[Div3North]

Carlisle United

V

Accrington Stanley

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 6 v Carlisle (away)

No cheating by looking at the League table; only one team in League Two has yet to win a League game this season …………..who? And only one League Two side is unbeaten in the League so far, and that is ……….?

The “Yet-To-Winners” are Cambridge (Piero and Brad Halliday are both now there, it seems); in the league, Cambridge have two draws (at home to Barnet and Carlisle) and three defeats (at Colchester (4th) – who’ve just signed Tarique Fosu on loan from Reading - and Doncaster (3rd), and at home to Luton (2nd)); they’ve scored three and conceded nine ; they have done better in the Cups/Trophies, to be fair, beating the Owls in the EFL Cup 2-1 before succumbing by the same score at Molineux, and winning 1-0 at Shrewsbury in Tuesday’s fiasco of a Trophy competition (although the best result of the night I thought was Peterborough 1 Norwich u23s 6 ) …………The “Haven’t-Lost-Yetters” are, Sod’s Law dictates, Carlisle (where we go on Saturday); in the League, P5 W2 D3 GF6 GA4 for 9 points and 6th spot; wins at home over Plymouth and away at Barnet, both by a single goal, and a Desmond at Cambridge, and half-Desmonds at Pompey and at home to Cheltenham …….. they did Port Vale 2-1 in the EDL Cup (why are they sponsoring that?), and then went out 14-13 (after a 1-1) on penalties at Derby in Round two, and then vanquished the mighty Oldham 5-4 in the ShamblesTrophy (First Series), the scoring going 1-0, 1-3, 4-3, 4-5; sounds like Andy Murray on a bad day!

Of the discards in the summer, four went to League clubs (if you count Scotland in that); we got French CM Bastien Hery (24), who started at PSG II, then went to Sheffield Wed (reserves!), then to Rochdale; CB Troy Archibald-Henville (wouldn’t you think, in the interest of commentators, he’d shorten that – perhaps to “Roy Archibald-Henville ) signed for Exeter (where he played 115 games on loan and as a ProperSigned player between 2009 and 2012); MF Joe Thompson went to Rochdale; and AMF/striker Steven Rigg, who they’d signed from Penrith, joined Queen of the South; whether a Cumbrian born in Keswick would understand a word they said in Dumfries is a moot point ........... Jimmy ! Also out was Derek Asamoah (once of the Ghanaian national side, and teams in France, Scotland, Bulgaria, South Korea and Mansfield ) – not signed on yet (unless I missed it in the Deadline Day Roundup!); CMF Anthony Sweeney, who spent 14 years at Hartlepool, joined Gateshead (11th in the Conference); and five other players went nowhere in particular ..............

Curly Keith signed one CMF, one AMF and four RMF (as you do – nothing like healthy competition for places!) ............ Russell Penn from York; Joe McKee from Morton; and Nicky Adams (Cobblers), Jamie Devitt from Morecambe (who was red-carded within 30 mins of his debut ), Mike Jones (Oldham) and Reggie Lambe (Mansfield); he also hijacked Oxford GK Max Crocombe, Posh (as in Peterborough, not as in P.O.S.H), CB Shaun Brisley, and he raided Morecambe’s “buy one get one free” counter, taking CF Shaun Miller as company for JD ...............

If you want a good laugh, by the way, have a look at their Wikipedia page, which proudly (but inaccurately) claims that “Carlisle United are perceived to be the best football team in the north of England” ..................... Not sure that Jose, Jurgen, Ronald, Sean or Pep would buy into that load of tosh! In the far North West of England Not Very Far From The Scottish Border, maybe ...........but even then I suspect Barrow and Kendal Town might have a few things to say! And is it just coincidence that the two teams in the relegation slots at this moment are both from towns which have Universities? (Cambridge and Exeter)

Last season, you may remember, we played them twice in ten days, losing 2-0 away and drawing 1-1 at home, El Tel getting the goal and Rhino getting sent off (no wonder he’s gone to Portsmouth! ) ............. the year before (the year after they came down) we lost 1-0 away, but won 3-1 at home (Mingoia, McWindass and Conneely) ..............before that it was 1960/61 since we’d met in the League, which probably doesn’t count ...................

The club mascot, it seems, is “Olga the Fox” (carried on by the mascot, and supposedly connected to huntsman John Peel (or “Ken John Peel” as the song calls him), not to be confused with the man who invented the Police (though wasn't that Sting?) ........ They’re the only club to have reached the Final of the Football League Trophy six times (yawn!); they joined the League in 1928, and their biggest win (8-0 against Hartlepool Utd) was on 1st September of that year, followed, four months later, by their biggest defeat (11-1 at home to Hull City); famous managers include Bob Stokoe and Bob Stokoe ; famous players include Tom Aldred (hands up if you knew that?), Chris Balderstone, Peter Beardsley, Stan Bowles, Ivan Broadis, Bastian Hery (hands up if you knew that, too) and George Dick ..........or was it Dick George? Their highest League position ever was bottom of the old League One in 74/75 (they were actually top after three games) .... and then, of course, there’s the famous Michael Knighton , as in “Knighton; Aliens Spoke To Me” – the headline from the local paper at the time...............

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 3rd September .............. I can’t help thinking that perhaps we could do with a few points (one in our last four games) – otherwise someone, probably after about 10 games, will start a drive to have the Manager sacked!

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