The Bloods, sweat and tears of a Part time Manager

[Panpardus]

Setting : Taken on Droylsden who are a part-time in Conferance North nicknamed the Bloods

Ive Done a little research into the area, trying to get some information although some of it might not

be correct.

Database: I've changed the Database to fit with the Story, Dave Pace who is basically a legend as far as i can tell has taken on a challenge at Bournemouth in the English First Division, i've also made a Physio who is my wife and contracted her to Droylsden and also made a player who is my son. He has Decent stats and is definately better than those in the Conferenance North, but would struggle to be anything but a fringe player in the Perth Glory Team, in saying that he does have excellent potential and i might struggle to keep him in the side. I've also added another Physio into the database as my daughter, she's classified as unemployed with mediocre stats so ill see how that plays out, appart from that the Database is the same its a Large type with Australia, English, Italian, Spanish, German, and French leagues Selected, also all players for Australia and England have been loaded.

As far as me I've Selected myself as Australian Manager with English Nationalaties (Dual Citizen) just to help with pesky Work Permits I'm also a semi professional as it fits in best with the Story

Anyway here goes:

Chapter 1 -- The Proposition

It's Wednesday night around the 7 pm mark on the 31st of May 2006 which happens to be my Daughters 22nd Birthday, she's out the back with a couple of her friends having a few drinks and preparing to head out to the Burswood Casino which is just around the corner here in Perth Australia. I'll end up driving them there, but in the mean time i need to go over these Player Profiles. Im one of a few in charge of player of Development here at the WAIS (West Australian Institute of Sport) and we have the final squad try outs and week long camp starting on the 3rd of June we have 48 players coming and need to cut it down to 20 its a pretty intense time for these young under 17's, and a hectic one for the coaches and selection commitee.

So i'm sorting these players into groups of 3 basically 16 per group trying to keep it fairly equal Talent wise, alot harder than it looks, when the phone starts to ring, Nic (daughter) races in from the back to answer the phone, must be expecting a call.

" Dad, Daves on the phone for you " She yells out

" Coming " and i get out of my seat to get the call, Dave a fellow develepmont coach must be having a few problems aswell with sorting out the groups.

"Dave" I say "What's up ?"

"Not to much Matt, bit of this bit of that" the thick man with the English accent replies, which causes a moments shock.

"Pacey, Jeez i thought was Dave here from the Institute, you miss me that much pal, I've only been gone for two weeks[/i}"

((Besides from talking with a few clubs in England about our youngsters here in Australia, i always meet up with some old friends, one of them a guy called Dave Pace who is Chairman and Manager of a Non League club called Droylsden a team in the Conferance North League. I'd went and seen his team play in the final playoff game to get into the Conferance National, but they were beaten by Stafford 2-1 in the game so it was another year in the Non-League's for him. Around the beginning of July i'll back over with the players that get selected for Trials with the English clubs its usually a three week trip, while im there i always go down to Butcher's Arm Ground to do a bit of pre-season develepmont with his team, as they are Part-timers still, you need to maximise training so they get the most out of the training sessions that they do have. Basically i watch a few of their pre-season games and go to a few training sessions, i then give Dave some tips and help out with developing a training regime's to get the most out of them.))

"Well, I have a bit of dilemna on my hands" Pacey stated

"Oh"

"Yeah i've been offered a job as Manager for Bournemouth in the First Division and I've taken it, i owe it to myself to atleast give a higher Division ago"

a few moment of silence pass here i'm actually a bit shocked

"I dont know what to say Dave, I didn't think you would sell the Bloods, you've invested alot in them with time love and money, i hope your not going to lose to much with this deal" I paused for a second and wondered if its just the disappointment of not being promoted for the second year. "You know just cause you didn't get promoted" I started to say before he interupted me

"Matt, stop let me explain.... My love for the club hasn't changed at all, of course im disappointed by the result but life goes on. Bournemouth have approached me and are in tight spot and i think i can do the Job, I atleast want to give it a shot.... Now thats were you come in, I know your due over here in July, but im hoping you will make it a bit more Permanent"

"You want me to help with Bournemouth?" I asked

"Actually no i want you to Manage the Bloods for me, You know what the club means to me and i want someone who can show the same amount of passion, and i want them to do well, Promotion would be excellent, but more realistic would be playoffs again, I think your the man that can do it"

I was stunned, didnt know what to say at all, I've knocked back coaching jobs in England but id never seriously thought about Managing, sure ive got the paper qualifications, but i'd never actually contiplated it and thats what caught me by surprise.

"You there Matt.. Matt?"

"I'm not sure Dave, im tempted, but i have alot of responsabilities here, i have my Job at the WAIS to consider, Jo's Physio Centre is going real well at moment, not to mention a few other things"

"I realise this Matt" Dave stated "I don't expect you to sell up everything at the drop of a hat, try to get someone to manage the Centre, I've included Jo in the Package, we'll take her on as a Physio of the club and ill get her a location close by to do everything with no cost to her or yourself,... Look ill fax the offer over and later today my time and then you and Jo can work things out. Ill need an answer within a week though, Sooner would be better but I do realise its a big move, so ill give you that long... What do you say[/]?"

"Ok, ill talk to Jo about it when she gets home, we'll look over the offer and Ill get back to you Asap."

"Thats all i can ask" and with that we exchanged goodbyes and ended the conservation.

Jo got back a couple hours later and i told her what had transpired, I think she could see the excitement on my face, i didn't think i'd be this excited myself really after all its only a non league club, the coaching jobs i'd been offered before at higher profile clubs would probably be better, but the alure of Managing being the Man in charge was intoxicating, the more i thought about it the more it appealed. We decided to wait for the offer to come through, She wouldn't mind a change and with Nicole also being a Physio at the Centre and the other staff she felt she could leave it in good hands. My job at the WAIS would have to be sorted, aswell as the house, but we presumed Nicole and Zak would want to stay with their Ties here, but we'd talk to them about it when things are a bit clearer here.

[Panpardus]

Setting : Taken on Droylsden who are a part-time in Conferance North nicknamed the Bloods

Ive Done a little research into the area, trying to get some information although some of it might not

be correct.

Database: I've changed the Database to fit with the Story, Dave Pace who is basically a legend as far as i can tell has taken on a challenge at Bournemouth in the English First Division, i've also made a Physio who is my wife and contracted her to Droylsden and also made a player who is my son. He has Decent stats and is definately better than those in the Conferenance North, but would struggle to be anything but a fringe player in the Perth Glory Team, in saying that he does have excellent potential and i might struggle to keep him in the side. I've also added another Physio into the database as my daughter, she's classified as unemployed with mediocre stats so ill see how that plays out, appart from that the Database is the same its a Large type with Australia, English, Italian, Spanish, German, and French leagues Selected, also all players for Australia and England have been loaded.

As far as me I've Selected myself as Australian Manager with English Nationalaties (Dual Citizen) just to help with pesky Work Permits I'm also a semi professional as it fits in best with the Story

Anyway here goes:

Chapter 1 -- The Proposition

It's Wednesday night around the 7 pm mark on the 31st of May 2006 which happens to be my Daughters 22nd Birthday, she's out the back with a couple of her friends having a few drinks and preparing to head out to the Burswood Casino which is just around the corner here in Perth Australia. I'll end up driving them there, but in the mean time i need to go over these Player Profiles. Im one of a few in charge of player of Development here at the WAIS (West Australian Institute of Sport) and we have the final squad try outs and week long camp starting on the 3rd of June we have 48 players coming and need to cut it down to 20 its a pretty intense time for these young under 17's, and a hectic one for the coaches and selection commitee.

So i'm sorting these players into groups of 3 basically 16 per group trying to keep it fairly equal Talent wise, alot harder than it looks, when the phone starts to ring, Nic (daughter) races in from the back to answer the phone, must be expecting a call.

