APL PREDICTION LEAGUE & PREVIEW –
BURYGood Morning APL fans, for a day or two I did think that the APL could suffer a mortal blow from those that held the keys to TCR, but I’m glad to say that we are back up and running.
A couple of drawbacks are, that all predictions were lost for the AFC game, and although I have put a thread up for the Cobblers game, it is all a bit of short notice, especially as we still have some former members stumbling around in the darkness, so that one is a just for fun game, so those two games are declared null and void, and I think the fairest solution for all, hopefully you see it that way, especially when you consider those that like to predict late didn’t get a chance to post a prediction.
I am pleased to say though that as we have got most of the main protagonists of the site back, with a few noticeable exceptions, I mean where’s Scummer, I have visions of him crawling around on his hands and knees trying to find his way out of the abyss that was TCR....come back Scummer!
Another small problem, but I’m pleased to say easily remedied, was the Cobblers game was scheduled to be the first of our
DOUBLE BUBBLE GAMES, as you will recall every 10th game is double points.
So, we are going to get things moving along with a
DOUBLE BUBBLE GAME on Saturday with our away fixture to Bury....so get predicting.
Any new members joining the APL are most welcome, its FREE to enter with a £40 prize for the winner at the end of the season. I’m sure you will pick up the rules as we go along, but just a few to ease you in.
All predictions and edits must be made at least 1 hour before kick-off.
Predict only Dons players to score, or no scorer, do not predict own goals or an opposition team member to score, I always give an example of the score for every game, if you follow that method everything else should fall into place.
PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE MATCH THREAD AS IT MAKES IT HARDER TO COLLATE THE SCORES.......just predictions please.
Don’t worry too much about the points, I’m sure you will quickly work out what you have been awarded if you get any part of your prediction correct.
After every game I will post the current APL League table, and give a brief report on my feelings about the game.
So hold on tight here we go !
Next up we have Bury, a fixture that we generally get midweek so it will make a pleasant change to visit Bury in the daylight, well I think it will, I may change my mind when I see it in the cold light of day.
BURY – THE STORY SO FARBury are currently 21st in the league table with a record of
PLAYED 9, WON 1, DRAWN 3, LOST 5, GF 9 & GA 15, with 6 POINTS recorded.
Their playing record so far is as follows in chronological order.
Bury 1 Walsall 0
Bury 0 Sunderland 1 (EFL Cup)
Wigan 4 Bury 1
Bury 2 Bristol Rovers 3
Rochdale 0 Bury 0
Bury 0 Scunthorpe 1
Rotherham 3 Bury 2
Fleetwood 3 Bury 2
Bury 0 Plymouth 0
Bury 0 Rochdale 4 (EFL Trophy)
Charlton 1 Bury 1
Bury v Oxford (Tuesday night)
THE MANAGERWhen we played this lot last season Chris Brass was in charge, but he was shunted out of the door the next day and in came Lee Robert Clark in February of this year.
Clark is 42 years old and he was born in Wallsend, England.
As a midfielder, he started his career with Newcastle United in 1990, with spells at Sunderland, Fulham where he was Club Captain, and then finally back to Newcastle where he hung up his boots in 2006. In total, he played 477 games scoring 61 goals, he also played for the England U21 side on 11 occasions.
During his playing career, he was promoted as Champions from League One on 3 occasions with 3 different clubs.
He began his coaching career as reserve team manager for Newcastle, before taking up the managers role at Huddersfield (sacked), then Birmingham City (sacked), Blackpool (resigned), and Kilmarnock (resigned for Bury).
His managerial stats look like this,
GAMES 395, WON 138, DRAWN 118, LOST 139 giving him a WIN RATIO of about 35%, but that is significantly lower at 23% for Bury.
THE GROUNDThe 11,640 all seated JD Stadium, or probably still better known as Gigg Lane (
Sat Nav - BL9 9HR), and is a 166-mile journey from Stadium MK.
Away fans are housed in the Ratio Law Stand at one end of the stadium, where just over 2,000 away supporters can be accommodated, the stand is situated quite well back from the pitch and is slightly below pitch level. The catering is your standard football fayre of Cheeseburgers (£3.50), Hot Dogs (£3.80), Sausage Rolls (£2.80) and Pies including the Chicken Balti Pie (£3.20).
There are a few pubs around the ground and along Manchester Road, and there is also a supporter’s club at the ground, which sometimes allows in small numbers of away fans, for a small fee (£1).
