Website

I forgot to say before, that the time gained through the number of cancelled games at the start of January was put to good use; I updated the Parkfield AFC website.

Well, actually a little more than updating. More like an overhaul.

We lost the use of the googlepage platform at the end of the year, so I had to seek out a new platform. To be honest the new platform (Moonfruit) offers much better functionality. So I have been able to add some addition pages including a photo gallery.

Feel free to check it out at www.parkfieldafc.co.uk

A game at last.

Back to it; a game at last.

But unfortunately back to usually ways; conceeding a goal within the first five minutes and losing 3-1 to Silhill 4ths.

However after a poor first half and trailing 3-0, we took command of the second half and actually had four or five really good chances to score. Regretably we only took one of those chances.

Off…off….off

I do not think you would be surprised to hear that our games scheduled for 2 Jan, 9 Jan and 16 Jan were all cancelled due to the weather.

That means over a month without been beaten!

Happy New Year – Review of 2009

Happy New Year

Lets hope for a better year; 2009 brought only seven wins and four draws from 31 games.

The start of 2009 brought five wins from ten games (how we could do with that again), but in the final mad four weeks of the 2009-10 season we had to play eight games in which we lost all but one.

But we had done enough to retain division five status for 2009-10.

Unfortunately the first team did not fare as well. Going the whole of 2008-09 season without winning a league game saw them finish rock bottom of division one and relegated to division two for 2009-10.

Heathy, the first team manager, under took a rebuilding process during the closed season and early part of the new season. This is now starting to pay dividend with a 5-0 win  in their last game before Christmas. They sit relatively comfortable in mid table with 14 points from 12 games.

White off

Not surprisingly no game today due to the weather. The City Council called off all games on their pitches yesterday. But I doubt any games will be going ahead.

We were due to play top of the table, Northfield Village, but I did have out my strongest team of the season to date. Walsh, Timmins and Downing along with new boy Woodcock were all playing.

We get a weeks break for Christmas. No game on Boxing day, but we do have a game on 2 January.

Merry Christmas

Better

Saturday took us away to Phoenix; The only team in our league that we have failed to gain any points against in our previous meetings.

Unfortunately, the trend continued. However there was at least a much improved performance. Mainly due to new player Woodcock adding some fight into centre midfield and Walsh being back from university.

For the third consecutive game we conceeded a weak goal early in the game. But for the remainder of the half we more than held our own, confidence slowly returned and we had a couple of good chance to equalise. 

Into the second half and it was still pretty even. But with 15 minutes to go we conceded poor second goal from a corner which virtually killed off the game. JP did finish well to give us slight hope but a long range third gave Phoenix the final say and a 3-1 win.

So, better….. but the addition of Woodcock shows that we are going to need to strengthen the squad if we are going to pull ourselves away from the relegation zone. We are now half way through the season, played 13, and only have 6 points. We probably need to quadruple  that total to stay up. That means finding 6 wins from somewhere!

Bare 11

A managers nightmare -Five minutes before the scheduled meeting time receiving a phone call from one of your players saying that they are stuck in traffic in the city centre and that they will not be able to make it when you only had 12 players.

Things got worse when we arrived at the away ground. No access to the changing rooms.

In addition, the referee to close to cancelling the match due to the state of the pitch.

But we took the view that since we had got this far we might as well play the game.

Four weeks earlier we had beat the opposition, Bentley Heath, one-nil. However I was not so positive after 5 minutes when we were already one-nil down. But things then started to look up. I got the slightest flick on a free-kick to score the equaliser and we looked like the better team. Then JP won a penalty. But the penalty spot was a quagmire and JP’s spotkick was unfortunately saved. 

Just before half time Bentley Heath took the lead with a deflected shot from outside the box but virtually from the kick-off we were awarded our second penalty. This time Timmins stepped up and converted. 

So the second half started level at 2-2, but we struggled to keep any possession and Bentley Heath took control of the game. They scored a third but after having a goal disallowed we did get our third penalty. Timmins stepped up again but this his kick was saved. However he managed to convert the rebound. So 3-3. I had hopes that we might get a point out of the game. They did not come true.

In essence the difference between the two teams was Bentley Heath’s striker. Quick, skillful and clinical.  He had already scored the second goal and set up the third. Guess what, he then single-handedly set up the fourth.  

 They scored a fifth, so it finished 5-3.

I guess when you get three penalties and only score one, you can not expect to be winning games.

Double figures

It has been a long time since I have been part of a game that has ended with a double figure goal count for a team.

We were on the end of one on Saturday.

Playing JE Yardley – who had hit us for eight in October when we were short of players - things just went pear shaped.

I guess the writing was on the wall when we were 2-0 down after less than 10 minutes. But then we pulled a goal back through me! Side footed with my left peg into the bottom corner from Haynes free kick. The two goal advantage was quickly restored but we pegged it back again through Jenkins. Then for 15 minutes we definitely matched them. However we conceded three goals in five minutes just before half-time which just killed us off.

The second half was all one way traffic with five unanswered goals.

The trip

Saturday saw us make The Trip.

Old Wulfs are based on the other side of Wolverhampton and the journey to their place is a trip and a half. And they always seem to have a team in the same division as us.

So for the past 6 years, regardless of which team I have played in, I have always had to make The Trip.

Two years ago we pulled a shock result out of the bag with a 2-1 win. Last year we lost their 2-1 when we should have at least got a points. Unfortunately this year is was much more of a one way game. To them. We lost 4-0 in what were quite dreadful conditions.

Usually the one benefit of playing at Old Wulfs is that they have great pitches. The persistant rain put a stop to that. By the end of the game you would have never started a game on that pitch. 

 I could hardly lift the kit bag after the match due to the added weight of the drenched and muddy kit!

Utterly dreadful

Saturday we played (in the loosest sense of the word) Birmingham Citadel whom, with our win last week, we had climbed above in the table on goal difference.

It was a fantastic opportunity to put a gap between us and bottom of the table. But did we take it? No.

We were just dreadful. They were the poorest team I have played in a long time. Other than one quality player in centre midfield partnered by another half decent one, we should have had nothing to fear. But give them credit. They knew their limitations and played to them. They always played the simple ball. Something we could not grasp ourselves as we kept on trying to play the killer ball but instead just giving it away.

Not helped by the absence of a proper keeper and two own goals it was a farce of a performance. The less the said the better. The final score was 2-3.

I still do not think I am over it!