2012 Prediction League; Game8 v Aldershot Town (home)

Div3North · 19-09-2012, 22:50

Accrington Stanley

V

Aldershot Town

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 8; v Aldershot (home)

I’m prepared to bet that Shots’ striker Danny Hylton won’t forget October 2011 in a hurry

; League Two Player of the Month (scoring 6 in 5 games) - followed in November and December by Billy Kee and Bryan Hughes

respectively - he seemingly got involved in an incident during their game at Barnet, found himself charged by the FA with two counts of racial abuse, and was banned for 8 games and fined £1000 following a hearing in May

; he appealed, lost, and had £1000 more added to the bill for costs of the appeal

. His ban ran out with last Saturday’s game, and he was in the starting line-up last night in their 1-0 win against – you couldn’t make it up, could you

– Barnet! He didn’t score, but as far as I know he kept his nose clean too ………….

Question of the week, then; who were the visitors to “The EBB Stadium at the Recreation Ground” – snappy title or what? - when they recorded their biggest crowd of 2012?

It wasn’t a football team, of course; His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, 77, the 14th Dalai Lama

(with many of his followers) appeared there on the 21st June; Aldershot has a large Nepalese community (think Ghurkha soldiers), and His Holiness was there to deliver a talk on “non-violence, dialogue and universal responsibility” during an eight-day tour of the UK

. And to record a half-time team talk on the same issues as well, no doubt ……….

Aldershot Town gained League status in 2007 – 8 under Gary Waddock, 16 years after the demise of the old Aldershot FC, winning the Conference with a record 101 points

and undefeated in their last 18; they also won the Conference League Cup as well, beating Rushden and Diamonds on penalties after a 3-3 draw aet. Their first game as a League club was at the Crown Ground against us; there was some inevitability to their 1-0 win

, with a free kick over the wall scored by midfielder Scott Donnelly, who later left them to join Swansea, moving on to Wycombe on loan ………….And who have the Shots just re-signed? Correct. Scott Donnelly. Don’t let him take any free kicks just outside our box, please ……

Out during the summer went 29 year old skipper (and last season’s Player of the Year), central defender Darren Jones, turning down a new contract at Aldershot for a “No Brainer” (his words) move to Shrewsbury; defender Anthony Straker (23) – who was called up to the Barbados national squad in 2008 and made his international debut three years later for Grenada

– moved to Southend after 5 years and almost 200 games; Cameroon born striker Guy Madjo (28) - whose career would make a 13 part series for Channel 5

(it includes Petersfield Town, Stafford Rangers, Chinese League One side Guangdong Sunray Cave

(for whom he scored 10 in 18) and Albanian Superliga side KS Bylis Ballsh

, scoring in the first minute of his debut and also getting sent off – went to Plymouth on a month’s loan; anyone know the Albanian for, “Over ‘ere, son, on mi’ ‘ead”?

; new captain Ben Herd re-signed, as did GK Jamie Young (27), Australian born of Scottish/Sri Lankan parents …………..No qualification problems there, then ……….

In came quite a few; 32 year old defender Anthony Tonkin, whose career began with Mousehole

(no, honestly

) before he went to Yeovil, Stockport, Crewe, Forest Green, and both Oxford and Cambridge (bright lad!

); MF Josh Payne (21) also signed from Oxford; Olly Lancashire – 23, a CB with the Saints and the Saddlers, put pen to paper (his major claim to fame is being red-carded after 29 mins of his Southampton debut v QPR - one of 3 he got in 15 games, not counting the one against us during his second game on loan at Grimsby); CB Troy Brown (21) – a Welsh u17/u19/u21 international, with the Tractor Boys and the Millers on his CV (presumably he’ll go into farming when he gives up football

) joined, and so did former Leyton Orient and Southend GK Glenn Morris (28) and 33 year-old defender Guy Branston, who’s played for every team in the whole world

