[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

York City

2013/14 Prediction League – Game 22; v York City (home)

“Second Season Syndrome” strikes again ; at (almost) the mid-point of the season, York’s record is P21 W4 D9 L8; they’re the draw specialists of League Two (along with Cheltenham), but nobody has won fewer games than them , and only two sides have won as few – Bury (23rd) and Northampton (24th) – and hands up who was surprised to see Aidy Boothroyd handed his P45 and his head on a plate? …………How fickle is employment, though? Hero to zero in half a season ……….. York, to return to the theme, are – on average – doing a cycle of “win 1 draw 2 lose 2” – which gives you 5 points every 5 games (or a point a game ), which is 46 points, which is relegation form ………….. Sorry guys, you heard it here first; they need two teams to be worse than they are come May …………….

They joined Div 3 North in 1929, and spent 22 seasons there (not counting the War years); then they were founder members of Division 4, but they managed to get out of there in its first season (1958/9), only to come walloping back down straight away; they did that once or twice, but eventually – 1974 – they reached the Promised Land (ok, Division Two (old version)); they managed 15th place – their highest ever League position – but finished 1975/6 – their second season (!) in Div 2 – 21st, so went back to Div3; next season they finished plum last, and went through the trapdoor again …………in 2003/4 they lost their League status (they didn’t win any of their last 20 games ), and it took them until 2011/12 to get it back, courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate win over Mansfield in the Playoff Semis, and a win over Luton in the Final by the same score …….in case you’ve forgotten, Fleetwood came up that same season.

Famous ex managers include Wilf McGuinness, Bobby Saxton – who played 400+ games as a central defender for Derby, Plymouth and Exeter before going on to manage Exeter, Plymouth and, from 81 thro 86, Blackburn Rovers – John Ward, whose other managerial posts included the two Bristols (behave! ), Wolves, Cheltenham, Carlisle and Colchester, and Sam Bartram, GK extraordinaire , who oldsters like me will remember played for Charlton from 1934 to 1956, notching up 579 appearances and never being dropped in his whole career; former players whose names may jangle the memory banks include defenders Ricky Sbragia and John McPhail, MF Sean Haslegrave, later of PNE, Phil Boyer – several times the strike partner of Ted McDougall, with whom he scored a combined hatful over a lot of seasons (he got 159 in 500+ games for York, Bournemouth, Norwich (he was the first Norwich player to be capped for England, it appears), Southampton and Man City, and Richard Cresswell, who went back to the club in the summer but has just announced his retirement through injury.

This time last season it was Gary Mills in the manager’s chair; now, of course, it’s ex NI manager Nigel Worthington. 12 left in the summer, including 23 year old CMF Matty Blair (the one who got injured by a training dummy last season ) who joined Fleetwood – the only departing player to stay in the League; of the other 11, three went to Grimsby (CB Chris Doig, DMF Patrick McLaughlin, and CMF Scott Kerr) and two more to Guiseley ; Jason Walker (29, RW) went to Ostersunds FK, a Swedish Tier 2 (“Superettan” ) side . In came eight on contracts – four of whom (Ryan Cresswell (35) from the Blades, Ryan Bowman (21) from Hereford, Torquay’s Ryan Jarvis (26) and Burnley’s Wes Fletcher (22) ) are strikers and four of whom (incl ex Wycombe and Gillingham CMF Lewis Montrose and St Mirren MF Sander Puri) aren’t; 9 more arrived with a label pinned to their jumpers saying “on loan” – 2 GKs, 3 defenders and 3 MF …….. 17 arrivals must be second only to Bury, who – at the last count – had signed most of the population of Manchester – and look where they are now!

The Minstermen have, as the saying goes no further interest in the Cup competitions, losing 4-0 at home to Burnley in the CapOne Round One, 3-0 at home to Rotherham in the PaintTin, and 3-2 at home to Brizzle Rovers in the FA Cup Round One after a 3-3 away, Wes Fletcher equalising in the 86th minute. Their League form is quite bizarre; the opened the season with a 1-0 home win over Northampton; their next 6 featured one draw (0-0 v Hartlepool) and 5 defeats ; they followed that with a 1-1 draw at Wycombe, a 4-2 win over Pompey and a 3-0 win at Torquay (but who hasn’t beaten Torquay?), then lost 2 and drew 1 (2-2 against Snakefield), and in their last 8 they’ve won once (4-1 against Scunthorpe), lost one (2-1 at Southend) and drawn 6 – 2-2 at Cheltenham, 1-1 against Plymouth at home and against Burton away, and 0-0 at Morecambe, and at home to Rochdale and Oxford ……….they’ve actually taken points off 7 of the top 11, including all three of the “automatics” , but they haven’t won in 7, and have only scored once in their last 4 games ; additionally, out of their 25 games in all competitions, they’ve failed to score eleven times ……..and they don’t travel THAT well – one win (at Torquay on 5th October), 5 draws, and 5 defeats ……………..but note that, of their 4 victories, three have been by scores of 3-0, 4-1 and 4-2 ………………… For the record, at home it’s P10 W3 D4 L3 F11 A 10, and away it’s P11 W1 D5 L5 F13 A18, giving them an overall P21 W4 D9 L7 F24 A28 for 21 points and 21st place, by GD over Torquay.

Last season, you’ll remember, they came to our place and did us 2-0; you’ll also remember the return game, when Murph equalised in the 27th minute of extra time to give us the lifeline that eventually kept us up; Nigel Worthington said of that game:

· "You knew that they would be throwing things in around the box and 99.9% of the time we dealt with it, but unfortunately with 5 minutes of extra time - I don't know where it came from - low and behold they got a goal, which is disappointing.”

……………… a sort of “reverse Fergie”, really …………. By the way, Murph hasn't scored for a while - I suggest we sack the manager (DAV?)

In the League they’ve scored 24; in the Cups they’ve got 5; 29 goals in 25 games; leading scorers are the aforementioned 26 year old Ryan Jarvis (Norwich, Leyton Orient, Walsall and Torquay) with 8, Wes Fletcher (22, Burnley, with loan spells at Grimsby, Stockport, us , (and he was rubbish), Crewe and Yeovil) with 7 and Ryan Bowman (also 22, with Carlisle, Darlington and Hereford on the cv) with 4; two others have got 3 each, and three more each have a singleton

As always, the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Boxing Day; they have 10 points in their last 11 games; we have 21 in 11 ; they’ve drawn a blank 9 times in 21 League games ; we’ve started hitting the net with something like regularity ……………………… You’d expect something from this one, surely? – especially if we can spike their plum duff the day before! Come on Santa – do us a favour …………………. “All I want for Christmas is …..another 3 points …..”; with Northampton at Burton, Bury hosting Scunthorpe, Torquay playing Brizzle at home, Pompey playing the Daggers and Mansfield at Rochdale, you’d think we may have clear water between us and the relegation places come Thursday evening ……….

Good luck to everyone …… Remember; passion overcomes logic! …………Keep the Faith!............ Happy Christmas ….…..and thanks for playing!