2016/17 Prediction League; Game 39 v Grimsby (home)

Div3North · 23-03-2017, 23:59

Accrington Stanley

V

Grimsby Town FC

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 39 v Grimsby (home)

By one of Life’s Quirks, if we beat Grimsby on Saturday at th’Wham, and assuming that Barnet don’t beat Cheltenham by five more than we win by, we’ll then have 51 points, Coley will be a happy man (but will we be able to tell?), and we’ll leapfrog, on GD, ............... Grimsby! Of such things are legends made!

We won’t have our first choice keeper (Marek Rodak) for that game, he having been called up for international duty by Slovakia u21s (aren’t there a lot of “k”s in this sentence?), who play Czechoslovakia (there’s another one .............); but thenm they've got a couple of players out (the manager wouldn't say who!) Coley’s take on losing Marek (aka Jeff) is, “I don’t think he’ll benefit more from going away than he would from staying here and playing another game but they’re the rules”. And so they are!

Grimsby are currently 13th, with 14 wins, 9 draws and 15 losses in their 38 games; they’ve scored 45 and conceded 47; they’ve got 51 points, and they’re 3 points up on us ……….at the moment. They’ve won 3, drawn 3 and lost 4 of their last 10 (12 points); we’ve won 5, drawn 4 and lost one of our last 10 (19 points). In fact, we’re the form team from the bottom half of the table (now there’s a claim to fame!); Orient have 7 points from 10 games, Newport have 10, Cheltenham and Hartlepool both have 11, Notts Co have 17, Crewe have 16, Yeovil have 10 (including seven draws), Morecambe have 8, and Barnet have 7. On the road, Grimsby have 7 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses ………….. their away wins have included, though, Carlisle and Plymouth ………..in their last 5 away they’ve won just once (3-0 at Orient), and they were thumped 4-0 at PompeyMouse and 5-0 at Crewe, thereby bu**ering up their GD!

Manager Marcus Bignot arrived on 7th November last, having previously been at Solihull Moors ……………… It may therefore be no surprise to learn that two of the Marinade’s January signings were from there (CF Akwasi Asante and MF Jamey Osbourn); at the same time they brought in striker Adi Yussuf and MF Chris Clements from the Stags, Irish CB Gavin Gunning from Greenock Morton, and Gateshead’s AM Sam Jones. In addition, there are three “end of season” loans in …………………………Probably, though, the most important transfer – for all the wrong reasons – was the deadline day transfer of talisman striker (32 goals in 68 games) Omar Bogle to Wigan, where he’s already got 3 in 10; Bogle played under Bignot – well, not under him, exactly – at Solihull for 3 years, is then reunited with him at Grimsby, and is promptly sold for £undisclosed ……….His departure means that there’s now nobody in the Grimsby team who’s scored more than 3 goals this season; you’ve got to assume that the money must have been good, otherwise why sell your leading scorer – especially when he got you 19 goals?

We went to their’s on Boxing Day, and got nowt but a bloody nose, going down 2-0 to goals from Bolarinwa and Chambers (Booksellers to the Gentry) despite out-shooting them 14 to 6, with 7 on target to their 6 and us winning the Corner Count 10:3

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 25th March; they’ve failed to score in 13 League games, and kept 14 clean sheets; current form, though, suggests we’d be favourites, especially as they’ve no goal scorers ………….. Yarkshireman Mark Heywood (139 yellow and 6 reds in 30 games) is the Ref (“Yarkshire born, Yarkshire bred, Strong I’th’arm and weak i’th’’ead”), but we’re not frightened of him, are we lads ………….oh; are we? OK then …” Sharp end of the season, so let’s be sharper than them! OK? Cheers!

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