[Div3North]

Newport County

V

Accrington Stanley

2023/24 Prediction League Game 43 v The Taffy Plonkers (away)

And so it starts ………… the joy and despair of promotion and GreasyPoling (not, happily, that it affects us) ………. TwistySpires United back in the League, and Rotherham - the Perennial Yo-Yo-ers - back in League One again ………. they’ve only won four times, haven’t won away from home all season, and haven’t won an away League game since November 2022 ……. they sacked Matt Taylor in November 23, two days after they lost 5-0 at Watford, but his replacement has only managed two wins out of 21 goes, and they’ve been in the bottom three in the table since 23rd September, dropping to bottom place in December, before the new man even arrived …………

Starter for Ten, then: who was the new manager who hasn’t managed to turn it around for the Millers?

Formed in 1912, the club began life in the Southern League before joining the Football League Third Division in 1920. They failed re-election in 1931, but were elected back the next year. They struggled for the next few seasons, but went on to be crowned Third Division South champions in 1938–39, but they were relegated again once the Leagues re-started after the War; they were then relegated to Division Four in 1962. In the 1980s they suffered financial difficulties with a double relegation costing them their Football League place in 1988 and the club went out of business in February 1989.

They reformed, and were eventually placed in the BananaramaSouth in 2004; they went on to be crowned champions in 2009–10 and after moving to Rodney Parade in 2012 (hence their nickname of “The Plonkers”) they returned to the EFL following a 25-year absence by winning the Conference National play-off final in 2013, beating Wrexham 2-0 and becoming the first team ever to go through the play-offs without conceding a goal ……

For the record, we beat them 3-0 at Ours in the season opener (goals by Nolan, Whalley and Adedoyin), only the second time we’d beaten them in our current existence

Second Starter for Ten; what’s the longest period of time that a side has led in a game that they finally lost (not counting extra time and / or penalties) - and I’ll tell you for nothing that it was a Scottish Premier League game

At this point The Exiles are 16th, with a record of P42 W16 D7 L19 GF59 GA66 and 55 points; they’ve lost their last four, and six of their last eight, having started the season with 4 wins, 3 draws and 8 defeats; they’ve beaten Stockport, Donnie and Wrexham, and lost twice to Mansfield and twice (4-1 and 4-0) to Crawley ……….. after us they have Tranmere and Salford at home, and Bratfud away. They exited the FA Cup (after seeing off Oldham, Barnet and Eastleigh) by losing 4-2 to Man U; the EFL Cup saw them beat Charlton before losing to Brentford on pens; and they didn’t make it out of the group stages in the Trophy … Minimal squad changes in the Window ….. they bought striker Luke Jephcott from St Johnstone and loaned LW Nathan Wood to Cork City, and that was it ….. Manager is Graham Coughlan, and leading scorer is Will Evans with 20

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 8th April …… of relevance perhaps is that Newport’s home record during the season has been W9 D6 L5 GF35 GA 31; our away record is W5 D4 L10 GF23 GA33; and that’s a worry, as are the good chances that the highlights of Crewe showed that we wasted (as in, “couldn’t hit a barn door with his hat”)…….. still, we’re 2-0 up in the World Series, so who knows?

And Rotherham’s current manager - if you’ve forgotten - is our very own Leam Richardson ….. and Aberdeen took a first minute lead over St HelenMirren on the 2nd March 2024 in their SPL game (Neil Warnock was still manager, Barron with the goal), but St Mirren won it with a 90+5 min penalty by O’Hara and a 90+7 min winner by Olusanya ……. so Aberdeen were ahead for 94 minutes before snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ……. and a Highly Commended Certificate for Spurs at Wolves this season, scoring in the 3rd minutes, only to concede in the 91st and 97th minutes - so “in the lead” for 88 minutes

Good luck to everyone! ……. Keep the Faith and the Faithless, and show them the errors of their ways (you know who you are!)! ……. And thanks for playing!