2020/21 Prediction League; Game 21 v Sunderland AFC (home)

Div3North · 27-12-2020, 11:06

Accrington Stanley

v

Slumberland AFC

2020/21 Prediction League Game 21; v Les Chats Noir (Chez nous)

I'm no lover of top-flight football in England, as well you know; Scotland - mmmm - but the potential romance of Alloa Athletic v Montrose, or East Fife v Forfar (which in mythology always ends Forfar 4 East Fife 5 ), is a different thing ........... But have you ever wondered what the average goals per game figure is? Well, I'll help you out ...... in the first 38 games of this season there were 144 goals, which is 3.79 per game ........... the previous best was 1930/31, when the season average was 3.95

A bit of soccer history, then, and your Starter for Ten; how many goals were scored in the Division One games on Boxing Day 1963?

Back in the 50s and early 60s, Christmas footie was a bit different; in the 50s, clubs played on Christmas Day, with the return fixture usually the day after .............. The last Christmas Day fixtures were actually in 1959, when Blackburn beat Blackpool 1-0 at Ewood, and Coventry beat Wrexham 5-3 ........... and the Arsenal v Birmingham game on Thursday 26th December 1963 was postponed .... so there were ten games played in Division One that day .......... and they resulted in a staggering 66 goals ......

Leading the rush were Fulham, who played Ipswich at Craven Cottage; Ipswich, remember, had won the League 18 months earlier, but had lost Alf Ramsay to England and were now managed by Wor Jackie (Milburn) ........... and Fulham put them to the sword, winning 10-1 ............ Blackburn went to Upton Park and came back on the train with an 8-2 win under their shorts .... Liverpool did Stoke 6-1; Burnley did Man U, also 6-1; Chelsea won 5-1 at Blackpool, Forest and the Blades shared six goals (3-3), West Brom and Spurs shared eight (4-4, showing that a Double Desmond Works Wonders), The Owls beat the Trotters 3-0, and in the most Boring Game of the Day, Leicester despatched Everton 2-0 and the crowd asked for their money back ...

And the reverse fixtures on 28th December were as strange, but in a different way; Stoke v Liverpool was called off; Man U turned a 1-6 Chrimbo humiliation into a 5-1 return win (two from David Herd, one from Georgie Best, and Burnley's goal from Andy Lochhead); West Ham put their 2-8 trouncing behind them and won 3-1 at Blackburn; Ipswich got their (4-2) revenge (although they'd already conceded 58 before Christmas, and went down at the end of the season having conceded 121 goals, with no away wins all season - D4 L17); Villa and Wolves drew again (2-2), Forest beat the Blades 2-1 away; The Baggies did Spurs 2-0 away; Bolton won 3-0 against The Owls, Chelsea did Blackpool again, but only 1-0; Leicester improved on their 2-0, winning 3-0 at Goodison; and Arsenal got a game, winning 4-1 at St Andrew's

And for those - like me - who remember the Sixties as the Golden Era of British football, the list of goal scorers is a classic; on Boxing Day, Jimmy Greaves (two), Cliff Jones and Bobby Smith for Spurs; WBA's scorers included Don Howe; Fred Pickering hit one of two hat-tricks for Blackburn, and Johnny Byrne got WHU's two; Tony Hateley for Wolves, and Ray Crawford for Villa; Roger Hunt got 4 for Liverpool, and Ian St John got one; Mick Jones got two for the Blades, plus one from Len Allchurch; Ian Storey-Moore got Forest's first; Fulham's ten included goals from Bobby Robson and Alan Mullery, and Gerry Baker (from 'Cream') got the Tractor Boys' reply

And if that wasn't enough, Man City beat Scunthorpe 8-1 in Division 2 (and won the return game 4-2!)

Happy Days ......................!

Sunderland is a port city in Tyne and Wear; it's 12 miles north-east of Durham and 10 miles south-east of Newcastle, at the mouth of the River (Wear). Historically in County Durham, there were three original settlements; on the north side of the river, Monkwearmouth was settled in 674 when King Ecgfrith of Northumbria granted land to Benedict Biscop to found a Monastery; in 685, he granted more land adjacent to the monastery on the south side of the river, but as the river separated this land from the monastic community, it was referred to as the "sunder-land", and would grow as a fishing settlement before being granted a charter in 1179; west of the medieval village of Sunderland on the south bank, Bishopwearmouth was founded in 930. Sunderland grew as a port, trading coal and salt. Ships began to be built on the river in the 14th century, and shipbuilding founded the city and the area for centuries ... Rapid growth of the port was initially prompted by the salt trade (salt exports from Sunderland are recorded from as early as the 13th century), but In 1589, salt pans were laid at Bishopwearmouth Panns and large vats of seawater were heated using coal; as the water evaporated the salt remained. Only poor quality coal was used in salt panning; better quality coal was traded via the port, which subsequently began to grow.

Sunderland's third-biggest export, after coal and salt, was glass. The town's first modern glassworks were established in the 1690s and the industry grew through the 17th century. James Hartley & Co., established in Sunderland in 1836, grew to be the largest glassworks in the country and produced much of the glass used in the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851. A third of all UK-manufactured plate glass was produced at Hartley's by this time. In addition to the plate glass and pressed glass manufacturers there were 16 bottle works on the Wear in the 1850s, with the capacity to produce between 60 and 70,000 bottles a day.

Of recent years - since the 1980s, residents of and people from Sunderland have begun to be known as Mackem, Makem or Mak'em - or sometimes just "Wearsider"; it's also a name for the local accent (not to be confused with Geordie), and for a fan, whatever their origins, of Sunderland A.F.C. It has been used by a proportion of the people of Sunderland to describe themselves since the 1980s, prior to which it was mainly used in Tyneside as a disparaging descriptive. Up to the 1980s, the people of Sunderland were known as Geordies, in common with the rest of the North East.

A few Sunderland dialect words, as a change from Latin

"Latin is a language as dead as dead can be,
First it killed the Romans, and now it's killing me"

Nee - No
Bosh - Problem
Marra - Mate
Ha'way - Come on ( Not to be confused with Geordie's Howay)
Knack - Hurt
Git - Very (so 'very good' becomes 'git good')
Claes - Clothes

.... so that "No problem, mate, come on" turns into "Nee bosh, marra, ha'way"

The football club was founded as "Sunderland and District Teachers AFC" by schoolmaster James Allan in either October 1879 or September 1880 (depending which version you accept). It was renamed as Sunderland AFC, and opened to others apart from just school teachers in October 1880. The club joined The Football League in the 1890–91 season, replacing Stoke (who had failed to be re-elected) and becoming the first new club to join the league since it began. They won the league championship in their first season (1891–92) with 42 points, five clear of nearest rivals PNE, and they successfully defended the title the following season, aided by their Scottish centre forward John Campbell, who broke the 30-goal mark for the second time in consecutive seasons.

They've won the Top Division 6 times - five of them before the Great War, and most recently in 1935/36, plus the FA Cup in 1936/37 (beating PNE 3-1, with one of the goals scored by Horatio Stratton "Raich" Carter) and yet again in 1973 (beating Leeds 1-0), when they were also BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year ............. their left winger in that Final - an England International - moved on to play for Man City the year after, and then to New York Cosmos .......... Starter for Ten; who was he?

The Black Cats ended Covid Season in 8th place - out of the playoffs on PPG by 0.07 ... over the summer they shifted out 30 players - most you won't know, but you may be familiar with (in the nicest sense, of course) striker Kyle Lafferty, who moved to Reggina in Italy, Scottish GK Jon McLaughlin, who joined Rangers, New Zealand international CB Tommy Smith, now with Colchester, RW Duncan Whatmore, who went to Middlesbrough, and CB Alim Öztürk, now with Ümraniyespor, a Turkish tier 2 side based at a 1,601-capacity ground in Instanbul ... and they also released a French player called Lilyan, which I'm still working out ....

They signed 14 on frees (including forward Danny Graham from Blackburn, Irish winger Aiden O'Brien from Millwall, RB Kenton Richardson from Hartlepool, and Callum MacFadzean from the Argyle), and paid for two - AMF Josh Hawkes from Hartlepool, and Kosovan CB Arbenit Xhemajli from Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax, who got back to the Swiss Super League after several years in 2018, but finished 10th of 10 in their 2019/20 season and have been GreasyPoled again!

