FIFA 20 Verdict

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FIFA 20 Verdict: Carlisle United v Stevenage [25 Apr 2020]

Carlisle United (A)

It should be our final match of the season – and it is still sorta is if we’re using the FIFA 20 Verdict as the official way to decide it all. Of course, we say “still” as if this was the case in the first place. The EFL never said no to our suggestion, just remember that. And, well, we still have the small matter of two matches we’re yet to run through the Verdict. Could all be Hamilton Academical when it all comes to a head over the summer. But we’ll still do this.

Just in case it – and the points – are needed.

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Carlisle United v Boro’

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

Even from the supreme comfort of the arse-groove we’ve moulded into our armchair over the past six weeks, the idea of trekking north to Carlisle is bringing us out in a cold sweat. It could also be the bright idea of taking up running when we’re clearly in no state to. This is something that we’d ask of the lads, however, so the least we can do is bend over and turn the PS4 on. It also lets us reach our tinnie too. Multi-tasking.

Based on the wild guess that a win is what we need to pull off a great escape, it makes a good deal of sense to go attacking here. Two up top, dontcha know? It’s been a long time since we felt confident enough to do that. And at half time, we were laughing; two up and looking comfortable.But maybe we should’ve pulled back on the attacking mode. With 20 left on the clock, we were rocked by two Carlisle goals that (to be fair) they deserved.

Still, we dug deep to regain the lead with eight to go. After learning our lesson, we shifted mood and sat back a bit. Yeah. Good one – ‘cos Carlisle also dug deep; Anderton digging one out from the edge of the area in stoppage time. How costly might that one be?

Carlisle United – 3 (Scougall 70, 73; Anderton 90+2)
Stevenage – 0 (Newton 28; CMS 48, 82)

Team (4-4-2): 
Farman — James-Wildin, Nugent, Cuthbert, Leesley — Kenners, Carter, Dabo, List — CMS, Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby, Soares (Dabo 74), TVC, Lakin (Newton 84), Kemp (List 63), Parkhouse

Bookings:
James-Wildin, List, Dabo, Cuthbert

Boro’ MOM:
CMS – 9.2 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: League Two Table (as it stands)

  • 22 – Stevenage         45   -20   38
  • 23 – Macclesfield Town 37   -15   33
  • 24 – Morecambe         37   -25   33

Results:

Morecambe (A) – 0-0; Scunthorpe United (H) – 3-2; Walsall (H) – 2-3; Oldham Athletic (A) – 4-0; Mansfield Town (H) – 3-2; Macclesfield Town (A) – 1-1; Cheltenham Town (H) – 0-0; Carlisle United (A) – 3-3

Fixtures:

Newport County (H), Swindon Town (H)

As we did do a FIFA 20 Verdict for Newport at home before Covid-19 got its hands on the fixture list, we’ve put it back in place; updating the table accordingly.

Stay indoors. Save lives. Let our FIFA 20 Verdict protect our League Two status.

FIFA 20 Verdict: Stevenage v Cheltenham Town [18 Apr 2020]

Cheltenham Town (H)

Our FIFA 20 Verdict has us picking up 11 points from the last six League Two outings. Will we be adding to that haul indoors against the Robins? As it stands, we’ve done enough to pull level on points with Morecambe and Macclesfield Town. Well, that’s if they’re not doing their own FIFA 20 Verdicts too. We didn’t ask and we’re not going to. Ignorance is bliss as far as the bottom of League Two is concerned. So, let’s get crackin’ what we can control…

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Boro’ v Cheltenham Town

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

Hells bells – this was dull. Even the game itself could only be bothered to burp up just over a minute’s worth of ‘highlights’. On paper, the stats are gonna tell you that we didn’t land a single shot on target. But that includes Charlie Carter clipping the outside of the post, plus a Danny Newton effort that came back off the upright. For some reason, that didn’t make it into the showreel. And yet Diaguely Dabo‘s non-event of an effort did.

We don’t know why either. But it’s another point. And that’s something…

Stevenage – 0
Cheltenham Town – 0

Team (4-2-3-1): 
Farman — James-Wildin, Soares, Cuthbert, Leesley — Lakin, Dabo — List, Carter, Kenners — Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby, TVC, Nugent, Denton (List 80), CMS (Kenners 77), Kemp (Carter 62)

Bookings:

Boro’ MOM:
Leesley – 7.4 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: League Two Table (as it stands)

  • 22 – Stevenage         43   -21   34
  • 23 – Macclesfield Town 37   -15   33
  • 24 – Morecambe         37   -25   33

Results:

Morecambe (A) – 0-0; Scunthorpe United (H) – 3-2; Walsall (H) – 2-3; Oldham Athletic (A) – 4-0; Mansfield Town (H) – 3-2; Macclesfield Town (A) – 1-1; Cheltenham Town (H) – 0-0

Fixtures:

Carlisle United (A); Newport County (H), Swindon Town (H)

Stay indoors. Save lives. Let our FIFA 20 Verdict protect our League Two status.

Ooh mama, this one's a biggie; Macclesfield Town on the road and our FIFA 20 Verdict put to work on working out whether we can get a crucial win

Macclesfield Town (A)

Ooh mama, this one’s a biggie; Macclesfield Town on the road and our FIFA 20 Verdict put to work on working out whether we can get a crucial win. We reckon that all our verdicts in the post-lockdown age would now put us on enough points to be within striking distance of the Silkmen. So, three points here could well be the difference between getting off the foot of the table – and not. Let’s hope we’re switched on and focused until the very end, eh?

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Macclesfield Town v Boro’

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

This was a game low on quality and high on tension. But then you might well expect that – given what’s at stake and tha’. While the match wasn’t much of a spectacle, Boro’ were in confident mood and pinned the hosts back into their half for most of the first half. But our efforts didn’t go rewarded. The few genuine chances that were created were passed up.

It was much of the same in the second half. But, with the clock running down, we got the gift we wanted; Elliott List bursting into the box and being felled for a penalty. Newts kept his nerve to add yet another goal to his recent tally and give us what looked a likely win.

Woop.

But wait! Eager not to give away cheap fouls on the edge of our box, we (for some reason) took the approach of not making any tackles. Macc worked a chance from not much at all; Arthur Gnahoua getting enough on his strike to beat Paul Farman. We did well not to send the controller across the room. No time to do ‘owt about it. A point is all we got. Gahhhh…

Macclesfield Town – 1 (Gnahoua 90+3)
Stevenage – 1 (Newton pen 84)

Team (4-4-1-1): 
Farman — James-Wildin, Soares, Cuthbert, Leesley — Kemp, Lakin, Dabo, List — Kennedy — Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby, Carter, Parrett (Lakin 73), Nugent, CMS (Kemp 66), Parkhouse (Kennedy 83)

Bookings:
Kemp

Boro’ MOM:
Newton 8.4 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

Stay indoors. Save lives. Let our FIFA 20 Verdict protect our League Two status.

Mansfield Town (H)

It’s the first FIFA 20 Verdict of an Easter weekend double-header and we’re back indoors (literally) as we see how it’ll go against the Stags. We should really look back through the post-lockdown results to see if we have enough points on the board to catch Macclesfield or Morecambe. But we a) can’t be arsed to and b) think that’d cause us to be complacent. And we don’t want that. So, let’s see if we can make this Good Friday live up to its name.

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Boro’ v Mansfield Town

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

If the FIFA 20 Verdict is to be believed (why wouldn’t it be), we’ve been robbed of a big ol’ humdinger of a Good Friday match-up. And it’ll please you to know there’s a new-found confidence about the place; Boro’ dominating the Stags from start to finish. Quite how we found ourselves two goals down midway through the first half we’ll never know.

Maybe it was critical that Kenners bagged one back just before the interval. The Norn Iron man pulled us level midway through the second period too. But we thought we’d ballsed it right up when Cuthbert got sent off. Farman came to our rescue (ours and Boro’s) with the spot-kick save. Elliott List was guilty of wasting a great one-on-one with two minutes to go. But he did force the all-important Joe Riley error in stoppage time for the win.

UTB.

