Its all over for another season…

And thank goodness for that after last night’s awful performance.

Sporting a number of first team players due to the lack of availability of second team players, it must have been one of our worse performances all season. In the end it finished 8-2 to Meridan.

So a complete contrast to the end of last season when we went five games undefeated, this year saw us slump to five heavy defeats.

Well here is to next season……..

Goalkeepers….

After Timmins took between the sticks on Saturday against Silhill he became the 10th person this season to don the gloves.

Just for the record the ten have been…

Gough, Croucher, Kolisek, Hayes, Freer, Edmondson, Chalmers, Sawyer, Timmins and finally Capper.

Out of 26 league and 3 cup games, that must be some sort of record. And not a good one.

Priority 1 for the new season, find a permanent no 1.

Doesn’t he look a little like Stefan Moore?

Playing in division five of the Birmingham AFA one does not expect to come up against an ex premiership player, especially one that is still in his prime footballing years.

Before the match, as the manager, I get to see the opposition team sheet and there at number nine was one Steffan [sic] Moore. I was just expecting some one that just happened to share the same name as the former Villa player. Nope, it was actually, the Stefan Moore.

Having been released by Kidderminster (20 games -2 goals) a couple of days previous, he decided to enjoy a run out with Silhill 4th team, playing with one of his long time mates.

Due to a lack of the availability of my regular centre midfielders, for the first time in four years I had to play in the centre of the field, reducing my contact with Stefan. I only got to play directly against him for the last 20 minutes as I dropped back into defence after 70 minutes. We kept him quiet for most of the game including a clean but crunching tackle by myself, but towards the end of the game as the play opened up he took advantage of the space. His second goal was of premier league quality. Turning Walsh on the corner of the box with one movement he chipped the ball straight into the far corner of the net.

I have to say that he was a pleasure to play against, open to a bit of banter and definitely not pretentious. To be honest I would much rather to play against him week in, week out compared to some of the big headed, idiots I come up against.

In the end we lost the match 4-2 after being ahead for a good part of the second half. The positive? We scored for the first time in over 300 minutes of play.

In mid week we drew another blank, losing 1-0 to Meridan after being the better team for the majority of the match.

Just one match to go!

Safe but not sound….

As I previously stated the three points against Rubery made us mathematically safe from relegation. One would have thought that would have given the team the freedom to put in some decent performances. I am afraid that has definitely not happened.

After a heavy defeat to Phoenix, things only got worse on Saturday when we got trounced 7-0 by high flying AFC Hays Harriers. It did not help, not having a goalkeeper and only 11 players.  After the first 10 minutes I did not think much of the opposition, but after three soft goals in the next five minutes, I was made to pay for those thoughts. Redditch is a long way to go for such a thumping, summed up by their goal keeper coming out for the last 15 minutes and scoring a superb over head kick into the top corner from the edge of the box.

The countdown continues….just three games to go!

A lot to catch up on….

Apologies for lag in updating this blog…..matches have been coming just so thick and fast.

The good news is that we are definitely mathematically safe from relegation with still four games to go.

It has been the usual mixed back of result. We lost 1-0 to bottom of the table AG Athletic in game that we were poor but they scored with their only chance. That was followed up by a 6-0 drubbing from top of the table Balsallona in a very intimidating match where JP ended up with a broken jaw and the opposition player being sent off.

But it was then all totally different on Saturday when we played fellow strugglers Rubery. Due to a deduction of 4 points they sat just 1 point above us in the league going into the match.

This game saw us play the best football I have seen us ever play, 1 -0 up after 5 minutes, it should have been 5-0 after 20 minutes but unfortunately Hayward missed 3 easy chances before putting away the hardest opportunity. It took us until the final quarter to seal the victory with a third goal as we started to try to be too fancy with the ball.

Wednesday saw us play high flying Pheonix, where we were brought down to earth with a 5-0 defeat.

I have to say they were probably the best team we have played all season. They tend to get out a much better team when they play mid week. Unfortunately for us. They were just fitter, quicker and more skillful than us. Even though we did try to play some football, which some what lead to our downfall. The space it left played right into their hands.

