Accrington Web - Prediction League Game 28; Hereford (home)

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Hereford United

Prediction League – Game 28; v Hereford (home)

When your League 2 position as at New Year’s Eve is P20 W3 D6 L11 F20 A38, for 15 points and last place, it’s likely that you might hit the transfer window and the loan market to bolster your chances; Jamie Pitman (confirmed as full time boss in December) did just that – they’ve currently got 6 loan players and 3 recent signings – all in the last 2 months – including strikers Jason Price (33) from Carlisle, Waide Fairhurst (21) from Doncaster, ex Rapid Bucharest, Lincoln and Leyton Orient Adrian Patulea (26) from Romania, and Jake Jervis from Birmingham; the midfield is boosted by Steve Leslie (23) from Shrewsbury, Rob Purdie from Oldham and free agent Frenchman Wesley Ngo Baheng (ex Le Havre and Newcastle), and the defence picked up former FC Eindhoven and Oldham defender, Dutchman Stefan Stam from Yeovil and Daniel Preston from Birmingham. The impact has been considerable; they now lie 21st – 4 points above Burton (who have 2 games in hand), and 6 above both Barnet and Stockport, over both of whom they in turn have 3 games in hand; of their last 16 League games they’ve won 7, drawn 5 and lost just 4, and have added 26 points (now 41) and 23 goals. You’d have to say they look safe ……….

At home, they’ve only won twice :o; no-one can match that – even Stockport have won 4! Away, though, they’ve won 8 of 18 :confused:, and only the top 5 times in the Division can match or beat that, so Wednesday isn’t a formality. Their record in March is slipping a little, that said; a 1-0 win at Stevenage, a 1-1 draw at Port Vale, and 3 defeats – 3-0 at home to Bury, 2-1 at home to Barnet, and 4-0 at Southend – scored 3, conceded 10, 4 points collected; our March record is 3 wins, 3 draws and just one loss :D (our only loss in 10 games :D:D)

73 goals conceded and 56 goals scored in 43 games; they’ve shipped 4 in a match 5 times (4-0 defeats at Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and Southend, and 4-1 defeats at the Owls in the 4th Round FA Cup game, and also at home to Stevenage); 5 goals scored twice (away at Stockport and at home to Hythe United in the FA Cup Round 1, neither of which really counts); 4-3 at Lincoln in the FA Cup 2nd Round replay and the same score at Northampton (from 3-0 down); 3 goals in a game 3 times; 2 goals 7 times; a singleton on 15 occasions; nothing scored 14 times. No more than one goal in 29 of their 43 matches could be viewed as encouraging, since we’ve got a scoring record of 11 for and 5 against in our last 7 ………..

The main contributors to the 56 scored are Stuart Fleetwood – ex everyone, really (including us, briefly) – with 15, former Le Havre striker Mathieu “The Beast” Manset – now departed permanently to Reading – with 13, Oldham’s midfielder Rob Purdie with 5 and Joe Colbeck, once of Bradford City and Oldham, with 4; eight others have 3, 2 or 1, including Waide Fairhurst, who has 3 from 9 games.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Wednesday 30th March (I assume that’s because Hereford have a Sunday game against Crewe). An important game, we might all think, and – as well – a chance to improve the poor record we have against them in the League; W1 D2 L4 of the 7 played – our only win being in March 07 at home, when David Brown and Peter Cavanagh scored in our 2-0 triumph. We need this, and I doubt it’ll be 8-2 :p (although I live in hope! :D); surely a three-pointer, but by what score? Get predicting, Ladies and Gents; 9 games left!

Scores already posted before the postponement on 22nd January will, of course, stand, unless you want to change your guess; in either case it’s ……………..

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

:alright: