Accrington Web - 2012 Prediction League; Game8 v Aldershot Town (home)

Accrington Stanley

Aldershot Town

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 8; v Aldershot (home)

I’m prepared to bet that Shots’ striker Danny Hylton won’t forget October 2011 in a hurry :o; League Two Player of the Month (scoring 6 in 5 games) - followed in November and December by Billy Kee :) and Bryan Hughes :D respectively - he seemingly got involved in an incident during their game at Barnet, found himself charged by the FA with two counts of racial abuse, and was banned for 8 games and fined £1000 following a hearing in May :(; he appealed, lost, and had £1000 more added to the bill for costs of the appeal :eek:. His ban ran out with last Saturday’s game, and he was in the starting line-up last night in their 1-0 win against – you couldn’t make it up, could you :rolleyes: – Barnet! He didn’t score, but as far as I know he kept his nose clean too ………….:p

Question of the week, then; who were the visitors to “The EBB Stadium at the Recreation Ground” – snappy title or what? - when they recorded their biggest crowd of 2012?

It wasn’t a football team, of course; His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, 77, the 14th Dalai Lama :) (with many of his followers) appeared there on the 21st June; Aldershot has a large Nepalese community (think Ghurkha soldiers), and His Holiness was there to deliver a talk on “non-violence, dialogue and universal responsibility” during an eight-day tour of the UK :confused:. And to record a half-time team talk on the same issues as well, no doubt ……….:D

Aldershot Town gained League status in 2007 – 8 under Gary Waddock, 16 years after the demise of the old Aldershot FC, winning the Conference with a record 101 points :) and undefeated in their last 18; they also won the Conference League Cup as well, beating Rushden and Diamonds on penalties after a 3-3 draw aet. Their first game as a League club was at the Crown Ground against us; there was some inevitability to their 1-0 win :mad:, with a free kick over the wall scored by midfielder Scott Donnelly, who later left them to join Swansea, moving on to Wycombe on loan ………….And who have the Shots just re-signed? Correct. Scott Donnelly. Don’t let him take any free kicks just outside our box, please ……:rolleyes:

Out during the summer went 29 year old skipper (and last season’s Player of the Year), central defender Darren Jones, turning down a new contract at Aldershot for a “No Brainer” (his words) move to Shrewsbury; defender Anthony Straker (23) – who was called up to the Barbados national squad in 2008 and made his international debut three years later for Grenada ;) – moved to Southend after 5 years and almost 200 games; Cameroon born striker Guy Madjo (28) - whose career would make a 13 part series for Channel 5 :p (it includes Petersfield Town, Stafford Rangers, Chinese League One side Guangdong Sunray Cave :cool: (for whom he scored 10 in 18) and Albanian Superliga side KS Bylis Ballsh :cool:, scoring in the first minute of his debut and also getting sent off – went to Plymouth on a month’s loan; anyone know the Albanian for, “Over ‘ere, son, on mi’ ‘ead”? :p; new captain Ben Herd re-signed, as did GK Jamie Young (27), Australian born of Scottish/Sri Lankan parents …………..No qualification problems there, then ……….

In came quite a few; 32 year old defender Anthony Tonkin, whose career began with Mousehole :D (no, honestly :p:p) before he went to Yeovil, Stockport, Crewe, Forest Green, and both Oxford and Cambridge (bright lad! ;)); MF Josh Payne (21) also signed from Oxford; Olly Lancashire – 23, a CB with the Saints and the Saddlers, put pen to paper (his major claim to fame is being red-carded after 29 mins of his Southampton debut v QPR - one of 3 he got in 15 games, not counting the one against us during his second game on loan at Grimsby); CB Troy Brown (21) – a Welsh u17/u19/u21 international, with the Tractor Boys and the Millers on his CV (presumably he’ll go into farming when he gives up football :)) joined, and so did former Leyton Orient and Southend GK Glenn Morris (28) and 33 year-old defender Guy Branston, who’s played for every team in the whole world :D – well, 19 of them anyway, several twice; finally, Craig Stanley (29), a MF with Hereford, Morecambe and Bristol Rovers under his belt, signed, and then broke his leg in a pre-season friendly against Woking :(; first choice GK Ross Worner (22) is still out with a back problem, having been injured after 22 appearances in 2011/12 and still not being fit; and Craig Kevin P Reid – no idea what the P stands for – unless it’s silent, as in “bath” :p – who cost Stevenage £90k when they signed him from Newport in 2011 (he’d played there under Shots’ current manager Dean Holdsworth), he having scored 66 in 112 in the Principality – moved on to Hampshire for “an undisclosed five-figure fee”; three on loan – Blackburn’s ex Orient and Aberdeen (for whom his only appearance was as an 88th minute sub :)) defender Myles Anderson (whose agent dad James “has connections to” the Venkys, resulting in questions being asked about the signing); Hull’s Sonny Bradley (20, defender), who has also played for Harrogate Town and Swedish 3rd Division side IK Frej and is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt ………no, not that sort of Brazilian :D…………… Crystal Palace’s Kwesi Appiah (22) competes the line-up.

In their 4 years in the League they’ve finished 15th, 6th, 14th and 11th; they’ve made Round Two of the FA Cup every year, but never Round 3 :o; three times they’ve gone out of the Football League Trophy (Tinpot) in Round 2, and once they didn’t do that well; and they’ve gone out of the Carling in Round One every year except last year, when they stuck it to West Ham, Carlisle and Rochdale before losing to Man U ;). Their League Two Playoff year saw them lose 3-0 on aggregate to Rotherham in the Semis, the Millers in turn losing to the Daggers.

They departed this year’s CapOne (Carling) Cup on penalties, 7-6, against Wolves after a 1-1 draw; they won through the JPT meeting with Exeter (0-0) 4-3 on penalties, giving them an away tie at Plymouth (who they’ve already beaten away this season). League wins by 2-0 at Home Park and 1-0 at home to Barnet last night; draws - 2-2 at Bristol Rovers and 0-0 at home to Morecambe; defeats (three in a row) by 2-1 (Exeter) and 1-0 (Cheltenham) at home, and a bit of a drubbing (4-1) at The Cod Army; League form – home – W1 D1 L2 F2 A3; away – W1 D1 L1 F5 A6; overall, P7 W2 D2 L3 F7 A9 for 8 points and 18th place. Beware, though; they don’t score at home, but it’s a 1 and two 2s away ……….. :(

Having lost our first League meeting, we then lost the next two as well, both away, and both by 3-1 – our goal in 2008/9 coming from Craig Lindfield :D (his first for the Stanley), and in 2009/10 from Lord Sunbeds of Rochdale :confused:. After that, though, things improved; we won 2-1 at home in 2009/10, drew 0-0 at home and 1-1 away (Rory Boulding) the season after, and last year we drew 0-0 away, and won 3-2 at home, goals from Hess, Danny Coid, and a cracker from Charlie Barnett with 2 mins left :D (their two scored by one Danny Hylton). P8 W2 D3 L3 F8 A11 Pts9 – but we haven’t actually lost to them since August 2009 ………… :)

They have, to date, 8 goals in 9 games (including the Cups); 2 twice, one 4 times and nil three times; that said, they’ve kept four clean sheets, letting in 2 twice, one twice, and a disappointing 4 at Fleetwood (a bit like our ‘disappointing four’ at Chesterfield). Their main goal threats (excluding Danny Hylton, who hasn’t – for obvious reasons – scored yet this season) are Craig Reid with 3 in 9 games, plus one each from Troy Brown, Josh Payne, Alex Rodman, Michael Rankine and an OG

As always the deadline for entries is scheduled kick-off time, which is 3pm on Saturday 22nd September. Someone, surely, has to get a smacking sometime soon, the way we’re playing :D; is this it? Will Team Cookie – rapidly becoming the 2nd biggest squad in England after Man U :p (how are we managing to pay the wages, or are they on Commission only?) - keep us in the Playoffs? “Oh Yes” :D , I hear you shout. Keep the Faith …….. Wear the shirt ……….Eat the Pie! :p:p:p

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

:bingobang