Me and matty are not available on the 19th of september either shane.

Shane I'm not avalible for 19th of september as i've got tickets for ipswich v west ham. and i'm staying in harlow. but other than that should be ok. How much do i owe from last season.........££££££££££ hope its not the national debt of a small african country.?

Mr Genghis, that means you miss out on our away trip to Hampstead Norreys.

As a warning, I may struggle to make it for 7pm on Thursday as I'm up at Gamestars Live in London that day for a work thing. However I do intend to be at training as it's the last one before the start of the season, so Genghis will get you all started if I'm not there at the start. I hope everyone did their own fitness work this weekend?

Good.

That's 2 cup games Mr Taylor. Travellers Friend at home in the Lakeside Cup and Bell (Grove) FC away in the Berks & Bucks.

Mr Sills would you be able to see if Nigel will be available for either of those matches?

Cheers.

Shane just an advanced warning,i am unavailable Sept 12th And October 3rd just thought i would warn you in advance,roll on sunday im gagging for it.

I trust everyone enjoyed a good bank holiday weekend? Just for info, AFC Wimbledon have now won 6 games out of 6 and are enjoying a healthy 5 point gap at the top of the division after just those 6 games so far. Metropolitan Police look like being the main rivals at the moment, but they lost at the weekend so are 6 points behind with a game in hand.

As for us, we face Post Office on Sunday, at home. Anyone not available or do I have a fullish squad to choose from? Itching for it now.

0 bids Neil. Oh dear. I'll see if I can get the link 'out there' a little...

Hold Water? Neil Or "BOB" Isn't gonna be able to hold his head up after that f*cking gorpy looking photo, Whats he trying to sell, looks like he should be in the lady bird cataloge for woolworths.

Are you holding water in that picture?

Superb. I'm f*cking bidding...

Check this out, im famous!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5516801130

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Also, Xbox are doing a deal on curries, tikka massala plus peshwari naan for £5.95, one poppadum.

Matt, Currys are doing a deal on x-box starts 27th August £99 with one game and controller.

Youve got a box?

Guys I'm sorry but I won't be at training tonight - our house-buying chain fell through so we've had to put it back on the market and we've got people coming to look round it and if we don't sell it more or less straight away it means we'll lose the house we're trying to buy.

Because we thought we'd sold it we had the place pretty much packed up so I need to get back from work and start unpacking, tidying, cleaning etc...

Probs just a match tonight, so put lots of effort in, make it as big a pitch as possible and try and play as tight footy as possible, get plenty of touches on the ball and keep it coming together like it obviously did on Tuesday night. I'll see you all next Thursday.

Sorry to drop out on you.

Cheers.

I've got a box.

Morning Boys...

Went to Highbury last night ... 'Fabergas, oh oh oh oh, Fabergas, oh oh oh oh, He's only seventeen, He's better than Roy Keane'

Neil and Paul, cheers for the offers of a lift on tuesday, but youll be pleased to know I got a lift from Genghis. Thought that counts, though...

Who's training tonight?

Has anyone got an X-Box they want to sell?

Cheap...!

It was a great performance. Took us 10 minutes to get into the game again for some reason, but even during that dour patch we still took the lead. Then they ran up our end and scored, seemingly unchallenged, and after that they were playing the better footy for the next few minutes. Dunno what change, but suddenly we were playing the ball out wide and down the channels, and whipping in crosses, and Neil was taking the ball round players while Dave was taking the ball through players, both looking for each other at the end of it as well, which was great to see. Can't remember all the goals, but Neil totally sold their defender for a clear penalty which he despatched with confidence and Dave whacked the ball in a couple of times. For the rest of the first half was some of the best stuff we've played and they rarely got a look in.

Second half we got a bit too comfortable and had to soak up some pressure early on, Smurfy pulling off a fine save from a corner. I think subconsiously we thought we had it won and unintentially started to coast a little, while they were still going for it (something you can always rely on Banks to do) so I dropped Neil back into a 5 man midfield for 10 minutes which seemed to change absolutely nothing at all, but then when I popped him back up front he scored within minutes and then normal play resumed with us spraying it around. We even caught a team out with a throw on! How good is that? Sillsy raced down the right and as I was on the pitch by now and had also got caught out by the throw on, all I could do was shout that Sillsy should go it alone, which he did and put an accurate shot into the far side of the goal. Made a tricky goal look very easy, hence the miss-kick suspicion.

Obviously Dave and Neil get a special mention cos they were both on fire and the one thing we stopped doing at the beginning of the 2nd half was finding their feet cos we were all trying for that killer ball, when we found their feet again they created chances and goals again. If they both play like that regularly then defences are not going to enjoy playing against us. Crabbeman as well was absolutely everywhere, including inside opposition shinpads. It seems he has achieved time travel because he goes in for tackles which actually happened ten minutes ago. Got a mild talking to from the ref and a barrage of abuse from their forward at the end, but had a storming game all round. Hilly was immense, cos their bald striker is a good player, I quite like him and he's caused us problems in the past, but Hilly put him in his pocket early on and let him out at the final whistle - he won't have enjoyed the game much. Smurf was also back on song, great big kicks, fine saves, good shouting, safe hands.

Everyone played well, just those guys right down the backbone of the team shone a bit brighter. A damn good performance, a well needed result and sets everyone up nicely with a big appetite for the Northcroft curtain raiser a week Sunday.

Sillsy's goal was a wind assisted miss kick again Matt

Nice one lads, great result last night. A nice little boaster before the season starts. A thrashing has been building up over the last few friendlys so getting one in the bag in a great incentive for the season to start.

Nice to see Neil off to a blinder with four against his potential poachers, I bet they were gutted! And I hear Lewis also had a great game and was passing freely.

Another Sillsy tap in was it? !!

So do we have any ideas of who is turning up tonight then?

Thought and planned out 6 months in advance after the output of 6 major computer systems have analysed the selections based on passed performance, opposition stats and weather phenomena. That and who turns up.

I have no idea what sort of squad we have turning up for tonight, so if my initial team selection seems a bit 'off the cuff' then please forgive me. I am, however, expecting, if not demanding, a decent, composed performance, and expect nothing less.

Any excuses about being tired from Sunday will be met with derisory comments such as "fuck off".

John if I had my way you'd walk...

Crabbman, if your stuck for a lift give me a call...

!!

John if Paul cant pick you and Dave up let me know and I will take you as I only work 30 seconds from the train station.

I dunno, he was certainly one of them while he was on the pitch.

Is it at Brimpton tonight? I'll try and come and watch.

Im dying to get playing tomorrow, really up for the match. Me and Crabbeman will be getting the train A.S.A.P. after work, probably need someone to pick us up from Thatcham station. Im gonna score tomorrow as well.

Fair enough - who knows whether acupuncture works or not, but pretty much anything is worth a try at the moment eh? Also fair point if the doc says rest aint much good, but if exercise keeps hurting it who you gonna call? Maybe gentle exercise is a happy medium - so footy is a no no, gentle running is in, swimming maybe but only after a warm up and any kind of gym work is out. Doctor Shmocter. If we listened to what doctors said we'd all be washing more than once a week and wearing deodorant.

Lads?

Ok...

Going to that bird on Wednesday. Some of it might be the way i sit at work, which i have been trying to improve over the last few weeks, i had a really shit chair so i swapped it with someone that was on holiday last week, they've been moaning all day about it! I'm not owning up though. Rebel.

The doctor told me complete rest is the worst thing, I did pretty much nothing until Blackpools beach football and it just came back. I'm just hoping this massage is the magic touch, I'll hae a few of them and see how it is. Other than that Acupuncture is the only other option I can think of.

Right then you need to rest it properly, no friendlies (done) but no training either, proper rest. And proper 'rest' rest, not just 'no sport' rest. Otherwise this will drag on forever. How was that massage lady or haven't you been yet?

No dancing at Liquid, no fighting outside Liquid, no running, no going up stairs two at a time, sort your chair out and sit properly at your desk, lie on the floor to watch telly, sleep on your back not curled up on your side, no bedroom gymnastics at all. Massages, hot baths, deep heat and ibuprofen rub. 3 weeks of that, you'll be bored, but getting better. You'll be unfit, but you were unfit before and caught up pretty damn quickly, so you don't need to worry about being unfit.

When my back was bad I realised (a long time into it) that one of the main things that was doing it in was the way I was sitting at work. Took a bit of time to get out of the habit and find a new sitting position, but it seemed to help a lot.

My backs no good, so I won't be playing. I don't think i would have made KO anyway.

I'm all keyed up now, can't wait to unleash you lot against Banks tomorrow night. I know the timing is a bit tight for a lot of people to get to Brimpton after work, but is there anyone definitely not available?

That sounds pretty good then - nice to hear of some footy and movement and passing, certainly encouraging stuff by the sound of it. We know that Partick have a knack of pulling off weird results against us - we were totally all over them in the 7-2 nightmare a year ago so we know how it can go, but at least we were producing the goods at last, which is very settling for me and gives me a warm 'readybrek' style glow.

Was gutted to hear about Taylor - it seems there's some jinx about new players joining our squad this season. How did your back hold out Matt?

And if we tailed off in the last 25 minutes, but played some nice footy before that, then maybe my theory of no fitness more footy in training is flawed? Maybe we need more fitness, all fitness, fitness til we spew type training? You said it, not me.

Thanks lads.

A lot of plusses (fuck the spelling)from yesterdays game,when we do the easy ball nice and simple playing football we can beat most teams,movement was better and we were talking to each other which makes it a lot easier as well, so pretty encouraging i thought dunno what any one else thinks that is just my opinion so feel free to shoot me down in flames.

The result wasn't really a fair reflection on the game. Although they had there moments (and scored 2 own goals!) i think we created the better chances, and there keeper made one outstanding save to deny what could have been an early 'Goal of the Season' contender. But to be fair, Neil must have been suffering from shock when he took the shot, as Lewis made a great 'pass' during the build up. In fact he made a number of good passes during the game - maybe he's the one suffering from shock...

We played some good stuff in the first half but thought we really dropped the pace in the last 25 minutes which was a little disappointing. Although that's when i came on, explains a lot.

Taylor needed 5 stitches in his head after Lamby stamped on it!! He's alright though. A little annoyed as he was probably our best player until then... Maybe that explains why Jonny did it!!

I hate Partick...there always fecking moaning!! And the poor excuse for a German porn star lookalike ref didn't help, he was terrible.

....But I don't think there a team we should fear to much during the season. We just don't seem to be able to beat them!

p.s. although the audience didn't get shown, I stood next to the 'soccerette doors' on Friday, a matter of metres away from Hells Bells for the SoccerAM Allsports Show. At one point you could hear me go "Yay"

F*cking famous.

So what was everyone's opinions of Sunday then? It's our best result against Partick so far and from what I hear there was at least some footy played and chances created so it doesn't sound so bad... They scored more past us than any other team last season, in the league, so 5-3 is not a bad result - and Dave and Neil both notched too which is heartwarming for me, cos if those too get firing then it's all in our favour.

If anybody is still here i am available for sunday

It certainly is a valiant effort young Mr C. However if sleep is a problem for you I have the ideal solution, and it bloody well works.

1. No alcohol. Although alcohol helps you drift into a stupor, it actually keeps your depth of sleep minimal, meaning a pissed up 9 hours is no better than a normal 4 hours. Nobody can exist on 4 hours sleep, even Maggie Thatcher suffered, and she was a robot from the future.

(Just a theory)

2. Exercise. This knackers you out more than anything and ensures your body goes into a deeper sleep, meaning 5 hours of it can do as much good as 7 hours. And 6 hours is better than getting drunk and sleeping for a weekend. God knows what 8 hours does for you, probably develops super-powers like flight or x-ray vision, go careful and set your alarm.

3. Piss. Take a squizz before you go to bed. It works.

4. Counting sheep. Take a drive out to the country and actually count sheep, this won't help you sleep, but hopefully will get you away from any alcohol, thereby at least achieving point 1.

5. Lingerie. If you wear women's underwear, you're a poof. This has nothing to do with sleep.

6. Go to bed early and read a book. You'll have no friends by the end of the year, but you'll sleep like a baby. A baby called Billy.

Good luck with all that.

Well its a funny story, after I manage to fit all that into my evening you would be forgiven in thinking that I would be quite tired and I would agree you would be right. But over the off season, I seemed to have turned into a boarderline acoholic. Now the football season is approaching ive decided not to go to the pub so much during the week and just have a bloody good weekend to make up for it. I thought this was a good theory, to I realsied that over the last couple of months I had become dependent on alcohol to sleep. So after 3 nights of tossing and turning with no sleep I decided to go out and get wasted to 4 this morning whilst keeping up my training regime in chassing the milk float. You think the murder run is bad, you should try doing this lagered up.

How can you have a hangover after footy training, then a bath, then out for a cross country run, shower and massage and 5 portions of vegetables for supper with a glass of tonic water? Like the consumate professional that you are.

Ever get the feeling your just having one of those days? I also have the biggest hangover this morning which I can assure you isn't helping the matter

Right, for everyone's knowledge - here's the deal for Sunday...

Meet at 10am at Stockcross.

Okay? Smurfy I can't remember whether you're available for this one or not - can you let me know? I think you are, but just to make sure.

I think it's only me, John Sills and Beeny who aren't available, and John Lamb's coming along too, so we should have a fairly decent squad out. Don't worry about the result so much, just try and get switched on at the first whistle, rather than in the second half. Get nicely warmed up and concentrate throughout, that's what we need at this stage of preparations.

Good luck lads, remember that they're dangerous on the break when they knock decent long balls on to their pacey strikers - so always be looking for that at the back and maybe have one of the centre mid guys sitting back a little deeper than usual even when we're pushing forward.

Opps.........My bad

Does she know how to spell "niece"?

James my name is spelt Neil, not Niel - thicko!! Even my 5 year old neice knows that.

Can somebody bring either a pump adaptor for a footy, a pump for a footy or a blown up footy tonight? Genghis can't make it - I have a boot full of balls but none of them fully inflated.

Nice one, cheers...

Incredibly small head.

I think I know what you mean Neil, it's just being more positive when going for the ball, so that if there's a man half in your way, you go for the ball anyway and bump em a bit. That way next time the ball's coming towards them they're not so comfortable controlling it, gets their head down...

That has been once of the differences, and was quite a poor area last night in the first half, we were getting bumped as soon as the ball was at our feet (or before) but we were backing off them and letting them get the ball under. Trouble is, I don't necessarily want to change the way we defend because for the last two seasons our defence has been amongst the best in the league, but sometimes a little closer attention might be beneficial - like you say, maybe early in the game. Add to that no silly free-kick giveaways and you can see why it's no fun being a Shefford defender...

Oh Second half compared to the first was really good, as shane said looked mor elike a team. We were individuals in the first, and we didn't look good. but on the whole a fair effort looking forward to the start of the season, shane just to make sure, I'm not avalible sunday, but I am for tuesday.

Niel not sure if kicking them is a good idea but good clean hard tackles, if your a little late then your a little late but hey, yea get stuck in early that first tackle makes all the difference, and the rest of the opposing team won't want to be tackled either so the first few tackles and just closing down does the trick a little bit of hassling, dave crab is excellent at hassling and closing down doesn't always get the ball and gives away free kicks but breaks down there attack, thats what its all about. fin.

In some games we seem to panic on the ball, I think its against more physical teams. I think we should be slightly more physical. People come to play us knowing that there not going to be kicked etc and then they can concentrate on their football. If we hit a couple of them early on, then their players will have that at the back of their minds when they get the ball, and will end up panicing and losing the ball. Just my opinion, but I think I will start kicking a few of their defenders early on, and see what happens. If nothing else, it should wind them up abit

I agree Neil, it's good to play some decent teams as it shows what we're capable of, but if we're not playing well individually it doesn't really matter whether we're playing a decent team or a sucky one - which is why the 2nd half last night was so important to us. Plenty of footy tonight though at training, so we can get our touch coming on - as fitness is pretty much there.

