Another game, another defeat where City had looked reasonable value for at least a point, and suddenly Paul Tisdale has the weight of the world on his shoulders as his bottom-placed side heads to East Lancashire. Injury, illness and other absence have contributed to City’s side being particularly patched up at present and, with the mercurial Lee Holmes nowlee_holmes_feat thought to be out for the next month or two, Tisdale is having to fit square pegs in round holes although supporters were somewhat baffled by some of the selections on Tuesday night against Crawley. It may have been that Tom McCready wasn’t fit enough to start which therefore necessitated moving Pierce Sweeney from the centre back role he’d filled in the first three matches, while his fellow centre back from Saturday, Jordan Moore-Taylor, found himself at left back with extremes of age in the middle as 39 year old Matt Oakley partnered 15 year old Ethan Ampadu. It’s likely therefore that further changes will occur at Accrington depending on the personnel available to Tisdale.

As seems to be the norm, Accrington confounded the pundits last season by putting together a fine season that eventually led to a spot in the playoffs. Like City under Tisdale, the John Coleman mantra is very much about getting the scot_bennett_paul_tisdalebest return on investment for every pound spent. This season has been slightly mixed so far – an opening day victory over Doncaster and a penalties EFL Cup victory over Bradford to set up a mouthwatering local derby with Burnley before the last week saw defeat at Barnet before a draw at Wycombe. City will be hoping Accrington’s minds are on Tuesday night’s televised match, although Coleman will no doubt have his well-drilled side focusing only on Saturday’s fixture.

Key to their success last season was Josh Windass, the son of Dean however was snapped up on a controversial free transfer by Rangers in the summer along with Matt Crooks. One key signing, however, was Chris Eagles, the former Manchester United and Burnley midfielder possesses the keys to unlock any defence and will need to be watched. Accrington also took advantage of City’s cost-cutting by snapping up the versatile Arron Davies, who will naturally be arron_davieshoping to line up against the side who were forced to let him go – reading between the lines somewhat against Tisdale’s wishes. Billy Kee up front will, as always, be keen to remind City what they missed out on when they failed to sign him while he was at Leicester in his youth.

Last season, somewhat unusually considering City’s form, it was the home sides who picked up the points. The corresponding fixture saw Stanley race into a 4-0 lead through Windass (2), Mingoia and Kee, before Holmes and Grant each notched their first goals for City to give the scoreline a veneer of respectability. City gained some revenge in January, however – after going down to an early goal from McCarten, they equalised immediately through Nichols before Ribeiro scored late on to give City a 2-1 win. City hold a slight head-to-head advantage in league games with 9 wins to Stanley’s 6 (just one draw).

Current betting odds are: 11/4 for the win, 5/2 for a draw and 11/10 for the defeatref_joyce_thumb.

Match officials will be:-

Referee: Ross Joyce
Assistant Referees: Matthew Jones and Paul Marsden
Fourth Official Helen Byrne

Ross has refereed just the one Exeter game, which was the 3-0 defeat away at Northampton last season. Match details of that game can be found here.




By Jason H

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