Week 6 Results - We're in the money...sort of

Well, thanks to The Grambler’s astute predicting [that’s not what you said in your previous write-up – Ed] The Grambler’s ‘Kick Cancer’s Arse’ Fund has received a boost of £14.08.  Woo hoo!  And I mean that most sincerely.  If you are wondering what to do with all that dosh that The Grambler has won for you this weekend the place to go is http://www.justgiving.com/Geraldine-Smith3

So how did The Grambler manage it.  Here are the results.

First up Stockport County vs Gainsborough Trinity which The Grambler predicted would be a draw.  First of all may I confess – I am confused [so what’s new – Ed].  You see, the BBC list of matches told me that these two teams would play each other; Bet365 accepted my bet that these two teams would play each other, but on Saturday the 12th of October at 3pm Stockport County players walked onto the park to be met by eleven players from… Rushall Olympic.  Excuse me?  Where did they appear from?  What happened to Gainsborough Trinity?  I have a theory.  The Trinity manager was checking through the web a day or so back for any references to his team and stumbled upon thegrambler.com.  Oho, he thinks.  Or it might have been aha, I am merely surmising… ‘What’s this?’ he asks and reads that The Grambler has predicted that Trinity will merely draw with Stockport.  ‘All right lads’, he says, ‘no point even going if we can’t do better than a draw.  I’ll cancel the minibus’.  What to do?  The Hatters have no opposition until somebody in the ground says ‘I know a team from the Evo-Stik league (yes, really) who haven’t got any opposition, why don’t we get them for a kickabout.  They should be easy peasy.’  And so it was arranged.

Oh dear, whoever thought that one up really came unstuck (gettit?).  Rushall Olympic came to Stockport and  - won.  Jimmy Turner’s 63rd minute free kick proved the difference between the two sides, sending the Evo-Stik Premier League side into Monday’s fourth qualifying round draw.  I told you Stockport were crap.

A draw between Colchester United and Walsall  was The Grambler’s second prediction.  Colchester, the draw specialists, took on the Saddlers at the Colchester Community Stadium.  The Saddlers started this game brightly with a couple of close chances early on.  However, it was the home side who scored on seven minutes with a fine strike by Freddie Sears from the edge of the box.  The match was very much to and fro from then on, both sides having shots on goal without scoring.  As ninety minutes came the home side must have thought that, for the first time since the very first day of the season, they would take all three points.  As stoppage time progressed, they must have felt ever more confident.  Four minutes.  Five minutes.  Six minutes.  Bang!  Andy Taylor scores from a magnificent free kick.  Colchester fans must have cursed the fourth official who decided that seven minutes of stoppage time had to be played.  One all it finished.  Colchester have now drawn six games out of eleven played and sit at eleventh spot in the table; had they won those games they would be in fourth spot.

 

Preston North End vs Crewe Alexandra

Okay.  I’m sorry.  Again.  There, I’ve said it.  Once again I rubbished The Grambler’s predicting skills and again he/she/it proved that I know fu… not a lot.  The Grambler predicted that Crewe sitting way down in 23rd spot in the league would visit Preston, sitting in 5th spot, and beat them.  And they did!  2-0.  As the game progressed, Preston looked the likeliest to score with Alexandra’s goalkeeper Steve Phillips called into action early on, turning a Scott Laird shot around the post. Ian Hume hit the crossbar from the resulting corner.  Against the run of play it was Crewe’s Byron Moore who scored on 27 minutes firing low below Declan Rudd from inside the box.  Former Bolton striker Kevin Davies missed an opportunity to equalise when he nodded a second-half chance past the post. As Preston went all out in search of a leveller, Crewe’s Inman struck to make it 2-0.  He then gave an unusual goal celebration by shouting ‘I’m free!’ Adam Dugdale came close to a third, lashing his effort onto the bottom of the crossbar before it ricocheted off Rudd's back and behind for a corner.

It is Crewe Alexandra's first League One win in seven games, dating back to 17 August when they beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1.

The clean sheet is also the Railwaymen's first of the campaign.

A brilliant prediction there from The Grambler especially as the bet was placed at 5/1.  So to The Grambler I say – You’re the man/woman/inanimate object!!

For our fourth game The Grambler predicted a draw between Wimbledon and Accrington Stanley.  And for the third time today he/she/it got it bang on.  Stanley might have had their first win of the season but Kayode Odejayi (That just about qualifies as cracking name of the week!) went from hero to villain as AFC Wimbledon came from behind to grab a dramatic 1-1 draw.  The veteran striker put Stanley ahead after 17 minutes as he rose highest to head home Lee Naylor's inswinging corner at the near post for his second goal of the season.  This prompted the Stanley faithful to sing:

He’s turns your back four in,
Your back four out,
In out, in out,
He’s gonna start a rout.

Kayode(y) Odejayi,
Scores another goal,
That’s what it’s all about...

Ohhhhhhhhh
Kayode(y) Odejayi
Ohhhhhhhhh
Kayode(y) Odejayi
Ohhhhhhhhh
Kayode(y) Odejayi
Knees bent,
Arms stretched,
Ra Ra Ra!!

Good that, isn’t it?  Apparently it was sung a lot by the Colchester United (the U’s) fans when he was a player there.

But on the stroke of half time he was shown the first red card of his career after raising his hands in the direction of Callum Kennedy (not the Callum Kennedy obviously; the popular Scottish singer of the same name is dead Dave).  From that point on the Dons dominated and in the second half Stanley's Marcus Bettinelli was called in to action to parry Jack Midson's close-range glancing effort, while Luke Moore was also denied by the keeper in the 76th minute.  But the pressure eventually told four minutes from the end when captain Alan Bennett (not the Alan Bennett obviously) rescued a point with a powerful header from Barry Fuller's cross.

And finally Esther The Grambler gave us the prediction that Arbroath vs Airdrieonians would end as an away win. Lee Erwin (Yay! Sort of) scored an 89th-minute penalty as Arbroath beat Airdrieonians 3-2 at Gayfield Park.  It was their second spot-kick of the afternoon. Alan Cook had missed the first in the 13th minute when he hit the post after winning the penalty. Plonker! They went ahead seven minutes later when Robert Linn rifled in his first league goal of the season but the visitors hit back on the hour mark when substitute William McLaren sent the ball past Scott Morrison from the middle of the box.  Arbroath edged ahead in the 77th minute when David Banjo (no that is cracking name of the week!) tucked in from close range but a smart finish from Lewis Coult levelled things up two minutes later.  But the home side secured the points when Erwin scored from the spot after Robert Linn was fouled in the box by Chris O'Neil, who was sent off for his challenge.  I wonder why Alan Cook didn’t take that penalty… So The Grambler was a bit off with that one.

Any road up, all these shenanigans mean that The Grambler has had the best weekend yet (during my shift in charge) which brings total winnings up to £24.19!  That is over four weeks admittedly, but if all we followers of The Grambler were to put our winnings into The Grambler’s Kick Cancer’s Arse Fund that would make erm… over £70!  Most successful week or not, The Grambler still only got 3 out of the 5 predictions right; surely it is only a matter of time before he/she/it picks all 5!