They won four of their first six games this season and drew the other two, conceding only once (to Brizzle); in the following eleven they've won three (2-0 at the Gills, 4-0 at Lincoln last time out, and 2-1 at home to Ipswich), drawn five and lost three (Pompey 1-3, MK Donuts 1-2 and Wigan 0-1 - all at home .... not for the first time they're suffering from a surfeit of drawn games, and they terminated Phil Parkinson - who I thought had done a respectable job - and replaced him with Lee Johnson, who hasn't won a huge amount of things yet ........... 7 clean sheets, a poor home record (W3 D3 L3 GF9 GA10) and a better away record (W4 D4 L0 GF14 GA4), giving them overall P17 W7 D7 L3 GF23 GA14 for 28 points and 11th place - sandwiched between Fleetwood (29) and Blackpool (27) ......They lasted one game in the FA Cup, losing at home to Mansfield 0-1; they went out of the EFL Cup on pens 5-4 to Hull (after a goalless Desmond); and they host Portly Vale at home in the third round of the Troffy ...... Top scorer (all competitions) is Charlie Wyke with 7 ...........

Slightly less well-known managers include Burnley legend Jimmy Adamson, Pop Robson (Newcastle, West Ham (twice) and Sunderland (twice)), Niall Quinn, Paulo de Shoveover and Dick Advocaat; famous players - well, take your pick from dozens ..................

Deadline for entries (unless the game's suspended, of course) **** is scheduled kick-off time, which is apparently 7.00pm on Tuesday 29th December .... someone posted that if the season were to go to PPG again we were in the automatic places ... actually, Lincoln have a PPG of 2.0, Hull have 1.89, we have 1.875, Pompey have 1.84 and Donnie 1.83 ........ and the Sunderland left-winger who played in the Leeds Cup Final and then moved to Maine Road was Dennis Tueart

And can Him and Me - "He and I" signed, The Grammar Police" - wish you "Feliz Año Nuevo" - a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year? Well of course we can, but whether it happens sort of depends on millions of UK residents obeying the rules, millions of whom sadly appear to be abjectly stupid! Thank the Lord for vaccines!

Good luck to everyone! .......... Stay safe and keep well! ............ And thanks for playing!

**** Ah boogar!

VALAIRIAN · 27-12-2020, 11:16

Another game off D3N

Div3North · 27-12-2020, 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by VALAIRIAN

Another game off D3N

That’s what “ ****Ah booger “ referred to Joe

I found out just as I’d finished editing the post

AccyMad · 27-12-2020, 11:36

I predict a P - P

VALAIRIAN · 27-12-2020, 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by VALAIRIAN

Another game off D3N

Just seen the edit D3N

Div3North · 15-03-2021, 20:40

Accrington Stanley

v

Slumberland AFC

2020/21 Prediction League Game 21; v All Cats Are Grey in the Dark (home)

Update

16th March - the date of this re-arranged game (before they moved it back by one full passage of the Moon) is a unique date in English Football, certainly since the Great Reformation of 1992 which led to the PrawnButtyLeague and The Rest (the EFL) ........... and it's unique because of a game played on 16th March 2002 between the Blades and the Baggies (managed by Neil Warnock and Gary Megson respectively) which became known as The Battle of Bramall Lane; you may remember it, you may have forgotten about it, or it may have passed you by, but it's worth the re-telling .....

The Blades - whose side included Paul Peschisolido and Phil Jagielka - had nothing to play for but pride; West Brom were 3rd in the First Division (second tier) with eight games to play ....Nine minutes in, Sheffield United's keeper Simon Tracey was sent off for handling the ball outside the penalty area; manager Neil Warnock sent on the substitute keeper, Wilko de Vogt, taking off Peter Ndlovu. Albion scored through Scott Dobie after 18 mins, and added a second in the 62nd minute through Derek McInnes.

Warnock brought on two further subs on 64 mins: MF Georges Santos, French-born but from the Cape Verde islands, and attacker Patrick Suffo from the Cameroon (whose career was littered with disciplinary problems, including an eight-month ban at Nantes for lashing out at a referee). And then the match really turned ugly in the 65th minute, when Santos was red-carded for a dreadful high two-footed studs-up lunging tackle on Andy Johnson ... Johnson had played for Notts Forest the previous season and had collided with Santos going for a high ball, fracturing Santos's cheekbone and seriously damaging his eye socket - allegedly with a swinging elbow, although Megson did say in interview that both players had said that previous clash was accidental ...

At that point the two teams started big-time; after the mêlée, Suffo was sent off for head-butting Derek McInnes; the timings suggest that Santos and Suffo had been on the pitch for under 90 seconds ............ and the Blades were reduced to eight men, with no more substitutions left. It's reported at the time that Blades' captain (Keith Curle - this week's Oldham Manager) was fortunate to avoid a sending off after appearing to throw punches at McInnes.

