Accrington Web - 2016/17 Prediction League; Game 43 v Crawley Town (home)

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Crawley Town

2016/17 Prediction League; Game 43 v Crawley (home)

This week’s starter for ten is alphabetical; assuming that Chesterfield don’t manage a miraculous escape from the Slide into the Fiery Pit, and that Carlisle have blown it and don’t go up, how many team names in next season’s League two will start with the letter “C”?

And make that 47 managerial changes this season, and 14 in League Two; Barnet have just “parted company with” (ie “sacked”) manager Kevin Nugent after two months, and eleven games in charge ..........of which he won one, lost six and drew the rest .................. and Barnet’s next (manager-less, again) game is at home on Monday to Wycombe, with whom You Fat Bastard has just signed a new one year contract!

We took them on at the Checkatrade.com Stadium (which sounds like the till area at Lidl!) in October, and we “had the better of a 0-0 tussle”, which is a contradiction in terms, really ............. Matty P “shot wastefully wide” late on, we were “denied by the woodwork”, and we “found keeper Glenn Morris in good form” (where do they get these reporters from?); I’m prepared to bet that at the end of the game (which would, of course, have been of two halves) we were sick as parrots, but aware that there are no easy games and taking one game at a time ........ at the end of that game we were 7th and they were 9th, both of us on 20 points from 14 games (and Notts County were 6th!), and we got one more point in our next 8 League games, and didn’t win until the end of December!

They ProperSigned 15 players in July, Manager Dermot’s Dummy having been put in his place in April; since the season actually began they’ve added six more – firstly Ghanaian-born CB Daniel Pappoe, once of Chelsea, Colchester and Brighton, who played under Double Diamond (at Chelsea), and who joined Creepy Crawley from Hemel Hempstead, made just two appearances in the EFL Trophy, “failed to impress”, and is now playing in the Maldives with “New Radiant” – no, seriously; one from the Finnish Second Division (Guinea-Bissau defender Kabi Djalo); and one from Leyton Soontoberelagatedtown (LW Dean Cox, who was loaned out to Burgess Hill Town shortly after arrival); and since we played them in October, MF Connor Henderson from Grimsby, CB Josh Lelan from Derby, and LW Sanchez Watt (and I won’t do the Abbott and Costello routine - “Who’s on First?” - again) from the Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League (who sound more like a cricket team from the IPL, but that may be because their owner - well, one of them - and founder (in May 2014) was Sachin Tendulkar, whose name I never really expected to type in an Accrington Stanley Prediction League Thread) ............. and their Head Coach is Steve Coppell!) Mr Watt (Mr Who?) lasted at the Dot Com Stadium until the end of January, and was released ............... I think their scouting system might need an overhaul!

They loaned in, but only minimally; apart from three “until the beginning of January” type loans, their only acquisition has been striker Rhys Philip Elliott Murphy (26), who played for the RofI at u15, England at u16, u17 and u19, and for the RofI again at u21 (didn’t know you could do that!), whilst being on the books of Arsenal, Telstar, Dagenham, Oldham and FGR, and spending part of 2015 with Crawley, who has teamed up up front with James Collins (see “leading scorer” below) and Matt Harrold (Brentford, Yeovil, Southend, Wycombe, Shrewsbury and BrizzleRov ..............although Matt H hasn’t played since August

Currently they’re 19th, with an overall record of P42 W13 D10 L19 GF48 GA63 and 49 points ............. away, their record is a not-very-thrilling W5 D5 L11 (24 scored and 38 conceded), and they’ve only won two – Leyton Orient 3-0 at home and Wycombe 2-1 away - of their last 10 (D3 and L5); in addition, they’ve lost 9 of their last 16 ............. Outside the bottom two, only Yeovil (43) and Cheltenham (45) have scored fewer in the League, and only five – including Morecambe, for whom Moly got the winner at Stevenage – thank you, Lee – have conceded more than their 63 .......... for those who like stats – I don’t, as you know – they’ve done the double over Wycombe, but aren’t going to do it over anyone else!

Leading scorers – they got seven in their seven cup games (which included losing 4-0 at Southampton u23s in the EFLTroffy) to add to their 48 in the League (so far) -are Irish-born striker James Collins (ex Shrewsbury (twice), Swindon and Hibs, plus a loan at the Cobblers) with 20, and MFs Jimmy Smith with 6, and Enzio Boldewijn, who has six too (that’s “6 as well”, not “sixty-two”) ............... Defender Lewis Young appears to have had 11 yellow cards, and they’ve got 10 players who’ve had 5 or more (Collins is on 9, I believe, plus he got sent off for two yellows on 8th April against Plymouth, so I think he’ll be free to play against us – which is a shame!)

Did I mention that they won the Sussex Senior Cup? Well, actually they haven’t quite, not yet, but they are in the Final on 3rd May against Brighton, having got there by beating Langney Wanderers, Horsham YMCA’s Village People, Whitehawk and Bognor Regis (I’m with King George V, whose final words on earth were allegedly (but incorrectly, it seems), “Bugger Bognor”) ............

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Easter Monday (17th April)....... You no doubt saw that Newport came within 26 minutes of leap-frogging Hartlepool into 22nd place (before Hartlepool levelled against Carlisle) , but given that County have won three in a row and five of eight (which is as many as they won of their first 34), I’m prepared to bet that Jeff Stelling’s sweating; on paper, Newport’s last four are more difficult than Hartlepool’s, but when was relegation ever decided on paper? I still think they might just make it ............. I just hope it isn’t at our expense when we visit Rodney Parade on 22nd!

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

Oh, and by the way – if Carlisle don’t go up and Chesterfield do come down, there’ll be EIGHT teams in next season’s League Two who start with a “C”; Coventry, Chesterfield, Carlisle, Cambridge, Colchester, Crawley, Crewe and Cheltenham ............which, as far as the EFL is concerned, only leaves Cardiff and Charlton above the basement!

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