2023-24 Prediction League; Game 37 v Swindon Town (away)

Div3North · 10-03-2024, 22:34

Swindon Town

V

Accrington Stanley

2023/24 Prediction League Game 37 v Swindon (away)

Starter for Ten; which is the largest town or city in England (by population) never to have had a Football League club? And I’ll give you a clue – it isn’t, as was claimed on FB, Warrington …

And I may be rubbish at guessing the correct score of Stanley matches, but I did get right the suggestion that perhaps Neil Warnock wouldn’t see out the season at Aberdeen … two wins in Cup games, and not a single win in the League …….a bit like the Stanley, really ….. Big Neil lasted 32 days, and was their 4th manager in three years ……… the fans don’t seem to blame him – they blame chairman Dave Cormack, but when words like “horrific”, “nightmare” and “shambles” are being bandied around, you sort of know you’re in trouble ………… and if Mr Cormack wants some tips to follow in his hunt for a 5th manager, and cares to ring me, I can give him the name of a long-serving manager who’s free at the moment, and I’ll get Cashy to give him a reference …….. although Aberdonian Scouse may take some sorting ……………….

And you might want to think about this one, so I’ll give it to you now; there are four League / PrawnSandwich clubs which have in years past each reached the Final of the FA Cup twice when they were second tier or below in the Pyramid; but who are they?

And so; same old, same old ………. Beaten without as much as a whimper, with the Faithless Duo profiting in the PL table ………… looking down the fixtures ahead, you might wonder where our next win is coming from; Sutton (away) looks like a goer, but I for one (and Valairian for two) will likely predict a home win …………. Since we beat Wrexham – a long time ago now – we’ve won four, drawn five and lost nine (including our last four) …….. less than a point a game – and we’re now 16th …………

The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the 1086 Domesday Book as Suindune; it was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. and the original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, now known as Old Town. The Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindon's growth; construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810 and the North Wilts Canal in 1819 brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to grow.

In February 2008, The Times named Swindon as one of the 20 best places to buy a property in Britain: only Warrington had a lower ratio of house prices to household income in 2007, with the average household income in Swindon among the highest in the country. In October 2008, Swindon Council made a controversial move to ban fixed point speed cameras. The move was branded as reckless by some, but by November 2008 various other Councils were also considering the move.

Founded as Swindon AFC in 1879, the club became Spartans the next year, before finally settling on the name Swindon Town in 1883. It turned professional in 1894 as a founding member of the Southern League, winning the Southern League in 1910–11 and 1913–14, before being elected into the Football League in 1920. It remained in the third tier for 43 years, finally securing promotion into the Second Division in 1962–63, where it remained for just two seasons; they lifted the League Cup after beating Arsenal in the 1969 final, and went on to secure promotion at the end of the 1968–69 season with the help of talismanic winger Don Rogers..

They then had a long unsuccessful period culminating in them being relegated in 1982 to the Fourth Division; they were eventually promoted as champions in 1986 with the club achieving a Football League record of 102 points, the second club to score over 100 points in a season, York City having totalled 101 two years earlier. A year later they won the Third Division play-offs to achieve a second successive promotion. Promotion campaign Manager Lou Macari left in 1989 to take charge of West Ham United with veteran midfielder, and former Argentine international, Ossie Ardiles replacing him. In his first season, Swindon were Second Division play-off winners, but the club later admitted 36 charges of breaching league rules, 35 due to illegal payments made to players, and were relegated to the Third Division — giving Sunderland promotion to the First Division and Tranmere Rovers to the Second Division, although a later appeal saw Swindon Town being allowed to stay in the Second Division

Ardiles remained in charge until March 1991, when he departed for Newcastle United and was succeeded by new player-manager Glenn Hoddle. Swindon progressed well during the 1991–92 season, Hoddle's first full season as manager, and just missed out on the Second Division play-offs, having briefly led the table in the autumn. A year later they beat Leicester City 4–3 in the new Division One play-off final to achieve promotion to the Premier League — bringing top-division football to the club for the first time.

Starter for Ten number Three; Lou Macari wasn’t actually christened “Lou”; what is his real given first name?

Swindon were most recently relegated to League Two at the end of season 2021/22, five points and some goals from safety and having lost 29 of 46 and conceded 89 goals for a GD of -34 – both of which were the worst in League One …………. Majority shareholder and Chairman is now Aussie businessman Clem Morfuni (“G’day blue”); manager Michael Flynn was sacked in mid-January and current interim Head Coach appears to be Gavin Jude Gunning; and as at now they’re 18th in the table with a record of P37 W11 D11 L15 GF63 GA66 on 44 points ………this is another team below us (by two points), but read nothing into that – we can lose to anyone in the League with equal ease ……….

They’ve played twelve games since the turn of the year, winning two (Bradford 2-0 at home, and Tranmere 3-2, also at home), drawing five and losing five ………. That said, they came to ours in November, and after 89 mins they were 4-0 up ……… we scored on 90+2, 90+7 and 90+10, but to no avail …………. All we got out of the game was six yellow cards …. Daniel Kemp and Jake Young have 16 goals each, and Charlie Austin (remember him? The Six-Million Dollar Man) has 12

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45 pm on Tuesday 12th March ………….. head-to-head is 3 wins, one draw and five losses, although we did beat them twice in their relegation season (2020/21) ……….. they ProperSigned five in the Transfer window – GK Jack Bycroft from the Saints, striker Paul Glatzel from Liverpool, CB Pharrell Johnson from Forest, Irish CF Aaron Drinan from Leyton Orient, and LW Sean McGurk from Leeds, plus they Loan Signed four more …. And prior to our last four games/defeats I might have been upbeat, suggesting that this was a “could well win it” game ….. but now I don’t know that’s true ……….

And the largest City never to have had a Professional FL side is Wakefield (population 345,000 - comfortably larger than Nottingham, Newcastle and Sunderland, which have two European Cups, 11 top flight titles, 10 FA Cups and four League Cups between them) ....and Southampton (Southern League) reached the FA Cup Final in 1900 (v Bury) and 1902 (v Sheffield United) (and they also won the Cup in 1976 against Manchester United as a Second Division team) .... Barnsley were up next, losing to top-flight Newcastle in 1910 and beating West Brom two years later. ..... West Ham won promotion to the First Division in the 1922/23 season and also competed in the 1923 White Horse final, losing 2-0 to Bolton; they were well outside the Division 2 promotion places in 1979/80, mind, but who in the East End cared when Trevor Brooking stooped to conquer Arsenal in a sweltering Wembley final? .... And the final finalists to complete this lower-league double whammy were Sunderland, who defeated Leeds in the 1973 Bob Stokoe Trilby Final, but sadly lost 2-0 to Liverpool in 1992, when John Byrne tripped over his own twinkletoes when it looked far easier to score ………………..and Lou Macari is actually Luigi Macari (true!)

Good luck to Anyone Who’s Still Playing! ……. Find the Faith! …………. And thanks for still being here; if I didn’t write this cr*p, I’d probably have gone long ago!