[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Mansfield Town

2013/14 Prediction League – Game 43; v Mansfield Town (home)

This week’s starter for 10; Mansfield Town, currently 10th in League Two, are one of two Football League teams to have a mathematically ‘perfect’ season record to date – W14 D14 L14; who’s the other team? (no peeking) …..and if you want a clue, they’re also 10th in their League ……………….Answer (no, not Bolton, who are 13-15-14 and lie 14th in the Championship) is Walsall, 10th in League One with a 14-14-14 record . So now you know …………..

They’ve done very little transfer/loan business since we beat them 3-2 at their place 4 days before Christmas; they’d picked up FB Darryl Westlake (23) on loan from the Blades (and he’s ex-Walsall!), and recently signed former Welsh International GK Lewis Price (29), once of Ipswich and Derby, now with Palace, on emergency loan as cover ……….. They were without Sam Clucas, leading scorer who they signed from Hereford last summer, through injury (he’s now back, but in the last five games he’s only been used as a second-half sub), and recently lost striker Ben Hutchinson (26), who’s been plagued by injuries, out for the season with persistent hamstring trouble ……….. Other than that – nowt!

Going back for a moment to the reverse fixture in December, you might recall it; John McCombe (as in “watch him coming up for corners” ) got both their goals (from corners) on 23 and 68 ……….his reward for that, having come in from Port Vale in the summer (where he was captain) was a transfer to York; Kal Naismith got our first on 48, and our second on 90 , and James Gray got our third, also on 90 ; yee hah!

That said, though, they’re on a decent run just at the moment (damn!) …….won their last four on the trot (4-2 at Hartlepool, 1-0 at Morecambe, 1-0 at home to the Wombles and 3-0 last time out against Rochdale); drew the two before that (so unbeaten in 6); lost one of their last 8 away (W3 D4 L1 – 3-0 at Oxford, the good news being that they only scored more than one goal once in that run). They don’t score heaps generally, though – 46 in 42 in the League, plus 10 in the Cup Competitions, that figure being (very) distorted by an 8-1 FA Cup First Round win at St Albans ……………… they lost 2-0 at Tranmere in the CapOne, 1-0 at home to Snakefield in the JPT First Round, and 4-1 at home to Oldham (at home) after a 1-1 draw at Boundary Park ……………..in the League, they’ve played 42 for 56 points and 10th place – 6 points off the Playoffs. Their leading scorers are Sam ‘Benchwarmer’ Clucas (Leicester Academy, Lincoln, Glenn Hoddle’s Academy (which had him playing regularly in the Spanish 4th Tier at Jerez) and Hereford) with 13; Matt Rhead (I hope he can wrhite ok) – a striker aged 29, who signed from Corby Town in January 2012, having up to then held down a day job as a Team Leader for JCB Construction , has 6, as does MF Lee Stevenson, also 29, who came through the ranks at Belper Town, and then Eastwood Town (for whom he scored 67 in two seasons); striker Oliver Palmer (32) has five; he started out at Woking, then at Havant and Waterlooville (where he scored 38 in 62 games)

So as we get to the sharp end of the season, we start pondering on Life’s Great Question; who’s going down with Torquay? Working up from the bottom;

Northampton (23rd, 46 points) are away at Wycombe in 22nd (46 points), home to Pompey (now in 16th on 51), away at the Daggers (12th, 54) and finish up with a game no-one would want, I suspect – home to Oxford (7th, 62)

Wycombe (22nd, 46 points) seem to hold the trump cards (games); they start their final four at home to Northants, then go to Feetwood (4th, 69), then host Brizzle Rovers (21st, 47), and finish away at Torquay (24th, 39); so 22nd plays 21st, 23rd and 24th – and is that isn’t “having your own destiny in your hands” what the hell is?

Bristol R (21st, 47) go to Pompey (16, 51), host Rochdae (2nd, 75), visit Adams Park to play Wycombe (22,46), and end up at home to the Stags (10th, 56)

Exeter – also slid into the mire – lie 20th with 48; they go to Chesterfield (3, 74) on Saturday, welcome Torquay (24,39) in a twelve-pointer (well it’ll seem like it is), then welcome (?) Scunthorpe (not lost in 25, 1st on 76) and end up at Hartlepool (18th, 49)

The other team in trouble, I think, is Morecambe (19th, 49); they’ve two wins in 14, plus 5 draws; they have the worst goal difference (-14) of everyone apart from the Gulls (-23) and the Cobblers (-19); and their run-in consists of Scunthorpe (H), Hartlepool (18, 49) away, the Wombles (14th, 52) and rampant Bury (would that increase their gates, d’you think, if they did a “Hull Tigers” and changed their name to “The Rampant Trotters”? ), who have 54 points in 11th place.

Morecambe have won two in 14; Exeter 2 in 11; Bristol Rovers 2 in 15; Wycombe 2 in 10 (in 6 of which they haven’t scored at all); Northampton have won 6 and drawn 5 of their last 14 (23 points in 14 makes you wonder where they might have been this season if they’d played like that throughout ); as to GD, the Cobblers are -19, Morecambe -14, Sliding Wycombe -9, Bristol Rovers -9 and Exeter -6 …………. No one has a crystal ball that actually works, but if you look at the teams that all those in trouble still have to play, and work out their likely points return, it might well finish up being between Wycombe and Morecambe, who play the sides lying 18th (and probably worse placed than they should be), 14th, 11th and 1st …………We’ll see!

The deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Good Friday, 18th April. Me and my mate Chimer wished you a very Happy Christmas when we played the Stags in December just before the festivities, and this time we wish you a very Happy Easter ………………. And 3 points, just to sort it once and for all!

Don’t we, Chimer?

Good luck to everyone ……………….Remember; passion overcomes logic ………..Keep the faith ……………………. And thanks for playing!