Accrington Web - Prediction League Game 29; Crewe Alexandra (away)

Crewe Alexandra

Accrington Stanley

Prediction League – Game 29; v Crewe Alex (away)

One of two sides which – through postponements – we still haven’t played this season (Burton Albion being the other), Crewe are sitting nicely in the League, right in the play-off mix; they’re currently 6th, with 38 points from 25 and the best goal difference in the Division apart from Chesterfield (with whom, you’ll remember, they drew 5-5 back in October). To be fair, 4 points cover the places from Rotherham (41 points from 24) in 3rd down to and including Cheltenham (37 points from 25 in 9th place), so it’s tight at the top …….. Their home form at Gresty Road is P12 W6 D3 L3 F26 A11, against our away form of P13 W2 D7 L4 F11 A19; perhaps this time we aren’t the form team. :o

Since the postponed first game between us on Boxing Day they’ve played 6 (and have a game against Bradford this Tuesday); of those 6 they’ve won 4 and lost 2, but the bad news is that those 4 wins include all 3 home games (Northampton 2-0, Wycombe 3-0 and Port Vale 2-1); they’ve only conceded that one goal in their 4 wins, but 5 in the two losses – 2-1 at Torquay and 3-2 yesterday at Aldershot, although – until their defence went walkies - they looked good for the points there as well.

Not many January changes in personnel, but Calvin “Couldn’t Hit The Floor With His Hat” Zola seems to have fallen spectacularly from grace, from goal-scoring hero – it’s not very long ago that Dario Gradi was saying that Zola ‘wasn’t going anywhere’ in the January transfer window (in which case why didn't he play him?) - to "surplus to requirements", and he’s just been signed by Burton Albion (which probably saves him moving house, anyway :)), having been courted by Northampton (who then promptly signed the prolific (76 goals in 245 games) 26 year old striker Shaun Harrad from Burton instead).

They’ve scored 58 in 30 matches in all competitions; leading scorers (the good ones tend to hunt in pairs) are Clayton Donaldson (with 15) and Shaun Miller (with 12); eleven other players are on the list as well, including 20 year old midfielder Ashley Westwood with 5, and striker Byron Moore and defender David Artell have 4 each, but none of those three have scored since the turn of the year.

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 29th January. How many other games are there where Stanley and Alexandra can play against each other on equal terms? (Answers on a postcard to Chimer, please ;) ) Last season’s games finished 5-3 :D and 1-5 :mad:; will something similar happen again? If so, which way? Who’ll be smiling (:)) come 5pm? It might be you, if you guess the score right – and it’s getting tough at the top ……..

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

:alright: