21st – Exeter
Do not get beat. That is going to be the mantra, the new Exeter City as they take on all comers in a very different style next season. Their summer recruitment has been uncomplicated in that they’ve gone for basic players, players who will fight and scrap but who are not top seven finishers.
Yes, they’ve held on to Stockley and Boateng, but I can’t see the latter being there after the winter window. They’re about to find out it is best to appreciate what you have and not wish your future away because I strongly suspect that come next May, they will wish Paul Tisdale had never left.
Their summer business hasn’t been great either, Jonathan Forte was poor for County and he won’t be getting better with age. The same goes for Nicky Law and Lee Martin, they’re alright, but are they going to give you the quality and impetus to mount a top seven challenge?
No, no they’re not. There’s been too many good players leave and too many substantial ones come in to make this anything more than a season of survival for the Grecians.
22nd – Morecambe
They’re staying up!
In conversations recently I’ve been tipping Morecambe to drop out of the league, but the more I look at them, their business and their ability to grind out results, the more I think they’ll stay up. Look at our end of season game against them, a frustrating 0-0 draw that turned out to be a decent point. Jim Bentley has fostered a real ‘us against the world’ mentality up there, to coin a phrase from Ben Sedgemore’a team far greater than the sum of it’s parts’.
It is a bit like Accrington, only nowhere near as successful and without Billy Kee, Sean McConville and the other nine title winners, but the premise is the same. They’re a small team who use the under dog status to win games.
In Kevin Ellison they have a man who I believe will still be kicking people on a football pitch when he’s 85, in Jason Oswell they have an unknown quantity who might be a rea gem of a player and even though he’s been crap for years, Vadaine Oliver will always give defender’s a decent whack even if he’s not prolific. Plus, Barry Roche is arguably the best keeper we saw at the Bank last season.
23rd – Yeovil
I’m afraid I see no way clear for Yeovil, they’ve been spiralling for a few seasons and I’m not convinced Darren Way has what it takes to pull them out of the mire, nor do I believe they have the resources to do so. Players such as Zoko aren’t getting younger and losing Otis Khan is a big blow they may struggle to recover from.
Where are the goals coming from? Last season the signing of Olomola from Southampton helped them along, but I don’t see them getting the same out of Reece Cole. He’s a highly-rated lad signed from Brentford, but he won’t have the presence up top that they need.
Also, Omar Sowunmi signed a new deal, a left-footed centre back with great height but a decidedly average defender who got in all sorts of trouble during our clashes last season. Those three stars on their shirts, each one representing five year’s in the Football League, might have to come off next season. Sorry Glovers.
24th – Macclesfield
I would love it if Macclesfield stayed up, but it isn’t going to happen. They have one of the lowest budgets in the division (that’s based on hearsay and not fact by the way), they lost John Askey and their recruitment hasn’t filled me with any confidence at all.
Askey found a pattern that got them promoted but unlike Danny last year, I think he knows they can’t go any further right now. Mark Yates, the new man I charge, has lots of contacts and experience but he hasn’t proven himself in the Football League at all. There’s an air of desperation around Moss Rose, one that would be replaced with absolute ecstasy if they finish anywhere other than the bottom two.
I like Macclesfield, the Keith and Butch links are obvious and I feel that in some small way there’s a bond between us, just as their is with Bradford City. On the final day of 2016/17, as we celebrated on the pitch, their fans applauded us and I spent time over chatting to a few of them. It’s a nice club, a club I’d love to see stay in the Football League.
They won’t.
Now enter the the lincoln vitals prediction league!
It would have been interesting to remind us of your predictions this time last year – alongside what actually happened …
I did do an article on this at the end of the season