The pick of the pubs on Manchester Road, is the Swan & Cemetery, around a ten-minute walk from the ground. This Thwaite's pub, is quite comfortable, serves good hand pulled beer and has a separate restaurant area. Nearer to the ground is the Staff of Life pub, which is a basic pub serving hand pulled Lee's Brewery Real Ales, otherwise Bury town centre is around a 15-minute walk away where there are plenty of pubs to be found including a Wetherspoons pub called the 'Art Picture House' on Haymarket Street.
Alcohol is available to away fans inside the ground albeit in plastic bottles or cans of Carlsberg Lager, a local Bitter and Kingston Press Cider (all £3.50).
If you’re driving up beware Gigg Lane is normally closed on match days and the ground itself is not easily seen from the A56. Street parking is available, although beware of a resident only parking scheme in operation in the nearby streets, which operates on matchday including evenings, with wardens patrolling the area.
There is no railway station in Bury itself, so most fans travelling by train are likely to end up at one of the Manchester stations. Bury Metro-link is served by trams from Manchester Victoria & Piccadilly railway stations, and is about a 10 to 15-minute walk from the ground.
FORMER MANAGERSMy research shows 39 previous managers for Bury (all my other channels of research proved fruitless) most I haven’t heard of, but a few nuggets have come to light, most notably, Bob Stokoe, Neil Warnock, Kevin Blackwell, one of our own Richie Barker, Dave Flitcroft, and Tom McAnearney who now regularly makes predictions in the APL....Hello Tom !
FORMER PLAYERSNicky Ajose, David Amoo, Darren & Jason Beckford, Marlon Beresford, Luther Blissett, Lee Dixon, Roger Hunt, Mark Hughes, Ashley Grimes, Andy Gray, Leighton James, Paddy Kenny, Chris Kirkland, Clive Platt, Anthony Kay, Zeli Ismail, and Ryan Lowe to name just a few.
MASCOTRobbie the Bobby who is no stranger to controversy, dressed as a policeman, a nod to the place of birth of Sir Robert Peel, he has been removed or red carded on several occasions, twice for mooning at opposition fans, and on one occasion to prove he is the toughest mascot in the league, traded blows with Bartley the Bluebird of Cardiff City.
LATEST MATCH ODDS Bury
17/10 (Bet365) Draw
12/5 (Coral) MK Dons
13/8 (Boyle Sports)
SHOOTERS BOOTSJermaine Beckford with 5 goals in all comps.
FAMOUS FANSPossibly film producer and ideas man behind the London Olympics ceremony Danny Boyle, and possibly Ronnie Pickering........who......Ronnie Pickering, of YouTube fame, another half decent shout is Mike Reid DJ.
LAST TIME ROUNDTuesday 14th Feb 2017– Bury 0 MK Dons 0
Team – Martin, Downing, GB Williams, Baldock, Aneke (Powell), Barnes, O’Keefe, Tilney, Upson, Agard (Ngombo), Bowditch
Unused Subs – Nicholls, Rasulo, Brittain, Muirhead, Thomas-Asante
Ref – David Webb (3 Yellows)
Attendance – 2,005 (113 Dons fans)
HEAD 2 HEAD2016/17 – Bury 0 MK Dons 0
2016/17 – MK Dons 1 Bury 3 (Reeves)
2012/13 – MK Dons 1 Bury 1 (Bowditch)
2012/13 – Bury 1 MK Dons 4 (Bowditch 3, Chadwick)
2011/12 – MK Dons 2 Bury 1 (Bowditch 2)
2011/12 – Bury 0 MK Dons 0
2007/08 – Bury 1 MK Dons 5 (Wright 3, Gallen, Dyer)
2007/08 – MK Dons 1 Bury 2 (Andrews)
2006/07 – Bury 0 MK Dons 2 (Andrews, Knight)
2006/07 – MK Dons 2 Bury 1 (McLeod 2)
YOU’VE GOT NO HISTORYBury were formed in 1885 and have been members of the Football League since 1894 and have won the FA Cup twice, in 1900 and 1903.
The clubs nickname is “The Shakers” and originated back in 1892 when prior to the Lancashire Cup Final, the manager JT Ingram told his players “We shall shake them, in fact we are The Shakers”.
Sorry this one is brief, but there is little of interest to us humble Dons fans for this game.
PREDICTIONThat’s it, all done for another game, time for your prediction using all your knowledge, don’t forget the 1-hour deadline.
Bon Chance.
WellDonEXAMPLEBury 0 MK Dons 3
MKDFGS - Aneke
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