Accrington Web - 2019/20 Prediction League; Game 8 v Sunderland (home)

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Sunderland

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 8 v Slumberland Beds AFC (home)

After the enormous interest created last week (not) when I posted the lyrics of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (to link to “The Gas”) I thought I’d see what’s out there about Sunderland ................... ignoring the chant about Paolo di Canio (which invites him to behave inappropriately with the chanters’ wives #notthathewouldofcourse) the best I could come up with was;

• Sunderland Boys making all the noise
Sunderland Boys making all the noise
Oh yeah, oh yeah

... which, as lyrics go, aren’t totally riveting ............. But it is from a real song called – surprisingly – “Sunderland Boys” .............. Starter for ten this week, then; who sang it?

And speaking of ‘going’, “Managers on the March” Day really took off this last few days; Sol Campbell left Macc; Kevin Bond fell on his little stick of rock at Southend (5 months, 6 games, no points, four goals and a GD of -13 made that a racing cert); the ex-manager of Watford replaced the manager of Watford as Manager of Watford (Quique – pronounced “Quickie” my Spanish contacts tell me – Sanchez Flores); Dino Maamria – Tunisian by birth and unemployed by occupation (after 3 points from a possible 21 and 23rd in the League Two table, which at least isn’t going to get them relegated this season) – got the Order of the Golden BootUpTheArse at Stevenage (to be replaced by ex England Women’s coach Mark Sampson, who happily just happened to have joined the staff there shortly ago): and in a career move which may or may not be a Career Move, Danny Cowley and Bro left Lincoln (where they’re cult heroes) for Huddersfield (where they might not be) .......... hmmmmm

Residents of Sunderland, by the way - especially the footie fans - are apparently known as “Makems”, said to derive from ship-building days, where the local shipwrights would “make” the ships and then the maritime pilots and tugboat captains would “take” them down the River Wear to the sea; “We mak’em and they tak’em”. Wearside has a language and dialect all its own, and it occurred to me that a brief intro into WearsideSpeak might help cement relations if anyone bumped into some away fans in a quiet back street ............... so you need to know that they use “wuh” or “wa” for “we”, so they’ll come out with "Wuh knew wed win" ("We knew we'd win"), and they say “Is” or “es” instead of “me”: "Tell es what ya think" ("Tell me what you think") .............. or you could tell them a joke ................ a very popular local North East joke goes, “Why does a Makem lass wear knickers?” “Ta keep her ankles warm!” Try it in the Pub before the game – you’re sure of a huge reaction!

The club was formed in October 1879 (probably), and joined the FL in 1890; their 119 years have been spent as to 86 in the top tier, including six league titles (but only one since before The Great War), 30 in tier two, and three in tier three. Many thought they’d go straight back up last year, but although they had the fewest defeats of any team (5) and scored the joint-third highest number of goals (80), they simply drew too many games (19, the most of any team) ........... in fact, the three teams which went up into the Championnat were the only three to win more than half their regular season games. 85 points got them 5th place, a 1-0 win at home and a goalless Desmond away took them past Pompeii (currently 18th in League One with one win and two draws) into the Playoff Final, where a 94th minute winner by Patrick Bauer gave Charlton the third promotion spot, and gave the Black Cats (no longer “The Rokerites”) heartbreak ....... Bauer’s reward for his efforts appears to have been a transfer to PNE

Their pre-season friendlies were pants; four games, failing to score against Benfica B (0-0), Belenenses (0-1) and Heerenveen (0-1) which left them with one win only (South Shields) and two goals (2-0 v South Shields). They shipped out 16 in the summer, including DMF Lee Cattermole, who eventually went to VVV-Venlo; LB Reece James (to Donnie); GK Max Stryjek to Eatsleigh Spitfires; RB Donald Love to the pointy-nosed furry things which are the Shrews; LB Bryan Oviedo went to FC Wonderful Wonderful (Copenhagen); AMF George Honeyman to Hull; and CB Lamine-Gueye Kone to Strasbourg ................... they signed Conor McLaughlin, a RB from Millwall; GK Lee Burge from Coventry; another GK from Cypriot Second Division side ENAD Polis Chrysochous FC (for Greek scholars: ΕΝΑΔ Πόλης Χρυσοχούς), based in Paphos; lots of other people I know nothing about; and most recently, a CMF called Nathan Greenwood from Seaham Red Star

Their Season Proper started with two half-Desmonds (home to Oxford and away at Ipswich), followed by three wins (Pompey 2-1 at home, Rochdale 2-1 away, and the ProperWombles 3-1 at The Estadio de la Luz, followed by a fairly humiliating 3-0 reverse at the Posh; P6 W3 D2 L1 GF9 GA8 for 11 points and 8th place in the League Table; they did us and then the Dingles 3-1 away in the EFL Cup (they play the Blades away on 25th September); in the Troffy they’re paired (four-ed?) with the Iron (bottom of League Two with one point from their first seven games, thanks to a Desmond against Crawley), Grimsby and Leicester u12s, but they haven’t played anyone yet (so remain unbeaten!) ................. Iron Manager Paul Hurst (formerly of Grimsby, Ipswich and now the Iron) must be twitching just a very lot!

Famous ex-players include Len Shackleton (100 goals), Patsy Gallagher with 107 (although how she got on the list I can’t work out), Raich Carter (128), Kevin Phillips (130) and my hero Charlie Buchan with 222; two years ago they pocketed £30 million for Jordan Pickford; in an un-subtle takeover bid, the current Manager, Asst Manager, First Team Coach and GK Coach are all Scots (Brexit Rules OK); they won the Sheriff of London Charity Shield in 1903 and the Sheriff of Nottingham’s twice (no they didn’t – I made that up!); they also – perhaps unsurprisingly – won the BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year award in 1973, having – from Division 2 – beaten the Great (but Dirty) Leeds United .....On the way they to the Final The BlackCats took out Notts County, Reading and Man City (all after replays), Luton 2-0 in the Quarters and Arsenal 2-1 in the Semi Final ............. Leeds’ route included beating Norwich in Round 3 after a Second Replay (who remembers them? I used to love them; I think once saw a random Third (or may have been Fourth) replay at Old Trafford, although I can’t remember who played (it wasn’t Man U)), then Derby 1-0 in the Quarters and Wolves 1-0 in the Semis .....the Leeds side included – as I recall – eleven internationals plus an international sub, and it read Harvey, Reaney, Cherry, Bremner, Madeley, Hunter, Lorimer, Clarke, Jones, Giles and Gray, with Terry Yorath on the bench (coming on for Gray on 75 mins) ............. you’ll all remember the score (1-0), the scorer (Ian Porterfield), the Sunderland HeroKeeper (General Montgomery) and Bob Stokoe’s dance .................. a bit of our football history, that was

And while on the subject of football history, let’s hear it for The Worst Team in Britain (Fort William from the Highland League) who finally won a League game at the 75th (I think) attempt – their first since April 2017 – when they beat Clachnacuddin 1-0 ................ the crowd, apparently, went absolutely WILD, with both of them rushing up and down the touchline screaming “Wah knew wed win” ....................

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 14th September ............. our head-to-head favours them, based on the fact that we’ve never beaten them (although we were 2-0 up at Roker de la Luz before settling for a draw, and we had one abandoned match where we’ll never know); P3 W0 D1 L2 GF3 GA8 Pts (league only, obviously) one ........................... But then again, we are talking here about the Club that won the World Championship of football in 1895, beating Hearts 5-3 .............. not sure who decided that match-up was going to win the WCofF ............ might have been Boris, happen ........Haway the Lads, then; we’ve got to win some time, so why not now? Might depend which of our 62-strong squad make the final 18 on GameDay, of course ........and whether there’s Fog on the Tyne, because Sunderland Boys was a song by Lindisfarne

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

:alright::alright::alright: