2016/17 Prediction League; Game 12 v Cheltenham Town (home)

Div3North · 03-10-2016, 22:40

Accrington Stanley

V

Cheltenham Town

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 12 v Cheltenham (home)

‘Visit Cheltenham’, the official tourism website, describes Cheltenham as “the cultural centre of The Cotswolds”, the New York Times apparently called it “a town enjoying a cultural renaissance with many ‘happening spots’ (aka acne), and it’s the birthplace of Eddie the Eagle ................. I rest my case!

What a difference a new season makes; back at the end of April, having been relegated a twelve-month earlier, the Robins absolutely smashed the Conference, winning 30 and drawing 11 of their 46 League games, reaching 101 points, and taking the title by twelve points from – ironically – Forest Green Rovers, the only other ‘senior’ team in the County ..............now, five months on, they’re getting used to the taste of defeat and the shivers of concern again, with a record in their first eleven League games of one win (Crewe 2-0 at Whaddon Road) plus one more in the EFL Cup (Charlton 1-0, also at home), six draws (equal with Barnet and Hartlepool, and one behind Carlisle) and four losses (plus away defeats at Newcastle 2-0 in the EFL Cup and Blackpool 2-1 in the EFL Trophy) ....... to be fair to them (if I must), the League defeats were at Plymouth (0-1) and Yeovil (2-4), and at home to Donnie (0-1) and Notts County (2-3) – those sides sitting 1st, 21st, 2nd and 7th in the table; four of their draws have been 1-1, plus one Desmond and one goalless, and they’ve failed to score three times and kept two clean sheets .........P11 W1 D6 L4 GF12 GA15 for 9 points and 22nd place – out of the drop zone on GD over Exeter. Oh, and it’s three points from their last six games ........which ain’t so good!

Nine left in the summer, their reward for their part in Cheltenham’s promotion being the dole queue; four of them went on to sign for “free agent” (ie nobody), three signed up with Gloucester City (CF Bobbie Dale, and MFs Joe Hanks and Zack Kotwica), CM Omari Sterling-James joined Solihull Moors and striker Eliot Richards (ex BrizzleRov, Exeter and Tranmere) stayed sort of main-stream, crossing the pond to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, where it seems he’ll “see minutes” for the first team in the NASL as well as their second team, “Rowdies 2” – which I suspect grammatically speaking ought to be “Rowdies As Well”.

I suspect they may not have a proverbial pot to p*ss in, since they only ProperSigned two replacements, both defenders; LB James Jennings came in from FGR (well, if you don’t get promoted you might as well sign for someone who did – especially if you don’t have to move house) and was then promptly loaned to Morecambe, and CB Daniel O’Shaughnessy (two guesses where he was born, begorrah? ................ actually, no he wasn’t, he was born in Riihimaki in Finland, where his career started with Honka!) caught the 2.15 from Brentford ............ They have brought in some loan signings as well, of course; Wigan MF Danny Whitehead; Villa CB Easah Suliman; Everton GK Russell Griffiths; Brum AM Koby Arthur (out for six weeks with an injury) winger Johnny Smith from Bristol City; and RB Robert’s Dickie (a medical assessment, I think) from Japp Stam’s Reading ............. and did you see Villa have potted Roberto (di Matteo) today – 124 days in charge! – and that Swansea terminated Francesco Guidolin (at least, they terminated his contract) and replaced him with a Yank – BillyBob Bradley, former manager of Team USA). Or that Clapton Orient replaced the recently departed Hess with ex Sampdoria manager Alberto Cavasin? It’s certainly a cosmopolitan list of League managers these days ...............

Manager at Whaddon, of course, is Gary Johnson, who joined in March 2015 but couldn’t keep them up ......... at 18 months in the job he’s already lasted about seven times as long as his immediate predecessor Paul Buckle (79 days) ..........they’ve also employed Martin “Mad Dog” Allen, Mark Yates, Bobby Gould, John Ward and Steve Cotterill (who was also born in Cheltenham) ...........their oldest ever goal scorer was Clive Walker, 23 days short of his 42nd birthday, while their oldest ever player was Derek Bragg at 42 years 2 months and 23 days .......................and their record defeat (so far) was 10-1 to Merthyr Tydfil in 1952 ..............They went down in 2014/15 taking four points off us – a 2-1 win at home, and a 1-1 at our place, which we can’t afford to happen again!

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm this Saturday, 8th October .............we’ve just signed Gary Taylor-Fletcher (35) on non-contract terms; I assume that’s so that he can take the penalties from now on .......... I mean, hell’s teeth, you couldn’t have made that up! If you’d put it in a TV script everyone would’ve said it was like tea from China (far-fetched) ........talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! 12th (15 points) plays 22nd (9 points) – should be no contest ..................... Yeah, right!

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