2021/22 Prediction League; Game 16 v Plymouth Argyle (home)

Div3North · 11-11-2021, 23:59

Accrington Stanley

v

Plymouth Argyle

2021/22 Prediction League Game 16; v The Plywood Brethren (home)

It came to my attention a few day ago - as these things sometimes do - that Rolls Royce was originally going to call their "Silver Shadow" model "The Silver Mist" ...... until someone told them that "mist" translates in German into "excrement" ....... and then again, Nokia's 2011 "Lumia" phone had to be re-named, "Lumia" being, it seems, a Spanish synonym for a prostitute (in gypsy dialects, anyway) .... and Honda's "Jazz" was to have been the "Fitta" which - my sources tell me - is a vulgar description (in Sweden) for an intimate part of a lady's anatomy ......... so be grateful for pre-warning, unlike KFC ("Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Rat") as some called it years back, who launched their product in China in the 1980s using the slogan we all remember ("Finger-lickin' good"), all the while unaware that that translates into Mandarin and back to English again as "Eat your fingers off" ... no wonder advertising agencies get paid so much, if they manage cock-ups (cocks-up?) of that quality!

You may never have heard of Old Wulfrunians FC from Wolverhampton, or Lane Head from Bloxwich, but please charge your glasses and drink to them, as we celebrate a new record in the number of penalties required to resolve a drawn Cup Tie ............. the old record was 34, held jointly by Chelsea u23s and Oxford Utd, and Taunton Town and Truro, but as of late October 2021 that number is now 44

A late equaliser for Old Wulfrunians (I thought they were double deck buses I have to say - Guy Wulfrunians, once in competition with the Leyland Atlantian) scored by Leo Gill (take a bow, Leo - your five minutes of Andy Warhol have arrived) in the First Round of the JW Hunt Cup game left the sides equal at 3-3 after 90 minutes; after five penalties each it was 4-4: after the 22nd penalty the Club Chairman Simon Marsh had to nip to the chippie in his car to get the post-match fish and chips for the players (not sure if he treated the crowd as well), but when he got back, chips a-steaming, the shoot-out was still going strong ........... considerably after 35 minutes of "Penalty Time" had passed, Lane Head missed their 19th spot kick (through either fatigue, boredom, or the approaching Last Bus Home), but Simon's son Jack (LB and Instant Hero) banged his pen into the back of the net for a 19-18 win ..... The Fru-Frus now play Shifnal; thought you might want to know that .........

And the Grim Reaper's been doing the rounds of Managers recently; since 1st October, THIRTEEN managers have gone from their positions - 12 shoved, and one (Dave Challinor) preferring Stockpot County to Hartlepool ..... the sacked were Michael Flynn (Newport), Xisco Munoz (Watford), Chris Beech (Carlisle), Steve Bruce (Newcastle), Nigel Adkins (Charlton), Mick McCarthy (Cardiff), Nuno Espirito Santo (Spurs), Markus Schopp, who got the (s)chopp from Barnsley, Neil Cox at Scunthorpe, Neil Warnock from Middlesbrough, Daniel Farke after getting Norwich their first win of the season at Brentford) and Dean Smith from Villa ...... Flynn had 1647 days, Schopp 135 and NunoSanto 134 ..... Stevie Gee's got Villa, and Frank Lampard's mentioned for Norwich ...

"And so we straight let out on bail, a convict from the County Jail
Whose head was next, on some pretext, condemned to be mown off,
And made him headsman, for, we said, who's next to be decapited,
Cannot cut off another's head until he's cut his own off ...."

And you'll all know that each of the 16 groups of the EFL Trophy contained three League sides and one "senior" club's u21 side ...... Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal, Brighton, Chelsea etc etc - Leicester, who we trounced, and others ......... West Ham u21s won two games and got 6 points for top of their group, but it transpired that they'd played in game three a player who got booked in games 1 & 2, so they had three points deducted and missed out ................. but - Starter for Ten - how many of the 16 competing u21 teams progressed to the Knock Out stages of the EFL Trophy this season?

And while we're doing Starter for Ten; Plymouth (see below) have only lost once in the League this season ........ but who are the only side so far to beat them?

And RIP Gerald Sinstadt - one of the Football Voices on the Box in the 70s, 80s and 90s which I can still hear in my memory ...... in a career that began in 1949 he covered multiple sports over many years, and was a consummate wordsmith ... he died in Stoke in Trent on 10th November aged 91; another legend of TV football gone, and missed

FA Cup Saturday last weekend (if you'd forgotten); FA Cup Starter for Ten; how many sides whose names start with the letter "Y" played in the First Round on 6th November, and who were they?

