2023-24 Prediction League; Game 27 v Gillingham FC (home)

Div3North · 11-01-2024, 21:25

Accrington Stanley

V

Gillingham FC

2023/24 Prediction League Game 27 v Gillingham (home)

On 11th October 2023, 5’9”- tall Wayne Rooney made his return to English football as manager of Birmingham City on a three-and-a-half year contract. On his debut ten days later, he lost 1–0 at Middlesbrough, managed by his former United and England team mate Michael Carrick. He earned one point from his first five games, seeing his team fall from 6th to 18th in the table, and earned his first victory as Brum manager with a 2–1 defeat of bottom side Sheffield Wednesday on 25 November 2023. On 2 January 2024, Rooney was sacked by the club after winning just twice in 15 matches, leaving Birmingham in 20th position.: not a thrilling tenure - 83 days, 2 wins in 15 …………….. no surprise he’s toast, but I can’t decide if a load of Brummies couldn't understand him, or if he’s really just a cr*p manager ………… as the Merry-go-round turned, and the horses went up and down, he was replaced by Tony Mowbray ……… never mind, Wayne, just think of the contractual pay-off - nearly as much as Colleen got from that nice Mrs Vardy in Court costs!

Anthony Mark Mowbray is a fairly safe pair of hands; his playing career took in Ipswich, Celtic and Middlesbrough (553 league games), Middlesbrough skipper at just 22 (and the fans nicknamed him “Mogga”), he managed the Championship winning side in 2007/08, and the second placed side in League One ten years later …………… BUT (Starter for Ten) …. not counting a few days as interim manager of Ipswich, how many league clubs has MarkAnthony managed? Shouldn’t be hard, this one; 858 games under his belt as at 2nd December last, 354 wins (41.26%) ……………….and I’ll give you Blackburn Rovers as a freebie …………..

Still on managers, Colchester appointed Danny Cowley to their vacant job (and his brother, Aunt Fanny, second cousin, milkman and wife); last Saturday they went 2-0 down at Swindon, but stuck in there and took a good point ………… and Salford MoneyBags went for ex-Oxford boss Karl Robinson, and on the same day they fought out a “fiery draw” (as per the BBC) at home to Vegan Greenpeace - 1-0 up on 4 mins, and they got a point with a 91st minute penalty …. oh, and Robinson got red-carded by the ref (Charles Breakspear) after 15 minutes for “delaying the re-start of play” (I assume he stuck the match ball up his jumper and legged it ….) ………. Vegan Greenpeace, by the way, haven’t won in ten …………. ex Notts County boss Luke Williams now manages Swansea, and Plymouth have Ian Foster as their new Head Coach; he comes with a pedigree including having worked for the Football Association across a variety of age groups (he worked as a coach for the World Cup-winning England Under-17 side before managing the Under-18s, Under-19s, Under-20s, and was an assistant to Phil Neville with the Lionesses. He has also had a spell alongside Paul Cook at Portsmouth, and played an instrumental role in their title winning 2016/17 season. Formerly a player for the likes of Hereford United and Kidderminster Harriers, Foster joins the Pilgrims after most recently being Assistant Manager at Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia, alongside - or underneath - Stevie G

Second Starter for Ten, to keep you on your toes; between 1970 and 1974 (inclusive) the FA decided to stage a play-off match between the two losing FA Cup semi-finalists for the (very dubious) honour of being 3rd in the competition …………….. Man Utd won the first one (2-0 over Watford), Stoke the second (3-2 against Everton before 5031 fans at Selhurst Park), then Birmingham beat Stoke, Wolves beat Arsenal, and Burnley rounded off the fiasco with a 1-0 win over Leicester at Filbert Street before a crowd - using the term loosely - of 4432 ….. the idea was then quietly (but wisely) buried ………………… but what unrepeatable historic moment occurred in the Birmingham v Stoke game in August 1972?

And I haven’t seen any mention of the fact that we’ve done the double over Salford (first chance to “double” anyone this season) by an aggregate score of 5-1 (2-1 away, 3-0 at home) … Come on Us!

Gillingham, when we met at theirs in August, were managed by Neil Harris, but he got totalled on 5th October, and now they have Ray Clemence’s lad Stephen (as of November 1st) … their only other “new arrival” since we played them was RW Connor Mahoney (who I see is the same height as Rooney) on a season-long loan from Huddersfield; he played for us, of course (6 times in total!) in 2013, but has been a regular in the Gills side ………. in their first four games of the season they beat Stockport, us, Sutton and Crawley (all 1-0) to top the League, but since the reverse fixtures have started they lost at home to Crawley, beat Sutton a second time, and now have to play us and in February they play league-leaders Stockport ……… The Gills are now 11th (below us on GD) with a record of P25 W12 D2 L11 GF21 GA30 and 38 points …. they’re plumb last on goals scored, but fourth on goals against, behind Mansfield, Barrow and Los Womblos …….. they’ve also drawn a blank in the “GF” column eight times so far in the League

They met Hereford and Charlton in the first rounds of the FA Cup, winning both 2-0, but then the Blades cut them down (see what I did there?) 4-0 in Round 3; they beat Southampton in the EFL Cup, but then lost at Luton ( I think that might have been “got lost trying to find Luton”); and they didn’t get out of the group stage of the Troffy, finishing behind Pompey, and Fulham u8s ….. top League goal scorer appears to be Ashley Nardesan with two (???)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 13th January …………having topped the League after eight games with 6 wins and 18 points, their more recent 17 games have yielded a measly 20 points, although they’ve won their last two ………….. I think we might be on to something here (although other results are available) …. And MarkAnthonyMowbray has managed Hibs, The Baggies, Celtic, Middlesbrough, Coventry, Blackburn, Sunderland and now The Brummies …… eight clubs in all (so far - he’s only 60) …………. and the unrepeatable historic moment in the FA Cup 3rd place play-off in 1972 was that Birmingham won 4-3 on pens after a Goalless Desmond - seemingly the first FA Cup tie ever decided on penalties

Good luck to everyone! …………… Keep the Faith! ……………. And thanks for playing!

Div3North · 12-01-2024, 00:48

Kiwi is apparently off on some remote remake of Thelma and Louise in the wilder parts of NZ, but he sent me pre-predictions by PM. It is his belief - poor deluded fellow - that the Stanley will win this game 2-0

COYR