There are three newsletters scheduled for today, the first is below and was sent to subscribers at 09.27 this morning. Shonan Bellmare have already won 2-1 which is a solid start to a busy day. If you see something that you like and want to know more, you should check out the subscriptions page and if that throws up any questions, feel free to email me at gowi8@btinternet.com
Saturday September 21st
Not hugely exciting morning/ afternoon action, but three matches to discuss.
There will be a golf only email @ 11.00 UK time looking at the third round of the Tour Championship, where play has been brought forward, because of forecast bad weather today.
Then a third newsletter at 14.30 UK with the evening/overnight matches.
Football League 1: Colchester United- Crawley Town
The pre season notes for United are reproduced at the foot of the page, they could hardly have started their season better with two wins and a draw at Sheffield United, they then lost their way slightly, with an unfortuate loss to league leading Orient and running into an on fire Coventry City, but steadied the ship last time out with a fine 2-2 draw at Bradford City, where not many teams will come away with a result. After which they signed City's experienced central defender Matt Taylor and QPR youngster Jamie Sendles-White, both on loan deals.Sendles-White is a Northern Ireland U21 international, Taylor played 12 times for Charlton in the Championship last season and 41 times in their League 1 title winning side the season before, so should slot right in at this level, despite not seeing much action this campaign. They have been brought in to give coach Joe Dunne cover at the back in the absence of Josh Thompson (injury) and Danny Pappoe (suspension). Since last writing about them, they have also signed winger Jeffrey Monakana from Preston who scored against City, they should have won that, the team is still learning and is very young ( average age 23.5 last week) and can be guilty of some race decisions at times defensively, someone like Taylor will be ideal, if his fitness levels are OK.
Crawley are improving and should finish mid table, but look too short of depth for a promotion push and also have a very young side,they will miss suspended and experienced striker Gary Alexander, a player I know well and who is very much a leader, both on and off the pitch. Without him they were held to a home draw by Shrewsbury Town last week, where they again lost their way through the middle of the match. Town are 0-4 through the 31st-50th minutes and United are strong once thet get past the opening 15 minutes and end both half's strongly. At the odds offered, I think United offer value, you can go with the +0.25 ball option, I will opt for 1.25 units Colchester United level ball 2.22 asian line/Pinnacle Sports.
Football League 2: Accrington Stanley- Rochdale
Local derby and one which the visitors have tended to dominate, winning on their last four trips and scoring freely, with 12 goals. Hosts are really struggling with just one point from seven starts and already trail the rest of League 2 by three points. Their budget and resources are tiny and it was always going to be a struggle to retain league status, after the euphoria of returning to the "big time", started to wear off. Their only goal in seven starts, came in a 2-1 defeat to Hartlepool, who had themselves only scored once previously in six and were recording their first league win of the season. In a 23 man squad, Stanley have 12 players aged 21 or younger, including 7 of 9 offensive players, therein lies the problem. The other two are Danny Webber, who has played very little football in recent seasons and Kayode Odejayi who arrived on loan from earlier this Rotherham United and made his debut against Hartlepool. The jury is still out on him in terms of Stanley, but his appearances for the Millers last season were increasingly brief and last week, was just his fourth start of 2013.
Dale are re juvenated under Keith Hill who knows the club like the back of his hand and are on a three match unbeaten run which includes another derby win ( the big one... they are huge rivals) over Bury and a point at highflying Oxford United, last month they also took a point off leaders Chesterfield, the only team to do so this season. That was a 2-2 draw and the Spirites were the only team to score twice against well organised Dale and it is hard to see toothless Stanley having much success. Especially as Webber, along with first choice keeper Ian Dunbavin and defenders Laurence Wilson and Michael Liddle are all injured, all are "senior" players (aged 23+) in this young group.1.5 units Rochadale -0.5 ball 2.0-2.15 general quotes.
