Accrington Web - 2019/20 Prediction League; Game 23 v Blackpool FC (away)

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2019/20 Prediction League; Game 23 v Blackpool FC (away)

Blackpool FC

Accrington Stanley

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 23 v The Easy Peelers (away)

So; let’s see who watches what’s happening in League One ……..First Starter for Ten; who has been playing in goal for Tranmere for their last two games, since Scott Davies has been injured?

Managerial merry-go-round carries on, I see …………. Everton got Ancelotti - strange mix, that, and he’s predicting Champions’ League (Flying Pigs), Arse’nall got Arteta, Graham Coughlan left Brizzle for Mansfield for family reasons (he wants to see them, which is fair enough), that nice Mr Westley got a Pie in the Face on his return to Stevenage for the FOURTH time (!) with a 5-1 home spanking by the Mighty Crewe (hands up if you cheered when you saw that one …….. Oh Yes You Did!), and some Italian bloke got the push from Kilmarnock (who got into Europe this season for the first time in 18years and then went out to Connah’s Quay Nomads in Qualifying Round One!) …………… and did you see that You Fat Bastard got a 26th-minute second yellow = red card for “argument” with Oxford players? Gareth’s view was

“I think they've goaded Akinfenwa to get him sent off. It's part of the game, Bayo's really gutted that he's reacted. I’ll back that man until the cows come home. He's one of my leaders, one of my generals. But we all have moments where we look back and think 'maybe I should've done something different'."

Moo …………………….

And anyway, if I’d been the ref sending him off I’d have made sure that I was standing in the other half of the field from him when I did it ………… In fact, I’d probably have sent him a telegram!

True or False? Blackpool won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1971 ……………….. Actually, they did, managed by Bob Stokoe! Interesting format – six English sides (Palace, Huddersfield, Stoke, Swindon and The Baggies), and six Italian teams (Bologna, Cagliari, Inter, Roma, Sampdoria and Verona); the English teams played two of the Italian sides home and away (Blackpool got Verona (3-3, and 4-1 away) and Roma (1-3, and 2-1 away); two points for a win – so five points …………. But they then added “Goals Scored” for a point each, so they got 15 points (5 for results and ten for goals), so they topped the UK-teams’ table ……….. then they went to Bologna to play the Final and won it 2-1!

In 1877 Victoria F.C. were founded as a church club in Blackpool with a ground in Caunce Street; they disbanded a few years later but some of its players seemingly merged with old boys from St John's School to form a new club called Blackpool St John's. That didn’t work out, and on 26 July 1887, at a meeting in the Stanley Arms public house, a new club was formed to represent the whole town, named Blackpool Football Club.

At the conclusion of the 1888–89 season, Blackpool became founder members of the Lancashire League. On 13 May 1896 the club became a limited company and applied for entry to the Football League, and for 1896–97, they joined the 16-team Second Division. Their first-ever Football League game took place against the Imps on 5 September 1896, at Lincoln, which they lost 3–1. After finishing third-bottom, the club weren’t re-elected at the end of the 1898–99 season, and spent 1899–1900 back in the Lancashire League, during which they (a) merged with South Shore and (b) moved to Bloomfield Road. They finished third, and after the Football League's annual meeting, on 25 May 1900, were re-admitted to Division Two. Eventually, in 1929/30, they won the Division Two Championship (their only one) ahead of Chelsea and Oldham, and made it to the top division for the first time, lasting just three seasons …………..

They were last in the Top Tier (under the Oysters) in 2010/11, having won the Play Off semi-final 6-4 on aggregate against Notts Forest, and the Final 3-2 against Cardiff…………. They stayed up (under the Oysters) for just the one season, GreasyPoling with a record of 10 wins, 9 draws and 19 defeats, 39 points and 78 goals conceded (the most in the PL), above The Hammers but below Birmingham on GD ……………….. and they weren’t one of the EIGHT (out of 20) teams to get a European slot …………and with their share of the kitty, and parachute payments, they pulled in a shedload of money, not a lot of which apparently stayed in the Club for any great length of time …………… They were in League Two as recently as 2016/17, when they won the Play-Offs, beating Luton 6-5 on aggregate, with a 95th-minute winner, and then Doing Exeter 2-1 in the Final

Last season they finished 10th in League One, with a home record of W8 D8 L7 and an away record of W7 D9 L7, for 62 points ……………… They got rid of 18 over the summer, including Danny Philliskirk, who went to AFC Fylde, and signed seventeen, notably Armand Gnanduillet, who had played for them between 2016 and 2018, left to join South African side Baroka, and returned to the Sunny Shores and Brown Water of Blackpool after two months away …………….. Baroka play in the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium (I can’t find out who plays in the Young Peter Mokaba Stadium) and come from Ga-Mphahlele near Polokwane, Limpopo, which I imagine – but don’t quote me – is near the Great Grey-Green Greasy Limpopo River, referenced by Rudyard Kipling in his Just-So stories (“The Elephant’s Child” – the one about how the elephant got its trunk) …………. No further transfer activity since we last played them; it remains to be seen if there’s any during the January Window. For completeness, we got a point at their place, with a half-Desmond (our goal being in the 3rd minute of FergieTime, scored by Mark Hughes), and they got 3 points at our place with a 2-1 win, our goal coming from Armstrong, we having also picked up four yellows and a Red for Ev

They won their first three games this season, drew the next three, and then lost two; actually, it was a bit like a knitting pattern – won, drew, won, drew, lost, drew two, won two, drew one, won one, drew one, lost one; defeats at Coventry (3-2), and at home to the PhoneyWombles (0-3), Rotherham (1-2) and on Saturday gone to Shrewsbury (0-1)…………. Away record is W2 D7 L1 GF12 GA10, and home record is W6 D2 L3 GF18 GA14 for a Mrs Overall of P21 W8 D9 L4 GF30 GA24, 33 points and 7th place (behind Oxford on GD) ……… They braved the storms of the FA Cup, dispatching Morecambe 4-1 and Maidstone 3-1 (next playing Reading away on 3rd January); they went out of the EFL Cup in Round One, 4-2 on pens to Macclesfield after a home Desmond; and they won their Troffy group (including beating Morecambe, this time 5-1), only to lose to Scunthorpe 3-1 at home in Round Two

Records show that Blackpool have had nine players who spent their whole careers at Bloomfield Road; best known of those would be Harry Johnston (1934 – 1955, 398 games, who captained them in the Matthew’s Final) and Jimmy Armfield (1954 – 1971, 569 games) …………. Of the ’53 Final team, GK George Farm played 7 games for Hibs and 119 for Queen of the South; Sir Stanley played 310 games for Stoke as well as 379 for the Pool; 5’ 4” inside right (remember them?) Ernie Taylor played for Newcastle, Man U, Sunderland and Altrincham; AB (After Blackpool) Morty (Stanley Harding Mortensen) played for Hull and Southport before finishing his career, apparently, at Bath City and finally at Lancaster – I didn’t know that; Jackie Mudie played for Stoke and Pointy Vale, as well as one summer with Toronto City, playing in the same team as Sir Stan, Johnny Haynes and Danny Blanchflower (the FA stopped it happening after the 1961 season) ………….

Famous managers have included club Legends Stan Mortensen and Harry Johnston, plus Harry Potts, Alan Ball, Billy Ayre, Sam Allardyce, Colin Hendry, Simon Grayson (who took them into the Championship in 2006/07), and Ian Holloway (who got them into the PrawnSandwich League three years later); their highest-ever league position was 2nd in League One (the top tier) in 1956 (eleven points behind Man U and ahead of Wolves on GD); top goal scorer was one Jimmy Hampson with 252 back in the twenties and thirties: fastest goal was scored by Bill Slater (who later played in the Wolves half-back line with Ron Flowers and Billy Wright) against Stoke after 11 seconds (matched by James Quinn in 1995) ………….

And a propos of nothing; Lionel Messi has scored at least 50 goals for Club and Country in each of the last 10 calendar years, save for 2013, when he got 45 ……. But how many had he scored the year before (2012)?

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Boxing Day (December 26th); why Boxing Day is called Boxing Day is lost in the mists, by the way, but it’s generally accepted to be something connected with ‘giving to the poor’ either through alms, or by seasonal ‘bonuses’ to staff for good work throughout the year ………….. and as long as Blackpool give us a Seasonal Bonus, I don’t actually care!

And Tranmere’s GK for their last two games has been Aaron Chapman, and in 2012 Messi scored a ridiculous 91 goals in total

And with that, it’s a Happy Christmas to you all from Me, and a Cool Yule and a Gear New Year from Him …………. Feliz Navidad! (we’re interested in signing him in the Transfer Window, I hear)

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

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