Accrington Web - 2015/16 Prediction League; Game 22 v Stevenage FC (away)

Stevenage FC

Accrington Stanley

2015/16 Prediction League; Game 22 v Stevenage FC (away)

Name me, if you can, the club that the current Stevenage GK played for on loan in 2014/15 until being injured after just four games; I’ll give you the following as clues ....(1) he was born in Simpele (2) he lost his place with his (present) home club to a GK who had recently had a super season for the Stanley (3) he played part of the 2013 season on loan at FC Lahti in Finland (4) on 17th October 2015 he scored for Stevenage against Wycombe with a “long punt” which the Chairboys’ keeper Matt Ingram “badly misjudged” to let it bounce in .................HE is Fulham GK Jesse Joronen .........and the club he (and the GK who displaced him – one Marcus Bettinelli) played for in 2013/14 (Betts) and 2014/5 (Jesse) was, of course .................US! Ain’t it a small world!

In came Teddy Sheringham, out went the old guard ......CF Chris Beardsley went to Mansfield; CB Jon Ashton to Crawley, along with CF Roarie Deacon and CMF Simon Walton (previously of Leeds, Plymouth and Hartlepool); AMF Andrew Bond went to Chorley; GK Sam Beasant (son of .....) to Cambridge; CB Darius Charles joined Burton; another CB (Bira Dembele) went to Barnet; CB Harry Worley (Oxford and Newport) moved to H’AngusVille; someone I’ve never heard of joined Wealdstone; Joseph N’Guessan signed for QPR; and 6’ 7” ex Tranmere, Crewe and Burton striker Calvin “Couldn’tHitTheFloorWithHisHat” Zola – now, I see, a more modest 6’ 3” – was released after an injury-plagued season where he only played six games, and doesn’t seem to have found a club as yet .........

They signed up the spine, clavicle, sternum and ribs of a new side; CB Mark Hughes left Lancashire for Hertfordshire (why would you do that? – the answer, in a word, is Morecambe); CM Steven Schumacher left Fleetwood, is their second leading scorer, tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the win over BrizzleRov, and will be sidelined for 6 – 9 months; CB Fraser Franks (not to be confused with Frankie Fraser) joined from Luton, who today parted company with (= sacked) Manager John Still on the very same day that Chelsea parted company with (= sacked) Manager Jose Mourinho (bet that’ll cost them a packet and more!) ......perhaps they could swap jobs instead?; CB Jamie McCombe arrived from Donnie, CM Jack Jebb from Arsenal and CF Brett Williams from Aldershot, although he's now out on loan at Forest Green ...........

Loans? Stacks of them, mainly short term (apart from Jesse Joronen (see “long punt” above) ........very recently Teddy’s been at it again, bringing in Fleetwood striker Jamille Matt, Spurs’ young GK Harry Voss, Chesterfield’s striker Armand Gnanduillet (24), Callum McFadzean (Blades), Plymouth MF Lee Cox, and Ipswich’s Welsh u19 GK Michael Crowe

At the moment they’re lying 18th with a record of P21 W6 D7 L8 GF29 GA37 for 25 points ...that would have been significantly worse if they hadn’t won their last 3 (2-1 at Brizzle and at the Wombles, and 4-3 over Morecambe, the run only being spoiled by a single goal defeat at Yeovil in the FA Cup Round 2); their record of 37 League goals conceded is equalled only by Morecambe, Barnet (19th) and Dagenham (22nd), and bettered – I think that should be worsered – by York, who’ve conceded 44 ..........they lie three points above Barnet, and one point behind Luton (who’ve just sacked their manager for “poor results”) ........John Still (the ex Luton Manager, not the former Bishop of Bath and Wells) was joint 15th longest serving Manager in the League, and has been Caretaker replaced by Andy Awful (ex Pompey); Jose was 19th in the list. For the record, their other three League wins have been Plymouth (2-1 at home), Hartlepool 2-0 at home, and Wycombe 2-1 at home (see “GK scores with a long punt” .....)

Cups haven’t been their speciality this season; they lost 2-1 at Ipswich in the CapitolCup, and 2-1 at home to the Daggers in Round Two of the PaintyThingy (they got a bye in Round One); their only success was FA Cup glory in Round One, doing Gillingham at home 3-0 ................ Leading scorers, as mentioned, are MF Chris Whelpdale with 9, MF colleague Steven Schumacher with 3, four others with 2 each, and a group of eight, including the GK, with one each ............

Head to head is evens; in 2010/11 we won 1-0 at home, and drew 2-2 away (we don’t discuss the Playoff Semis!); they went up, and came back down in 2013/14; in 2014/15 we lost 2-1 away and drew 2-2 at home (our two Maguire goals being cancelled out by a penalty and an 89th minute equaliser) .......we lost Nicky Hunt to a red card in the first minute, leading (former) Manager Graham Westley to sum up the game this way ...............

"I think our front six were better than their back six. I think their front three were better than our back four, which was a disappointment. It's a team game, it's a team performance. Everyone takes their responsibility. We know that teams with 10 can often react by producing steely, determined, gritty performances. It was an afternoon where they played very well with 10 men. You get nothing for nothing in football. We didn't do enough to win the three today, we did do enough to get one."

Front six? That’s a hell of a game plan! A month later Stevenage “replaced” him (= sacked him) with Teddy; can’t think why ..........just because they didn’t go up through the Play Offs? Tee hee ........

You may remember that they won the Conference in 1995/96 but were denied promotion because of Ground problems, which reprieved Torquay. In 2009/10 they won the Conference and did go up; they changed their name by dropping the word "Borough"; if everyone did that, the current leaders of the Championship would be "Middles", may I point out ................in 2010/11 they reached the Playoff Final, where they beat ...............Torquay 1-0 .....................in just four years Torquay are down and out of the League, Stevenage are back in the basement division, and we’re on a roll .............Mwahahaha! And I don’t know who their Kit Man is ...................

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 15.00 hours on Saturday 19th December. Stevenage’s home League record is P10 W4 D2 L4, the high being a 4-3 defeat of Morecambe and the low being a 5-1 thrashing by Oxford ............our away League record is P10 W6 D2 L2 (winning 4 and drawing one of our last six), the high being six wins and the low being not winning the other four ............ Bit of crystal-ball gazing and a few of Wynonie’s pills, and this could easily be win number seven on the road, which is about how many we used to win every three or four seasons!

Good luck to everyone! .............. Condiments of the Season from Me and from Him! .................. Keep the Faith, and your Mother-in-Law plied with gin! ..............And thanks for playing!

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