Accrington Web - 2024/25 Prediction League Game 11 v Gillingham (away)

Gillingham FC

Accrington Stanley

2024/25 Prediction League Game 11 v Gillingham (away)

At this quarter point (nearly) of the season, some comparisons (League only) ….

Gillingham are 2nd in League Two, having P10 W6 D1 L3 GF12 GA5 on 19 points, behind Walsall on GD but ahead of Barrow and Donnie, also on GD …… 5 conceded is the best in the Division, alongside AFC Sinkhole-Wombles (who’ve played three games fewer) …. They lost 3-1 at Swansea in the EFL Cup, and both Trophy games (2-1 to Posh and 3-1 to The Eagles u16s) ………… they’re 10-1 to win the League (we’re 400-1) with Bet365 ……. They also nicked our leading scorer from last season (Jack Nolan, who hit the net 17 times), making them officially Miserable Poltroons ……….. Jack has only one goal this season, plus 2 assists …………….. and – Breaking News – ex Chairman Paul Scally has just been voted (correctly spelled “booted”) off the Board after 29 years at the Club ……….

Accy, on the other hand, are 23rd in League 2 (in case the news had escaped you), with a P9 W1 D3 L5 GF11 GA19 season to date …… it was a rather squeaky-bum 2-1 win over Morecambe (which, my spies tell me could have been 4-1 if Shaun W had put one under the bar instead of over, and another one in between the posts instead of past on the outside ……. We’re one point above said Morecambe, one point behind Carlisle (with a better GD!!!!!) and two behind Swindon with a fart in a sleeping bag – sorry, a game in hand ………… we’re also concentrating on the League and the FA Cup, courtesy of Tranmere twice and Stockpot …….. unlike Jack N, we have a few scorers actually in the “Doing Quite Well” list: Dara Costelloe has 3, Shaun, Kelsey and Tyler have two each, and Shaun also has 3 assists – like falling over conveniently in the penalty area ….. speaking of which, who knew that Adam le Fallover recently signed for FC United of Manchester at 41 or 42?

Starter for Ten; there have been, as you know, only six teams who managed to get in the Top Tier of English Football, only to GreasyPole at the end of their first and only season ….. most recently Barnsley (97/98), Swindon (93/94), Carlisle (74/75), The Cobblers (65/66) and Leyton Orient (62/63), but who was the first team to do it, who now languish in the 9th Tier?

Bonus; only one side has played its entire career in the top flight of English Football: who was it?

The club we now know as The Gills was founded in 1893 as New Brompton Football Club and renamed Gillingham Football Club in 1912. They played in the Southern League before joining the Football League in 1920. After 18 unsuccessful seasons, Gillingham were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, and returned to the Southern League. The club was voted back into the Football League in 1950, when it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs; the other “new” Div3South side was Colchester. Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 they narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference. Between 2000 and 2005, they were in the second tier of the English football league system for the only time in their history, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03.

The Gills originally played in black and white striped shirts but switched to blue in the 1930s. The club crest has traditionally depicted the white horse symbol of the county of Kent. Priestfield Stadium has been the club's home ground throughout its existence; it once held up to 30,000 fans but in the modern era the capacity is less than half that figure. The club has twice won the championship of English football's fourth tier, in the 1963–64 and 2012–13 seasons, under managers Freddie Cox and Martin Allen respectively.

During the 80s the club produced future stars Steve "Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside" Bruce and Tony Cascarino, who was famously signed from non-league Crockenhill in exchange for a set of tracksuits

Second Starter for Ten; during an FA Cup Qualifying Round game in 1922, Blackfield and Langley GK Connor Maseko was shown a straight red card by the Referee …… but what was his offence?

Manager is Mark Bonner, and head of recruitment is Andy Hessenthaler ….. In 1987, the Gills hit the headlines when, on consecutive Saturdays, they beat Southend United 8–1 and Chesterfield 10–0, the latter a club record for a Football League match

In the summer, having finished last season in 12th with 64 points, they parted company with 12 players, notably perhaps Macauley Bonne, who joined Southend ………. Apart from Jack Nolan, six others ProperSigned, including Sunderland MF Bradley Duck (sorry, Bradley Dack) and Armani Little from the Wombles ………… Head to Head, for those wondering, appears to be that we’ve won 4, drawn four and lost ten – BUT on 2nd October 2010 we beat them (for the first time since 2006, anyway) winning 7-4 at home (I was there) – a feat we repeated in January 2011 with a more modest 4-3 result

Deadline for entries is – I think (I can’t keep up any more) 3.00pm on Saturday 12th October ….. on paper there’s no way we win this – an outcome that Valairian (and others – you know who you are) will doubtless confirm ………..

And the first team ever to get promoted to the First Division and to bounce straight back down was Glossop (not, then, Glossop North End), and the bonus side to play its whole League career in the top flight was, of course, Accrington (but you knew that) …….. and Connor Maseko was dismissed for the offence – as it was delicately described in the media – of “watering the hedge” during an FA Cup match against Shepton Mallett ………

Good luck to everyone! ……….. Keep the Faith (which, Joe, means predicting a Stanley win)! ….. and Thanks for Playing!

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