Yeah - just forgot that it was a sending off rather than a substitution. If you hadn't asked who I was taking off we might have got away with it - Meadway were kind of thick and brainless so I don't think they'd have noticed. That said, we played a hell of a lot better football with 10 men on the pitch than with 11...

I did think that at the time it all went too smoothly! There's usually two or three minutes wasted for the 'who's going to go in goal' scenario, on Sunday it was a case of, nevermind, here's one we brought along just in case!

I just can't believe that out of all the games this season, Smurf got sent off when I was already wearing a goalkeeper's kit and ready to go on at half time anyway. Hopefully that'll be our kind of luck for the rest of the season.

Their striker congratulated me on 'that save' but I think he was just trying to flatter himself about his shot. If you don't put it straight at my beautiful face I might not put my hands in the way...

To be fair it was a very poor back pass, and hit a massive mole hill....

I think the actions you took, were the only available at the time. You've done well son.

I personally feel i have mastered the Browny step-over.

I take it you don't want to play this week then Matt

When we went down to ten men Shane said let's treat this as a fitness exercise, and my bloody legs know it! They don't normally ache two days after.

Smurf got his marching orders after 'missing' a pass back in true calamity James style, then holding onto the striker to stop him getting the ball....

"Browny...."

Mr Smurf cunningly omitting which player got sent off there, I feel. :-)

Greetings from Canada by the way.

Mr Lamb another 8 - 0 Win yesterday and playing with 10 men for approx an hour

Woah there Mr Lamb, don't you remember the now famous destruction of Shelbourne? 11-1 wasn't it? Heavy rain, hail stones, and some quite frankly awesome goals...

Looking at your results this season I would say you've had the big wins scoring 8 and 11. I don't remember doing that in our championship year. So for sheer dominance it's looking like the current squad are superior but I'll watch your progress for the rest of the season. A couple of losses and it's wide open (no pressure lads).

Yeah, but your sort know nuffin'.

I don't know.

The answer to this question is most likely, 'I don't know'. But;

was the first weekend of June for the Shefford Tour a confirmed date, or just an idea?

The lads here are ahead of us in the planning stages of theirs (which is embarrassing) and that's one of the weekends they are looking at (the first three weekends of June are the three they are looking at), so therefore if it clashes, I need to tell them I can't make it.

I'm not going to dignify that with a response. Except this response, obviously.


59 Post's to go until 6000...

Your name is still called out with every gust of wind.....

from Lewis's arse.

'irreplaceable characters'? During matches now, you must look longingly at the empty space on the touchline where I used to constantly warm up...!

At least with me not being there, it gives everyone else a chance in the Goal of the Season award.

I think I would also go with the previous title winners. Although I am desperate to win the league this year.... We are at a stage now where everyone (as in other teams) are expecting us to win it, I'm not saying that takes an edge of winning - and by no means is it over yet.

But the when we won it before it was 'new' and after a number of years mid-table, it was a bit more tense and exciting as it was so close, and we really had to battle for every game against some pretty decent sides.

Plus we had irreplaceable characters such as Lambardo.... and I guess I'll have to say Sillsy as he reads this.

It's a tough one. This season' side seems to have been built on consistency, but the champions had that special something, winning 10 games in a row to pull victory from the jaws of mid-table mediocrity. That 1-0 away win at Hermitage reserves with Shaner in goal will live long in the memory...

Have you got a cold?

Not this season no, although it's still the usual suspects who run the line. I think Browny likes to do it cos it keeps him involved in the game and is at least some activity, rather than standing by the sidelines.

That said, he started at right back this Sunday and when I took him off with about 30 minutes to go he was playing around with a football and accidentally hit Ben's girlfriend, Vicky, in the face with the ball and made her cry.

Have you seen the league table? We are fucking flying!

http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/LeagueTab.cfm?TblName=Matches&DivisionID=3659&LeagueCode=NDSFL2006

The pundits are all talking about which was the greatest Shefford team, the current squad or the Champions - hard to say. Certainly the squad looks stronger now but the old team had that knack of pulling out the big wins. We'll find out whether this squad has that over the next 9 games...

All sounds good, does that mean Browny won't be getting the golded flag this season?

He doesn't mean pit - he's just trying to sound genuine. The nearest pit to him is actually Wookey Hole. He takes guided tours of Japanese people round there.

New John, John. John King this time, has signed for us from Turnpike and is a pretty solid left-back. Not that we needed a pretty solid left-back as JT (though right-sided) has deputised there more then excellently for a few seasons now. But it does give us even more strength as we now have John (King), JT, Genghis and Browny (who has been playing superbly this season) as options for fullbacks, with Ben, Gareth and even Matty if things get unexpected.

Sadly Hilly is long-term out with a dodgy knee but luckily we've got Chris Miller to put in the centre alongside Tony. We've conceded the fewest goals in the division but really I think we should be capable of conceding a lot less. If you'd seen the 3 we let in on Sunday you'd agree.

In fact the only position that we don't have adequate cover for at the moment is that scourge of Sunday sides everywhere - goalie. A particular issue at the moment as Smurf is away next week for our first game against Waggon & Horses, a side who have lost to shit teams but beaten decent teams so far this season. But I'm getting fitter by the day at the moment so am likely to don the old gloves again for old time's sake.

And Dave Lewis has been a revelation recently. Got a hat trick on Sunday (could have had another one but we won anyway) and set up Andy Miller with a beautifully weighted, defence splitting pass leaving Miller clear through on goal. At times we looked like Brian Clough was managing us, moving the ball from our box to theirs completely on the green stuff. Young man.

Looking forward to your stag do by the way - am finding out all the coolest bars and clubs in Valencia so we can trash them after the footy.

Hello The Mighty ok Great Shefford FC! How's things going? Top of the table with only one loss, I feel like a glory hunter following you guys (Dave C, John S, Chris B, you'll know what a glory hunter is if you'd like to explain it to Shane). The strength in depth on your bench is like watching Chelsea, is that John Sills back in the squad or is that a new John - you can never have enough!

Anyway good to see you're doing well and remember Lewis pass the fooking ball!

See you all soon, I'm off downt pit,

Jonny Lamb

Anyone know what happened in the Coopers Arms game? Just getting paranoid that it'll be cos Coopers didn't get a team out and will now fold and that'll be 6 points off our tally...

Apologies I got the B Arms score wrong. Updated league table below.

We have to go into this week's game expecting a tougher challenge than previously against Meadway, but that said it was hardly as though we were going to play a weaker squad against them - we don't really have a weaker squad at the moment, if you think we had Ben, Genghis, Matt and John on the bench for a 'top' game then it's not as though we'll put them in the team and then shit ourselves about how it's going to go...

But with LMP also improving their results it'd be nice to concentrate (against everyone) on not just getting the points but keeping our goal difference high.

I might not be able to make Thursday but I'll let you know as soon as I know...

Scores have been updated quickly this week....

Berkshire Arms 6-3 LMP

Coopers Arms v Bucklebury [ Postponed ] Subject to Management Committee decision

Meadway 1-4 Blue Ball

Q Associates 2-0 Shalbourne

Shefford 5-3 Newbury Post Office Reserves

No upsets though which makes our win on Sunday even more important. Either Blue Ball raise their game against us, or Meadway have improved slightly as they were terrible when we played them.

Anyone know any of the other scores from Sunday? Dave Lewis said that LMP lost 5-3 to Berkshire Arms but they were 3-1 up with 20 minutes to go and then fell apart.

It looked very much like Q Associates beat Shalbourne over on that other Henwick pitch but I don't know that for sure.

Without meaning to sound in any way complacent about this week's game, it'll be nice to hopefully beat Meadway and then we'll have 8 games left, which starts to sound a bit closer to the end of the season...

I'm off to Canada a week today but back for Sunday's game.

I'm gonna set the bar at 0 goals for Sunday - i.e. if we concede more than 0 goals we do a murder run at the end...

Yeah it was annoying, but we really don't have much room to moan while we're played 2, lost 2 against Blue Ball. But agreed I'd happily hand over the cup to win the league and it's great that we've put ourselves in a good position to seriously challenge for it now, I just wish these games would be on so that we can start seeing the number of games to go decreasing faster than they are.

