2016/17 Prediction League; Game 40 v Plymouth Argyle (away)

[Div3North]

Plymouth Argyle

V

Accrington Stanley

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 40 v Plymouth (away)


So; P39 W23 D6 (only Stevenage and Leyton Orient have drawn fewer) L10 (Donnie have lost 7, Blackpool and Luton have lost 9 each) GF59 GA40 for 75 points and second place, 3 behind Donnie and 7 ahead of Pompey in 3rd .......... Pompey (35) and Luton (37) have conceded fewer; five sides have scored more ............... but not invincible; far from it, actually, on current form ........

They’ve been selective recently – perhaps not on purpose – about who they beat; in their last 10 they’ve won at Doncaster 1-0, at Mansfield 2-0, at home to Carlisle (also 2-0) and at home to Morecambe (as in “lost their last 6”) – three sides in the top 10 (plus Morecambe who aren’t ....) ..............but they’ve also lost at home to Blackpool (0-3), Notts County (0-1) and Leyton Orient (2-3), sides who are 5th, 20th and 24th respectively ............. and drawn at Wycombe, Luton and Hartlepool (half-Desmonds each time)

In the January window they ProperSigned four; CB Jakub Sokolik from Southend, CM Antoni Sarcevic – who starred for Fleetwood before joining Shrewsbury in May 2016, and un-joining them in early December, having played just 16 times, and CFs Ryan Taylor (ex Oxford) and Nathan Blissett – nephew of the famous Luther Blissett (whose name be forever blessed) and apparently the first player that they’ve paid a transfer fee for since 2012 - from Torquay ........but it was only £12,000, so that hardly counts ................ CB Karleigh Osborne went to Kilmarnock, LB Ben Purrington to Rotherham, and David Goodwillie – inaptly named if ever anyone was – was sacked in a huge blaze of negative publicity. There were two loans on Deadline Day – Louis Rooney out to Hartlepool, and MF Matty Kennedy in from Cardiff ............

They did us 1-0 at our place a week before Christmas; for those who wonder why Elliot Parish hasn’t played much recently the report from the Beeb about that game might explain;

• “Substitute Craig Tanner scored the winning goal as Plymouth reclaimed top spot by beating struggling Accrington. The Pilgrims had slipped down the table after Doncaster's lunchtime win, but Tanner fired the ball through home goalkeeper Elliot Parish's legs in the 78th minute.”

There stands a man who couldn’t stop a pig in an entry!

The stats show that they haven’t had a single red card all season (not been ref’d by Kettle, then!) but they have had 74 yellows as at mid March. We’ve had 9 red cards, so obviously some of those must actually have been intended for Plymouth, not us ...........

They must be quaking in their dubbined boots, though .........they may have won 10 games more than us and lost three fewer; they might have won four of their last six (not having won in the four before that); they may have a GD which is +18 better than ours (although ours is, at last, positive not negative); they might have scored 9 more than us and given away 9 fewer; but they aren’t unbeaten in 11 (W6 D5) ............ and they aren’t getting good results against teams in the bottom half of the table (which we only just still are) .......... and they haven’t got a mathematically satisfying record like we have – P39 (3x13) W13 D13 L13 Pts52 (4x13) ......and if the Gods of Mathematics are in your corner, then – as Del Boy always said – “The World’s your lobster!”

Leading scorers are MF Graham Carey (wasn't he once the Archbishop of Canterbury?) with 13, striker Jake Jervis with 12, and defender Sonny Bradley with 7; Bradley can’t see any reason why he can’t get double figures of goals before the season’s over ........and he can for all we care, as long as he doesn’t start until they play Crawley next week ................and you might want to know that after Game 2 of the season they were bottom of the League, no points and no goals. Mind you, since week six they’ve never been out of the top three places, so maybe their six-year sojourn in League Two might just be about to come to an end (in a nice way!)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 1st April ............ Their home record is W11 D3 L6 (they also lost 3-0 at home to Grimsby and 2-0 at home to Barnet within four days), but they have done the double over Doncaster without conceding a goal as well; between us we account for 3 of Donnie’s seven League defeats; the trick now is for us to account for one of Plymouth’s soon-to-be-if-we-get-it-right eleven defeats, and their 7th at home!

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

[DaveinGermany]

2-0 to the Stanley please D3N.

[st06nc2]

1-1

[cashman]

1-0 stanley fer me.

[AccyMad]

Don't know whether to go with my head or my heart on this one! What to do??

Heart wins every time (it'll be my undoing but what the heck) . . . . .

1 nil win for Stanley please

[monkey hanger]

1 nil to plymouth

[Stevie R]

2 each please

[Red-Osbornello]

2-2 please D3N.

[Wynonie Harris]

4-1 to the Stanley please.

[Lord Stiffupperlip]

Argyle 1 - Stanley 2 please

[mab]

Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Accrington Stanley Please for me

[Outback Ozzy]

2-1 Plymouth for me please, hope, of course it is the other way round.

[Revived Red]

1 - 1 please D3N. I am hoping that the unpleasant McCormick will gift us a goal.

[Tom D]

1-0 to stanley please

[accybeme]

(((what a glorious run))) for the last 11 games i've gone for Stanley to loose, I don't want too spoil it now so
Plymouth 1 Stanley 0 please