Anyway, just four games to go.

Who is going to be my Torres?

As I turned up to the ground on Saturday I started talking to one of the coaches of the Junior team that was just wrapping up their training session. He was asking about the game, the team I had out and if we were likely to win. My answer was, that I had a decent enough team, but I just could not see who my “Torres” was going to be (after just watching him dispatch the ball in the back of Blackburn’s net from nothing).

My question was answered sixty or so minutes into the game. It was nil-nil with us having two goals ruled out for off-side and their keeper making a couple of great saves. Typical of one of those games where you are just not going to score. But then “Torres” was unleashed. Humphries was introduced into the right side of midfield and with one of his first touches, hit the ball from about 28 yards out, for it to lob over the despairing goalkeeper. Something from nowhere. I had even turned away thinking the ball had gone over the bar. Not bad for his first goal for the club!

Capper then wrapped up the game with an exquisite free kick from 20 yards right into the top corner.

A 2-0 win (over Inter Quinton) which probably leaves us only one victory away from safety.

Ignominiously benched

After playing a starring role in the 1st team’s draw with the top of the table the week before, the 2nd team manager ignominiously relegated me to the subs bench for the 2nd team game on Saturday! The idiot!

Oh that’s me though.

Yes, I made the executive decision not to play against top of the table, St Pauls, on Saturday. I could argue it was a very astute decision to play Curtis (from the 1sts who was helping us out) because of his pace and agility against a very quick and skillful opposition. In reality it was because I was carrying a slight knock from the week before and I had 12 players to fit into 11 slots. You get a lot less flack when it is yourself that you drop!

But it all worked out in the end. Even though we spent most of the game in defensive mode we ended up 2-1 winners. A dubious decision left us 1-0 down and I wondered where I goals were going to come from. But saving that their keeper did make the best two saves of the 1st half.

Second half it was a bit of a snatch and grab. Firstly JP heading in from a well worked corner straight from the training ground and then star player Andy Fisher netting the winner with a cracker. He won the ball in midfield in our half and the opposition seemed to part like the Red sea and let him through on goal. Not a good idea with a player of his quality. He duly finished the opportunity with a great strike from 22 yards past the helpless keeper.

Obviously rain danced too hard!…..

Anyone who read my last post will know that I was wishing for some rain. Well I must have wished a little to hard as I ended up having to play in hail on Saturday.

The 2nd team had no game (even though we still have ten matches to play) so I got a call up to the 1st team.  It was my first start for the 1st team for nearly two years and I have to say I enjoyed the game the most than any other this year.

Maybe it was because I did not have the worry of it being my team or because I was in the company of better players, but regardless of the hail it was a great match. It was just a shame that we could not hold on for the win.

The 1st team have not won a game all season. Saturday’s game was against Aston who are sitting top of the table. When we played them at home, the result was again an admirable 2-2 draw. (For anyone keeping track, I also made an appearance in that game).

The first team manager drafted in five 2nd team players into the squad for this game, picking a more defensive and work-like team and it worked. After taking the lead we were pegged back just before half time. But mid way through the 2nd half, against the wind and slope we regained the lead. Unfortunately with only five minutes to go, for once in the game, we went to sleep, allowed an Aston player the freedom to collect a throw-in unmarked and put in a deep cross. Where it was headed back across goal for the striker to slot home. Disappointing. But 2-2 was still great result.

Rain

After spending most of the winter praying for it to stop raining so that we could get some games played, I am now praying for rain.

The pitches are rock hard at the moment which I hate. It is hard on the feet but worse is how the ball just ends up bouncing all over the place on bumpy pitches that have no grass cover.

So please, let it rain.

What can I say….?

We lost, deservedly. They were bad, we were even worse. The referee was not much better either, but in this instance he was not the reason for the defeat.

We have a week off on Saturday. You know, it is internationals weekend and we have so many international players in our squad that we have to get our game postponed!