Accrington Stanley
v
Newport County
2016/17 Prediction League; Game 15 v Newport (home)
This week’s starter for ten; how many football managers have been sacked or otherwise departed their jobs in October 2016? Believe it or not, the answer’s ten;
Signor di Matteo (1st Oct, Villa);
Francesco Guidolin (3rd, Swansea);
Paul Trollope (4th, Cardiff);
Mickey Mellon (6th, Shrewsbury);
Nigel Pearson (8th, Derby);
Alan Stubbs (19th, Rotherham);
Karl “Fireproof” Robinson (23rd, MK Dons);
Paul Hurst (24th, Grimsby, to move to Shrewsbury),
Walter Zenga (25th, Wolves); and
Gary Caldwell (also 25th, Wigan) ………..
Zenga lasted 87 days,
di Matteo 121,
Pearson 134 days,
Trollope 139 and
Stubbs 140 ….. and most have already been replaced (at what cost to the Clubs in pay-offs and new contracts, you might wonder), including ex-Wolves Boss
Kenny Jackett, who recently got the hot seat – or is it the poisoned chalice? - at the New York Stadium ………. So, your second starter for 10 is – including caretaker appointments, how many managers have Rotherham had since 1st September 2015 – 14 months ago? The answer to that is two caretakers, and five managers – that nice
Mr Evans, Neil Redfearn, Neil Warnock, Alan Stubbs and the aforementioned
Kenny Jackett ……….. I wouldn’t unpack your suitcase yet,
Kenny, if I were you!
They brought in (under
Warren Feeney, the then manager) fifteen new players (well, new to them!) ........ Ex Plymouth GK
James Bittner led the charge to Wales, followed by defenders
Jazzi Barnum-Bobb (no I didn’t make him up!) from Cardiff,
Scot Bennet from Notts County,
Paul Bignot – for whom they received a six-figure fee from Blackpool in 2011 – has returned from Solihull Moors (I’m here to tell you there are no Moors in Solihull!) and
Jamie Turley from Eastleigh; in MF they acquired
Joss ”Bite Me” Labadie from the Daggers,
Jennison Myrie-Williams (who’d slid to Sligo),
Ben Tozer from Yeovil and Barnet’s
Mark Randall; up front they got
Jon “Pieman” Parkin from Forest Green and
Marlon Jackson from Oxford City, and out wide they brought in
Sean Rigg (Wombles) and
Jack Compton (Yeovil again); masses of experience, but they’re currently rock bottom of League Two, having salvaged (by a late penalty from
Sean Rigg) a home point on Tuesday against Barnet, which moved them up from 7 to 8 points ..............
Realising, perhaps that the front line was over-weight and over-age, they hit the loan market for strikers, and brought in Cardiff’s
Rhys Healey, QPR’s
Reece Grego-Cox and the Cherries’
Jordan Green; def
Kyle Cameron from Newcastle and MF
Josh Sheehan from Swansea completed the new squad; at the moment they’re busy doubling the size of the home dressing room so that they can all sit down at the same time ...................
After 13 games (they’ve already had two postponed as a result of their ploughed field having been over-ploughed) they’ve won once, drawn five and lost seven; they’ve scored 13 and conceded 21, and have five points from their last ten games ........... the solitary win, on the second Saturday of the season, saw them beat Clapton Orient 2-1 away ............they’ve also played three Cup games, losing in the EFLCup 3-2 at home to MK Dons, and in the EFLTroffey they lost 4-1 at Plymouth and 2-1 at home to Swansea u21s – P3 L3 ..............Next week they play Alfreton away in the FA Cup; not sure who my money’s on!
They soared to the dizzy heights of 22nd place last season, on 43 points, having not won in their last eleven (which makes it, in total, one League win in their last 24); we went there on the last Monday of March and beat them 2-0 with goals from
Billy Whizz and
Josh McWindass; in the November we drew 2-2 at home, coming from behind twice thanks to
Billy Whizz (again) and
Garth-Matt Crookes (!); overall since they came back in to the League in 2013 we’ve played six, winning one, drawing three and losing two (you may remember that they beat us 4-1 on their return to the League)
Winning the Welsh Cup in 1980 saw them qualify for the European Cup-Winners’ Cup (who remembers that?), and their record win in Europe was a 6-0 demolishing of Norwegian side Haugar in Round 2 that November, before going out in the QF to FC Carl Zeiss Jena; they won the old Third Division South (no relation) in 1939, and would have achieved their best-ever position (joint 9th) had the League not been abandoned due to WWII; their promotion saw them spend just the one season in Division 2, although they weren’t actually relegated until the end of 1946/47 season (which has to be some kind of record); having joined the League in 1920, in the new Third Division, they lost their first game 0-1 to Reading; famous ex players include
John Aldridge (who they sold in 84 to Oxford for £78,000); ex managers include
Len Ashurst, Terry Butcher, Jimmy Mullen and
Jimmy Scoular (the balding wing half, if I recall .....................)
All told they have 17 goals in 16 games; GF17 GA30; leading scorers are
Sean Rigg with three and
WhoAteAllThePies Parkin, with four (I still remember him doing his
YFB impression and putting three past us for Fleetwood in March 2013); our leading scorers are
Rommy and
Billy, each with five.........
Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 29th October; that nice
Mr Westley has just gone on record criticising Academy set-ups for not teaching youngsters how to defend properly; apparently, happily, there are signs of improvement (there was room, it must be said) with every game that they play (which doesn’t explain how he’s contrived to lose two and draw one of his games in charge so far) ........ his take on it all is to announce to anyone willing to listen (so that’s no-one then) that
• "
There's a sense of purpose to us and anyone watching us would be excited by the play."
................. particularly Forest Green, four points ahead in the Vanarama Conference and hoping for promotion to League Two!
Good Luck to everyone! ................ Keep the Faith!............. And thanks for playing!
