 D6 L7 F16 A26 Pts9, and in a bit of a mess; draws by a Desmond at York and at Yeovil and 1-1 at Wycombe, and at home by 1-1 against Notts Co and Stevenage and 0-0 against Newport ….away form is one win, three draws and three losses; failed to score only three times, with only one League clean sheet, but only managed more than one goal six times in 17 games …..and for number-crunchers (Chimer!) their last eight League games have finished in a sequence going LDLDLDLD – on which basis we should be alright!

Leading scorer is the afore-mentioned Matt McClure with five, followed by strikers Jamie Zimmerframe , Ashley Chambers, Jodi Jones and MF Ashley Hemmings each of whom has three (haven’t they got a lot of players with unisex first names?

) …….Head to head favours them; W7 D4 L3. In fact, we haven’t beaten them since November 2011 (3-0), having drawn two and lost five of the last seven, including both last season’s games – 2-1 at home (saw that one – travesty!) and 4-0 away ……….Rubbish!

Interesting Dagenham facts; the Club Doctor is Dr Tahir, and the kit manager (that's the man with the instruction manual for the washing machine) is Gary Watson ………..and apart from one of their games against the Wombles having seemingly been targeted as a match-fix, that’s about it, really ……unless you want to know that their record loss in the Conference was 9-0 to Hereford, and that the existing side is formed by amalgamations of Redbridge Forest and Dagenham, and that Redbridge Forest was itself an amalgamation of Ilford, Leytonstone, and Walthamstow Avenue – proud names of the FA Amateur Cup and the Isthmian League, well known to the OFs of our little group ……

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 24th October..................it must, surely, be Our Turn

? Three defeats in four doesn’t have the happy ring of what we're getting used to with Stanley 15/16; I much preferred five wins out of six .............back to winning ways, methinks!

Yo ho ho, and don’t forget to put your clocks back!

Good luck to everyone!

.............. Keep the Faith!

................. and thanks for playing!