Clocktower had a few better results in recent games - considering we haven't played them yet we'll need to make sure we don't take them for granted just because (at the moment) they're below us.
A draw between Herm Res and Q would probably be a better result for us. I think there'll be a few twists and turns before the season's out - all seems to be who does what on the day. Nobody's gonna run away with it. If we can get our heads focussed it's all there.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
We're sneaking up the league, but it's bloody close! Hermitage Res are in the same position as us, although they might have played this Sunday and their result hasn't been recorded yet.
A lot of hard work ahead...
http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/LeagueTab.cfm?TblName=Matches&DivisionID=2479&LeagueCode=NDSFL2007
A lot of hard work ahead...
http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/LeagueTab.cfm?TblName=Matches&DivisionID=2479&LeagueCode=NDSFL2007
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Just thinking Smurfy - you now face something of a dilemma.
We play The Swan next and you have pretty much everyone except Screw available. So do you go with the team that whacked em 5 - 0 before Christmas or do you go with the team that didn't allow Berks Arms a shot on target 2 days ago? Those were our last 2 clean sheets.
Haha - glad I'm not manager anymore :-)
I won't be there by the way, I'm afraid I'm away for the next 2 weekends. Though after my performance on Sunday I don't think you'll exactly miss me on the pitch. Big games too. Lots of pressure. Make or break the season.
We play The Swan next and you have pretty much everyone except Screw available. So do you go with the team that whacked em 5 - 0 before Christmas or do you go with the team that didn't allow Berks Arms a shot on target 2 days ago? Those were our last 2 clean sheets.
Haha - glad I'm not manager anymore :-)
I won't be there by the way, I'm afraid I'm away for the next 2 weekends. Though after my performance on Sunday I don't think you'll exactly miss me on the pitch. Big games too. Lots of pressure. Make or break the season.
Monday, January 28, 2008
For the eyes of John Sills.
Shefford took to the pitch in the early morning sunlight, their bright yellow kit clashing horribly with the tangerine orange of Berkshire Arms. What a bunch of uneducated morons those people really are.
A rare start for Bellers up front had got the crowd eager to see what delights he could conjur up. Some of them are still there waiting. Shefford started brightly with most of the posession and all of the early chances. When Berks Arms did venture forward, they didn't kick the ball properly and were shit.
Bellers got an early touch and played a simple ball to Lewis a few metres away. This was arguably the highlight of his appearance, as with the following sprint he realised just how useless gym-work is for match fitness and felt a bit sick.
A hand ball shout in the box was waved away by the ref but minutes later a second one resulted in the ref shaking his head to say no and then blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot. Up stepped Lewis keen to restore his confidence after seeing his last penalty saved, to see his penalty saved.
Shefford didn't let their heads drop and continued to press forward. Soon enough, Withers jinks inside and is felled inside the box again. Everyone was keen for Lewis to step up again and he rewarded himself by absolutely spanking the ball into the top right corner.
Within minutes good work from Genghis put Withers in position to cross the ball and Atkins was waiting at the far post. One touch to control and one touch to score.
2 up at half time and Smurf hadn't had a save to make. Been a long time since we mentioned him, so it's important to know that Bellers is still on the pitch at this point.
2nd half kicks off and begins much the same way. Shefford with most of the play, not playing brilliantly, but Berks Arms are pretty much beaten. A corner to Shefford and as Chris Miller knocks it short to Withers, you can hear Asst Manager Bellers moaning that we shouldn't do short corners because they never work, as the ball is crossed over and Atkins heads in from a tight angle at the far post. With that, Bellers is off the pitch.
After that the game really petered out. A few chances for Shefford but the goal mouth is in a bad condition so lots of miss-hit shots - pick of the bunch was a quality through ball from Ads but Browny couldn't steer it in past the advancing keeper. But lots of hard work from everyone and good discipline at the back means a clean sheet is kept and Smurfy a full 90 minutes without having a save to make.
A healthy 3 - 0 win which hopefully can kick start Shefford onto a strong run to make the most of their games in hand.
Shefford took to the pitch in the early morning sunlight, their bright yellow kit clashing horribly with the tangerine orange of Berkshire Arms. What a bunch of uneducated morons those people really are.
A rare start for Bellers up front had got the crowd eager to see what delights he could conjur up. Some of them are still there waiting. Shefford started brightly with most of the posession and all of the early chances. When Berks Arms did venture forward, they didn't kick the ball properly and were shit.
Bellers got an early touch and played a simple ball to Lewis a few metres away. This was arguably the highlight of his appearance, as with the following sprint he realised just how useless gym-work is for match fitness and felt a bit sick.
A hand ball shout in the box was waved away by the ref but minutes later a second one resulted in the ref shaking his head to say no and then blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot. Up stepped Lewis keen to restore his confidence after seeing his last penalty saved, to see his penalty saved.
Shefford didn't let their heads drop and continued to press forward. Soon enough, Withers jinks inside and is felled inside the box again. Everyone was keen for Lewis to step up again and he rewarded himself by absolutely spanking the ball into the top right corner.
Within minutes good work from Genghis put Withers in position to cross the ball and Atkins was waiting at the far post. One touch to control and one touch to score.
2 up at half time and Smurf hadn't had a save to make. Been a long time since we mentioned him, so it's important to know that Bellers is still on the pitch at this point.
2nd half kicks off and begins much the same way. Shefford with most of the play, not playing brilliantly, but Berks Arms are pretty much beaten. A corner to Shefford and as Chris Miller knocks it short to Withers, you can hear Asst Manager Bellers moaning that we shouldn't do short corners because they never work, as the ball is crossed over and Atkins heads in from a tight angle at the far post. With that, Bellers is off the pitch.
After that the game really petered out. A few chances for Shefford but the goal mouth is in a bad condition so lots of miss-hit shots - pick of the bunch was a quality through ball from Ads but Browny couldn't steer it in past the advancing keeper. But lots of hard work from everyone and good discipline at the back means a clean sheet is kept and Smurfy a full 90 minutes without having a save to make.
A healthy 3 - 0 win which hopefully can kick start Shefford onto a strong run to make the most of their games in hand.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Good stuff, means everybody is there for the taking. To be honest, when we were sweeping past The Swan I remember at the time thinking that they weren't that bad a side, particularly the quality of some of their play in the final third. We rode our luck but we also defended well and played with such enthusiasm and energy that we took the game to them to the point where they almost expected to lose.
We need to be setting that sort of performance as our minimum standard though, because anything less than that and we open ourselves up to dropping points. I have no doubt that there was a link between the fact that we kept a clean sheet and the fact that we scored 5 goals. It wasn't because The Swan were rubbish because they weren't.
We need to be setting that sort of performance as our minimum standard though, because anything less than that and we open ourselves up to dropping points. I have no doubt that there was a link between the fact that we kept a clean sheet and the fact that we scored 5 goals. It wasn't because The Swan were rubbish because they weren't.
http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/LeagueTab.cfm?TblName=Matches&DivisionID=2479&LeagueCode=NDSFL2007
Q Ass lost their first game of the season last Sunday to The Swan (2-1). All other games were cancelled.
We're at a really important stage of the season now where all games are 'must wins' as our games in hand only move us around the 2nd and 3rd mark.
Hopefully the games will be on this week as the rain has been light if at all.
Dickhead Arms will be well up for it against us so the fact they're bottom counts for nout.
Q Ass lost their first game of the season last Sunday to The Swan (2-1). All other games were cancelled.
We're at a really important stage of the season now where all games are 'must wins' as our games in hand only move us around the 2nd and 3rd mark.
Hopefully the games will be on this week as the rain has been light if at all.
Dickhead Arms will be well up for it against us so the fact they're bottom counts for nout.
Monday, January 07, 2008
http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/LeagueTab.cfm?TblName=Matches&DivisionID=2479&LeagueCode=NDSFL2007
Latest league table following yesterday's results of
Berks Arms 2 - 1 Turnpike
Clocktower 2 - 3 Swan
Hogs Head Res 1 - 1 Kennet
PO 0 - 4 Q Ass
Leaves us 9 points behind the leaders (Q Ass) with 1 game in hand.
But...
Q Ass have played all the shit teams. From the teams in the top half of the table, they've only played Swan (and won 2-1) and Kennet (and drew 1-1). We have to play them twice in the league, and rolled them over 5-2 in the cup.
Our 2 biggest wins of the season have come against Q Ass in the cup and Swan in the league. Q are top, Swan are 3rd.
What this shows is that the league is still wide open and if we can continue putting in performances like yesterday where everyone worked very hard, then it doesn't take much for us to be up there. A little bit more luck in front of goal and little bit more concentration and better decision making at the back and we'll be a difficult side to beat.
I thought we worked hard yesterday and while both goalkeepers made excellent saves and both teams saw shots come back off the woodwork, their keeper was far busier than ours. The goals we conceded showed how a tiny lapse of concentration can cost us, and we need to improve on that. Always better to just deal with the ball and then have people tell you that you didn't need to. But Bucklebury aren't a bad side at all and we played some good stuff, particularly all across the midfield they struggled to cope with us when we were on the ball.
Overall I thought it was a good return after the break, the result was fair enough. But we've only taken 1 point out of a possible 6 from them, despite being the better team on both occasions, and that's not the sort of numbers that get you up the table, so we need to start digging out those wins next Sunday against Turnpike.
Latest league table following yesterday's results of
Berks Arms 2 - 1 Turnpike
Clocktower 2 - 3 Swan
Hogs Head Res 1 - 1 Kennet
PO 0 - 4 Q Ass
Leaves us 9 points behind the leaders (Q Ass) with 1 game in hand.
But...
Q Ass have played all the shit teams. From the teams in the top half of the table, they've only played Swan (and won 2-1) and Kennet (and drew 1-1). We have to play them twice in the league, and rolled them over 5-2 in the cup.
Our 2 biggest wins of the season have come against Q Ass in the cup and Swan in the league. Q are top, Swan are 3rd.
What this shows is that the league is still wide open and if we can continue putting in performances like yesterday where everyone worked very hard, then it doesn't take much for us to be up there. A little bit more luck in front of goal and little bit more concentration and better decision making at the back and we'll be a difficult side to beat.
I thought we worked hard yesterday and while both goalkeepers made excellent saves and both teams saw shots come back off the woodwork, their keeper was far busier than ours. The goals we conceded showed how a tiny lapse of concentration can cost us, and we need to improve on that. Always better to just deal with the ball and then have people tell you that you didn't need to. But Bucklebury aren't a bad side at all and we played some good stuff, particularly all across the midfield they struggled to cope with us when we were on the ball.
Overall I thought it was a good return after the break, the result was fair enough. But we've only taken 1 point out of a possible 6 from them, despite being the better team on both occasions, and that's not the sort of numbers that get you up the table, so we need to start digging out those wins next Sunday against Turnpike.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Interesting. Hopefully shows that Falkland were really crap/undermanned rather than Q being particularly spectacular. Also maybe shows that Turnpike have got some decent players in, or The Swan are going off the boil.
Not an unhealthy league position to be in, plus yesterday really was quite a good performance so that's encouraging. Sometimes goals are harder to come by, but we showed some character to come back from a position that we totally didn't deserve.
So at the moment our "what might have been" - as in if we'd got the win we deserved against Bucklebury and the win we deserved against Herm Res - isn't too much of a problem. Just need to keep taking each game as it comes. If we can pull off football like we did throughout the game yesterday we should still be in there fighting.
Not an unhealthy league position to be in, plus yesterday really was quite a good performance so that's encouraging. Sometimes goals are harder to come by, but we showed some character to come back from a position that we totally didn't deserve.
So at the moment our "what might have been" - as in if we'd got the win we deserved against Bucklebury and the win we deserved against Herm Res - isn't too much of a problem. Just need to keep taking each game as it comes. If we can pull off football like we did throughout the game yesterday we should still be in there fighting.
Results from the weekend:
Berks Arms 0 - 6 Kennet
Falkland 1 - 9 Q Associates
FC Hogs Head 2 - 2 Clock Tower Inn
Turnpike 4 - 2 Swan
Kennet played 9 - 18 Points
Q Ass played 7 - 17 Points
Hermitage Res played 8 - 14 Points
Shefford played 7 - 13 Points
Swan played 8 - 13 Points
Bluckbury played 8 - 13 Points
Hogs Head playes 8 - 12 Points
Clock Tower played 9 - 10 Points
Falkland played 8 - 8 Points
N'by PO played 8 - 7 Points
Turnpike played 8 - 6 Points
Berks Arms played 10 - 4 Points
Berks Arms 0 - 6 Kennet
Falkland 1 - 9 Q Associates
FC Hogs Head 2 - 2 Clock Tower Inn
Turnpike 4 - 2 Swan
Kennet played 9 - 18 Points
Q Ass played 7 - 17 Points
Hermitage Res played 8 - 14 Points
Shefford played 7 - 13 Points
Swan played 8 - 13 Points
Bluckbury played 8 - 13 Points
Hogs Head playes 8 - 12 Points
Clock Tower played 9 - 10 Points
Falkland played 8 - 8 Points
N'by PO played 8 - 7 Points
Turnpike played 8 - 6 Points
Berks Arms played 10 - 4 Points
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The more Berkshire Arms results I see the more of a slap in the face that first game of the season was. The Swan put 8 past em and we put 5 past The Swan so no major worries from Turnpike. Seems more like Berks Arms have fallen apart, probably thought they were gonna be champions after beating us. We weren't even that bad against them. Strange.
