Accrington Stanley vs Torquay United - Saturday 26th Feb
Posted: 26 Feb 2011, 09:33
I'm sorry guys, but I couldn't set off for Accrington without there being a matchday thread waiting on here! Apologies for this not being up to the excellent standard NickGull and Matt have produced recently - Mods feel free to delete/move if someone comes on to deliver the goods.
Anyway, its pretty rare that i go to an away game with such a feeling of dread as I do Accrington. Horrible place, horrible ground and normally a horrible performance. I am expecting nothing out of today. The last couple of weeks have shown that if the pitch starts to cut up and get heavy, we struggle. And Accrington's pitch is well known for cutting up as early as September. Bearing in mind they had a game called off recently, played on it midweek and then had it subjected to a heavy downpour overnight, I'm expecting a mudbath.
Stanley are a side that surprise me. You look through the names in their squad and their is nobody of any real note. On paper, they should be right down at the bottom. I mean, if you look at Barnet's side the other week they had McLeod and Kabba - those are names you are always going to fear at this level. Gone are the days that Accrington had Gary Roberts and Paul Mullin. Only Ian Craney remains from those glory(!) days, and he is apparantly past his best. But you have to admire the work that John Coleman has done. Little gobsh*te yes, but whatever he does clearly works at Accrington. It seems their lad Terry Gornell has scored a few, same goes for winger Sean McConville but I have no idea what sort of players they are. I get the impression they aren't the 6foot plus beast that Paul Mullin was, so maybe they don't play as direct anymore which could play into our hands.
As for us, I would want us to recall Bevan (just my opinion though!, and replace Macklin with Gilligan for a bit of extra strength on a stodgy pitch. Today is not going to be a day for Eunan O'Kane. The best hope we have is Billy Kee returning to haunt his old club - with Kee being such a lad, you can visualise him scoring down at the home end and doing his little dance in front of them (fingers crossed!)
After the pain of Cheltenham, I just hope that if we get beat we get beat soundly. None of this late goal, unlucky result crap. Either we turn in a blinder and win, or we crumble weakly. I don't want the epic drive home thinking what might have been.
Anyway, must dash. 4hr 42minute drive awaits apparantly! Give me a couple of hours after the game for the usual match report, it will come but want to escape the clutches of the north first!!!!!!
Anyway, its pretty rare that i go to an away game with such a feeling of dread as I do Accrington. Horrible place, horrible ground and normally a horrible performance. I am expecting nothing out of today. The last couple of weeks have shown that if the pitch starts to cut up and get heavy, we struggle. And Accrington's pitch is well known for cutting up as early as September. Bearing in mind they had a game called off recently, played on it midweek and then had it subjected to a heavy downpour overnight, I'm expecting a mudbath.
Stanley are a side that surprise me. You look through the names in their squad and their is nobody of any real note. On paper, they should be right down at the bottom. I mean, if you look at Barnet's side the other week they had McLeod and Kabba - those are names you are always going to fear at this level. Gone are the days that Accrington had Gary Roberts and Paul Mullin. Only Ian Craney remains from those glory(!) days, and he is apparantly past his best. But you have to admire the work that John Coleman has done. Little gobsh*te yes, but whatever he does clearly works at Accrington. It seems their lad Terry Gornell has scored a few, same goes for winger Sean McConville but I have no idea what sort of players they are. I get the impression they aren't the 6foot plus beast that Paul Mullin was, so maybe they don't play as direct anymore which could play into our hands.
As for us, I would want us to recall Bevan (just my opinion though!, and replace Macklin with Gilligan for a bit of extra strength on a stodgy pitch. Today is not going to be a day for Eunan O'Kane. The best hope we have is Billy Kee returning to haunt his old club - with Kee being such a lad, you can visualise him scoring down at the home end and doing his little dance in front of them (fingers crossed!)
After the pain of Cheltenham, I just hope that if we get beat we get beat soundly. None of this late goal, unlucky result crap. Either we turn in a blinder and win, or we crumble weakly. I don't want the epic drive home thinking what might have been.
Anyway, must dash. 4hr 42minute drive awaits apparantly! Give me a couple of hours after the game for the usual match report, it will come but want to escape the clutches of the north first!!!!!!