Touch, sharpness and movement come next...

Last season Bell (Grove) FC came 8th out of 12, with Long Whittenham coming 7th. You can see their results here - http://www.utvl.org/ResultsSeason.asp?TeamID=BELL&Season=2003

They're mixed at best, but you don't know what sort of quality the rest of the division is. Long Whittenham stuffed them, but that could have just been one of those games.

They describe themselves as "good spirited and sporting" so it should be a good game either way.

Hey everybody, for anyone who's interested my new mobile number is 07812152339.

I think its good that we seem to be up against some really good teams in our friendlies as were not going to come up against teams like that in our league. When we play teams in our league hopefully we should hit the ground running and pick up a few early points.

AFC Dons 3 - Croydon Athletic 1

Dons 2 for 2, top of the league and getting used to it...

Don't think you're gonna be good enough my friendly-looking gents. Should be a good game anyway, nice to have an away trip in the Berks & Bucks... 

Berks & Bucks Cup:

3rd October - we play Bell (Grove) FC away. I've checked them out and details are sketchy, however it appears that they play in the same league as Long Whittenham FC, who we played in the B&B Cup last season and beat them 7-4 after extra time (with "goal machine Dave Lewis" scoring 5).

In the season before last, Bell (Grove) FC came 3rd from bottom in that division with Long Whittenham coming about 4 or 5 places above them. Take from that what you will, to me it says easy game, as Long Whittenham sucked and no way should have taken us to extra time, we had some dodgy defending going on that game.

Bring it on...

Mixed emotions on last night's game - again we were up against a good team, and in the second half we started to show what we can do when we're up against a good team, we held them out, limited them to chances (very few when you think about it, and much much fewer corners) and even created a few chances of our own.

But the first half was terrifying. Nobody playing like their normal selves, skewed clearances, miss-hit passes, 3 or 4 touches to control the ball, they had 5 metres worth of space to get the ball under control, people holding on to the ball for too long, trying to dribble out of our own 6 yard box, ball watching, god it was awful. Individually very poor, which meant we never really got to show any kind of teamwork at all, and had no shape. That said, they still only put 3 in, and Tony got one of them. (Actually Tony's goal summed up the first half - not to pick on him - but 99 times out of 100 he'd have got that away, but in the first half last night, skewed it badly and saw it fly in)

So it was good to get off at half time and have a breather, and it did make a difference. In the second half we were thinking a lot more - about where we were, where they were and where our team-mates were, about how to kick the ball and in some circumstances, where to kick it and how hard. It was still tough, they were quick and agile so we never had much time on the ball at all, but we started playing early passes, to people's feet, and moving for them to have it back too, it was almost a different team out there, and we finished the strongest, which is a great credit considering how much we'd been outplayed in the first 10 minutes especially. As Paul Curtis said, it was a shame when the final whistle went.

So all in all good, and as someone said if we play as bad as we did in the first half against most of the teams in our league they'll still struggle to break us down - whereas if we play like we did in the second half, we should be able to punch through on goal easier against teams in our league.

So in the end I was happy - sorry to have a moan at half time in a friendly, but nobody would have enjoyed the game if we'd carried on as we were.

As a final note - it does indeed appear that the team we played last night are in a Saturday Senior league, and are quite successful in that league too - so when you stack all that up against us, I think we can be pretty pleased with the second half performance and a bit more understanding about the first half.

See most of you tonight, be ready for Partick on Sunday...

Weather okay for you tonight John?

Back's feeling better, but kinda fragile, will get some deep heat spray for tonight but may still not be up to playing. That will still leave us with 11 though so we'll be fine. Be nice to have a friendly with a full squad before the start of the season, but you can't have everything eh.

Advanced warning of a 10.30am kick off on Sunday against Partick at Stockcross. Vodafone also asked us for a friendly but I had to knock them back cos it's only Bank Holiday Sunday left before the start of the season and we might need a rest after Wednesday Sunday Tuesday matches.

All that talk about no more injuries - I have stuffed my back up now too. Trying to sit very still today and I'll see how it feels this evening. I'll be there anyway, just might not be able to play.

i suggest a few drinks after to celebrate our win and the fact i may header the ball once in the game!!

Looks like we might have 12 for tomorrow night then...

Nigel
Beeny
Tony
Dave F
Paul
Daryl (ringer)
Chris (ringer)
Dave C
Adam
John
Neil
Shane

So not too bad then. If we lose there'll be the season's first murder run straight after the game...

I will do at least one of those...

I'm going to see Soccer AM Allsports show live this Friday, I got 2 tickets by emailing them...

http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,281-1071074,00.html

Woohoo!

Paul is that game up at Brimpton?

Poor old Craig - buggered his back up and has been told no sport for 3 months. No more injuries please.

And Paul, my justification for living is to make you all feel worse about yourselves...

Quote Of The Day

"He is now getting paid what he deserves to be paid. I don't approve of using kids as cheap labour"- Kevin Keegan on Shaun Wright-Phillips' new Citeh deal.

Nigel has been playing really well for our 6 a side team. I know he is more of a 6 a side keeper, but he wears contacts now which helps a lot. He can see the balls coming from the half way line.

Ive got a guy called Chris (usually plays full back I think) and a bloke called Daryl (winger or striker...apparantly...) both available for wednesday.

No worries, nobody's available for 100% of the matches in a season, we all gotta take a Sunday off here or there, keep the good women happy eh? Sure Nige will do fine.

See how Nige fairs in the friendly Wednesday im a bit gutted about it but taking Missus and kids away long weekend,had it booked for ages.

Really? Bugger. Figured we had a good chance of that cup this season. We know we can beat MDM. Still, we've won some tough old games without you in goal before, sometimes it can help the defence cos when they know I'm behind them they tend to not want to let anyone shoot...

Im away for the lakeside cup match on 12th september
SORRY

So, squad for Wednesday so far is:-

Nigel
Dave Frew
Paul
Dave Crabbe
Adam
John Sills
Neil
Shane

Can't remember whether Genghis is or isn't, or Newy, and Colin was being his usual definite self by saying that he wasn't sure whether he knew or not if he was possibly going to be able to make it. Or not. Hilly wasn't, but I'll see if I can contact Beeny. I have the kit, so I'm going to try and leave work early on Wednesday, but obviously if I'm gonna be late, you're all gonna be late.

Cool.

Yep, nice one for the bbq yesterday mikee, even though you made Neil wait for a hot dog.

Fixtures are as follows:-

5th Sept - Home to Newbury PO
12th Sept - Home to Travellers Friend (Lakeside Cup)
19th Sept - Away to Hampstead Norreys
26th Sept - Home to NTS Casuals (Bowness Cup)
3rd Oct - No game (potential Berks & Bucks Cup date)
10th Oct - Away to Travellers Friend
17th Oct - Home to MDM

And if anyone wants a powerball, having seen my iron-like forearms in action yesterday, you can get them from http://www.powerballs.co.uk/

This is big time then lads, no longer playing on the banks of the River Kennet, this time it's the Thames, the granddaddy of rivers, that will be sweeping our footballs away...

AFC Wimbledon won 5-1 in their first Ryman Div 1 game, planting them securely at the top of the league, a positition they'll hopefully get used to...

Right boys, here are the directions for Wednesday. As I havent been driving around Reading long, I've done the best I can...


From the West on the A4

Stay on the A4 until it turns into the A4155. (with the A4 carrying on off to your left.) When in Reading join the ring road by following signs to A329 Caversham (You‘ll be turning left at Castle St roundabout and going down a slope to get onto this road). You’ll go past the Yell building on your right, through some traffic lights, under a railway bridge, and past TGI Fridays on your right. There is a junction and you want to go right onto Vastern road (the A329) and not left to Caversham! There is another roundabout (with MMA insurance and Thames Water HQ on your left.) Go straight over onto Kings Meadow Road, the pitches are on your left. If you go wrong, you’ll know because you’ll be driving back under a railway bridge, with the Energis building on your left and Forbury gardens on your right. And there won’t be any football pitches, Schoolboys.

From the M4, Jct 12

Take the turning for the A4. Then follow the instructions above. Muppets.

Handily, I have also got a link to a map, which you can zoom in and out on to your hearts content...

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&lang=&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=RG18BN&quicksearch=rg1+8bn&cidr_client=none

Wednesday should be fine, Ill spread the word with the Reading lot. I can always get a couploe of likely lads to play if need be. So whats the deal sunday then? Are we meeting for a kick a bout anyway?

Just realised youve all gone home so noone will answer that. Bastards.

Definite no for weds let me know about sunday i might only be able to play first half anyway

I got a pitch, then the Banks muthas pulled out of the friendly. Not best pleased with them, so well done for fucking them over Neil I'm proud of you.

At the moment we have a 2pm pitch at Henwick booked without a team to play. I'm making a few phone calls but I'll have to come back to you on it.

Banks. Rhyming slang?

Has anyone got any news about the game on Sunday with Banks? Did they manage to get a pitch?

i cant mate im in mexico, when do we need to get siging on forms in by?

Friendly on Wednesday.

7pm kick off in Reading. anyone who definitely can't make it?

Anyone want a scan of the blackpool polaroid?

"He's the only member of our coaching or playing staff who could afford lobster but that's what he's had and the lobster's done him"

Boston chairman Jon Sotnick on new player-coach Paul Gascoigne's bout of food poisoning.

Still got no fixture lists through from the league. Although affiliation fees don't need to be in til Monday so until they get those maybe they don't bother putting fixtures together. As soon as I get them I'll post them up on here. Bet we get Hermitage in the Knockout Cup...

Nice attitude from akiakiak foisdgg at Palace there. Even if he is shit.

Sadly I shall not be there at training tomorrow - though the good news is an unbroken trophy does indeed exist. You'll have to pick it up on Sunday if you're playing in a friendly this pre-season? Left us all alone on Sunday, you lot did, all alone in front of the best side I've experienced in the NDSFL. Exposed we were. Mauled we were. Run around and around we did. Neil got the ball at one point, how we celebrated that. Tony hit a free kick into the wall, that's going on the highlights video...

Yeah, I was debating if it was chique or chic...

Quote Of The Day "They can make me the cheapest player in their fantasy football league. But they can't protect the most expensive ones from my hardest tackles" - Crystal Palace's Aki Riihilahti.

Craig cant come tomorrow, his nan has been rushed into hospital. Me Crabbeman and Frew will all be there.

Any chance of an unbroken trophy tomorrow...?!

The badge shows traditional values combined with modern lifestyle. Our new club motto "Hi Sue" won't appear on it.

"Chic"

I like the badge Shaner, very chique and minimalistic whilst being cutting edge and striking...

What?

I would rather play and get kicked to bits then do a 90min murder run.....far less painful

Shefford FC's new badge... 

Good for you, we'll see how it goes, if we think they're out to get you we can always sub you off and you can do murder runs for 90 minutes instead... I'm sure they'll be fine, they're just a bit hacked off that they thought they might be getting a decent player. Might be different if they were in our division this season so didn't want you notching against them.

Got the badge design back, it's nice I like it - gonna try and post it up on here...

To be fair to Tony Adams, John, he is a pissed up lunatic.

Its hard to tell really. Some times they are fine with me, other times they just blank me out and give me funny looks. I guess it depends how pissed they are at the time. I would like to play as it will be a good run out and I really want to get match fit for the new season. I cant see them kicking me about for the fun of it, but I guess I wouldn't really mind if they did either.

Quote Of The Day...

"Patrick's only got a year or two left at the top level. Looking at the way he runs, basic physiology will tell you that. I believe that one leg is three centimetres longer than the other" - Tony Adams, The Daily Telegraph.


Match on the 29th should be ok, although it is Reading Festival Weekend, and if we do have a match Pleaseeeeeeeeeee can it be in the afternoon...?! A few of us are planning to go to the Festival on saturday night...

So Neil - how bad has your split with the Banks boys been? Should you play in the friendly or do you think they might be out to stick their studs up your arse? Up to you completely whether you want to play or not.

I will be up for a game on the 29th

Im away on the 29th Shane.
Im not excepting any responsibility for any of the goals

What's everyone's thoughts on having a friendly match on the 29th August?

I can set one up easily enough, but it is Bank Holiday weekend. For a start, that means I won't be around, but if there's enough of us (you) who would be available and fancy another friendly, then I can go ahead and arrange it anyway, leaving Genghis (or someone else if Genghis is away) in charge of rolling subs etc...

Let me know your likelihood of being around/wanting to play.

Right - friendly next Sunday is now against Banks. It will be a Sunday afternoon kick off (2pm) at Henwick, as this was the only time we could get a pitch. Hopefully not as hot as yesterday, although in the end it wasn't too bad was it?

Well there we go, yesterday was something to put down to experience.

The experience of turning up with half a squad to play against a fully functioning, possibly peaking too soon, fit, agile and skillfull premier division hopeful team.

Also the experience of giving away a soft goal straight from kick off.

Also the experience of playing 90 minutes and only making the keeper make one 'save' and even that was cos he didn't control the ball properly and I was able to stick a toe in, only to see it hit his leg anyway.

Still, for a lot of us, that's the first friendly out of the way, and I think for those who were there it was a lesson in how much we (definitely including me) lack a bit of match sharpness and need more friendlies to work on basics like controlling the ball, kicking the ball, etc.

But we knew what we were up against and I think we kept ourselves pretty cheerful considering, and the goals did come in spurts - and in between those spurts we did show that we could defend quite well against a team that good, so things could have been a lot worse.

Wonder whether that ginger was the one who broke my arm? Tony and Julie both seemed to think he was, I'm just glad Smurf was in goal and not me.

Will let everyone know about the friendly next Sunday....

Its all part of the masterplan, doing extra training without anyone noticing by running further, and by 'deliberately' doing my press ups wrong so I got to do more...

Off to Essex, good luck on Sunday boys...

Chest is ok. Always feels better the day after some exercise. It felt ok during the game last night. Just hurts after doing loads of running. Ill be there on sunday. Just have to see how it goes but it should be ok.

3rd fucking time I've typed this out now.

Good training last night lads, 14 of us is a great turn out and there was some good energy expended too. My biceps certainly knew I'd lost my fair share of races...

Quick press-up technique review next week I think, what with the new version Sillsy has introduced to the world. With that and his extra-distance shuttle-run method I was surprised at the end of training not to see a Sunshine Bus turn up to collect him.

Got a squad for Sunday now then, nice one Neil for playing and then going up to the Soap-box thing, should be a bloody good run out for everyone.

Adam - how's the chest feeling? What do you reckon the chances are for Sunday? Reckon it's worth having a run out or rather rest it a bit?

bastard blogger

www.nfsu2.co.uk

check it out, our new site for EA's Need For Speed Underground 2 - anyone who likes driving games, gotta be done...

well, the camera never lies... those UV lights will really show up your flaws eh?

Something's not quite right with my picture....

Front row from left: Nigel (comfy), Smurf (sniffing), Genghis (desperately leaning) 

Back row from left: Browny (stone cold sober), Kirby (two points if she comes back to you bouncing...) Tony (happy), Shane (looking evil), Cody (mmm), Adam (squashed but not complaining), Beverley (cute but stoopid name, Smiler (looking the wrong way), Crabbeman (not paying for his Genghinator lapdance) 

Any suggestions of any 'thing' that might represent the club? Just looking at club badges - I like Rangers and Fulham style badges cos they're simple but effective, but was just looking at Sheff Wed and wondering whether there's any symbol or any thing that might represent the club. Was thinking Blackpool Tower but next year we probably won't go to Blackpool every year so it would end up being a bit irrelevant. Dunno what you guys think?

Looking forward to tonight, last week blew a few cobwebs apart, but probably not away, we will all turn up for work tomorrow morning totally cobweb free - I guarantee it. I went for a run yesterday, usual route, blew 5 minutes off my time and even had enough for a sprint at the end. Fucked today though.

Im not going to the charity shield mate, im off to my cousins wedding. Craig, Crabbeman, Browny are all going. Should be a good turn out tomorrow, ive heard good things from last weeks training session so Im expecting a good work out!

