" Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day with a crisp chill in the air that made you realise that you were indeed alive. Knowing that the weekend holds various social adventures, I decided to go shopping for some new clothes.
Today I begin my FM season, and with that in mind I wanted to be available for the forthcoming pre season games. So with little time to train, I hopped on the bike and pedalled like mad to the Harlequin in Watford where I bought a couple of shirts. By time I made it back home I was quite satisfied that the bike ride was enough to be selected for the forthcoming games.
Once I settled at my office desk at the FC training ground I began to grasp just how big a job I had taken on. Looking over my first team squad I was very concerned to see that our main Keeper was a 16 year old. I then met Kevin Elvin our right back and looking over his stats, I realised how poor they were. His highest technical stat was a whopping 7!! Our left back was equally young and equally poor. In summing up our defence, I need at least four new players who can do a job at full back as well as two or three new goalkeepers.
In this league skill is at a minimum whilst strength and determination are at a premium. I will be looking for players who excell in influence, aggression workrate and teamwork. Our coaching staff are also showing poor stats and so it seems there will be a lot of activity at the Job Centre.
Priority however must be an Assistant Manager as we have not got one. No point me bringing players in without the agreement of an assistant. As it will be he who acesses the quality of the team and provide vital feedback in what we need.
News has come to my attention that Alan Curbishley has taken over at Championship W.B.A and Graeme Rix at Bournemouth.
Anyways as I was saying, the importance of an assistant is paramount and having done a quick search I came across a guy called Constantine who was an unemployed Coach, but soon accepted my offer to become my NO.1 man. We quickly arranged a meeting as time is paramount, and he told me plainly that enforcements to the squad was needed to establish a safe mid table position.
This team was kings of the local Lancashire Leagues but no match for the forthcoming Conferance North Division.
He rates Rob Nugent as the best defender at the club along with myself as the best midfielder. Rory Patterson is seen as the best attacker and three guys earmarked as posible future stars in, Leam Coyne, Frank Macdonald and striker Ryan Grainger.
If we had a match right now?
If he were choosing a starting eleven today they would be; (GK) Waterson (RB) Elvin (LB) Winters (CBK'S) Nugent & Coyne, (LW) Griffiths, (RW) Mitten, (CMID'S) Marginson and myself, whilst up front, Patterson and Orr. We have six friendlies before our league opener against Nuneaton Borough, to blood any future signings into our team. We will welcome the visits of Lincoln City, Cambridge City, Canvey Island, Gravesend, Bishop Stortford and Yeading.
Gary Megson, i'm being told has taken charge at Brighton by the way.
The visitors car park is getting full
My first new signing has just checked in. He's John Moss a strong centre back to provide competition for places.
Anthony Robinson quickly follows him as an attacking force with finishing stats of 11. John Sykes has turned down a new contract with Staylbridge Celtic to sign for us. John can play either centre back or defensive midfield. Michal laws has signed for us and Micheal can pretty much play anywhere except up front.
Kick off!
My first match has arrived and I've got to sort out the team assignments. John Moss our new signing has been handed the captaincy as various roles for free kicks and corner taking are decided. This highlights the need for some deadball experts to arrive at this club, as were not the best in these areas.
FC 3 Lincoln 4
Newboy Robinson got two easy goals and youth player Williams impressively got the third in a ding dong game.
Players, Players, Players
Ellis Hooper a decent centre back signs in and helps to solve our deadball defiencencies. Stephen Mason Checks in although only a 20 year old we have been in urgent need of a Goalkeeper.
Leeds United have hired Arsenal's Pat Rice as their new boss by the way. Poor old Arsen he's all alone on his arse.
I've allowed my No.1 to boss the rest of our friendly games, and the first thing he's gone and done is change from my 442 to a 352 formation. This makes excellent sense as our full backs are few and limited in quality, Whilst our centre backs are many. Newboy Mason starts in goal, with a back three of debutant Hooper, Coyne and Nugent. Howard and Laws are to provide the width in a five man midfield with Moss, Marginson and myself in the middle. Up front we have 17yr old Robinson and Patterson
FC 2 Cambridge City 1
Patterson rounded the keeper to give us an early lead and substitute Orr chipped outside the box over the City keeper, who was on his way back from going up for a corner. City forced a late consolation goal but we were well worth our win .
Dave Swarbrick has twisted his knee according to my physio during the match, and could be out for 2 -4 weeks.
FC 0 Canvey Island 2
Canvey were well worth their win yet we carved out so many chances to have won this game. Having hit the bar and squandered countless chances it progressively grew clear that this was not going to be our day.
FC 1 Gravesend 1
Mitten hit a 90th minute equaliser to send the fans home satisfied although this game proved low on quality.
FC 3 Bishop Stortford 1
I scored my very first goal for the club, jinking past a few players on the edge of the box and then burying my shot on 23 minutes. Anthony Robinson made it two after Bishop went down to 10 men. They then rallied and cut the deficiet but Rodger Williams scored on 89 minutes. Bad news however on the injury front as striker Craig Fleury cracked his ribs and could be out for 2 months.
FC 2 Yeading 2
I latched on to an Orr pass to put us a goal up. Michael laws made it two which then saw a dramatic fight back by Yeading to equalise.
Listen to your staff
Ben Morsby a keeper from Barrow has joined us contrary to advice from my staff, who see him as an unnecessary signing. I decided however that there was a drought of decent keepers out there and I could no longer rely on a 16 Yr old to be my NO.2 keper. This will probably be my last signing before our league opener.
Swarbrick is back
Matthew Swarbrick has returned to full training after spending 3 weeks out injured, so it ll be nice to have him back.
I'm off though to batten down the hatches and prepare for tomorows alledged snow flurry, and i'm so glad that I did'nt waste my time watching the England game.
"As I awoke I anticipated the scene through my bedroom windows as if Christmas had come around again. So it proved as everything outside lit up adorned by brilliant white snowfall. Yes the Met Office were absoloutley correct in their prediction of Snow today. Britain had ground to a standstill as the roads were devoid of traffic and the streets briming with kid's building snowmen. I had used the opportunity to drive across to North London to do shopping for my elderly Mother. I hate doing it usually because the drive is normaly a congested one. After a bit of chit chat with her and my Auntie who I spoke with via telephone, I had a great idea to shop for a training shoe for Saturday 5 aside.
Wood Green shopping centre proved yet again a big disappointment if chasing variety and bargians. So off I went back to Hertfordshire and found a good selection of shoes. Why should I pay good money for shoes i'm going to kick the life out of. So I plummed for a nice black pair with astroturf like grip to stop me slipping and sliding in Harrow Schools sports hall.
Night fell as I returned home unable to do any kind of training which means I just shopped myself out of the coming League opener.
In the dressing room I wished the team luck. What more could I say? Nuneaton were favourites to win and strong promotion contenders. I quickly looked at the team list again and told the lads this team will go down in history as the first Conferance team picked and to do the club proud.
I was so gutted to not be able to play myself , but rules are rules. If we could sneak a point today I'll be pleased. We started nervously and before I could tinker with things Darby raced clear for Boro to score. I was woried that we would be blown away by them, but right on half time Robinson was clean through on goal and skipped past Daryl Burgess to score an outstanding goal. I was so proud of the youngster and I did'nt believe such a finish was in him. Once the lads returned to the dressing room, I let the lad know just what I thought of him and I witnessed his staure grow a few inches. "We can win this lads!" I told them and fired them up as they returned to the pitch.
I wondered whether I over did it at half time as after the break Boro hit the bar and continued their dominace.
Then on 56 minutes Marginson struck home a great flighted free kick to put us into the lead. Margy proved my David Beckham, but what was needed now was focus and concentration because 13 minutes later Murphy broke as we looked for the killer third goal to score the equaliser.
Boro had a further two chances one on one with the keeper to steal the points but our luck held out for the 2-2 draw.This was a great effort against a very good team and I told the lads so.
"When you halt in the desert make an arrow from pebbles, so, if suddenly woken up, you'll grasp which way to go."
Joseph Brodsky
"Hello and welcome to a chilly Friday as the snow slowly thaws and the bin men have yet to turn up. I'm trying to organise the kids as they enjoy their second day off school. I'm giving Ainsley a run for his money as I prepare a family meal consisting of White rice, chicken and sweet corn. Christina will be so pleased when she gets home from University.
Later tonight I would travel up to Buckinghamshire to celebrate my Sister in Law's forty something birthday. I showed the women present that I still had the moves on the dancefloor. We got back around half past two that morning to see me wizz through a few of my upcoming games.
There was news activity of interest as Chelsea breezed liverpool 2-0 in the Community Shield. Chelsea had also earlier signed Luca Toni from Fiorentina for £14.3M. Man City also splashed the cash by purchasing Timothy Atouba from HSV for £3.5M
Having done some good training on the Total gym earlier in the day, I felt justified in selecting myself for the forthcoming games;
Redditch United (a) we were favourites in a 0-2 win (This saw me crack home a goal after an edge of the box dribble)
Kettering Town (h) KT are Favourites but we crush them 3-0 (KT went down late on to ten men and missed a late a penalty)
Staylbridge Celtic (a) we are favourites in an incredible 3-4 loss (we were 0-2 down at one stage)
Moor Green (h) were favourites in a 2-1 win (I made the scoresheet, but Mitten was the hero in a last second winner)
After being top of the table quite a few of the lads feel I am not giving the team enough credit...so I stupidly came out to the press and told them FC will win their next match against Vauxhall.
Vauxhall Motors (a)1-0 defeat (we concede in the 90th minute)
After the post match dust settled I recieved feedback from my assistant that A.Robinson (atk), E Hooper (tact) and J. Mitten (atk) had trained well throughout the month. Whilst R.Angus(ball con) failed to impress. As it stands after 6 games we currently lie in 6th place and play Alfreton Town in our next match.
"The worst thing you can do before getting up 8am in the morning is to have gone to bed only five hours earler. Gone to bed knackered and awoke knackered to get knackered at 5 aside football at the Harrow School Sports Hall. I paraded my new asroturf grip trainers today and it looked to be working a treat earlier on, as I rifled home a half chance with my third touch. I should have gone home then as things rapidly went down hill after that.
I was gasping like a man who's oxygen supply had been cut off as the game became a 3 aside match. It dawned upon me that this level of exercise needs to happen more than Saturday morning.
Man United struggled past Charlton in a real Premiership match 2-0,to remain six points clear of Chelsea and I knew it was my time to hit the computer. Overjoyed to have made it to football this morning, having done so gives me the reward of choosing myself in today's games.
News of England's Euro qualification games saw them whip Andorra 4-0 and Macedonia 0-3 away with beanpole Crouch netting a brace. My thoughts turned to our home game against Alfreton in which the bookies had us as 4-6 favourites which has been proving a terrible guide to what could happen. I sent the lads out full of confidence to play our own game and so again we fell to the bookies curse. The game had 0-0 written all over it and yet the visitors stole a 0-1 win at Gigg Lane. The fans were very frustrated at the final whistle and the lads trooped off with their heads low. We are lacking a certain something in our squad to make us into challangers for promotion. However, there seems to be no one out there in the market who we could draft in and a long wait will have to be taken until January.
The next match went as follows;
(slight favourites) Workington 0 FC 1 {80th minute winner from Robinson & a MOM game from keeper Mason}
Patterson sets up Robinson Winner
Over the moon to get the three points but our win was tainted by an injury to Marginson who picked up a calf strain and could be out for up to 4 weeks. My midfield partnership with him had been going well as he is an experienced player and vital at this club.
Our next three matches yeilded only a few points from a maximum nine. We went to Barrow as slight favourites and were very unlucky to be held to a 2-2 draw, as Barrow scored a controversial equaliser to share the points. I managed to get on the score sheet and thought Robinson had scored us the winner.
In our next match I explained to the lads the importance of building unbeaten runs and to continue picking up points along the way. All of that went right out of the window as we hosted Blyth and were soundly beaten by the bookies favourites. it was good to see Robinson on the scoresheet again but it was little consolation in a 1-3 defeat.
I'm sure Man City were feeling far worse than us as they were dumped out of the League Cup 2nd round in a 2-1 defeat to little Cheltenham Town. We looked to pick ourselves up in the next game as we hosted Harrowgate at Gigg lane. Harrowgate like many other teams caused us untold trouble and were close to pulling off an away win as Mitten equalised for us and Robinson found the net again in a lively 2-2 draw.
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