PREDICTION TIME
After a season of surprises, it’s going down to the wire
Our men go head-to-head to predict the outcome of a thrilling race to the Football League
PREDICT, before a ball was kicked, Macclesfield Town and Sutton United would duke out the title? Kindly, email in next week’s Euromillions numbers.
It’s been that kind of season in the National League. Close, exciting and, at times, a bit of a headscratcher.
No side, as we sit here today, has managed the golden two-point per game target that tends to guarantee a place in the promotion conversation. Not always promotion itself – just ask Tranmere who got 95 points last year and lost in the playoffs – but it at least gets you up there.
Micky Mellon’s Rovers were the majority tip to finish top of the pile this season – and they still could – but they’ve not ended a week in first place yet this season after having to recover from a stumbling start. At times, it’s looked like they would come steaming through but then would hit a speedbump at the wrong time.
And, of course, John Askey’s Macclesfield and Paul Doswell’s Sutton have kept winning. Both have lost just once in their last eight games to remain at the top of the form table as well as the league standings.
U’s boss Doswell recently said his side haven’t got the credit they deserve and perhaps he’s right in some respects. ‘They’ll fall away eventually,’ has been a running theme throughout the year. It’s been exactly the same with Macc.
Neither have, and at the midway point of the Easter Holiday weekend, it looks increasingly like the title will be heading to one or the other.
If either do win it then it will be a story fit for Roy of the Rovers. Macclesfield only had one player signed up in the summer but once again club legend Askey is showing he has the midas touch,
A low budget, their success is built on a small squad with something to prove. Elliott Durrell, for one, has been sensational. Danny Whitaker is Non-League’s Peter Pan with the 37-year-old showing his class in the centre of the pitch alongside the youthful energy of Danny Whitehead.
Penchant
But there have been obstacles. At the end of January, the players released a statement stating they hadn’t received their wages and hadn’t been told they wouldn’t be there when they went to the ATM. Suggestions that non-playing staff had been experiencing the same surfaced and question marks hung over the whole club. A banking error from owner Amar Alkadhi was blamed, which seems careless at best, and there’s also been a transfer embargo. On top of that, Askey was heavily linked with the Grimsby Town vacancy before pledging his future to seeing the job through. Keeping hold of the former Silkmen striker is going to become increasingly tricky. At the 40-game mark last season, Lincoln City beat Eastleigh with a late Sean Raggett header. It kept them top, level on 85 points with Tranmere, who had just thumped Solihull Moors 9-0. A knack for goals in the final 15 minutes became a trait of the Imps. Not least the two late turnarounds against Torquay and Gateshead over Easter weekend. Macclesfield have a similar penchant this season too – 11 hitting the back of the net after 80 minutes. On Tuesday night, Nathan Blissett came up with the decider on 89 minutes to open up a three-point lead over Sutton United. Then on Friday, Whitehead squeezed in a dramatic winner on 94 minutes at Woking. Perhaps the time-defying magic of Askey's friend Sir Alex Ferguson, often an onlooker at Moss Rose, is rubbing off on the SiBonen. Their run-in is a mixed bag. Tricky trips to Ebbsfleet United and Boreham Wood, as well as a long trek to Eastleigh, are on the cards after Chester at home tomorrow
Sutton also have to visit Ebbsfleet as well as Fylde, while promotion rivals Aldershot are in town on the fmal day.
Really, there should be no surprise at how Doswell's side have fared. They have made very astute additions. Kenny Davis is a midfield lynchpin and alongside Jan-uary arrival Harry Beautyman and Craig Eastmond, they have a terrific midfield three. Then, up front, they have Tommy Wright, who is one of Non-League's most exciting talents. Having scored more than 50 times on loan at Salisbury last season, the youngster has shown he can fmd the back of the net at this level too.
Sutton are a well-run club and contin-uing their upward curve under Doswell, whohas been at the hehn tenyears and is the division's longest serving boss.
The biggest thing they've got going for them is how difficult they are to beat. Only once have they lost by more than two goals, a 41 defeat at
Leyton Orient in early December.
Should either slip then others will look to pounce. Of Tranmere’s final six games, only Aldershot are in the top half and they have players like Steve McNulty who eat promotions for brekkie.
Revived
Wrexham, who recently saw boss Dean Keates depart for Walsall, scoff down clean sheets for fun – 21 so far in the league but they are drawing too many games and that will need to change if they’re to steal the trophy from under Macc and Sutton noses. Being hard to beat is a nice thing to be in the nip and tuck of play-off football, however.
On their day, Aldershot look capable of dismantling teams at will. Then they’ll throw in a defeat, thankfully not always like the recent 7-1 pasting they took at AFC Fylde, and make you wonder.
Fylde and fellow league new boys, Ebbsfleet, could well sneak into the top seven. Fylde are comfortably the division’s top scorers and still have struggling Barrow, Torquay and, albeit revived under Mark Yates, Solihull Moors to come.
Fleet, you get the feeling, will take just missing out as Daryl McMahon looks to keep taking steps towards a side that can really challenge next time out. Plus they will spend more time on the road than an Elton John farewell tour with their four away games at Eastleigh, Barrow, Gateshead and Torquay. FA Trophy finalists Bromley are still within a shout but have games to catch up on.
That leaves the two sides currently occupying the final two spots in the top seven. Boreham Wood, who can’t be anyone’s choice to play in the play-offs, have a very talented squad, while Chris Kinnear’s Dover are, once again, in the thick of it. Should recent signing Keanu Marsh-Brown catch alight then they will pose even more questions than they already do with Mitch Pinnock also one of the league’s best performers. And people said they’d miss Ricky Miller!
So, here we go. The racers are on the final bend and the track is straightening out. Blue ribbons or Amber? Surely not a different colour.