Could be shin-splints? If it's starting to move up your leg. Worth a try - massage your calf muscle well to loosen it up, this takes the pressure off the front of your shin, then whenever you can kneel down with your feet under your arse, toes pointing behind you, which stretches your shins out a bit. I had this a few years back and doing that really worked, completely got rid of it, and pretty quickly too.

Tried ice,tried hot cold treatment,there is no swelling or bruising it is just a constant ache and im sure it is starting to move up my leg

Sillsy who's going to the Community Shield on Sunday? You, Crabbeman, Browny, Dave L, etc...

Rubber strips on forearms and chest to help grip the ball - it's the Predator of goalie tops... 

That's shitty news then Smurf. Get some ice on it and get it rested as much as possible. When did you do that? If Nigel's not available then I can always do a stint in goal.

With your goalie shirt for the new kit - they didn't have the one you wanted in stock, so I've had to order you the one I'm just about to post above - it's got rubber bits on the arms and chest to help the ball stick when you catch it, how cool is that?

No Browny or Craig?

The kit looks fine boss, not sure about the cheesy pose though, sure I can pull it off. I thought we already has a badge on our current kit? If not, the SFC sounds good, something which is clear, and strikes fear...

Shane Im still having problems with my foot/ankle don't know what i've done hurts to put weight and walk on so it might pay to see if we can get Nigel to standby for sunday not sure how it is going to be.

Anyone got any preferences on a club badge? We need to keep it fairly simple cos it has to be one-colour and therefore probably black. I was thinking of something simple like a shield shape with "SFC" inside it, a bit like Rangers' badge. But if anyone has any suggestions...

Due to financial constraints we're a little limited on kit options from the ones I posted last week, so this is our new away kit. Apologies for the lack of democratic input on this decision, basically it's the only one we can afford that doesn't look like it's been made by a 7 year old girl (no offense Tony) with half a potato and some powder paint... I am having a club badge designed though, so I'll run the idea(s) by you as I get them... 

sounds like you all had a great time bit sad i missed it. I'm not avalible for sunday shane as you probably already know. i'll see al you guys on thursday. try and catch up on some sleep tonight sounds like you all need it.

Ilsley's getting this kiddy thing all wrong, you're supposed to give them the sweets...

And Browny I think the wonderful people at Sinless would object to being referred to as a "Strip Joint" - it is a gentleman's entertainment experience.

I'm just not quite here today, struggling a bit to concentrate. I forgot to give people their trophies before they left yesterday, so Thursday/next Sunday will have to do.

So who exactly is not here for the friendly on Sunday?

Fantastic weekend lads, best I have had for a long time.

Shame we all had to go back to work this morning. Got some good photos so I will get them downloaded on to my PC tonight and try to figure out how to send them.

I have say I must hold the record for being the most sober person in a strip joint.

Still feeling a little rough today, but Friday was well worth it, got my money's worth at the Pleasure Beach, no dissapointments there.

He loved it.

Ghengis asked if she had a younger brother!

Hi Sue.

No problem, not much organising in the end, a few calls to the Gynway and that was pretty much it. Thanks for everyone getting their deposits or prompt payment when we got there, makes things a lot easier.

We'll have to have a proper think about next season, Blackpool or elsewhere, that's the question. At least we know if we end up in there again we can still have a laugh. Hopefully by next summer air conditioning will have reached Blackpool too...

I had the Genghinator bearing down on me on the journey home, managed to keep ahead of it though. Getting these photos scanned in, must admit young Kirby's looking mighty fine...

How uncomfortable was Tony with the whole Gob thing? or was he just playing hard to get...

Apparently it was still ok when he got off the m40 at oxford.   It was quite funny all the way back cos browny left about half hour before us and kept ringing us to give us taffic reports and that.    Nice of him i know, but what we didn't tell him was that when he first rang us and said he was at junction 29 and the traffic was getting bad we were already at junction 18.    Dont know how it happened but cheers anyway browny.         

No tears from gob while we were there cos tony ran....    

Had a great weekend, think everyone did.   Cheers for organising everything shane.    

 
Only 364 days to go....

Anyone know whether Browny got back with his exhaust still attached?

Mr Bellamy that was a very impressive account of things just wish i had the memory of most of it,a bit jaded on a few details and my fucking foot is killing me.
Great weekend

Frew was at training this thursday Mr Sills, more that can be said of you.

Tony has a young abminera? I quite like them, in fact I like most of Nissan's cars.

If you're referring to the 7 year old girl that took something of a shine to him, then game on, do we know if he got out of the B&B without any tears?

Browny currently holds the trophy for the most drunk/hungover Blackpoolite, following on from Wayne's original benchmark and Nigel's attempt last year. Falling asleep against the sink, vomming at the Pleasure Beach (whilst getting soaked) and spending the rest of the day in bed is now the new level people have to aim for.

For your benefit Mr Sills, here's a brief synopsis of the weekend...

Friday about 2pm everyone bar me arrived to find The Gynway shut and no one home. Off to Dukes then for some good old fashioned shite tasting beer and pool and darts and farts. At this point I was just north of Birmingham. About 5pm the guys started making their way back to the Gynway looking for signs of life. At this point I was, still, just north of Birmingham. Queued all the way up to Manchester, on my own, interesting, hello.

