It has been a difficult week at CL Towers; Irving, WSS and a shivering, loin-clothed Brand have taken it upon themselves to down tools and picket the front gates due to imminent changes to the CL pension scheme (you won’t need to guess which one was behind the walkout).
So AFKA has dragged Stubley Addick by the ear from the sixth form cloakrooms, offered work experience at far less than the minimum wage and told him to get on with it. And boy does he do it well. "CAN YOU SCABS HEAR ME OUT THERE, YOU'RE ALL REPLACEABLE YOU KNOW"
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When I was asked by AFKA to write this weekend’s preview, I was hoping the side would remain unbeaten in all competitions. Sadly, Tuesday’s frustrating and disappointing defeat against Preston has made me shuffle my preview slightly.
However, Tuesday night also saw the lads go Top of the League (only Charlton!) thanks to Huddersfield’s 3-0 away victory at promotion rivals Sheffield United, while Anthony Wordsworth’s late equalizer for Colchester in a 1-1 draw with Brentford also prevented the Bees from nicking top spot. Even if we lose this weekend we cannot go lower than the play-off spots.
Sitting nicely in top spot with a game in hand, the pressure is on for the lads to grab three points away at Rochdale. Maybe our very own ‘Dale’, in the shape of Stephens, can add to his two goals (three if you work for the Press Association) or add another assist similar to one against Bury a couple of weeks ago. That would do nicely!
The line-up will probably be the same as the one which started against Exeter last weekend, with Waggy most likely to continue on the right despite coming on up-front on Tuesday. Hayes and BWP should be the partnership up-top, with Hamer expected to retain the Number 1 spot for the match at Spotland.
On the bench, we could see new signing Yann Kermorgrant possibly instead of Euell, or we could even see the Martian, sorry Alonso, make an appearance however unlikely that seems! After starting midweek, Green could be recalled to the squad if he is fit, though Benson is a doubt after coming off at half-time against Preston, to which Powell stated that he “knocked his broken figure and it became inflamed and was troubling him.”
So what do we expect from Rochdale? Well much has changed since our 2-0 defeat at Spotland last March, including the departure of Dale boss Keith Hill who moved on to Barnsley in the summer. His replacement Steve Eyre didn’t get off to the bests of starts, and they were even in the relegation zone at the end of August.
Things didn’t exactly help Eyre after he lost key striker Chris O’Grady to Sheff Wed. However, after beating local rivals Bury 4-2 at Gigg Lane last Saturday, they seemed to have gained some confidence which showed in the midweek match against Scunthorpe at home, winning 1-0 thanks to a Jason Kennedy goal and securing Rochdale back-to-back league victories.
Rochdale replaced O’Grady with on-loan Peterborough striker David Ball, who has scored 2 in 3 games, and he will probably cause the most trouble for Morro and Taylor on Saturday. In other news, midfielder Nicky Adams could be recalled to the side after missing the Scunthorpe match through suspension.
So Rochdale have back-to-back victories, and us Addicks haven’t dropped a point away from home as yet (probably will now I have said this!). This game will be a tough one to call, but I still can see us winning it 2-1.
Come on you Reds.
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Comments
with our 100% away record, top of the table form and a new ground for a few, i expect the huge travelling numbers to make up the 12th man and lead us to a 1-1 draw
Staying grounded with my predictions as always.
Tough tough game. 1-0 defeat - and a sending off for CAFC.
Really though these are the sort of away games we need to win if we want to go up, beating County and Colchester away was a good start. Also think we play better away than we do at The Valley
Concede from set piece, Stephens JJ and BWP to score good goals, one will be disallowed at random by a shyte referee.
At least one 'bigoted woman' and local boy Bill Oddie will be seen in the Co-Op stand,. There will be a chant about the 1962 League Cup final, too.
Where have the polls gone?
Good piece young Stubley.
Rochdale beat Scunthorpe at home, something we were unable to do, and are on the up.
A draw at best I think but I'd love them to prove me wrong and come back with a win!
Bwp & Hayes
This is the game when we finally prove to the rest of L1 that we are going to run away with the title this year 5-0 to us, first half hattrick for BWP, 2 from Waggy in the second half.
Draw, both OG's.
464 away fans.
2 - 1 Rochdale. Hope I'm wrong.
BWP (17), Waggy (53),
Feel strangely confident on this one. 2 - 0 without breaking sweat