Plus the other results are all over the place which is doing my nut in. Some weeks I think we should be able to win every game left and then something happens which makes me think that there are still 3 or 4 teams that can catch us. We just need to keep our heads together, and apparently (after Thursday's training) get back to some sort of fitness. I couldn't believe it when only 2 players out of 14 (JT and Dave Middlemass) completed the murder run in under 3 minutes. Gareth wasn't far off but if you think we used to do a murder run as the warm up...

As for end of season, I reckon this season might stretch on a bit - it'll go into May at least so I reckon very late May or early June will be the best time to look at... The more I hear about Milton Keynes the more I think it's got the potential for a really good weekend away. Who'd have thought?

Have we any idea of dates or even the month for this year 'Shefford Tour'? I have a few things coming up around April/May time, and I can see them clashing with our weekend.

Maybe something we need to talk about fairly soon.

Have you seen the teams that played in the semi final of the Vic French.... Blue Ball, Paggies Bar, PO Res and Wagon & Horses (who are now in the final), I can't help but be pissed off about not being in there, we'd have had a great chance of winning that.

Makes the league an absolute must. Which is obviously was anyway!

I've never been quite sure which side Sillsy was on, I've always seen him as someone that's sat on the bench....

Boom, Boom.

I'm just a bit concerned as to why everyone was so keen to go to Nottingham before the Milton Keynes idea was thrown in. Sure it was Sillsy who said Nottingham was good because of the ratio of males to females, never thought he meant that way round...

Nice one Shane....

Cue the transfer requests.

http://www.nottinghamballbois.com/

I don't know.

Yeah it'd be good to get an idea of what the pitch is like. Especially seeing as there's more rain forecast between now and the game. I know Smurfy and the league sometimes try to switch the game to the away team's pitch if ours is still unplayable.

Training will be on tonight either way, getting a bit paranoid about fitness levels given all this inactivity. Got a good session planned for tonight.

I'm not going to be able to make training again tonight or next week. Obviously I'll be maintaining my zero percent body fat and going for daily 5 mile runs to ensure my fitness is on par with Smurfs.

Hopefully after next week I should be able to make it every week again. Bring on the summer nights though...

If I can get out for a lunch break today I'll go for a wonder down Northcroft and see what the pitch is looking like. I'm desperate for the game to be on this week. If not, I might be joining Shane in the depression camp.

What??? No! You can't go offering things like that on a public blog! What sort of scheme have you got going here anyway? I'm reporting you now. Those girls work hard for their badges and shouldn't be exploited by you and your probably East-European gang.

Bob-a-job? Sick. Brown Owl? Leave it.

Managed to get one through the ballot - only cost £36! Bargain!

Want me to see if I can get you one Browny?

Sorry mate they've already gone - plus it turns out that they were from a Chelsea season ticket holder anyway so I very much doubt they'd have been in with the Arsenal lot.

Never mind, watch it on telly like normal people.

I'd be interested in them tickets mate, as long as they are in the Arsenal end? Got stiched up by my mate for the FA cup final 2 years ago between Arsenal and Man Utd, I was sat in the Utd end with some faggot shouting "Gary Neville is a red, all game long. Bad times!!!

How many can you get your hands on?

Only one game played at the weekend - Shalbourne 13 - 2 Meadway.





Leaves the league table looking like this:-

So still pretty healthy. However, it does mean that we have now not scored the most goals in the league. Shalbourne are on 70 to our 57. I know they've played 3 more games than us but it's still embarassing.

The other thing that my whizzy league-table-calculation-excel-spreadsheet tells me is that that result puts Meadway out of contention - it is now mathematically impossible for them to win the league.

However, it does show an angry chasing pack of Berks Arms, Q Ass and Shalbourne, which is worse than having one main rival in my opinion, cos if we drop points to any of them the others will be there waiting. Just have to keep our focus. That's not helped by all these postponed games but it's the same for everyone.

Bring on whoever plays us next weather permitting. I think the next game is due to be home to Post Office Reserves but with rain prediced for a lot of this week we'll have to see... I hope it's on cos I'm getting withdrawal symptoms.

I got offered tickets for the Carling Cup Final yesterday at £100 each, that's only £30 each more than Arsenal v Wham. Terrible.

Let me know if any of you Arsenal boys want those tickets...

Its a local derby mate, if Spurs were relegated, it would still be a massive game. Even as a grade A, you should be able to get a ticket for £46.

That is still, of course, a stupid price to pay though. I'm looking at remortgaging the house for next years season ticket...!

Sounds like you had fun mate. I was just talking to mate about a pub near madjeski, as he is a big Reading Fan. Someone would make a killing at weekends if they put a pub down there. Even during the week there are enough businesses that people would go have a pint at lunch.

Just checked tried to get a ticket for the Arsenal V West ham game, £70 each, how can they class a team in releagtion as a A game. I am backing the sun all the way with their ticket price campaign.

Welcome back to the Reading contingent. Turns out you didn't miss a thing while you were away. Training snowed off on Thursday and game postponed due to the pitch stilll being underwater.

Julie and I ventured to Reading versus Villa on Saturday. Reading were quite good, Villa were very poor. Only one team was ever going to win it.

But that ground - stuck in the middle of nowhere, no pubs for a 3 mile radius and the bar in the ground was that bad that we only had time for one beer (necked as well) before the game. At halftime I left 5 minutes before the whistle, got in the queue 3 people away from the front, got my beer as the second half kicked off. There were more security staff behind the bar than around the pitch cos they could see things getting kind of tense. Fucking useless.

Then after the game, oh shit I forgot we're in the middle of fucking nowhere. Not getting in that 4 hour queue for the bus, we'll get out on the road and flag down a cab. Just over an hour later we trudged into Reading town centre, having walked all the way... Awful ground for away fans, takes all the fun out of going to a game. I'd been really looking forward to it as well.

A few beers in the Sahara bar finally helped, but the damage was done. Reading fans get extra press-ups on Thursday.

The only good thing about it was, I think for the first time ever in my football supporting life, I was not sat in front of, behind or next to a complete cock. It was quite pleasant. (Although I did see one Villa fan having a go at the Reading fans by shouting "Apples and Pears" which I found quite funny but not for the reason he thought...

Well I think so (but then I would) - but if you believe them that it was an admin error (they had done all the usual paperwork but didn't know that as he joined us from Cardiff City he needed an international transfer certificate as well) then yes suddenly 18 points, over £12000 in fines (including the money from the FA Trophy that we got kicked out of as well) does seem a little steep for a small club to handle.

There's Inter Milan trying to fix the entire league and getting a suspended sentence and 3 hours community service and we get whacked halfway down the league. Turns out it only came to light cos he got booked otherwise he could have carried on playing for ages. They took the points from the 11 games he'd already played for us. Way harsh - why aren't they taking any blame? They must have seen his name on all the team sheets up til then, not as though we were playing him as "Paul Curtis" or something.

The worst thing is it stinks of the FA taking their chance to have a slap back after all the PR that AFC Wimbledon have got with everyone agreeing that the FA totally fucked up the whole Milton Keynes move.

The local MP has got involved now by approaching the Sports Minister to ask them to stick their nose in and tell the FA to stop being such a bunch of old c*nts. Somehow I feel that Jim Woild must be involved in this somewhere...

That's a bit harsh isn't it? An unhelpful hindrance to the 'Dons rise up the leagues...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/6339377.stm

Aw bugger.

Next three games are:-

Home to Berks Arms
Home to PO Res
Home to Meadway

So we're still at least three games away from playing against Q Associates. They play Bucklebury this week who have been getting some decent results recently and held them to a draw last time they played them. Another draw or even a Bucklebury win would certainly do us a favour at this point in the season.

Meadway 2 - 5 Paggies Bar

PO Res 2 - 3 Berks Arms

Q Ass 3 - 1 LMP

Shalbourne 12 - 1 Coopers Arms

Berks Arms win cuts our lead to 3 points but they've played 4 games more. Next are Q Ass 6 points behind having played 1 game more. We've got games in hand on everyone down to 7th position now.

That was a good training last night, found a bit of space in decent enough light. Bit of running with the ball and withouth, then a two-touch game which produced some good moves, then a pacey sprint around the rugby pitch in which I surprised myself by making it and not throwing up.

Reckon we'll gradually start upping the pace in training now so that people realise there's still almost half the season to go and a lot of hard work yet...

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make training tonight. Very annoying as I was looking forward to a good session.