In the 77th minute, WBA added a third, Dobie tapping in from short range. Two minutes later, Michael Brown limped off for United, and Robert Ullathorne went off injured - possible hamstring - in the 82nd minute; Referee Eddie Wolstenholme then abandoned the game on 82 mins with West Brom leading 3–0; he was of course aware of the IFA board guideline which states

"The minimum number of players in a team is left to the discretion of member associations. The Board is of the opinion, however, that a match should not continue if there are fewer than seven players in either team"

United had six .......

Megson was incensed, suggesting in terms that Brown and Ullathorne weren't injured, but that there were 'instructions' to 'lie down'; Warnock was cleared of that assertion, and indeed Brown didn't play again that season. Megson said, after the match:

"There will be no replay. If we're called back to Bramall Lane we shall kick-off and then walk off the pitch. I've never ever witnessed anything as disgraceful as that. There's no place for that in any game of football, let alone professional football."

Albion were awarded a 3–0 win and the 3 points by the Football League. Sheffield United were fined £10,000, Patrick Suffo £3,000 plus a 6 match ban (3 for the dismissal, 3 for violent conduct), Keith Curle £500 and a 2 match ban, Georges Santos a 6 match ban (4, plus 2 for violent conduct) and Neil Warnock £300 for improper conduct towards the 4th official (now there's a surprise)

Santos and Suffo never played for the Blades again; Santos moved to Grimsby, then Ipswich, QPR, Brighton, Oxford, Alfreton, Farsley Celtic and Fleetwoof; Suffo played for Numancia, Al-Hilal, Coventry, some club in Dubai, Odd Grenland (Norway), Maccabi Petah Tikva, Ashdod (Israel), Puertollano (Spain), Wrexham, Coventry Alvis FC and Coventry United ...

Sheffield United finished the season 13th in the league, whilst West Brom were automatically promoted as League runners-up ..... and it remains the only EFL game ever abandoned because a team didn't have enough players to continue .....

And well done to the Moggies for doing over the Trannies and winning the Thingummy Paintpot Cup, thus giving us all a smile at the fact that SalfordMoneybags only held the Cup for 24 hours

Having drawn way too many games in the first part of the season Los Moggies are on a roll; of their last 12 games, Sunderland have won 8, drawn three and lost one (2-1 at the Pointy-Nosed Furry Things); they haven't breaten us, though, because we haven't met yet (The Return to Roker being in five weeks time); of the last seven they've won six and drawn one (a DesmondCrewe), and kept five clean sheets which, given the goals we aren't scoring at the moment, could be a worry ..... They've brought eighteen (and a Manager) in over the season, including Kosovan CB Arbenit Xhemajli from Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax, Scottish LMF Callum McFadzean from Plymouth, Carl Winchester from the Wild West (aka Vegan Greenpeace, who are still in the AutoPromotion slots), striker Danny Graham from the Rovers, and fellow striker Ross Stewart from Ross County .... or was it Ross County from Ross Stewart .... or maybe Rod Stewart

They've got the best defence in League One (26 in 33 games - other Duck'sArse defences include Blackpool (28 in 31) and Hull (29 in 36); they're joint third on goals scored ........ on the road their record is W8 D7 L1 GF28 GA10, and at home it's W8 D5 L4 GF23 GA16 for an overall P33 W16 D12 L5 GF51 GA26 for 60 points and 4th place, although they're on one point behind Lincoln with a game in hand, asnd eight behind Hull with three games in hand .......

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.00 pm on Wednesday 17th March, begorrah, so it is ..... and the nearly-end-of-season game of Musical Managers' Chairs continues apace ............ Kenny Jackett (now known to his mates as Hic Jacet Sepultus, which may well be the only Latin joke you'll see this year) is the ex-Manager of Pompey, whose players received an open letter from - I think - a fan, saying basically "You're Not Fit to Wear the Shirt", and with the rousing motto "The beatings will continue until morale improves" ... Bowyer's for sure resigned at Charlton (Birmingham-bound is the rumour), and Paul Heckingbottom (ex Leeds and Hibs boss) is charged with saving the Blades, aided by Jason Tindall (ex Cherries)

On paper, injuries and form we haven't got a hope in Hell of winning this, so we probably will ............. Nurse!

Good luck to everyone! .......... Keep the Faith! ......Stay safe and keep well! ............ And thanks for playing!