I got there about 6.45pm ish, got some beer down me, got some chips down me, sorted out the B&B costs and then was introduced to Gob. Gob is a cute, financially aware and physically intimidating 7 year old girl. She does not like Nigel, who she proclaims is a gay, lesbian, ugly mosher. She's not over keen on Browny who she wonders openly how he can have a girlfriend when his nose sticks out like that. She does, however, like Tony. Tony is the reason she was born, she bought him sweets, waited at the bottom of the stairs to see him come down for Breakfast and stood in front of him, gazing upwards eagerly, whilst waiting for him to answer her question of "Will you go out with me?"

Cold shower later, we're all off into town, Linekers Bar, one decent bird and 75 blokes. Browny at this point decides to leave the script and wanders off to the shots bar with Crabbeman and Lewis, to return with 20 shot glasses, 2 for each player, which we proceeded to down, wince and grab our beers to take the minging taste away. Things start to go a little hazy from here.

Out from Linekers into Jelly (beneath the now closed Palace) where there were a few more women, but music by Peter Andre, etc. Dunno how long we stayed in there, but long enough for Browny to snap a photo of Crabbeman and Lewis looking particularly gay in pink cowboy hats, which Crabbeman then refused to give back to the lovely young lady he'd borrowed it from. By this point, we'd split into two groups, as some of us went off to look for a bar with better music/decor/clientele, etc... I don't know exactly who went and who stayed. We tried Sinless 2 quickly and it was a very poor sister (in my opinion) so we spent no more than 10 minutes in there, before moving on to various other bars, all with the same level of disappointment as they turned out to be rubbish - in one of them I felt too young to be in there.

(now what we hadn't realised at this point was that as we were swapping bars a lot, there was a lot of downing drinks so we could move on - Browny was helping everyone out downing their drinks if they were struggling, make a mental note of this)

Grub (25 minute wait for two cheeseburgers) - Nigel is first to blow. Browny follows on shortly afterwards. Taxi back to the Gynway, met up with the guys who had stayed in Jelly. Browny sits on the steps outside and carries on detoxifying... Who knows what time what happens after that, but Matt poured water over Browny, Janet locked him out thinking we were all in. Browny then phones people up to get them to let him in. He's not happy. He's not well either.

Bed, zonked out sleep. Wake up to learn how Browny had been sick all night, sat up against the sink in the room til gone 7am. Nice fry up (sans Browny) - then Pleasure Beach (avec Browny).

Big One, no problem, Browny even smiling after it, thinking he's got away with it. The Iron Bru double loop thingy sees Smurf come sprinting down the stairs afterwards. Became clear why when Browny followed him already retching. He finds a quiet nook in the PLeasure Beach and proceeds to detoxify further. The laws of the universe kick in and some kiddie's water-gun target game decides to show everyone how it works by giving a 15 second blast of water, duly drenching a very confused Browny while he's doing his thing. One of the funniest things I've ever seen - the look on his face as he popped up, dripping with water and chopped carrots and wondering where on earth all that water came from.

Browny continues to degenerate into a jaded sack of dehydration, until he finally takes everyone's advice and leaves the park. Genghis and Nigel go off to watch Newcastle v Rangers, the rest of us stay. Usual park malarky, then off to buy a tuppny-swerver (plastic footy) and a 5-a-side match on the beach. 5-4 really cos Browny was safely tucked up in bed in the pleasant 100 degree temperature of the top room at The Gynway.

I was awesome. Nigel showed the deftist touch with the swerver as he put in goal after goal. We then took a wander to the shoreline (about half a mile out), saw the colour and consistency of the sea, and wandered back again.

Shower, fish and chips, beers, coupla dodgy bars, though one next door to Sinless with some probably bi-sexual girls dancing and grabbing their own and each other's breasts. Quite entertaining. Sinless (to quote Cody "How come you're the only one I recognise?") (to quote me "bleh") coupla new girls, the cute-as-a-button Kirby and the suicide-blonde-but-unfortunate-stagename Beverley, who seemed to take a shine to Adam, the bastard.

Then some went to Heaven and Hell, some stayed a little longer at Sinless. Then I was not allowed to leave my seat for some reason as Adam and Genghis virtually jumped on me. I glanced round to see a seat on the stage next to the pole ominously pointing in our direction. Next thing I'm wearing a wig, make up and having ice cube's poured down my shirt and into the top of my jeans. Genghis's little surprise for me. God that ice was cold.

Eventually taxi back to the Gynway. It was their last night there so they wanted to drink the bar dry, but they were faced with a load of alcohol saturated and totally knackered Shefford players, so we did our best but I've seen better. I think Smurf held our flag by staying up til nearly 5am drinking with John the owner. But then Smurf was in Genghis's car on the way back so he was probably drinking each shot as if it was his last...

Genghis didn't make breakfast on the Sunday. Then everyone left. Some Geordie lads were staying in the B&B on Saturday night and one slept in the hall as his mate had brought some bird back. Nigel heard everything - and considering I was on the bottom bunk underneath him, I didn't feel the bed shaking at all while he listened...

Janet and John from The Gynway, moving out today if everything goes right for them, have said that next year if we like we can all take sleeping bags and kip in their lounge if we like, which is very decent of them. Gob said that Tony would naturally have his own room...

Well Cheers for rubbing it in Mikey! Pleased to hear you had a good time, Where did you go? Palace, Sinless etc.? I want details!

Im unavaiable for the 8th August and the 22nd August, but available every other Sunday in the year. Me and Frew will be back at training on thursday...