2018/19 Prediction League; Game 4 v Oxford United (away)

Div3North · 19-08-2018, 19:38

Oxford United

V

Accrington Stanley

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 4 v Oxford Utd (away)

This week’s starter for ten, then; who is Oxford Utd’s leading goal scorer in League One this season?

There are many reasons to be glad that we don’t support the Wombles; one is that they released You Fat Bastard after he’d got them promotion in 2016, and the other is that their League games this season must be the most boring hard work to watch; 1-0 at Fleetwood (Lester Pigott - sorry, Joe Pigott - with the goal), 0-0 v Coventry, and today 0-0 at Barnsley, with only four shots .............. P3 W1 D2 L0 GF1 GA zero, which unbelievably leaves them in 7th place on 5 points! Bradford, Blackpool, Shrewsbury, Wycombe and Oxford have also scored just one in three games, but they’re 18th, 19th, 21st, 23rd and 24th, so you might sort of expect that ................. Oxford scored for the first time today (in the 89th minute); they’ve yet to get a point ............. Bradford scored on 19 in their first game and haven’t scored since; Blackpool got one in a 2-1 home loss to Pompey in week two; Wycombe got a consolation on 82 against Brizzle today but still lost 2-1; Shrewsbury scored at Charlton last week but lost 2-1 ................. Posh have 9 points from 3, Pompey likewise; Barnsley and Walsall have 7/3; Donnie and The Gills have 6 each; eight teams have 4 points; the bottom six (incl those above plus Plymouth and Luton) still haven’t won a game (despite Luton being - allegedly - “the best team in League Two” last season (lying rat!)); Barnsley have scored 6 and conceded none; Wombles have score one and concede none; Rochdale have conceded 7 and Oxford have shipped 10 (4 at Pompey today, 4 at Barnsley and 2 at home to Fleetwood) .......... strangely, Wycombe dumped Pompey out of the EFL Cup, and the Oxford did the same to Coventry. Must prove something, but I haven’t worked out what, yet .............

Did I mention that it might be a long hard winter at Morecambe? A 0-1 defeat at Stevenage is probably better than 0-2 at home to Exeter last week, which is better that 0-6 at Crewe in Week 1; they have at least scored now (1-3 at PNE in the Cup), but nul points and nul goals in 3 League games kind of explains 24th place and a GD which of -9 (Macclesfield’s (nul points) in 23rd is -5, and Cheltenham’s (22nd – also nul points; they never should have sold Mohammed Eisa) is -3; and what’s going on at Notts County? 4-0 defeat by Yeovil?????? And for the second time in a fortnight, Swindon came back from 2-0 down at home to win 3-2 (Promoted Macc two weeks ago, thanks to penalties on 96 and 98, and Promoted Tranmere today – for whom one Jay Harris was sent off after 18 mins ............... two 3-goal comebacks to win 3-2 in two weeks; who does that remind me of?

No Managers sacked yet; Gary Bowyer took The Walk of The Very Pi**ed-Off after game one, but who wouldn’t, at Blackpool? Jimbo may be concerned, given new owners, and Steve McLaren will have to work hard - in his cod-Dutch accent, perhaps - to explain QPR’s 1-7 at the Baggies; and mayhap - just mayhap, mind - Karl Robinson won’t be sleeping too well either at Oxford. Personally, I think some club Chairmen are showing great restraint ............. but it won’t last ...............

Ten left on 1st July, including striker Kane Hemmings to Notts County; MFs Ryan Ledson to PNE and Josh Ashby to Oxford City (at least he won’t have to move house!); CB Aaron Martin high-tailed it to Exeter, CM Joe Rothwell joined Blackburn, CF Wes Thomas went to Grimsby, Irish RB Canice Carroll (that’s a name I’ve never heard before; Candice yes, but ........ anyroadup, apparently Canice (Kenneth, or Kenny) derives from Saint Cainnech of Aghaboe, one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland – so there!) moved to Brentford, and Brazilian LB Ricardinho went to FC Twente (see “Steve McLaren” above) ............. they were replaced by three “undiscloseds” RW Gavin Whyte from Crusaders and DMs Jamie Hanson (Derby) and Dai Wai-tsun (Bury), plus five free-transfers including Little Armani (or is it Armani Little?) from the Saints (see “Twelve Apostles” above), someone from King’s Lynn, someone else from Queen’s Lynn (no, not really), another someone else from Watford and Jamie Mackie (RW) from QPR (see “7-1” above, and also “Steve McLaren”) ...........six loans in so far (so 14 “new” players in all, which might explain P3 L 3GF1 GA10 Pts0), which included two from the Blades (CM Samir Carruthers and LW Ricky Holmes), Everton LB Luke Garbutt, Hammers MF Marcus Browne, Sam Smith, a CF from Reading, and Derby GK Jonathan Mitchell ............. and speaking of memorable names, I was quite taken with former QPR player “Angel Rangel”

I suspect that we’d have taken 4 points from our opening three games before the season kicked off: the more so since Gillingham are in the play-off places, and we’re only 2 points behind them .............. 14 teams covered by three points (Donnie (6 points) in 5th to Bradford (3) in 18th); leading scorers in League One are Jason Cummings (Posh - his team, not him personally - although he may be, for all I know), Ian Henderson (Rochdale), Tom Eaves (Gillingham - and there's a roofing joke there somewhere, but I can't work it out), Mark O’Hara (also Posh), Jamal Lowe (Pompey) and Burton’s Liam Boyce, all with 3; Sean McGoalscorer is one of 13 players with two (and Mallik Wilks, now at Donnie, is also on that list); Jordan Clark has one, but also has more assists than anyone else whose name appears ......

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 21st August. Head-to-head in the three seasons up to their promotion we won 2-1 away and drew 0-0 at home (2013/14), in 14/15 we won 1-0 at home and lost 3-1 away, and in 15/16 we did them at their place (2-1 again) but lost 3-1 at ours ............ W3 D1 L2; that said, in the three years before that we drew 3 and lost 3 of six, and only scored once; so – hard to call ................. I read nothing into 24th place, one goal and no points, but I do hope that “scored 1 conceded 10” might be a bit of a clue! And a warming-up to stuffing Blackpool on Saturday into the bargain – but more of that later!

And Oxford’s leading goal scorer in the League this season so far is Pompey defender Jack Whatmough, who put through his own goal in the 89th minute of Saturday’s game to give The Boys from Up the Hill (one of their nicknames from the days when they were Headington United) a measly consolation, and their only League goal so far ............ and long may it remain so!

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