Hermitage lost their first 2 games to dodgy teams (incl Turnpike) but have had some better results since then so it sounds like they've had players either return or signed new ones. Should be a good game on Sunday I'm looking forward to it.
Hermitage lost their first 2 games to dodgy teams (incl Turnpike) but have had some better results since then so it sounds like they've had players either return or signed new ones. Should be a good game on Sunday I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
No, week off this week for us, so I didn't miss any chances!
Squad seems to be getting a little more settled though, been quite a lot of positive signs in the first few matches. Actually, I reckon if the best 11 turned up, we'd probably get some good results. Even with it chopping and changing, there is enough to suggest some decent performances could be son in coming. Tend to get off to a good start, lose a sloppy goal, and go from there...
Squad seems to be getting a little more settled though, been quite a lot of positive signs in the first few matches. Actually, I reckon if the best 11 turned up, we'd probably get some good results. Even with it chopping and changing, there is enough to suggest some decent performances could be son in coming. Tend to get off to a good start, lose a sloppy goal, and go from there...
Sorry Sillsy - allow me...
The Swan 0 - 5 Shefford
Big win, as The Swan have got off to a good start to the season, and had the 2nd best defence in the league (behind us), so to get 3 points was great, to keep a clean sheet was better and to spank 5 past em was even better again.
Basically, we dominated for the full 90 minutes. Got off to a strong start and fired in some early shots and they just didn't seem up to it. Lewis had a great shot tipped onto the post by their keeper, but within 10 minutes he fired one in from outside the area.
It stayed 0 - 1 til halftime - they had a good chance to equalise but fired over and we had multiple chances to stretch the lead out.
Started well in the 2nd half and after about 10 minutes Lewis fired home again after their defence didn't deal with a long ball properly. Then Dave Screw threaded a pin point accurate pass to Macca who fired a goal of the season contender to make it 3. Then Lewis put the ball across for Andy Miller to tap the ball in cos their defence had gone to pot by then. Then Lewis hit a shot straight through their keeper for our 5th and his hat trick.
Had a lot of other chances as well. If their strikers could have finished properly they might have made a game of it cos they missed a couple of good chances at key moments, but we were way better than them - I think we were all quite surprised.
So a good day out all in all, although as you can see from below I'm now suffering from something like whiplash cos of a challenge on me. Very painful.
Did you play?
The Swan 0 - 5 Shefford
Big win, as The Swan have got off to a good start to the season, and had the 2nd best defence in the league (behind us), so to get 3 points was great, to keep a clean sheet was better and to spank 5 past em was even better again.
Basically, we dominated for the full 90 minutes. Got off to a strong start and fired in some early shots and they just didn't seem up to it. Lewis had a great shot tipped onto the post by their keeper, but within 10 minutes he fired one in from outside the area.
It stayed 0 - 1 til halftime - they had a good chance to equalise but fired over and we had multiple chances to stretch the lead out.
Started well in the 2nd half and after about 10 minutes Lewis fired home again after their defence didn't deal with a long ball properly. Then Dave Screw threaded a pin point accurate pass to Macca who fired a goal of the season contender to make it 3. Then Lewis put the ball across for Andy Miller to tap the ball in cos their defence had gone to pot by then. Then Lewis hit a shot straight through their keeper for our 5th and his hat trick.
Had a lot of other chances as well. If their strikers could have finished properly they might have made a game of it cos they missed a couple of good chances at key moments, but we were way better than them - I think we were all quite surprised.
So a good day out all in all, although as you can see from below I'm now suffering from something like whiplash cos of a challenge on me. Very painful.
Did you play?
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