[Div3North]

Crewe Alexandra

V

Accrington Stanley

2011 Prediction League – Game 29; v Crewe Alex (away)

OK: this week’s poser in “You’re The Manager” ……..

Your next match is at home to a team on fire (beaten once in their last 13, just jumped – briefly - into the playoff spots ); they have the fewest away defeats of anybody in the Division – two, the same as Crawley (no surprise) and Morecambe (big surprise); they have a new manager , great self-belief, and scored four goals (and should have had 6 or 7) against a top-seven team last time out; what’s the thing you least want to happen?

The answer is likely to be something along the lines of “we don’t want our two first-choice central defenders suspended” – which is exactly what happened to Crewe yesterday – David Artell sent off on 29 minutes for a ‘last man’ professional foul (on Izale McLeod, which isn’t a brilliant idea ) and defensive partner Adam Dugdale sent off on 44 for a tackle that manager Steve Davies described as a ‘red-mist lunge’, saying “……. once you go on your backside and show your studs then you don’t know what the referee is going to do”. Yes you do, Steve – he’s going to send you off ………..

They signed goalkeeper Alan Martin (remember him? ) on release by Leeds in the summer; he’s spent the season warming the bench, second choice behind Steve Phillips (33) – who, despite having played 8 seasons at Bristol City followed by 3 at Bristol Rovers (brave move!) – spent last season warming the bench as second choice behind Chelsea keeper Rhys Taylor (who’s now with the Millers). Since then they’ve signed three on loan; Burnley’s 20 year old striker Wes Fletcher (remember him? ) – who so far isn’t breaking any pots there either (he has one goal and the same number of yellow cards to his name); Jamie Lowry (24), a midfielder from Chesterfield; and ex Hammers trainee Greg Pearson (26) from Burton, who left a loan-spell at Aldershot to join Crewe, met the lads for the first time on the team bus going to Oxford, and sneaked the winner in the last minute in his debut game, getting another the following week in the 4-1 demolition of the Daggers.

Currently they’re 12th in the League with 12 wins, 3 draws and 13 defeats (unlucky! ) and a goals tally of 37 scored and 40 conceded; at home it’s W5 D2 L6, on the road it’s W7 D1 L7. In the cups they went out in Round One of the Carling (3-2 at Preston) and the FA Cup (4-1 at home to Colchester), while in the JPT they did Bury away on penalties after a 0-0 and Macc (what’s happening to them at the moment – they’re sliding into trouble ……..) 1-0 at home before going out 3-1 at Oldham. Overall, their goals totals are 42 for, 50 against in their 33 games.

Leading scorers are 17 year-old Nick Powell (an Academy product, Football League Young Player of the Month for December, tipped for great things, and the subject of considerable interest and a bid from Ipswich – likely to leave, you’d think, in the summer) with 7; Shaun Miller (24), who’s been at Gresty Road since he was 7 (and who came into his own last season with 19 goals, having previously been behind Clayton Donaldson and Calvin Zola in the batting order) with 6, the same as Byron Moore (23), also an Academy product, and finally Ajay Leitch-Smith (21) – yet again, a Crewe player since the age of 7 – with 5; all four listed as strikers, not one of whom cost a penny in fees ……………

They’ve hit 5 once (5-2 at Bristol Rovers on 31st Dec), 4 once (4-1 against the Daggers on 21st Jan), 3 four times (3-1 wins over Oxford and Barnet at home and AFC Wombles away, and a 3-2 win over Plymouth), 2 three times, one on no less than 15 occasions, and they’ve failed to trouble the scorers nine times ………. Not mega-goal scoring ……… No great threat to a side hitting the net for fun ………… And they’ve only kept 6 clean sheets in those 33 games ………….

2009 – 10 we stuffed them 5-3 at our place (Bobby Grant 2, Michael Symes 2 and Andy Proctor) and lost the return 5-1; last season we won 3-2 at home (Charlie Barnett, Ian Craney and Sean McRochdale (?)) and drew 0-0 away; earlier this season we lost 2-0 at home; P5 W2 D1 L2 F9 A12. Hmmmmmm ….. Coley upset Dario Gradi when we met earlier this season by saying that Crewe was the sort of team we should be beating – and he was right – they are.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 4th February. There’ll surely be goals? Maybe goals galore? None of your 0-0s; plenty of (successful!) “wild entries” recently (thanks, Chimer! ). The season’s hotting up, even if my prediction form isn’t. Get your entries in, Ladies and Gentlemen – it’s tight at the top!

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