– well, 19 of them anyway, several twice; finally, Craig Stanley (29), a MF with Hereford, Morecambe and Bristol Rovers under his belt, signed, and then broke his leg in a pre-season friendly against Woking

; first choice GK Ross Worner (22) is still out with a back problem, having been injured after 22 appearances in 2011/12 and still not being fit; and Craig Kevin P Reid – no idea what the P stands for – unless it’s silent, as in “bath”

– who cost Stevenage £90k when they signed him from Newport in 2011 (he’d played there under Shots’ current manager Dean Holdsworth), he having scored 66 in 112 in the Principality – moved on to Hampshire for “an undisclosed five-figure fee”; three on loan – Blackburn’s ex Orient and Aberdeen (for whom his only appearance was as an 88th minute sub

) defender Myles Anderson (whose agent dad James “has connections to” the Venkys, resulting in questions being asked about the signing); Hull’s Sonny Bradley (20, defender), who has also played for Harrogate Town and Swedish 3rd Division side IK Frej and is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt ………no, not that sort of Brazilian

…………… Crystal Palace’s Kwesi Appiah (22) competes the line-up.

In their 4 years in the League they’ve finished 15th, 6th, 14th and 11th; they’ve made Round Two of the FA Cup every year, but never Round 3

; three times they’ve gone out of the Football League Trophy (Tinpot) in Round 2, and once they didn’t do that well; and they’ve gone out of the Carling in Round One every year except last year, when they stuck it to West Ham, Carlisle and Rochdale before losing to Man U

. Their League Two Playoff year saw them lose 3-0 on aggregate to Rotherham in the Semis, the Millers in turn losing to the Daggers.

They departed this year’s CapOne (Carling) Cup on penalties, 7-6, against Wolves after a 1-1 draw; they won through the JPT meeting with Exeter (0-0) 4-3 on penalties, giving them an away tie at Plymouth (who they’ve already beaten away this season). League wins by 2-0 at Home Park and 1-0 at home to Barnet last night; draws - 2-2 at Bristol Rovers and 0-0 at home to Morecambe; defeats (three in a row) by 2-1 (Exeter) and 1-0 (Cheltenham) at home, and a bit of a drubbing (4-1) at The Cod Army; League form – home – W1 D1 L2 F2 A3; away – W1 D1 L1 F5 A6; overall, P7 W2 D2 L3 F7 A9 for 8 points and 18th place. Beware, though; they don’t score at home, but it’s a 1 and two 2s away ………..

Having lost our first League meeting, we then lost the next two as well, both away, and both by 3-1 – our goal in 2008/9 coming from Craig Lindfield (his first for the Stanley), and in 2009/10 from Lord Sunbeds of Rochdale . After that, though, things improved; we won 2-1 at home in 2009/10, drew 0-0 at home and 1-1 away (Rory Boulding) the season after, and last year we drew 0-0 away, and won 3-2 at home, goals from Hess, Danny Coid, and a cracker from Charlie Barnett with 2 mins left

(their two scored by one Danny Hylton). P8 W2 D3 L3 F8 A11 Pts9 – but we haven’t actually lost to them since August 2009 …………

They have, to date, 8 goals in 9 games (including the Cups); 2 twice, one 4 times and nil three times; that said, they’ve kept four clean sheets, letting in 2 twice, one twice, and a disappointing 4 at Fleetwood (a bit like our ‘disappointing four’ at Chesterfield). Their main goal threats (excluding Danny Hylton, who hasn’t – for obvious reasons – scored yet this season) are Craig Reid with 3 in 9 games, plus one each from Troy Brown, Josh Payne, Alex Rodman, Michael Rankine and an OG

As always the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 22nd September. Someone, surely, has to get a smacking sometime soon, the way we’re playing

; is this it? Will Team Cookie – rapidly becoming the 2nd biggest squad in England after Man U

(how are we managing to pay the wages, or are they on Commission only?) - keep us in the Playoffs? “Oh Yes”

, I hear you shout. Keep the Faith …….. Wear the shirt ……….Eat the Pie!

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