Stevenage – 3 (Kennedy 41, 66; Riley og 90+3; Cuthbert s/o 74)
Mansfield Town – 2 (Charsley 26; Maynard 30)

Team (4-4-1-1): 
Farman — James-Wildin, Soares, Cuthbert, Leesley — Kemp, Carter, Dabo, List — Kennedy — Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby (Dabo 82), Carroll, TVC, Nugent, Lakin (Carter 72), CMS (Kemp 69)

Bookings:
Carter

Dismissals:
Cuthbert

Boro’ MOM:
Kennedy – 9.4 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

Stay indoors. Save lives. Let our FIFA 20 Verdict protect our League Two status.

FIFA 20 Verdict: Oldham Athletic v Stevenage [04 Apr 2020]

Oldham Athletic (A)

Ooh. We *really* want to win this one. And we cannot think why. Let’s see what the FIFA 20 Verdict reckons about our visit to see the Latics. If it were down (or is it up?) to us, we would be walking into this with four points from the last nine. Sure, we did balls it up with the Walsall clash midweek. But we’re allowed the odd slip-up here and there. Aren’t we? Look, just give us a chance to put it right against Dino’s Oldham side. We’re well up for it.

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Oldham Athletic v Boro’

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

We had to ride our luck to start with, though. The hosts spent a fair whack of the first half giving us some grief at the back. But no clear cut chances came of it, and soon we started to get a foothold in the match too. A lot of our attacking play went through Kenners too. But it wasn’t all rosy and we changed the formation at the break to shore things up.

Off went Soares through no fault of his own as we reverted to four at the back, with Carter and Lakin flanking Dabo in the middle. Newton was up top; Kemp and Kenners tucking in just behind. The change seemed to work and we hit the Latics with a double salvo around the hour mark to take control. Much like the Cambridge fixture earlier this term, we put it beyond doubt late on and felt good inside. A lovely three points if we do say so ourselves.

Oldham Athletic – 0
Stevenage – 4 (Newton 54; Kennedy 63, pen 90+5; CMS 90+1)

Team (3-5-1-1): 
Farman — Soares, Nugent, Cuthbert — James-Wildin, Carter, Dabo, Lakin, Kemp — Kennedy — Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby, TVC, Parrett (Dabo 65), List, CMS (Kemp 76), Leesley (Soares 45)

Bookings:
Kemp, Cuthbert, Dabo, Parrett

Boro’ MOM:
Kennedy – 9.2 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

Back indoors. Let’s be havin’ you…

FIFA 20 Verdict: Stevenage v Walsall [31 Mar 2020]

Walsall (H)

It’s a home game that had to be rescheduled – and we’re sticking with the date announced as our FIFA 20 Verdict gets to work on Walsall indoors. For those of us who remember the time before Covid-19, this match should’ve gone down a month ago on 29 February. But …

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We might not be allowed out the house – but that doesn't mean we can't break out the FIFA 20 Verdict to see how we fare indoors against Scunny

Scunthorpe United (H)

We might not be allowed out the house – but that doesn’t mean we can’t break out the FIFA 20 Verdict to see how we fare indoors against Scunny. It’s annoying though. With spring just around the bend, we wouldn’t half mind a Saturday afternoon outside on the East Terrace …

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FIFA 20 Verdict: Morecambe v Stevenage [21 Mar 2020]

FIFA 20 Verdict: Morecambe (A)

Good news – the EFL has said results predicted by our FIFA 20 Verdict will count towards our final points tally if this season can’t be ended. We *believe* that there will be no other modelling systems considered. And that means no-one else will be getting any points ‘cos we …

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FIFA 20 Verdict: Stevenage v Newport County [14 Mar 2020]

FIFA 20 Verdict: Newport County (H)

If the current season does cop it due to events outside our control, there’s no better way to work out what’s what than our FIFA 20 Verdict. This time, it’s taking our match indoors with Newport County and putting it into its virtual mouth. What it chews and spits out …

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FIFA 20 Verdict: Crewe Alexandra v Stevenage [07 Mar 2020]

FIFA 20 Verdict: Crewe Alexandra (A)

Turns out our FIFA 20 Verdict can have a punt at predicting how a game will end up – but that sort of needs it to go ahead in the first place. Last week, the endless rain saw that we wouldn’t get to see the 3-3 draw that was in …

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