[Div3North]

Port Vale

V

Accrington Stanley

2011 Prediction League – Game 4; v Port Vale (away)

In the language of the railways, this was ‘Returns and Departures’; the return that mattered, of course, was manager Micky Adams , who was re-hired – his first stint as Valiants’ Manager being from June 09 to Dec 10 (and when he left, Vale were second in the table) - after his dreadful sojourn at the Blades (it took 14 games before his first win there ). Sacked by Sheff Utd’s owners (by mutual consent ) after relegation, he immediately returned to Vale Park, replacing Jim Gannon, whose “turbulent” reign had lasted 74 days and alienated almost everybody , Mark Grew having held the reins in between. With Gannon in charge, a certain promotion crumbled into dust, and they finished the season with a record of P46 W17 D14 L15 F54 A49 for 65 points and 11th place …………

The departure – strange on the face of it – was Justin Richards, who – with namesake Marc Richards – had been the big hit of the first half of the season, scoring for fun. Vale was Justin Richards’ 13th club, and he’d scored 17 goals for Kidderminster in 42 games in 08/9 and 15 in 47 games for Cheltenham in 09/10; in fact, he hit 14 in 50 games for Vale in 10/11, but the partnership was broken at the turn of the year by a thigh injury to Marc, and when he came back, Justin fell out of favour (Tom Pope and Marc Richards being the preferred starters); that may have been influenced in part by his Court appearance at Leeds just before Christmas, when he admitted affray (described as a “drunken brawl”) and was dealt with by fine and an unpaid work order. Defender Ritchie Sutton left the club for Mansfield, and fellow defender Kris Taylor for Darlington.

In came two 19 year old defenders from Sheffield Utd - (that’ll teach them to sack him (by mutual consent )) - Kingsley James and Phil Roe; they also signed 22 year old centre half Clayton McDonald from Walsall, AFC Totten’s Mike Green, ex Crewe and Rotherham striker Tom Pope (who got 3 goals during a loan spell with them last season), and two players (nominally) from Hyde Utd – Ben Williamson, a striker who started with the Glenn Hoddle Academy in Spain, and then joined Bournemouth, and Ryan Burge, ex Doncaster midfielder who also played in Spain for Jerez International – Glenn Hoddle United. The “Hyde Utd” connection is that they are now the ‘partner club’ in the UK of Glenn H’s Academy – also, it seems, some kind of “clearing house”.

This season they started with a 2-2 draw at home to Crawley – many peoples’ favourites to buy their way into League One in the automatic places ; 2 down, they got one back through Richards (Marc), and the equalising goal in added time from Dodds; the Carling First Road brought a home defeat by Huddersfield (4-2) , and thereafter they won 3-1 at Barnet (two for Sean Rigg, one for Gary Roberts), and last night they took the short trip to Burton on Trent, where - courtesy of midfielder Doug Loft - they managed a 1-1 draw against the Albion (who included one Justin Richards in their side, as well as Calvin “Couldn’t hit the floor with his hat” Zola); three League games resulting in one win and two draws, six goals scored, 5 points, and 10th place – two places and one point above us (although we’re actually only 3 points off the automatic promotion spots ……………… ); they’ve got Tranmere to face away in the JPT First Round; we drew Carlisle, you might remember; leading scorers are Rigg, Loft and Roberts with two each, and Richards and Dodds with one

Our League record against them over the last 3 seasons is P6 W3 D1 L2 ; we won both games 2-0 in 08/09 (Craney and Mullin, and Proccie and Jimmy Ryan), drew 2-2 away but lost 2-1 at home (Bobby Grant) in 09/10, and lost twice at their place in the Micky Adams part of last season, 2-0 in the League and 1-0 in the First Round of the FA Cup, before taking revenge later in the season with a 3-0 victory at Fortress Crown (or, as the BBC still call it, the Fraser Eagle Stadium ); goals by Sean McStockportCounty, and by Ian Craney (86) and Captain Proccie-Marvel (89) did the damage.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 20th August. We played well on Tuesday; lots of people anxious to stick the ball in their net – Wes Fletcher , Nat Taylor , Kurtis Guthrie – the list goes on and on. 6-1? (it’s got to happen one day, Wynonie! ) Boring 0-0? Thrilling 0-0? Sneaky last minute winner? 94th minute penalty? Anything’s possible, but no prediction guarantees you “nul points”, so get 'em down and score some points………

Good luck to everyone ………… and thanks for playing!