J-League : Oita Trinita- Shonan Bellmare
Two struggling teams, it looks impossible for the hosts who could be officially relegated within a fortnight, although I guess you could argue they will want to at least record a home win before the end of the season ( 0-4-8) and this is about as good an opportunity as they are going to get. Shonan are themselves eight points from safety with just nine rounds remaining, but with the team they are looking to catch (Kofu) playing at Urawa in the early kick off, which they "should" lose, a win for Bellmare, would then close that gap to five and give their very loyal supporters renewed hope and at the very least, extend their interest in the campaign, into the final month. They will arrive with positive mental memories having won 4-1 here on their last visit, a little over a year ago and it is hard to view this as anything other than Shonan's most important game of the season, at least until the next one ! Team news is of little importance in matches like this, it is all about heart,desire and motivation, I have seen more of the former two from the visitors and they certainly have more to gain from the three points. I can see this getting very stretched late on if it is all square, why would either settle for a point ? Therefore, the level ball option makes little appeal and I will instead opt for 1.25 units Shonan Bellmare -0.5 ball 2.50 -2.60 general quote.
Good Luck.
Football League 1:
Colchester United
Time for a more speculative play on a bigger priced selection, although, as I am typing, I am still debating in my mind how best to back United.
This is going to look an odd selection to many, with the Essex side finishing in 20th place last season , only three points and one spot clear of the relegation zone. However, only 20 points separated 7th from 20th, the least in seven seasons and it would not take huge improvement for any side who finished in the bottom half, to progress into a top 12 team. The U's finished 12-8-10-10 in the previous four seasons and have had to make a big transition in recent campaigns in terms of how they were playing football. They were very physical and direct under Aidy Boothroyd ( no surprise there !) and have now gone down a very different route. The whole club has been restructured and they have wisely put a lot of money into training facilities and achieving Category II status for their youth academy, which regular watchers are already calling "the best investment the club have ever made". It might well be a while before we see a real return from that, but Drey Wright and Alex Gilbey were offered pro contracts after less than one year with the youth team and Tosin Olefumi has been earning rave reviews in pre season, these youngsters might be the first of a production line of talent. Wright is only just 18 (in April), he made 21 ( !) appearances for United last season and will surely be a more complete player this season, he and Olefumi are said to be very quick and this is a team with bags of pace.
Having a good academy and treating the youngsters well helps greatly in getting quality loan signings to your club, when better teams know that their players will be taken care of, they are far more likely to let them go out on loan, this is something that United have benefitted from and they had several Arsenal and Chelsea youngsters at the club last season and I am sure there will be more this time round. Having said that, it is the new signings , four of them permanent which have really caught the eye and hint at great ambition for the new season.
They have signed Craig Eastmond and Sanchez Watt from Arsenal and Ryan Dickson from Southampton, at Brentford ,Dickson was considered the best left back outside the top flight, before losing his way at Saints and is hungry to relaunch his career. Watt and Eastmond both had short loan spells at United last season.
Danny Pappoe and hugely promising goalkeeper Sam Walker have both signed on six month loan deals from Chelsea, Walker has rejoined after a similar deal in the second half of last season, during which he made 19 starts and earned rave reviews, conceding an average of 1.31 goals per game, 0.3 per match less than United allowed before he joined.
Jabo Ibehre (30-8-4 last season) also impressed on loan and he, the two Gunners and Walker were named as targets for United for this Summer, no one thought they could get all four, they would have been delighted with three. To sign all four and three of them on a permanent basis is fantastic and the whole club is buzzing and that obviously helped Dickson make his decision.
Alongside Ibehre upfront is Freddie Sears ( 35-7-0) ,still only 23yo, Sears was a wunderkind at West Ham and was playing and scoring in the Premier League at 18. Things went backward for him, but he loves it at Colchester and said he is finally enjoying his football again, another hugely promising youngster in 20 yo Gavin Massey (40-6-4) will keep the pressure on those two, as will Clinton Morrison, definitely only a fringe/bench player now, but one with almost 80 Championship/ EPL goals to his name.
A lot of top flight quality and frightening pace for U's to call upon and they are going to shock a lot of teams. the youngsters who already have a good deal of league experience are going to come on leaps and bounds this season. The movement of Wright, Ibehre and Watt up front with a pair of adventurous speedy full backs is going to be fun to watch and a draw with Tottenham and narrow defeat to a full strength West Ham team in pre season hints at the potential yet to come.I spoke to someone who has seen all the Hammers pre season games and he was impressed with Olefumi and had already gone as far as checking his name out, he made me promise to mention that Joe Cole is in his best form and highest fitness level for ages, with all his old tricks coming out in pre season. Cole is eyeing up an England recall btw.
Country:
England
Sport:
Football
Competition:
English League One
English League Two
Football Teams:
Accrington Stanley
Colchester United
Crawley Town
Rochdale