Accrington Web - 2016/17 Prediction League; Game 30 v Colchester United (home)

Accrington Stanley

Colchester Utd

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 30 v Colchester (home)

Following their seeming practice of changing their entire squad every three weeks or so (18 in, 18 out so far this season, disregarding loans), the Us were busy during the transfer window ...........they acquired striker Eli Phipps (19) from Cardiff, and liked him so much that they went back for another nibble at the Cardiff squad, this time smuggling MF Tommy O’Sullivan across the border and into Essex; keeping up the international theme, they then went haggis-hunting, returning not with a haggis but with a fish – a Brill, to be precise – Dean Brill, unused GK of Motherwell; Swindon’s 23 year old MF Sean Murray (signed by them from Watford in the summer) decided that six months in Swindon was enough for anyone (and who can criticise him for that?) and had his contract cancelled so that he could go oyster-picking; and Huddersfield’s Rekeil Pyke – on loan until the end of the season – completed the nap hand ............ they loaned striker Macauley Bonne to Woking (which was probably a good thing) ........... and recently defender Tom Eastman suffered ankle ligament damage, and looks like being out for the rest of the season .............. and Captain Peter Murphy got a straight red on 27 mins for Morecambe in their 1-0 home defeat by Barnet in front of a crowd of 1100 on Tuesday, so it’s bad news all round, really ...........

One thing you can say about Tuesday, to be fair, is that our “goals for” column looks better ...........sadly, our “goals against” column looks worse ......... we led 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3, and we managed a point; the equaliser for 4-all was a great strike (as was Billy Whizz’s), but if you score four and are never behind, should you lose? Even away? And even to a Team In Form? So we drew, Notts County drew, Newport drew and Leyton Piggin’ Orient scored in the 88th and 94th minutes to win 3-2 at Plymouth (who thus made no inroads on Donnie, who also lost, by 2-1 at Carlisle); if Cheltenham hadn’t done the decent thing and succumbed 2-1 at Stevenage it would have been, as My Old Granny used to say, “a Poor Do”.

We played Colchester away in late September, went one down in 7 minutes, and won 2-1 with second half goals from Rommy Boco and Billy the Kid (our first win against them in Essex, I rather think); and Scott Brown got sent off ................. after a decent start, by mid-November Colchester had slipped to 23rd in the table with 17 points from17 games (only Exeter – currently 6th - were below them), and Kurtis Guthrie (how did we let him get away) thought they were “relegation bound” .......then they went on a run of nine games over two months, winning seven and drawing two, scoring 21 and conceding 5, and suddenly they were in the playoff places ............ wins in that purple patch included 4-1 over Carlisle, 4-2 at Stevenage, 4-0 v Crewe, 3-0 at Cheltenham, and 1-0 at Luton, and instead of 17 points from 17 games, they suddenly had 40 from 26 .............their last four haven’t been as fruitful, sadly for them (0-3 at Exeter, 1-1 at Blackpool, 2-1 v Barnet, and a 2-3 home defeat by Crawley on Tuesday gone). Overall their record is P30 W12 D8 L10 GF 46 GA 39 for 44 points and 10th place; they’ve a game in hand on Stevenage (45 pts in 9th) and Mansfield (46 in 7th), with Wycombe in between, so the playoffs are a real possibility; they’ve kept 9 clean sheets in all, but fired blanks on 8 occasions; leading scorers are Kurtis #wishhe’dstayedwithus Guthrie with 11, Ben Dickinson (ex Brighton and Gillingham) with 9, and Chris Porter (Bury (now managed by Lee Clark, whose win percentage when he was at Blackpool was about 9%, apparently, and who was involved in 44 or 45 signings in his 12 months at the Killies), Oldham, Motherwell, Derby and the Blades) also with 9, with no-one else having more than 3 ........speaking of new Managers (a bit of a recurring theme this season), did you see that Barnet have eventually replaced the (once-again) departed Mad Dog Allen with ex Charlton coach Kevin Nugent? – never been a full time manager, but has had caretaker positions at Swansea, Orient (twice) and Charlton ............a bit like a zero-hours contract ...........I wonder what Donald Trump would be like managing in League Two?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm this Saturday, 18th February .......... for all they’re 10th, Colchester’s cup form has been pants (1-2 to Chesterfield in the FA Cup Round 1, one win in 3 (and that on penalties against Charlton) in the EFLTrophy, and a right t’umping in Round One of the EFL Cup by Brighton), and they’ve only won 4 of 16 away, three of them (3-0 at Cheltenham, 1-0 at Luton and 4-2 at Stevenage) coming during the Purple Patch from November to January, and the other being by 2-0 at Wycombe ................ we did it to them there, and we can do it to them here, but not if we concede as many as (or more than) we score.............. our last 10 games show 2 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses – 9 points from 10 – and despite the 4 goals at Mansfield we’re STILL the lowest scorers in League Two, our 30 goals being three fewer than Newport, Orient, Crewe and Yeovil, 30 fewer than Donnie, 24 fewer than Plymouth and 20 fewer than Carlisle and Exeter ........... I rest my case!

Good luck to everyone! ........... Keep the Faith! .......... And thanks for playing!

:alright::alright::alright: