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The British Lions' Toothless Roar


phnompenhandy

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The cup tie had further compounded matters by causing our second league game to be rescheduled for the midweek. There was no way I could ever forget the disaster that resulted from one Wednesday match last year, so this time I resolved to effectively sacrifice the match by putting out a wholly second-string side. Lucky Burnham Ramblers. We didn’t throw the game of course, but with academy debutants on the pitch and coming off the bench, we lacked the quality and went down 0-1.

 

We still couldn’t be at full-strength four days later as we entertained the holy Fire-eaters. As a result, they extinguished our flames as they beat us 1-0. It was clear that we needed a full uninterrupted week with two full training sessions to get us back on track with two tricky ties coming up next.

 

In contrast, my poor Under 18s squad has been thrown into two competitions by the competent authorities. That means two games a week for the poor lads. Just as well most of them are, er, ‘expendable’. This will be a useful exercise next year, though.

 

So, as I’d stated, perhaps more in hope than expectation, a week of preparation would see us alright. Thus we saw off Hashtag United 1-0 in yet another turgid tie. Entertainment will come, but first we need to gain some momentum and ascend the table. Our press officer reported that VAR had been installed at the ground – I’m still not sure if he’s right of got himself confused over all Hashtag’s youtube and media circus.

 

Next up was a short trip to the coast to see if we could get a hat-trick of wins against our rivals at Brightlingsea. Against the Regent reserves, we could. Finally, we played as a team and played for fun. A storming 5-1 score-line did not flatter us. Boys, we’re back!!

 

So we see out August in 5th place. The two teams immediately above us face us in the next fortnight, and I expect to overhaul them. The real contest will be catching the top two – Braintree reserves have a 100% record and are the favourites for the championship; behind them is the unknown quantity. When Newbury Forest were promoted to the Eastern Counties Premier, the two relegated clubs went into the northern division. I had expected Felixstowe’s reserve side to be reshuffled from there into our division as it’s just over the river, but instead the competent authorities assigned Cove, based in distant Farnborough, Hampshire. We’ll be travelling there to meet them at the end of September and already I’m seeing that as a six-pointer.

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September 2019

 

First off, a dominant performance with just the 2-1 result at May & Baker. Captain Stuart Reddick is really stepping up to the plate these last few weeks and is driving his young charges forward. One of them, poacher George Allison has scored in every game bar one. It was the same again versus Benfleet in the next match – we dominate, we spurn so many chances and Allison grabs a goal. 1-0. Points on the board but frustrating stuff. However, Cove lost their first game and we’re only a point behind them. A 2-0 win at home to Halstead continued the pattern – a solid defence, but insufficient creativity in attack with Allison on the score sheet. Cove lost a second game on the bounce, lifting us into second place the week before we meet. Braintree reserves also lost, at home, putting us within touching distance of them. I resolved to address the creativity issue on the training ground after the visit to Cove – for that game the result would be all that mattered. And yet, it turned out to be a damned good game of football, with Allison having an off-day, veteran Jimmy Cox’s hat-trick proved the difference in a 3-2 victory. We ended September with 12 points out of 12, a 5-point gap over third with just unpromotable Braintree above us.

Whilst Liverpool and Spurs again lead the way in the Premier League, newly-promoted Aston Villa and Norwich are in the top six. Motherwell are top north of the border – for the moment.

There is one wee cloud on the horizon – the training regimes are proving a bit of a disaster – maybe my clearing out of Gradi’s people in favour of my own picks has backfired. They’re all under contract until June so there’s not much I can do in the short term.

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October 2019

 

With the October schedule looking fairly straightforward, I turned my attention to tweaking players’ roles to encourage more creativity and entertaining football for the fans without sacrificing results. Our shape shifted from structured to very fluid as I encouraged the players to use their noggins, nervously mindful of the dismal set of GCSE results I was presented with a few weeks back.

 

Well, well, well! We went down to basement-dwellers Holland with our new-look tactical system and we not only played exhilarating team football in a 4-0 win, but in addition to Allison and Cox getting on the score-sheet, our new wingback system resulted in goals from each, Grant and Preece, including the fastest goal we’ve ever scored. They both off Reddick free kicks – full-backs in the box is a new phenomenon for us. The other two goals came from right-winger Cascoe’s crosses – that’s six assists in the last six matches for him. We’re flying and just one goal off the top of the table.

 

Aaannnddd, I’ve received my first offer of a job interview. I didn’t even know where Potten United was, I had to look them up. It would mean relocating to the Midlands to manage a club bottom of their level 10 league. They have no staff and the current pay scale appears to be 10% of what I’m on. Nahhhh. The absence of any comment from my wife indicated that she couldn’t even bring herself to be a little bit jealous – maybe next time.

 

Cascoe, Reddick and the wingbacks were all involved in the 3-0 romp at home to Leyton Athletic, which set us up perfectly for the big one the following Saturday. It’s a home tie versus or big rivals Harwich. It ought to be a walk, but that was the case back in March where we embarrassed ourselves, going down 1-4. I was determined to wipe the memory of that disgrace away. The players weren’t; convinced they are our bogey team, our terrified defence let Harwich’s only two shots on target (to our 15) in. I replaced three of the defenders, hollered instructions like a madman and we bagged two late goals and Cox hit the bar in the 94th minute. 2-2 but I was furious. I guess if we get out of this league we won’t have this hanging over us again.

 

I spent the two midweek training sessions drilling the defence because I do not want to see those pair of errors that disgraced us against Harwich again. The defence did hold firm but my mood clearly got to the team who played rather nervously against Lopes Tavares and it took until the 90th minute for Cox to break the deadlock, 1-0.

 

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November 2019

 

I felt that a lot of our success so far this season was due to the stability we were enjoying after Gradi had decamped. Therefore, I was most upset when my negotiations to renew the contract of a right-back was undermined by my wife agreeing to release him to another club. Strong words were exchanged; I got my way, but let’s just say she’s not used to being defied. Not sure if there’ll be repercussions down the line. In the short-term, not only was the player happy to sign his new contract, but I tied every other player I had plans for to contracts until 2021 or 2022. Not one had any issues with that.

 

The next match down at Wormley Rovers saw my tactical adjustments cost us as we went down 0-1 to end our ten-match unbeaten run. In my view, we have a month to hone our style before encountering Braintree. I want that win so bad. We just needed to get our minds focused, which we did over the next two training sessions. Bringing that onto the park we saw off the Basildon boys of White Ensign 3-0 with a great team performance, and all was right again. The white ensign wasn't the only flag on display - it was good to see the rainbow of our local LBGT community proudly displayed.

 

The fixture fairies gave us seven away ties in nine during this period, and so we were on the road firstly to Wivenhoe and then Hackney Wick. With Braintree slipping up, we blew our chance to go top with a disappointing 1-1 draw at Wivenhoe, both goals coming in the last five minutes. My response was to re-jig the left flank, pushing the wingback to winger and restoring Josh Briggs to the starting line-up. Down to Hackney’s Old Spotted Dog we went, noting that the Wick had crept up on us and were only two points behind.   Not only did we put in a professional performance to see off the Young Pretenders 3-1, but Braintree drew yet again to put us on the pedestal on goal difference. The first three goals came from that left wing in a superb performance at Coggeshall in which we won 5-1 set us up beautifully for the next encounter at Braintree, who were starting to really lose their way. Yes, we’d be looking down on them from our pedestal. That will be the half-way point of our season, but I was already putting foundations in place for the next one.

I was forced to laugh off rumours of an Irish top-flight side making enquiries about me – gossip that didn’t amount to anything, but I did get approached by a couple of relegation-threatened level 9 clubs – ones that I hoped we were now on course to pass on the way up with The Acorns.  I’d set myself some key tasks to move our club forward and wanted to see them through. I persuaded the chairwoman to pay off a few backroom staff that I felt were not quite adequate and brought in (hopefully) better coaches for the senior and in particular Under 18s, mainly in readiness for the next intake. On that point my most important appointment was a new Head of Youth Development in time to make his mark on the current and future boys at our new academy. I believe him to be highly professional and determined. His name is Rob Bartley, an ex-copper with the Met. He lives in Farnborough and I met him when we went to play Cove. After two months of gentle persuasion, he agreed to join us.

 

Is this my most important signing?

Rob Bartley HoYD.jpg

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December 2019

Kevin Liddle, just turned 17, a big long drink of water dominating the skies at the back. He’s doing magnificent, but I have picked up the feeling that his performances had been slowly deteriorating, and I sensed he needed a break. All these young boys do, so I need to note and manage that, thin though our squad is. Once we pull away from whoever’s in second place, we can afford to drop the odd point so I’m not concerned. I moved Josh Briggs in from the left back to the centre to cover him. Josh is never a player you really notice, but is Mr. Reliable.

As this is a Youth Academy challenge, we need to look at the rest of the squad. 

My Under 18s squad is not a promising shower. I’ll keep on about seven for next season and have given them contracts, but they’ve not made a lot of progress. I mentioned at the start of the season that they’d been entered into a competitive league – well, they’re well out of their depth. But, in a cup competition we’re into the quarter finals! I did target that one and used young first team substitutes in the midweek matches, but it’s still unexpected.

 

U18s cup.jpg

U18s league.jpg

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6 hours ago, coady said:

Bartley's personality will be so important. No matter what standard of players you get through now, at least many of them should have the personality to reach it!

I wondered about that - his rating of only 8 for young players is iffy, and he was rated half a star in the staff search. There were plenty of 2 stars with 18-20 young player attributes but the wrong personalities. I went for Bartley's personality to the exclusion of all else - I hope it works out!

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7 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

I wondered about that - his rating of only 8 for young players is iffy, and he was rated half a star in the staff search. There were plenty of 2 stars with 18-20 young player attributes but the wrong personalities. I went for Bartley's personality to the exclusion of all else - I hope it works out!

Couldn't agree more, I always put personality first for that role. I just wish DoF's would be as sensible when they're doing the hiring!

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Just now, coady said:

Couldn't agree more, I always put personality first for that role. I just wish DoF's would be as sensible when they're doing the hiring!

Yeah, maybe I'm being too sneaky, but I was just following the narrative as it unravelled. Dario Gradi, my DoF/HoYD retired, so I saw an opportunity to appoint my own HoYD along with other backroom staff. Just as they accepted the contracts, the 'chairman' brought in a new - and awful DoF. So I can't do any more staff appointments, but if my man Bartley is as I hope he is, maybe it won't matter much!

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The chairwoman’s gran passed away on the Tuesday, so she and I had to fly back to Cambodia to partake in the ceremonies. Daily matters and evening Wednesday training were left in the hands of Don Breeden, my assistant, and as the next game was a Sunday kickoff and the second weekly training was pushed back to Friday, I was able to attend and prepare the lads for the upcoming match. As our webmaster related,

“The long journey to Braintree was our Sunday treat this week and our least popular pitch to play on. It is understandable for the playing surface to be heavy this time of year but the slope at this ground seems to get worse each year.”

 

They had the slope; we had the psychological edge of coming into the game looking down on them with a three-point gap and an eight-goal advantage. They’d had only one win in November to our three, so we felt the time was right to send out a statement. And we did. It was quite routine really – the skipper Reddick with a brace, Allison with his customary goal, and Preecey could even afford to miss a penalty. 3-1 Unfortunately our left winger Dan Clayton twisted his ankle in the final minute and will be laid up for a while. He’s our only left-winger so we’ll fill in with a left-back and make do.

 

So Chris Crawford was restored to left-back. He’s played 23 times for our Under 18s – once quite well, but that was eighteen months ago. His four first team appearances last season and this were all woeful, so it’s mostly a case of his team mates protecting him from getting exposed by ruthless right-wing opposition. To be honest, the fixture list didn’t look too scary for the succeeding five or six matches before we’d get Clayton back.

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We had three away matches in succession through December; the second was at Frenford. We’d beaten them three in three; hopefully losing Clayton would prevent complacency seeping into the ranks as I felt that would be our greatest threat through this second half of the season.

The game was flat, Crawford was poor but the opposition couldn’t take advantage. Reddick popped up with the only goal of the game – his second free kick in successive matches. More important than his dead balls however, it’s only his hollering throughout the games that are keeping the young kids going. 1-0

 

 

As I said, I had pretty much anticipated their states of mind, and I’d already arranged to gather the squad together on the Wednesday evening to observe the academy trials. In the pre-trials I’d nipped along and saw some good stuff, so I hoped the lads would see enough quality in those schoolkids to buck their ideas up ahead of recruitment in about ten weeks’ time. I noted that Hackney Wick who are on a hot run had destroyed Braintree’s reserves to take second place behind us.

Whilst I mulled this over, my chairman got a call from a club at the bottom of the Scottish league. She simply told them that she pays me eight times the average wage in that division and could they beat that? It was a short call.

 

 

The following game was against the evangelicals down at Fire United, doing nothing in the league, but they always put a curse on us. Could we finally grab a win against them? No. They descended on poor Crawford like a lamb to the slaughter, and two goals came from his area. Allison, however, was not spooked by their aura and bagged a brace to salvage a 2-2 draw.

 

 

At home to Burnham Ramblers I changed the rest of my back line as all of them were losing their form. I knew it was a risk as Preece and Breen had played every one of the previous ten matches, and Liddle and Davidson-Phipps were well short of match-practice. I pushed them all hard in Christmas Eve and Boxing Day training sessions, impressing on them how serious I was about not just promotion this season but storming up the leagues. My efforts didn’t really pay off; we were poor and were quite fortunate to come away with a 1-1 draw. For my next trick I’m going to restore those defenders, move Grant back to left-back to plug that gap, switch Cascoe to the left-wing and bring in an untried kid for a debut at right-wing. I just feel that if we have to have a weak-point somewhere, that’s safer spot. Crawford couldn’t give more on the training pitch, but when the whistle goes and the crowds cheer, the poor lad just freezes. I have to take the pressure off him. Hackney Wick have gone down with altitude sickness since I mentioned them; there’s no pressure on us with an eight-point margin to second going into the new year.

 

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New Years Eve shocks. My new Director of Football Adrian Taylor had to negotiate contract renewals for all my staff who had six months left. He came to inform me that my rather good assistant Manager Don Breeden turned his down, as has Rob Bartley, the Head of our academy I’ve been raving about. Taylor also announced he was trying to get rid of our only goalkeeper. I’ll be having a quiet word with the missus about someone’s contract not been renewed, and I guess I’ll have to put on a charm offensive in a while to get more staff to stay.

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January 2020

 

We kicked off the new year by hosting Brightlingsea Regent reserves and thrashing them 5-0. A hat-trick for Allison and a clean sheet were more than pleasing. Maybe dropping the defenders and rejigging the left back situation was a masterstroke after all. All the goals were long punts down the middle to chase – I don’t know why their defence was so clueless. Behind the scenes, I persuaded the chairman to put the hopeless Director of Football on gardening leave, although his wages still have to be paid for six months.

 

By the way, around the country as 2020 breaks, Arsenal lead the Premier League, ahead of Liverpool and Manchester United with City in fourth and Norwich midtable. Newcastle are on course for immediate promotion even with Fat Ashley as ballast. Celtic are marching on in Scotland with The New Saints the only team in Wales. Shamrock Rovers took the proper Irish title at the end of their campaign, Ballymena United lead in the North and Europa FC are top dogs in Gibraltar.

 

We went down to Hashtag United’s ground and won 4-0. The only weak point was Cascoe operating on the wrong wing but Clayton got half an hour after recovering from his ankle-nak and came through unscathed, so we should be beck to our best in the next match – mind you, that’s a shame for 16-year-old Christian Blackwell who deputised superbly on the right wing. He’ll get more chances. Others might also get chances as our full squad of 29, including six youngsters who aren’t going to be retained, are picking up more winter knocks. It wasn’t just injuries though, the nasty weather caused a postponement and a rescheduling to a Wednesday – again, the kids would be put out if we lost one match, we’d accept that.

I felt the rest and extra training would benefit the squad at his time so didn’t fix up a friendly. I also took in the coaches’ reports and was pleased to see a number of players making great progress on the training ground. That made it more important that I retained my staff, so it was a relief when I talked my Under 18s manager out of taking up a post elsewhere.

 

A fortnight later we were back in action on Canvey Island against Benfleet. The irrepressible young Christian Blackwell came off the bench to teach his profligate elders a lesson for a 1-0 victory. With that the outfield players earned themselves a rest as the hot prospect Under 18s and few odds and sods not in the starting XI took on May & Baker in the rearranged midweek match. In truth it was a rag-bag army, but the opposition turned up at our Memorial Ground in such fear and trepidation that they didn’t notice. Six sixteen-year-old debutants took the field to cheers from their nearest and dearest, and four of them scored, bless ‘em! That delicious 4-1 victory showed me signs that the future is bright, and we were still a month away from taking in our next charges. In the absence of captain Reddick, young Blackwell led with such authority that he’s earned himself an extended run in the first team.

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Belatedly, it's time to introduce you to the key components of our squad. I think after a year and a half we can be confident we know who's proved their worth and will hopefully be here for at least the next year or two.

Starting with the keeper, rarely the hero but hardly ever the one to take the blame, Mr. Consistency himself

 

Zac Harding.jpg

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February 2020

 

Being a leap year, February threw up five weekend fixtures. Cove were dispatched 2-0. Davidson-Phipps gave me lip when I scolded him due to his laziness in training. Not a smart move when the kids are showing and more are on the way. He was out the door. To Ingles, wherever that is. A little house on a prairie? Nobody missed him. On the Wednesday I put out a strong Under 18s side who beat Barnet Under 18s in the cup quarters to set up a semi against Shrewsbury. Great experience! As a consequence, however, I couldn’t play them in the first team, so an experience eleven lined up at Halstead Town and just the thought of those kids usurping their places was enough to motivate them to a 3-0 win. The following week, with a home tie against basement-dwellers Holland provided the perfect opportunity for the young Turks to impress me again. Most of them did although Allison was on hand to make sure chances were converted. 4-1. The Under 18s semi-final was on Saturday with the first team playing on the Sunday. We’d come this far so I put out the strongest youth team and was left with no substitutes for the league tie at Leyton Athletic. I joined the young boys for a long trip to some sports centre in Shrewsbury. The opposition had too much quality and we went down 2-4, but I felt my presence was necessary to keep spirits high. a quick turnaround saw me joining the big boys’ depleted squad down the old A12. A solid 2-1 win, 3 points, back home. Sleep.

For the Leap Day fixture, having a 14-point safety-net, I thought I’d take the opportunity to blood five more youngsters. I was expecting the new academy intake to arrive in the following days and I told the playing squad as much after the training session on Thursday. The on Friday morning Rob Bartley arrived at the helm of the club bus with 16 schoolboys. He stressed that he particularly recommended three lads who played in position we were most in need of – a speedy central defender, a left-back and a superhot young goalkeeper. I invited them to join me behind the dugout for the Lopes Tavares game and I promised to put them through their paces on Monday morning. The game ended 1-0 which resulted in some league records being broken but to be honest I was distracted throughout and I was deeply engrossed in conversation with Bartley about his assessment of the mew kids’ characters. It all sounded exciting as he enthused about their determination and professionalism and assured me they’d be a delight on the training ground.

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March 2020

 

 

Watching the kids playing a trial game against our Under 18s, most of whom were currently in the first team squad only encouraged me further. In all, I agreed to sign thirteen of them to youth contracts and I joined the youth coaches in observing them further. With the next match being at Harwich where most of them attended the comprehensive school, they again joined us to cheer on the first team. I had it in mind that some of them would be getting run outs in the first team in upcoming matches. By Thursday I decided to gamble and start five of them including the goalkeeper Ferhat Bozan. As our constant number one Zac Harding is more than decent I felt I had to release our third choice who’d never get near the first team and as he was a Jesus-freak I persuaded him to our bogey team Fire United. Another casualty is Paul Albans, a midfielder who had a decent run in our first team but who’s turned 19, which means he can’t play for our Under 18s, whilst a couple of youngsters have overtaken him and his progress has been too slow in comparison.

Thirty-year-old striker Jimmy Cox is probably surplus to requirements too; I began to consider sending him on his way if a couple of the schoolkids look good enough when he gave me a volley over his lackadaisical approach to training, so he made my mind up for me. Finally, I decided that Grant’s wage didn’t justify retaining him as a squad player so I put him up for sale too. I’ve made a list of 30 squad members that I want to retain going forward.

 

New provisional first team squad with six of the youth intake promoted

 

 

squad march 2020.jpg

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We lost the match at Harwich 1-2 ending our 17-game unbeaten run, but I wasn’t downhearted as I saw plenty of positive signs giving the kids a chance. Therefore, the following week I sent out the same players to take on White Ensign. The performance was better, as was the 2-0 result. Wormley Rovers, the only team that could beat us to promotion, ended their eleven-match winning streak, meaning if we merely drew with them the following week, we’d be up with four games to spare. I put out a stronger line-up to clinch the title and the lads rose to the occasion, a goal in Lee Hart’s third consecutive game securing a 3-1 victory and the league. Three more kids made their debuts against Wivenhoe as we saw out March. In front of the bumper crowd that had turned up to celebrate our championship that was a step far too far and the embarrassing 1-4 defeat was entirely on me.

 

Here are the new youths who've gained successful first-team experience already

 

ferhat bozan.jpg

heinrich joseph.jpg

michael joyce.jpg

thomas stacey.jpg

lee hart.jpg

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April 2020

We off-loaded Cox and Grant onto willing clubs, which relieved a substantial amount off our wage bill, which is now only 40% of what we’re permitted by the chairwoman. I was trying to persuade her to invest in improved training facilities but it appeared I needed to build up a much bigger pile of cash to convince her. She turned down four alternative requests but finally relented and agreed to increase our junior coaching budget. Cheekily, I knew the board were going to offer me a new contract the next day, so after I secured the junior coaching deal, I then made upgrading the training facilities a condition of signing the contract (along with a pay rise and bonuses) and I got my way. It was only after that I discovered the costs would be some 750,000 quid; oh well, not my problem, but quite possibly Tendring District Council will help us out as they have been all along – just look at how much we’ve been kept afloat by their grants:

income - grants.jpg

 

Maybe the most important development however, was in the light of these factors, Rob Bartley finally agreed to renew his contract. Our assistant manager Don Breedon, on the other hand, made it abundantly clear he was too good for us and was setting his sights higher. I felt now was the time to kick him out to give a new guy time to bed in. Ex-Premier League player (with Oldham) Andy Barlow answered my call and came south from Bacup where he’d been released from his caretaker manager responsibility to take up the reins.

Without Breedon in the dugout, the entire team put on a phenomenal display to hammer Coggeshall 4-1. Barlow joined during the subsequent week; although the defence was a little careless playing Hackney Wick, we beat them 5-3. We finished at home to the pre-season favourites, Braintree Reserves and with the aid of an Allison hat-trick stuffed them 4-0. It’s just a shame that our season had to end at that point as with fifteen of the current first-team squad having come through our new academy (and seven more in the Under 18s squad poised to join them), our club DNA is very deeply understood and the team cohesion is a pleasure to see.

 

 

end of season 2020.jpg

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May 2020

 

Travelling will be grueling next season. We won’t meet local rivals Clacton as they got promoted, but we’ll be ranging from Norwich to London. The board must have tapped those figures into their calculator because they’ve gone and cancelled the training facilities improvements – that’s a breach of my contract, isn’t it? I kicked up a stink and got a compromise of being able to hire a third first-team coach. He hasn’t added much, to be fair.

 

Manchester United won the domestic treble – Mourinho will never let us hear the last of it.  Liverpool, City and Spurs took 2nd- 4th respectively. Arsenal’s collapse couldn’t compare with Norwich who ended up relegated with Palace and Villa. Newcastle and Cardiff make immediate returns to the top flight along with the thugs of  Millwall. In Scotland and Wales it’s as you were with Celtic and The New Saints, but in Norn Iron Crusaders pipped Ballymena courtesy of a goal difference of one. In Gibraltar Lincoln also won due to goal difference with Europa missing out. Midway through Eire’s campaign, Dundalk look like they’ll regain their title. I’d like to tell you who won the World Cup but it turns out it is due to be played in the winter in Qatar after all.

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June 2020

Just when I thought all the foundations were laid for a stable and successful upcoming season, vultures gathered and picked off three of my best coaches including all my Under 18s staff. Don’t contracts mean anything these days? I found replacements, but will they be as good? A few drinking sessions indicated to me that they are all friendly enough, but I didn’t get the sense of professionalism that my charges are getting used to. The chairwoman approached me with the idea to give me a generous scouting budget, but I argued that as we decided to rely on our academy, finances should be focused there, so instead she agreed to widen our youth recruitment policy. We’re going to get better and better kids joining us from our academy, but I’m worried that the quality of the training facilities and staff won’t help them develop – unless I can give them runs in the first team.

 

The board expects us to be around the promotion spot at the end of the season and it’s a challenge I’m certainly up for. To be honest, I thought the key game for us last season was the pre-prelim FA Cup tie that we lost and I won’t be upset to go out at the first stage again, although we might have a stronger second-eleven to make more of a fist of it this time. After two years our pitch was looking really worn and the board also agreed to relay it – in a year’s time.

 

I was determined to move on the kids I’d ear-marked as not good enough for the squad before the players reassembled, but the departing Director of Football had apparently negotiated pre-contracts with them, making the process messier than I’d hoped. The board wouldn’t pay compensation payments so I had to let a group fester in the Under 23s cemetery and hope they didn’t infect the rest of the squad. I shifted one out on loan on 100% wages paid until his contract ran out – as good as sold then, but the other two were unwilling and unwanted.

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14 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Here are the new youths who've gained successful first-team experience already

ferhat bozan.jpg

 

Bozan looks a very solid keeper. If only he had some composure!

6 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Maybe the most important development however, was in the light of these factors, Rob Bartley finally agreed to renew his contract. 

That's the big news, hopefully all of your youth intake players will continue to have balanced or higher personalities as a result.

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2 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Do the personalities of youth staff have any bearing, because I lost the ones (U18 manager and coach) with good personalities?

I don't know if it does, but I always try to get decent personality. I'll take a good youth coach if they have a balanced personality, though.

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July 2020

 

As I greeted the squad on the training ground for the pre-season I was immediately presented with a delegation challenging me on my treatment of Zac Harding. I’d decided to go with Ferhat Bozan as our number one, demoting Harding to turning out for the Under 18s. I’d already felt within myself that it seemed harsh and I could only sympathise, but not reverse my decision. I could only pray Bozan would vindicate me. What happened was that he underwhelmed on the training ground and was mediocre in the friendlies until a very good performance in his last one, but at that point I’d decided to relent, restore Harding and give Bozan a year in the Under 18s to mature.

There were also a lot of complaints on day one about the training – I guess these young boys miss their coaches with whom they bonded so well. They’ll just need to learn some hard lessons in life and get used to the new crew.  I managed to loan out a player even though we pay all his wages for the year – that leaves one 17-year-old unwanted player to add to the new attitude problems that I expect a few victories to blow away.

I ensured our pre-season was a week longer than the previous one, at four weeks in all, encompassing seven friendly fixtures. I also used the time to try three variants of my 4-4-2 – a balanced, a counter and a controlling version. The results were not important – they got everyone fit and tactically prepared and thus we saw out July. The big kick-off would be on Saturday 1st August with six scheduled matches including two Wednesday kick-offs. Do we now have the squad to handle that?

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August 2020

And so our sojourn in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, the highest level this little village side had ever attained, began with a trek to the pretty Suffolk market town where my favourite uncle and auntie lived to meet the rather non-descript Haverhill Rovers from which we came away with an opening 1-0 win. On the Wednesday I took the second-string on an even longer trip into Suffolk to the rather beautiful village of Walsham-le-Willows, a home-from-home if you like. With our defence exceedingly on the slow side we had to drop deep and play on the counter. We claimed the picturesque Anglian village bragging rights and were gratified to see that our weaker side could still pulverise the division’s lesser lights as we won 3-0.

Our homies would have to wait as our third competitive match took us to the grim north, to Humberside outfit Barton Town in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round. With our first choice line-up we were hoping to do something we failed to do the first time. For me the was the extra incentive of wanting to punish a club for forcing us to play in the horrendously ugly-names ‘Easy Buy Ground’. And we did. History was made as we won our first ever FA Cup contest 1-0 thanks to the reliable George Allison, thanking me for promising a new contract prior to the match although the delight was marred by the dirtiness of the contest including a very nasty tackle on Dylan Cascoe that has put him out for a couple of months. The prize is a home tie against level 7 Hertford Town.

So Allison wanted to be a key player and our highest paid one too. He’s only 17 but I thought he’d already earned what he asked for so we came to an agreement.

Norwich United was the team we hosted in our first level 9 tie at the Memorial Ground and we wanted to put on a show for any new supporters curious enough to check us out. Unfortunately, I got my tactics all wrong and we were outplayed and lost 1-3. With no time to dwell on my mishap, I had to prepare the seconds for another Wednesday tie at Newbury Forest, whom we failed to beat in two attempts in 2018. Due to injuries, I could put eleven out on the pitch but I was short of substitutes such is the threadbare nature of our squad. We were awful and lost 1-2. Like last year when we started poorly in the same circumstances, I’ll be partially relieved to lose the FA Cup tie as we still don’t have the resources to play twice a week.

We put our best available team out for the visit of Hertford Town, playing two tiers above us, in the FA Cup Preliminary Round, but two losses on the trot is enough to demoralize such a young side and it was a struggle to get them geed up in front of a bumper crowd. They were faster, stronger, far better than us but we dug deep and came out with a 2-2 draw, as a coach with a depleted squad the last result I wanted, to be fair although the missus was delighted that we broke attendance and gate records.

The replay was just three days later. Were we to win it, we’d meet Bedworth United who I badly wanted to beat as my mum lives there. But Hertford’s side comprised strapping big men who looked barely ruffled as they greeted us at their ground; it was a struggle for me to pick eleven kids who could still walk. The prospect of extra time didn’t bear thinking about. Of course the dreadful first 90 minutes produced nothing, so we did stagger into extra time. Player out of position, 40% condition, on their knees. We went behind, but we kept going. 117th minute – a goalkeeping howler and we equalized. 1-1 Penalties. We only bloody won 4-3. That meant four more games in the next two weeks. There’d be no training and a lot of massages.

The walking wounded trotted out against Newmarket to close the month. Without having a shot on target we won 1-0 courtesy of a late freak own goal. They tried to get back into the match but that horse had bolted. Before that, I got news of my first international call-up. Fortunately, it was the one player I could spare as Bozan joined the Turkish Under 18s squad.

 

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September 2020

 

So I went into the new month still feeling kind of despondent about winning the FA Cup tie. We would have a horrendously congested September with a squad that would not be able to cope. Having made it through two preliminary stages, we were embarking on the first of four qualifying stages prior to the first round of the FA Cup proper where league clubs enter the fray and dreams begin to be dreamt. But there is no way we would make it that far – last year I monitored the long lists of FA cup ties without us that came up on the news screens with a sense of relief. No little club made it anywhere near the first round; they just slugged it out against bigger part-time outfits until they fell. Did the board, fans and players want to exchange a few thousand in prize money and gate receipts for a mid-table finish? Clearly not. Would we earn enough to pay for a training ground upgrade? No. A cup run would be as useful to us as Burnley in the Europa League in 2018. As we’d already exceeded expectations the decision I made was to have a go at Bedworth, but if we got through that match (without a replay) I’d call it a day and put out my weakest side.

 

First up though was a Wednesday trip to Whitton United in Ipswich and a chance to shake hands with their chairman the legendary Ruel Fox. They are also currently performing at the highest stage in their history and are sitting third in the league. Again selection was simply a matter of giving everyone as much rest as possible and seeing who was fit and walking on the morning of the game, taking into account the cup tie would follow three days later. Given the patched-up nature of the side I was proud of the performance in a 1-2 defeat. One positive note was Dylan Cascoe getting a second half run out following his long layoff and bagging the consolation goal.

 

On to Bedworth, honoured that my mum came to cheer us along. Bedworth United got relegated to the eighth tier and are struggling, so they wouldn’t be invincible if we were at our best. The trouble is, we’re not at our best. Training is collectively appalling as everyone is too tired and can’t even take in analysis and instructions. The older players are the worst and are setting a bad example. They need to be dropped and things freshened up but I can only do that when we get back to one match a week. All that will have to wait because we went and bloody won again! In a terribly poor-quality encounter Christian Blackwell came off the bench to pinch a goal in the 96th minute to give us a 1-0 victory, dammit.

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Our midweek home match was against second-placed Aylesbury United, for lack of alternatives I kept the same starting XI together except for Cascoe who wasn’t fit enough for two games. Aylesbury would be a better side than Bedworth, but with more confidence and our fans behind us, I hoped we might get something out of the game. In the meantime, the cup draw sent us to Wales, to Colwyn Bay playing in the eighth tier. We would be playing at least seven games this month. In the midst of this congestion the Under 18s cup tournament began. We’d done well last year and would have liked to repeat our feat, but Bozan was still away (doing very poorly) on international duty and I couldn’t commit many kids to the squad while they were needed as first team back-up, so we took a 0-3 hit in the first game. It was Blackwell again who stepped up to be the first Acorn to score a winning goal at home at this level as we ground out another grueling 1-0 victory. The Aylesbury manager complained about our niggly fouls but it was water off a duck’s back. Three welcome points; quality can follow when we have the luxury.

 

After just two days to recover, I patched the lads up for a trip to Bangladesh. Well, Bangladesh in Tower Hamlets as Kent-based Sporting Bengal United had been shifted from the Essex Senior into our league. Administrators, eh? The boys were very very leggy, but morale was good and we’d built up a bit of momentum. They stunned us with two set-piece goals in the first ten minutes, but after that we played very well considering, and came away with a point in a 2-2 draw. For the first time this month we actually had a week to recover before our trip to north Wales.

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In four training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday I put almost complete emphasis on defending, dropping Robbie Breen to the bench in favour of Josh Briggs as Breen had been flagging over the last few matches. Experienced winger Dan Clayton is starting to fade to we’re going with the more enthusiastic 16-year old Matthew Fitzjohn, hoping he won’t freeze in the biggest match in our history – he’ll have skipper Reddick alongside to gee him on. Another 16-year old academy graduate Spencer Lench replaced Keith Preece at right-back. I was going for form and enthusiasm over experience although the latter would all be on the bench.

Colwyn Bay is a pretty big club, having reached the FA Cup second round proper in ’95. And when we disembarked the coach, we discovered that the Irish Sea is very very windy at this time. We weren’t used to that, but as our counter-attacking tactic relied on launching long balls over the defence I tried to explain how to use the wind to our advantage. It’s didn’t work as high balls went wayward and there were only six shots on target in the entire game as we shared four goals in a 2-2 draw. Another replay three days later would be held at our place. On the coach travelling back we were mightily proud to see our name mentioned in the results alongside illustrious ex-league clubs such as Hereford and Torquay and full-time York City.

I put to the back of my mind the realization that this little club with tiny youthful squad will have played a ridiculous sixteen competitive fixtures in the two months of August and September.

Going into the replay on Tuesday it was all about being positive and relaxing as much as possible. We watched the draw for the third qualifying round and learned the winner of our replay would meet Grays, struggling in their eighth level division. ‘One game at a time though’ is how I tried to temper excitement building around the village and Dovercourt, Parkeston and Harwich. Yes, we ground out yet another 1-0 with Blackwell Player of the Match but James Langdale grabbing the only goal. Say good-bye to promotion then.

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At least we only played 90 minutes, so most of the players would be okay to row through the swamplands of Cambridgeshire to reach the Isle of Ely to play Ely City. I could also put out a youth team for their second cup game, which they won 3-0. As news broke that Brexit would impact football transfers from next season, we wondered if the independent principality of the sovereign Isle of Ely would be affected. We thought we’d get things started early with some East Saxon plundering and brought back booty to the tune of three points and three goals. We left a gift of a consolation goal in a 3-1 victory.

 

That long long September was finally rounded off by a home tie against Thetford FC, from a lovely market town on the Norfolk border. A change of personnel due to obvious fatigue and a need to keep players fresh for the looming FA cup game (yes, I’m starting to feel that we can manage to keep going and still put ourselves in the running in the league after all) was no impediment as we thoroughly entertained our home fans with a sweet 4-1 win. We’re up to 5th, five points of the lead – eminently doable, in my opinion. Mind. Changed.

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October 2020

Update your Wikipedia entry for this club as history has been made. We reached the third qualifying round of the FA Cup and welcomed Thameside outfit Grays Athletic to the Memorial Ground. Grays must be the most successful club we’ve met in a competitive match, having reached the play-offs of the Conference National and Second Round proper of the FA Cup in recent memory, and sold a player for 150,000 quid; however, they were currently struggling in the 7th-tier league and that gave us some hope.

As I strode out onto the pitch I allowed clichés to fill my thoughts – ‘dare to dream’, ‘magic of the cup’ and so on. With that, like the plot of a second-rate TV series, the story could only end one way. 1-2. But oh, my boys played out of their skins – I was so proud of them and not afraid to confess that the error that cost us was mine. Grays had a target man whose physique and stature was just too much for Breen who was beaten at the far post to concede in the first half. I replaced him with Briggs who could and did handle him but by that time the damage had been done. We fought so hard to get back into the game, but with five minutes to go captain Reddick fought just a little bit too hard and received a second yellow card. A minute later they scored again but then Allison set up Hart for our reply which led to a frenetic five minutes of time added but it was not to be.

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12 minutes ago, coady said:

Not far away now, how many years before a first round appearance?

The results went like this:

1-0, 2-2, 1-1 (pens), 1-0, 2-2, 1-0, 1-2.

Every round could have gone either way; it will probably be the same next year but we should be that little bit stronger. I'd like to think we'll get to the 4th Qual round and come up against a professional Vanarama National side in the next year or two. We could, however, avoid a National side and beat a 6th tier side to get to the first round in three or four years. Let's see!

But the real story is, despite my rational mind saying throw the cup and save your best side for the league, the emotional side of me just couldn't do it. Of course I'll keep trying everything I can to win every game, I can do no other.

 

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During one moment of the second half Zac Harding had made an unbelievable point-blank double save. Twice I praised him effusively and thus it was that we reconciled and he dropped the resentment he’d held since pre-season. It also brought harmony back into the locker room with his six supporters looking much happier with me too. There’s nothing like a worthy loss to bring a team together!

Another consequence of the defeat was that, weather permitting, our next fixture would be the last mid-week game of the season and we should be better prepared for the rest of the league games. And so it was that those who were fit enough and not suspended travelled up to the Norfolk Broads to play another village team at Wroxham. For such a tiny village they have a heck of a pedigree – not only have they won this league eight times, but their roll-call of alumni include ex-Premier League strikers such as Chris Sutton and Trevor Benjamin. Fortunately for us, the current side lacked such quality and whilst our inexperience showed, we did enough to squeeze out another 1-0 with fringe midfielder from our academy Tom Stacey getting his first goal.

Three days later we made the short trip to Suffolk town Stowmarket with most of our first choice players back, but our wingers were still exhausted so I had to rush Matthew Fitzjohn back despite him still recovering from a nasty virus that laid him out for a fortnight. He barely staggered through the first half but it wasn’t only him under the weather; Harding scored a calamitous own goal, Reddick couldn’t carry on into the second half and we got hammered 1-4. In hindsight, the cup run had taken its toll after all and we desperately needed the midweeks to recover, mentally as much as physically.

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3 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

The results went like this:

1-0, 2-2, 1-1 (pens), 1-0, 2-2, 1-0, 1-2.

Every round could have gone either way; it will probably be the same next year but we should be that little bit stronger. I'd like to think we'll get to the 4th Qual round and come up against a professional Vanarama National side in the next year or two. We could, however, avoid a National side and beat a 6th tier side to get to the first round in three or four years. Let's see!

But the real story is, despite my rational mind saying throw the cup and save your best side for the league, the emotional side of me just couldn't do it. Of course I'll keep trying everything I can to win every game, I can do no other.

 

I know the feeling. I'm one of the few from my generation that loves the FA Cup & will always give it more priority than I probably should, even when I reach the elite level and have to juggle it with European Football!

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After that desperately-needed week’s rest for the whole squad, the first team geared up for a local derby against Brantham Athletic, from a lovely village located just north of the River Stour. The fans helped our boys get remotivated after the previous defeat although our club and squad captain Stuart Reddick has been looking very jaded on the training ground and can’t inspire the kids. I hope he’ll be fine if I rest him for a week or two but I do wonder if age is catching up with him. It was just the kind of match we needed and we gained the three points with a 2-1 victory, but to be truthful we were very flat, and picked up another red card in stoppage time when substitute Stacey last only 15 minutes.

 

 

The following Saturday we made the somewhat long trip to the far end of Hertfordshire to play Tring Athletic. They’ve played in the Spartans South Midlands League for a long time but were shifted into our division in a reshuffle this season.  The weather was poor; we were awful. Came away with more than we deserved in a 0-1 defeat. The problem was that there was no leadership out there. I’m in a bit of a dilemma as all the senior players are falling far short of the form they displayed last season and deserve dropping, but if I drop all of them we get results like this. I’m going to need to keep skipper Reddick in the middle of the park despite the fact that he offers nothing but the glue that enables the kids to play. Part of the issue is that some teams have learnt to bully my wee boys with lots of niggling fouls, so an old warhorse needs to charge around the pitch glowering at the dirty sods.

 

 

We closed out the month welcoming Kirkley & Pakefield, an ancient club from Lowestoft that been through more regenerations than Doctor Who. They also tried to kick us around the park but I’d anticipated that and as well as employing Reddick I had the lads buzz the ball around better and we thoroughly out-classed them. With the aid of George Allison finding his best form and nabbing a hat-trick we deservedly demolished The Royals 5-0. It’s just a shame the league gives us a break for a week as I feel we might have found a bit of form at last. So we’re 5th, seven points off the lead but still within eventual touching distance. My only concern now was that the legend that is Graeme Murty introduced himself to me after the game – turns out he’s managing in Scotland and was impressed by Allison.

 

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November 2020

 

The last result suggested that our home form was fine; it was our away form that was the concern. Nevertheless, I’d already invited those nice lads from Gravesend by the name of Punjab United to play a friendly at our place, which gave me a chance to take a look at integrating some fringe kids who would be called upon as the season progressed. I’m not sure I learned too much from the game but I hope the extra minutes and training over the week prepare us to get a better away result when we take the short trip along the border to the village of Long Melford. They were a force in the 1880s but not so much these days.

 

We lost our rather good Under 18s manager who took a level 10 managerial post, which means I was distracted over the week meeting with my chairwoman to go over candidates, none of whom were close to Tom Guiney’s technical coaching abilities. Nevertheless, by the end of the week we’d got someone in. That left me with a day to prepare for a milestone in my career, my 100th game as manager as took that ride to Long Melford. We finally put in a decent performance away from home to give me a 64% win record. Allison was poor (hopefully putting off Murty who was back for a second look) but his strike partner Lee Hart with a brace and Player of the Match skipper Reddick earned us a comfortable 3-1 victory.

Three home fixtures on the bounce were to follow. First up were neighbours of Long Melford, Hadleigh United. Before that a midweek tie saw our youths fail to qualify from the Under 18s cup group stage which was a bit of a shame but not really important; maybe they could concentrate on not finishing bottom of their league (where they currently sit) for a second year running. The Hadleigh game was extraordinary – Allison was back to form with a hat-trick but we drew 4-4 and dropped two precious points. The big guns of Great Yarmouth were next to visit. After the last performance we focused on defending during the week, yet we ended up with more dropped points, this time drawing 2-2. For the second match, a howler from Harding cost us. He’d have to take time out to reflect.

 

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5 minutes ago, coady said:

Not an ideal time to start leaking goals! I hope your new U18's manager has a good personality.

Balanced was the best I could do. We're not getting any consistency this season - that's par for the course with kids, but the adults are letting us down. All three are out of contract when the season ends so I may well have a squad with the most senior player aged 20/21. Trouble ahead!

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December 2020

News of Brexit arrangements broke – something about percentages and work permits – nothing that would directly affect us with our academy policy, but possibly indirectly would cause bigger clubs to gouge us for promising youngsters. At the same time, after repeatedly being knocked back in my requests to improve the quality of our training facilities and staff, the chairman did accede to further enhancing our youth recruitment. Would that merely play into the hands of the bigger clubs? We’d have to wait and see.

The last home tie in this sequence was against joint-top side Haverhill, seven points ahead of us. We’d opened our Premier Division account with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at their place, but giving Bozan his debut between the sticks proved a disastrous judgement as the whole defence felt unsure in front of him and we went down to a very disappointing 2-4 defeat, leaving us a distant ten points off the pace. An excursion up to Gorleston-on-Sea, by Great Yarmouth was next. We were sat on the same points but their form was worse than ours, so we felt we had a chance. We did. 4-0. Suddenly we’re imperious away as we falter at home.

Having some confidence restored, we felt we could get back on track in front of our own fans with the next game being against Walsham-le-Willows who were having a dreadful season. Rather than blood a couple of young turks, I put out our strongest available side; we were very poor at home yet again, running out undeserved 1-0 winners. We wound up 2020 on Boxing Day up at Norwich United. They'd beaten us at home but were on a very poor run. Langdale had done his ankle and would be out for Goodall; otherwise, I kept things pretty steady. Full of Christmas Pud, we were horribly out of sorts and got humiliated 0-3. Roll on the new year.

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January 2021

The year began with the chairwoman slapping a contract under my face.  The previous year she’d reneged on her promise to improve training facilities, so I figured a more modest request would be acceptable and enforceable, so I asked to upgrade the junior coaching quality; result – contract promptly ripped up. I’ll carry on regardless and assume she’ll be back later. Whilst she’s a bit chilly with me I felt I could at least ask her to fend off calls to take any of my players during the transfer window. At the same time, I took the squad to a children’s hospital for a New Year Community Outreach exercise – I don’t know if it was cause or correlation but that evening my Under 18s coach let me know he’d turned down an offer to leave the club. That was good news.

Our first match was at home to Newbury Forest. Norwich had just done the double over us; we didn’t want a repeat, so I urged a better performance. Selection for the match was quite tricky as some of the more determined lads in training were also rather sluggish post-Christmas festivities and with no friendly played in the FA Cup gap weekend. With an eight-point gap now between us and the side immediately above us in third, we couldn’t afford to lose any more ground. But we did. We lost 0-2 and were awful. We’re just creating any chances; tactics that were working well enough up to September were achieving nothing. It looked to me like the heavy weather was getting to these young limbs. The press was saying I’m under pressure. I should have signed that damned contract!

As there was no Under 18s fixture, I hastily arranged a friendly for our unused players to try out a tweaked tactic. The result was rather inconclusive, so I realized I’d need to employ it properly in the next league game as we galloped up to Newmarket. The main issue seems to be that whilst George Allison continues to be our star man, finding a strike partner who can put two consecutive performances together is proving elusive.

In fact, the second striker de jour proved ineffectual but a keeper howler and a penalty saw us Newmarket fall at the second fence, after which I just shut up shop to bag the 2-0. Actually, the boys played pretty well but I just craved the three crucial points to give me some respite as the next two games are against the top two sides in the division.

I sat down with Steve Cooke, our data analyst to go through our tactics. We noted that it was central midfield where we were most vulnerable. Stuart Reddick is still essential as our captain, encouraging our young charges, but he’s slowing up and letting too much pass him by. Alongside him, we don’t have an adequate enforcer – James Langdale is our most talented option but he’s recovering too slowly from his ankle injury. I had high hopes for Rob Goodall but he’s developing too slowly. Soon he’ll be too old for the Under 18s squad so he’ll either have to step up or be shifted out.

The wintery rain wiped out our clash with table-topping Whitton United, meaning a dreaded midweek tie would be scheduled but not for a couple of weeks when we’d meet after travelling back from the current top team, Aylesbury.  Looks like a rain cloud is going to end our promotion prospects yet again. The younger players would pile into the Under 18s Sunday friendly to try to get some form going. Three of them played their way into my next starting line-up. On a brighter note, Rob Bartley returned from a coaching course looking quite pleased with himself – hopefully it’ll rub off on his young charges who he’ll be delivering to me in about five weeks. In the meantime Whitton proved that midweek reschedules are not a problem for them as they slammed in seven at Newbury to retake the top of the table.

And so we progressed to the last day of January and our Sunday trip to in-form Aylesbury United. Losing there and to Whitton would surely put us out of the running for this season. We had at least had adequate time to prepare for the tie and our attitude was good – how about the quality? With Whitton remarkably stumbling at home to the bottom-placed side three days before meeting us, was there still a chance? Well just what I didn’t need was an incident just prior to boarding the coach when a deputation of five players led by Reddick approached me to complain that we were underachieving. Whatever I said clearly satisfied them. When I handed out the teamsheet on the bus four of them found themselves on the bench and a mental note was made not to renew three particular contracts. I don’t take disloyalty kindly.

The match itself was possibly the most remarkable I’ve ever witnessed in my (short) career. The defence and midfield paid no heed to my big words about knuckles and socks and gave away three soft goals. On the touchline, I was incandescent with rage. Four lads, however, were up for playing football. Goodall, on for the second half, Blackwell in for the treacherous Cascoe, Tierney, the new and now established second striker, and the irrepressible George Allison who took the game by the scruff of its neck and thumped in a club-record four goals. In the most undeserved scoreline in the history of football, we won 4-3.

 

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February 2021

A fresh back line started against Whitton United, and Goodall started in midfield. The rest were patched up and rested to be sent out with the understanding that no one would be blamed if they didn’t have the legs to hold out against the top team in the league.

The new Brexit work permit rules revealed were way beyond my ken, but I was curious to note how many Premier League stars had suddenly been granted British citizenship. Smells dead fishy to me. Nearer to home I thought it prudent after that shock win at Aylesbury to request that contract for another year. I don’t want to walk away from the club but I am determined to prune the negative elements. All I ask of Harding is to deliver me determined kids – never mind the quality, I don’t want quitters. Unfortunately, the deal demanded a 900 quid a month pay cut which I couldn’t possibly accept. This will do go down to the wire. I want to focus on rebuilding when the kids arrive but my job may rely on instant results instead.

4-0. Four bloody nil. In the two matches I’d written off we scored eight scores and bagged all six points. We are 5th but only four points off the top. Every player was magnificent too. What the feckity feck has happened here? The only substantial change I made was starting Rob Goodall in midfield. He can’t tackle and frankly has no quality about him, but he’s so aggressive and brave, when a player sees him charging towards him, he just freezes. Should call him ‘Rockall’ from now. I’ve also reorganized our training sessions to focus on living in the moment. We concentrate on the upcoming game only with no regard to general improvements whilst we’re still in the hunt for promotion.

It wouldn’t count for much if we didn’t win our third game in a week, at home to recently bottom-placed Sporting Bengal. They’d also just beaten Whitton and were putting a run together to stave off relegation, so we couldn’t be complacent. I wasn’t going to change anything I didn’t have to, so I gave the players who did me proud two full days of rest, work and study permitting. We were never going to reach previous heights, but two penalties saw us through with a 2-0 victory and with teams above us drawing, it put us a mere two points from the summit, which was all that mattered. The only current negative is that attendances are consistently 20% down since November. Perhaps a good run and warmer times will bring the fair-weather crowds back (providing their mummies allow them).

Diligent work on the training ground preceded the following weekend’s trip to Thetford Town. With the aid of another penalty converted by Breen we won 2-0 in our fifth consecutive victory amid off-field chaos to take us joint top just two goals behind the lead! A match-up with Ely, a point behind us after a storming run would be a severe test, however.

Aylesbury have just lost at home to Thetford, leaving the table ahead of our clash with Ely looking like this:

 

 

tabletop feb 2021.jpg

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We all agreed that sweethearts would be fobbed off with a bunch of roses this Valentine’s as love for the club superseded all else. The mood was different up at Ely City as the manager stormed out of a press conference, the pressure of the encounter clearly getting to him. Would that feed through to his players? As the fans streamed back, it turned out to be a right ding-dong battle between the two in-form teams in the division. Rockall’s terror-tactics and Allison’s hat-trick were decisive as we won 4-2 and hit the top of the table. I still feel we oughtn’t be there but I’m not surrendering it without a fight now.

Is the key to this turn-around the work on the training ground? Well yes and no. On the one hand, my changes combined with the efforts of the younger set are proving effective; on the other hand, Reddick and the old guard have completely ceased altogether, demonstrating an appalling example to the young boys. Fortunately, they look to me, Bartley and the coaching staff that nurture them day in day out for motivation. For all that, it is evident that we no longer have a decent attacking coach with our best staff moving onwards and upwards. We have to be deeply grateful to the consistent excellence of George Allison for covering up that lack.

             We finished a long February with a trip to Wroxham after two more hard-working preparation sessions on the training ground.     Our analyst had pointed out that they were hard to break down if light up top, so we worked on that. Could we see out the month with a 100% record, looking down on the rest of the league? Yes. Our analyst had it right – they only had one shot but defended doggedly and it took a single Allison goal to break them down for a 1-0.

 

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Just ahead of welcoming and assessing our new academy intake, let’s take a look at the kids who’ve broken through to establish themselves in our first –team squad this season.

Heinrich Joseph is now our first-choice centre-back, supplying the necessary pace that others lack. Josh Briggs is developing slowly but surely. Gary Tierney I mentioned as an important back-up pressing forward. Chris Crawford, a left-back is consistently our best performer on the training ground and is consistently awful in matches, but I’m giving him another year to come good. Spencer Lench is our back-up right back, and Matthew Fitzjohn is still raw as a left-winger but I have to shift out Clayton at the end of the season so Fitzjohn will need to step up. Finally, you can see for yourself that ‘Rockall’ looks hopeless on paper, but I’ve worked out that what he gives us is vital yet intangible.

 

Rob Goodall.jpg

Chris Crawford.jpg

Josh Briggs.jpg

Gary Tierney.jpg

Spencer Lench.jpg

matthew fitzjohn.jpg

heinrich joseph.jpg

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