2015/16 Prediction League; Game 9 v Crawley Town FC (away)

Div3North · 24-09-2015, 23:18

Crawley Town

V

Accrington Stanley

2015/16 Prediction League - Game 9; v Crawley (away)

Wimbledon, you might or might not know, doesn’t have a University, although it does have a College of Arts which seems to be part of the University of London; Portsmouth, Oxford and Cambridge do have Universities. I mention this only because Crawley’s first four League games this season were against those four sides, and they did OK – drawing 0—0 v Portsmouth, 1-1 at Oxford, beating Cambridge away 3-0

(two of those goals being scored by the uniquely named Roarie Deacon

) and losing at home to the only University-less side, 1-2 against the Wombles

. At that point in time their record was P4 W1 D2 L1 F5 A3 for 5 points and 11th place ……then they played Wycombe at home, and got a good point in a goalless draw; 6 points from 5 games ……..and then the wheels fell off

; a 4-0 thrashing

at Mansfield (they were apparently lucky to get nil), a 1-0 home defeat by Mighty

Yeovil, and on Tuesday night another 4 conceded in a 4-1 defeat at Notts County

; so now they’re 23rd, P8 W1 D3 L4 F6 A12, still with 6 points ………they’ve only scored in two of their last 6 in the League

, and only once in eight have they scored more than a single goal

. To be fair, they’re only one point behind Yeovil and Barnet, and only in the relegation spots on goals scored, since they and the Daggers both have GDs of -6 …….The Red Devils’ problem is that they’ve only managed to score 6, whereas the Daggers have 7!

Sadly, the Cup competitions haven’t fared them much better; they’ve not played yet in the PaintyThingy, but they have in the Carling, losing 2-0 at the Posh …so make that just six goals and five blanks in nine games

……They’ve got Southend at home in the Johnstone’s on 6th October ..........

They were promoted to the Conference in 2004, having been founded in 1896, and became fully pro in 2005; they gained promotion to the Football League in 2010/11, winning the Conference and being accompanied up by Wimbledon; they were managed then by that nice Mr Evans, you may recall, and only stayed the one season in League Two, going up to League One in third place at the end of 2011/12 and achieving that prize with a 1-0 win chez nous at the beginning of May

. They were relegated again on the last day of last season, owing to a combination of being totally crap

, Colchester winning their final match

, and conceding a last minute winner at home to Coventry

, scored by James Maddison ……Mr Evans was long gone by then (he actually left a month before they won promotion at ours), being replaced by Sean O’Driscoll (ex Donnie), who moved on to Notts Forest so quickly that he wasn’t “in charge” for a single Crawley game

, then Richie Barker, John Gregory, Dean Saunders, and – since 19th May this year – Mark Yates, once a player with, and later manager of, both Kidderminster Harriers and Cheltenham Town (is it a coincidence that both went out of the League subsequently?). Yates’s comment on the loss at Meadow Lane on Tuesday was illuminating;

• "We decided to press the self destruct button and not deal with things and make poor clearances and all of a sudden, within a minute, we were 2-1 down”

Interesting game plan……………..!

Unless he was being ironic .................

Out, in the Summer, went the obligatory large number of players; nine (yes, nine

) midfielders, to name but one ..... or nine; Blair Anderson, Charles Banya, Marvin Elliott, Bradley Isaacs, Dean Morgan, Canadian-born Emmett O’Connor, Ryan Richfond, Josh Simpson and Kelly Youga ..........Josh Simpson went to Plymouth, the others – I think – to oblivion

; Danish GK “Big Beast”

Brian Palden Jensen (West Brom, Burnley and Bury) signed for Mansfield; Welsh defender Joe Walsh went to the MK Dons, and after Tuesday's home mauling by Southampton in the League Cup (0-6) might wish he hadn’t

; Dean Leacock and Ryan Dickson departed (Dickson went west – Yeovil); Ghanaian forward John Cofie (who only played once for Crawley) was released; and – most notable of the lot – Izale McLeod

(variously of Derby, MK Dons, Charlton, Barnet, Portsmouth, MK Dons again, and Crawley – for whom he scored 19 in 42 last year) went to Notts County for our old friend £undisclosed

, and promptly scored two more on Tuesday – against his immediately previous employers (ie Crawley)

..............In exchange they got a new GK in Callum Preston from Birmingham (or was it Callum Birmingham from Preston

); def John Ashton from Stevenage; MFs Simon Walton (also from Stevenage, as was Roarie Deacon (see above)); Luke Rooney joined from Ebbsfleet; FW Shamir Fenelon came from the Seagulls and has gone to the Whitehawks on loan; MF Ross Jenkins got the stopping train from Watford; ex-Southend striker Lee Barnard (31), who’s been around the Leagues since 2002 (but only made 33 appearances in six seasons prior to joining the Shrimpers) came on board; and finally Belgian defender Bryan van den Bogaert appeared over the horizon from Royal Antwerp. For the record, they’ve also LoanSigned Newcastle keeper Freddie Woodman, def Christian Scales from Palace, and Oldham’s Irish striker Rhys Murphy (so they have!

)

So ......what else is worth sharing? Well, their kit manager seems to be called Marco Quasimodo (no, honestly!); they won the Gilbert Rice Floodlit Cup twice (79/80 and 83/84); they’re also one of only three current FL teams never to have played at Wembley (there were four, but Walsall played there in the JPT Final last March (they lost!)), and this week’s starter for ten is, fairly obviously, “Name the other two?”

.......... Their crest contains the Latin tag “Noli cedere” – anyone? (it means “never give up”

); in 2012 they had their best-ever run in the FA Cup, beating Hull and Bristol City – then both Championship sides – before losing 2-0 to Stoke in Round 5; that same year they sold Matt Tubbs and Tyrone Barnett for just short of £2 million

. And the other two sides who’ve never played at Wembley are us, and Hartlepool Utd!

We played them four times in the Conference; in 2004/5 we won 4-0 at home

but lost 2-0 away; in 2005/6 we won 4-2 at home

and 1-0 away

; and in their one (“just passing through”) season in League Two (2011/12) we drew 1-1 away and lost the return (as above) 1-0. Since I only count League meetings since 2006, that’s pretty pants, really.

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00 pm on Saturday 26th September; winnable, this, if we don’t relax too much; they’ve got a crummy home record so far

; P4 D2 L2 GF1 GA 3 Pts 2 ..........0-0, 0-0,0-1 and 1-2

. Their leading goalscorer is MF Gwion Edwards with 3, followed by Roarie Storm (remember him?

) with 2, and on-loan Rhys Murphy with one on his debut .............Gwion, Roarie and Rhys? Whatever happened to manly

names like Tom, Harry and Dick?

What do you think, Wynonie? Val? Anybody? And on the subject of names, I used to know a bloke called Gerald Fitzgerald, who married a woman called Geraldine

.......Gerald and Geraldine Fitzgerald!

No, seriously ..............

Good luck to everyone!

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

......................Stanley for the Double!

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