[Div3North]

Accrington Stanley

V

Crawley Town

2011 Prediction League – Game 46; v Crawley (home)

Come on, it’s not that difficult ; if Crawley win, they go up whatever Torquay and Southend do; if Crawley draw, they still go up unless Torquay win (in which case they go up), or – if Torquay (who must really be sick as a flock of parrots about Crewe’s 93rd minute goal last Saturday ) draw or lose and Southend win - Southend go up instead; if Crawley lose and Torquay draw, then Torquay go up unless Southend win, in which case it’s them ; if Crawley and Torquay both lose and Southend draw, then Southend go up on goal difference; if all three draw, it’s Crawley; if all three lose, it’s still Crawley. For my money, Southend have the best of it; they play Macclesfield at home (I wonder if Harry turned England down so he could take over at Moss Rose? ); Crawley, as we know, have a date with destiny among the dark satanic mills , and Torquay go to Hereford, who did it unto Crawley big style just a week since ……………..

They’ve made some money selling strikers this season, have Crawley, but at what cost? They bought Salisbury’s Matt Tubbs (27) for £55k, and sold him to Bournemouth in January for a reputed £800k; Tyrone Barnett arrived from Macclesfield (good move, Son! ) and went to Peterborough; Wes Thomas came in from Cheltenham and almost immediately went out to the Cherries. If I tell you their list of goalscorers has 25 names on it , would you be surprised? So would I – but it does!

They signed Irish u21 striker Billy Clarke (24) from Blackpool; on loan, in came Arsenal’s Sanchez Watt (20, also a striker), ex Walsall, Raith, Hereford, Carlisle, Preston, Cobblers and Colchester striker Karl Hawley (30) from Notts Co, Brentford (and ex Hull, Leyton Orient and Millwall) striker Gary Alexander (32), and Leon Clarke (27) – who, just this season, has been with Swindon (briefly! ), Chesterfield (on loan), Charlton (who he signed for in January) and Crawley (on loan from March); striker, striker, striker, striker and striker …………….. is there a theme developing here? ……..Oh, and 31 year-old defender Warren Cummins from Bournemouth ……….. Out on loan went ex Cod Army defender Charlie Wassmer (20), and John Akinde (22) – ex Ebbsfleet and Bristol City – who both joined the Daggers (as Akinde did last year, from Bristol City); 1 goal in 25 games, as a striker, isn’t going to get your name first place on the team sheet …….no wonder we sold him when we all owned Ebbsfleet …… and picked the team ………… Not!

At the moment their record is P45 W22 D15 L8 F75 A54 for 81 points and 3rd place (with a better goal difference than Torquay by +21 to +14); away, they’re on 8 wins, 10 draws and 4 defeats, having scored 28 but conceded 29; 34 points in 22 games may explain why joint owner Susan Carter insists it won’t be the "end of the world" if they fail to clinch automatic promotion from League Two (yes it will, Missus ). Their last 6 games (4 at home) have yielded 2 wins, 3 draws (all by 1-1, at Dagenham and home to the Wombles and to Crewe), and one defeat (3-0 at home to the Bulls last week ); 6 games, 9 points …….. Southend must be licking their lips in anticipation ………

They had the unique distinction of winning the first ever Carling Cup preliminary round game (against AFC Wombles by 3-2), but then went out in the First Round proper at Crystal Palace 2-0; the JPT did them no better – losing 1-0 at Roots Hall in the First Round. The FA Cup run saw wins at Bury (2-0), at home to Redbridge (5-0), and at home to Bristol City (1-0), before losing 2-0 in Round 4 against Stoke. 86 goals in all competitions, 25 scorers; main amongst them are (were) Matt Tubbs with 17, Tyrone Barnett (whose career began at Rushall Olympic, Telford, Willenhall Town and Hednesford before his one season at Macc (13 goals in 49 games), part of a season at Crawley (14 in 26) and a bit of a season at the Posh (4 in 12)) with 14, Gary Alexander (14 in 36 games for the Bees) with 7, and Argentinian Sergio Torres (28), who left Banfield de Mar del Plata to try his luck in England, and finished up at Wycombe and Peterborough , who has 4.

We haven’t played them in the League before this season, and 1-1 away (whatever that nice Mr Evans had to say) was a decent result (Peter Murphy giving us the lead just before half time); bragging rights still available

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 5th May. We’ve only lost one in five against them if you include Conference games, and Morecambe stuffed them; their 22 away League games have ended with them scoring 5 once, 3 once, 2 five times, 1 ten times and 0 on five occasions; not promotion form, do I hear you say? You could be right ……………… Not all of us can win the PL title, but we can get into training for next season; and anyway, it occurs to me that it’s ‘appen a good thing we haven’t got a season ticket as a prize this year, since the current competition leader supports Someone Else …….. Shame on him! Get your entries in, Guys and Gals ………. The Silver and Bronze might still be within reach!

On a personal note, since this is the last game of the season, can I thank everyone for playing, for your (occasional) kind comments, for the friendly abuse, and for the craic generally; huge thanks and praise for my mate Chimer for all his efforts doing the bit I could never have done; and to all the new friends I’ve made this year – thanks for everything. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had an absolute blast ……………..See you in August!


For the final time this season, good luck to everyone ………… and thanks for playing!