Accrington Web - 2011 Prediction League; Game 8 Rotherham Utd (home)

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Rotherham United

Prediction League – Game 8; v Rotherham (home)

Tell you what, they don’t half get through some strikers at Rotherham :o; last season they shifted out Drewe Broughton (who’s just gone to Alfreton in the BSP); this year they released Tom Pope, who promptly signed for Port Vale (where he was on loan last season), Ian Thomas-Moore (who only joined from Tranmere in January), 12-goal Ryan Taylor, who turned down a new contract and signed instead for Bristol City, and, of course, Kevin Long’s best mate Adam le Fondre ;) (correctly, Glenville Adam J le Fondre :o), who joined Reading for £350,000 – presumably to replace Shane Long, who in turn moved to West Brom; the Royals certainly need someone up front (4 straight defeats, 23rd place, 4 points and just 6 goals in 7 games!). They also released 6, perhaps the best known being winger Kevin Ellison, who now plies his trade at Morecambe (and got one of their goals yesterday :)), and – as well as Ryan Taylor – lost Nicky Law to the SPL’s Motherwell despite having offered him new terms; apparently the lure of Fir Park was too great; can’t actually see the attraction, but what do I know?

If you’re going to get rid of all your leading goalscorers, of course you need some more; in came Alex Revell from Leyton Orient, ex Millwall striker Lewis Grabban from Brentford – manager Andy Scott’s former club, who sacked him in February despite him being a former player (143 games for the Bees), allowing him to step into Ronnie Moore’s shoes at the Don Valley in April last when he in turn got dumped; former Brighton frontman Chris Holroyd, who got a very respectable 7 in 16 games on loan at Stevenage and Bury last year, and Brett Williams, signed on loan from Reading (presumably to make up the odd few quid on the bill for Glenville Adam J le Fallover). In also came ex Iron centre back Michael Raynes (who spent 6 years at Stockport before that), former Fulham and Ipswich defender Troy Brown, Stevenage defender Luke Foster, midfielders Gareth Evans from Bradford City and Ben Pringle from Derby, and Leicester’s former Republic of Ireland u21 keeper Conrad Logan on loan; he was injured against Swindon in a first minute crash with two other players, which left him with his nose broken and some teeth smashed, but he played the whole game anyway; they breed ‘em tough in Leicester! And he started against Dagenham - respect! :) Andy Scott, by the way, won Manager of the Month for August ……..

We’ve met 8 times in the League in the four years since they came down; we’ve won twice – 1-0 at their place on an early March Saturday in 2008 (Ian Craney getting the goal), and 2-1 at Fortress Crown on a Tuesday in the middle of March 2010 (Michael Symes and Jimmy Ryan); in March 2009 we drew 0-0 at the Don Valley Stadium. Are you getting the subtext here? If we don’t play them in March, forget it - our record’s played 5 lost 5, with only 3 goals in those 5 games. And we lost both games last season. Overall, P8 W2 D1 L5 F6 A11. Not pretty. Time it changed …….:o

They currently lie 2nd on goal difference behind Morecambe, who welcomed Crawley to the real world big style yesterday (6-0) :D; P7 W5 D1 L1 F17 A8 Pts 16. Home wins over Oxford, Gillingham and the Daggers (1-0, 3-0 and 3-1) and a 2-2 home draw with Barnet; away wins over Plymouth (4-1 – remember I mentioned how many teams I suspected might do that to Argyle? :confused:), Crewe 2-1, and a 3-2 loss last week to Paolo di Canio’s Swindon (you do wonder how long he’ll last there – my guess is that he’ll push the Chairman over during a televised game and get an 11 game ban and his cards) ;). Swindon, Crewe and Plymouth lie 13th, 15th and 24th, with a total of 6 wins among them so far (two of those yesterday, because they were lying 18th, 20th and 24th before Saturday's matches); not quite so scary, maybe …………

Out of the Carling in Round One (4-1 at home to Leicester, their ‘one’ also being scored by Leicester), they play Sheffield Utd at home in Round 2 of the JPT (tasty!). In their 7 League games they’ve hit 17 goals (of which 12 have come in the second half – it was 12 of 14!); le Fondre, Gareth Evans and Lewis Grabban have 4 each , Alex Revell 2, and Pringle, Brown and Danny Harrison one each; all of them, apart from the departed le Fondre, and midfielder Harrison, joined over the summer; new brooms or what!

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 13th September. Tight game? 11 goal thriller? Punch up on the side lines? Red cards galore? Lots of penalties? – oh no, he’s been sold to Reading :) …………… Who knows? Not me, on current form ………

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

:alright: