Accrington Web - 2018/19 Prediction League; Game 8 v Fleetwood Town (away)

Fleetwood Town

Accrington Stanley

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 8 v Fleetwood (away)

This week’s starters for ten; (1) starting in 2008, what happened to Fleetwood Town FC every second year up to and including 2014? And (2) who did they sell, and to whom, for a figure which is said eventually to have reached £1.7 million – still a non-League record fee?

There have been loads of different Footballing Fleetwoods; originally (1908) they were Fleetwood FC; in 1977 that became Fleetwood Town FC, in 1997 they were Fleetwood Wanderers, then Fleetwood Freeport FC, and in 2002 they reverted to Fleetwood Town .................in their time in the League they’ve been managed by some well-known names – Micky Mellon (now at Tranmere), Graham Alexander (lately of Scunthorpe, and now of Salford MoneyPots FC) who was only the second outfield player in the FL to play over 1,000 competitive matches, the first being Rochdale's Tony Ford (“He’s big, He’s bad, He’s older than me Dad, Tony Ford, Tony Ford .....”), Stephen Pressley, Uwe Rossler, John “I’ve Been Everywhere, Man” Sheridan, and – once his ban finished – Gentleman Joe Barton .............

You’ll all have got Q1 above; what happened every two years from 2008 was that they got promoted ......... that year they won the Northern Premier League; in 2010 they won the Conference North – now the Bananarama North – by beating Droylsden, and then Alfreton Town 2-1 in the playoff final (they’d have gone up as champions if Farsley Celtic hadn’t folded and had their record expunged, which cost Fleetwood 3 points, and allowed Southport to nick the title); in 2012 they won the Bananarama Proper at a canter, in part by going unbeaten over 29 games, and gained EFL status, and in 2014 they finished fourth in League Two, beat York City (who are now in the Bananarama North, where currently they’re 8th with 12 points from 8 games – a mere 13 points behind leaders Chorley, who’ve also played 8!) in the playoff semis, and Burton 1-0 in the Playoff Final at Wembley (Antoni Sarcevic, now at Plymouth, with the goal) ............. coincidentally, that was the score and the opposition in their first-ever win in the EFL back in 2012

Their four years in League One have resulted in finishes of 10th place in 14/15 with 63 points, 19th (51 points) in 15/16, 4th in 16/17 (82 points, behind Scunthorpe on GD, and beaten 1-0 over two legs of the P/Os by Bratfud City), and 14th last season, with 51 points ............. they have a huge training facility in Thornton, have moved from buying in players to trying to develop and sell on, and, once upon a time, they played their games on a pitch next to the North Euston Hotel at the top end of the Prom, where the Police station now stands; their present ground has, it seems, the 112th-biggest capacity in the country ................. isn’t this edificational?

We went to Highbury in November 2012 and did them 3-1 (James Beattie, George Miller and Rommy Boco with the goals); they came to ours and did us 3-0 in the March of 2013, Big Jon Fatso-Parkin with a hat-trick ........ in 2013/14 we won 2-0 at home and lost 3-1 away (as far as the records available suggest!) ................W2 L2 GF6 GA7 Pts 6 ..................

They parted company in the summer sunshine with 5 Englishmen, 2 Frenchmen, one German, an American and a Dutchman; the Yank (DMF Sebastien Des Pres) and one Englishman (LB Luke Higham) now play for Free Agent FC; Dutchman Ricardo Kip – after sleeping on it (gerrit? Kip ........ sleeping on it?) – accepted an offer and went home to play for Almere City (known as The Sheepheads) in the Eerste Divisie, which may prove a Baaaaaarmy thing to do; GK Chris Neal and CB Nathan Pond – who played 498 games there from 2003 to 2018 - went to Salford (didn’t everyone?); RB Markus Schwabl (guess the nationality) joined Unterhatching, which is just along the road from Oberhatching (isn’t it, DaveinGermany?); CF Alex Reid moved to Stevenage, French-born DMF Toumani Diagouraga (Hereford, Posh, Brentford, Leeds and Plymouth) signed for Swindon, and his French team-mate Victor Nirennold went to Slovakian side FK Senica; George Glendon completed the exodus, leaving for the Bright Lights of Carlisle (and it could take him a while to find them!)

They brought in, ProperSigned, eight - six English, one Welsh (isn’t it look you) and one from Northern Ireland; 1 keeper, 2 defenders, 4 midfielders and a striker; among a list of names I doubt you’ll have heard of were striker Chris Long and CMF Dean Marney, both from Burnley, Norwich GK Paul Jones (I remember him when he was with Manfred Mann), CB Craig Morgan from Wigan and Tranmere CMF James Wallace .............. five loans in; Rangers’ CMF Jason Holt (did you upset Stevie G, son?), PNE’s LB Tommy Spurr and the Blades’ Ched Evans are there for the season, and Norwich’s LB James Husband and Leeds’ RB Lewie Coyle are there until January .....

Currently they’re 6th; they lost their opener 0-1 to the Wombles at home, and their other two home games have ended 2-2 with Rochdale and 2-1 against Bradford (who managed to lead 2-0 at Blackpool before spilling 3 goals in the last 6 minutes (84, 88 and 90) on Saturday ...........ooooops!); away, they’ve done Oxford 2-0 and Scunthorpe 5-0, and drawn at Charlton (goalless Desmond) and Sunderland (half Desmond) ........... home, then, 3 games, 4 points, away, 4 games and 8 points...........overall, P7 W3 D3 L1 GF12 GA5 for 12 points; we lie 10th – 2 points off the playoffs .............. and they’re out of the EFL Cup, losing 4-0 at Leicester (who signed Jamie Vardy from Fleetwood for £1.7 million in 2012)

Five League One sides have still to lose; Posh, Pompey, Barnsley, Sunderland and Walsall; two have still to win; Plymouth (24th - 3 draws, 4 defeats) and Shrewsbury (22nd - 4 draws and 3 defeats) ............. four teams have just one win in 7 (Oxford in 23rd, Brizzle 21st, Wycombe 19th and the Iron 18th); 10 sides (including us) has two wins; three have won 3 (Charlton, Donnie and Fleetwood), three have won 4 (Walsall, Sunderland and Barnsley), Pompey have 5 wins and Posh have 6; Duck’s Arse defences (conceded just four goals) are Barnsley and Pompey), and leading scorers are the Posh with 19; one side has a zero GD, and that’s us ...................

Their highest League home crowd is 5,123 which – believe it or not – they’ve done twice (Blackpool on St George’s Day 2016 and Bolton on 11th March 2017; their biggest win was 13-0 against Oldham Town in the North West Counties League Division Two in December 1998, and their biggest defeat (in the Cup) was in 1949, when they lost 9-0 against Bradford City; their fitness coach is French-born ex PNE defender Youl Alidor Mawene (remember him?) Leading scorers are the aforementioned Chedwyn Michael Evans with 5 and the so-far unmentioned Paddy Madden, who has three, so he has …..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 15th September; Gillingham won their first two (us and Burton), and in their last five have just one point from a half-Desmond against Coventry; they’re bottom of the Numpty League with their singleton point in 5; in there with them are Plymouth (2 points) and Bradford and Scunthorpe, each with 3; for comparison, we’re unbeaten in 6 (as are Fleetwood), but our last five include four draws and a win (7 points) against Fleetwood’s two wins and three draws (9) ................... but the current point count, if multiplied similarly all season, would give us a comfortable hold on our League One status, which – historically – was always why I feared what would happen if we went up ...............So well done, Lads, and long may it – and will it – continue!

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

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