Plymouth is a port city in South West England, located on the south coast of Devon, about 37 miles south-west of Exeter and 190 miles south-west of London. Its early history extends back to the Bronze Age when a settlement emerged at Mount Batten: this settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the more prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century, now called Plymouth. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers (and Mothers, and Childrens) departed from Plymouth for the New World, and established Plymouth Colony, the second English settlement in what is now the United States of America.... all of which you'll remember from history at school .... The city's home to around 250,000 people, making it the 30th-most populous area in the UK and the second-largest city in the South West (after Bristol). Its economy remains strongly influenced by shipbuilding and seafaring but has tended toward a service economy since the 1990s. It has ferry links to Brittany (Roskoff and St Malo) and to Spain (Santander) for a quick escape (didn't used to be extradition, but now there is): it has the largest operational naval base in Western Europe (HMNB Devonport), and is home - unsurprisingly - to the University of Plymouth.

Plymouth Argyle FC have played at Home Park, known as the "Theatre of Greens", since 1901; the club takes its nickname, "The Pilgrims" from the Fathers and Mothers (aka The Mamas and the Papas), and the club crest features the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrims (and the Bee Gees) to Massachusetts. The city of Plymouth is the largest in England with a League club never to have hosted top-flight football. Argyle are the most southerly and westerly League club in England and the only professional club including "Argyle" in their name. They were originally founded, in fact, simply as "Argyle" in 1886, and turned professional and entered both the Southern League and Western League as Plymouth Argyle in 1903. They won the Western League title in 1904–05 and the Southern League title in 1912–13, before winning election into the new Football League Third Division in 1920; their first League game was a half-Desmond at home to Norwich on 28th August 1920

They've been up and down the Leagues since; most recent period in the Sunshine was their six seasons dans le Championnat entre 2004/05 and 2009/10 (when they were Greasypoled along with the Posh and the Owls, and eight points and a lot of goals from safety) ...unfortunately, that relegation to Tier Three was followed immediately the next season by their dropping from League One to League Two (Tier 4), when they were part of a West-Country exodus (alongside Swindon and Brizzle) ....... more recently, six seasons in League Two, two in League One, one in League Two and straight back up for last season ....

They ended season 2020/21 in 18th place in League Un, six points above the mire .... in the summer they shed 11, including Scott Wootton to Morecambe, Frank Nouble back to Colchester, CB Will Aimson to the Trotters, RB Jarvis Jai Cleal to NC State Wolfpack, and lesser know stars to non-league and beyond .......... Nine arrived, including RB James Bolton from Pompey, GK Callum Burton from Cambridge, Macauley Gillesphey from Brisbane Roar / Raw, Welshman James Wilson from Ipswich, and striker Kieran Agard (Yeovil, Rotherham and Bristol Citty) from the MKDonuts

The Pilgrims lost their first League game of the season, and haven't lost in the League since ........ home - P9 W6 D3 L0 GF16 GA6; away, P7 W3 D3 L1 GF12 GA8 for an overall P16 W9 D6 L1 GF28 GA14 for 33 points and second place behind Wigan ...... In the EFL Cup they did Posh over 4-0 away before succumbing 4-1 at Swansea; in the Troffy they've managed to lose two and get one winning draw, giving them 2 points, a -4 GD, and last place behind Swindon, Arsenal u7s, and Newport ........ in the FA Cup, they achieved a Goalless Desmond at Hillsborough - replay next week (let's hope they're thinking more about that than about us); Plymouth won their League game at home against the Owls 3-0. Ryan Lowe manages, and he's having (league-wise) a good season

Their biggest League win historically is 8-1 (twice, v Millwall and v Hartlepool) and 7-0 v Chesterfield in 2004; biggest loss is 9-0 to Stoke in 1960 ...... Most appearances is by Kevin Hodges, whose career spanned 1978 to 1992 (620 games, 530 of them in the League): 10th on their list of "most appearances" by the way is Moses, who played 400 times between 1914 and 1930 .......... (that's Moses Russell, I should clarify): most goals is Sammy Black's 184 (all but 8 in the League), followed by Wilf Carter (148) and Tommy Tynan (145) .... Leading (current) scorers are Ryan Hardie (10, 8 in the League), Luke Jephcott (6, 5 in the League) and Connor Grant (4, all in the League) ....... 22 games in all, 36 scored, 24 conceded ....

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 13th November 2021 ......... we've met 16 times in the League since 2011/12, winning five (including a 5-1 success) drawing 6, and losing 5 (including a 4-0 home reverse which still pains me now) ....... 15 in a row in the League unbeaten is impressive, but - despite what the statistics say - I still think that the longer it goes on the greater the chance they'll have an off day and lose; might as well be to us - we're the most deserving anyway, seems to me

And as regards the Starters for Ten:

(a) Only three u21 sides got through the Troffy Group stages; in the Northern Groups, of the 8 u21 sides, three finished third in their Groups and five came bottom; of the Southern Groups, only Villa, Chelsea and Arsenal progressed, the other five being third (four of them) and bottom (one),

(b) the only side so far to have beaten Plymouth in the League is third-placed Rotherham, and

(c) there were three sides with names starting with "Y" in last Saturday's FA Cup Round 1; Yate Town lost 5-0 at home to Yeovil, and York City contrived to lose 1-0 at home to Buxton (who were formed in 1877, are known as "The Bucks", play at The Silverlands, and are in the Northern Premier League (Premier Division) - which is Level 7) .......... if you didn't already know that!

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

COYR!