" Dad, Daves on the phone for you " She yells out

" Coming " and i get out of my seat to get the call, Dave a fellow develepmont coach must be having a few problems aswell with sorting out the groups.

"Dave" I say "What's up ?"

"Not to much Matt, bit of this bit of that" the thick man with the English accent replies, which causes a moments shock.

"Pacey, Jeez i thought was Dave here from the Institute, you miss me that much pal, I've only been gone for two weeks[/i}"

((Besides from talking with a few clubs in England about our youngsters here in Australia, i always meet up with some old friends, one of them a guy called Dave Pace who is Chairman and Manager of a Non League club called Droylsden a team in the Conferance North League. I'd went and seen his team play in the final playoff game to get into the Conferance National, but they were beaten by Stafford 2-1 in the game so it was another year in the Non-League's for him. Around the beginning of July i'll back over with the players that get selected for Trials with the English clubs its usually a three week trip, while im there i always go down to Butcher's Arm Ground to do a bit of pre-season develepmont with his team, as they are Part-timers still, you need to maximise training so they get the most out of the training sessions that they do have. Basically i watch a few of their pre-season games and go to a few training sessions, i then give Dave some tips and help out with developing a training regime's to get the most out of them.))

"Well, I have a bit of dilemna on my hands" Pacey stated

"Oh"

"Yeah i've been offered a job as Manager for Bournemouth in the First Division and I've taken it, i owe it to myself to atleast give a higher Division ago"

a few moment of silence pass here i'm actually a bit shocked

"I dont know what to say Dave, I didn't think you would sell the Bloods, you've invested alot in them with time love and money, i hope your not going to lose to much with this deal" I paused for a second and wondered if its just the disappointment of not being promoted for the second year. "You know just cause you didn't get promoted" I started to say before he interupted me

"Matt, stop let me explain.... My love for the club hasn't changed at all, of course im disappointed by the result but life goes on. Bournemouth have approached me and are in tight spot and i think i can do the Job, I atleast want to give it a shot.... Now thats were you come in, I know your due over here in July, but im hoping you will make it a bit more Permanent"

"You want me to help with Bournemouth?" I asked

"Actually no i want you to Manage the Bloods for me, You know what the club means to me and i want someone who can show the same amount of passion, and i want them to do well, Promotion would be excellent, but more realistic would be playoffs again, I think your the man that can do it"

I was stunned, didnt know what to say at all, I've knocked back coaching jobs in England but id never seriously thought about Managing, sure ive got the paper qualifications, but i'd never actually contiplated it and thats what caught me by surprise.

"You there Matt.. Matt?"

"I'm not sure Dave, im tempted, but i have alot of responsabilities here, i have my Job at the WAIS to consider, Jo's Physio Centre is going real well at moment, not to mention a few other things"

"I realise this Matt" Dave stated "I don't expect you to sell up everything at the drop of a hat, try to get someone to manage the Centre, I've included Jo in the Package, we'll take her on as a Physio of the club and ill get her a location close by to do everything with no cost to her or yourself,... Look ill fax the offer over and later today my time and then you and Jo can work things out. Ill need an answer within a week though, Sooner would be better but I do realise its a big move, so ill give you that long... What do you say[/]?"

"Ok, ill talk to Jo about it when she gets home, we'll look over the offer and Ill get back to you Asap."

"Thats all i can ask" and with that we exchanged goodbyes and ended the conservation.

Jo got back a couple hours later and i told her what had transpired, I think she could see the excitement on my face, i didn't think i'd be this excited myself really after all its only a non league club, the coaching jobs i'd been offered before at higher profile clubs would probably be better, but the alure of Managing being the Man in charge was intoxicating, the more i thought about it the more it appealed. We decided to wait for the offer to come through, She wouldn't mind a change and with Nicole also being a Physio at the Centre and the other staff she felt she could leave it in good hands. My job at the WAIS would have to be sorted, aswell as the house, but we presumed Nicole and Zak would want to stay with their Ties here, but we'd talk to them about it when things are a bit clearer here.

[Panpardus]

Chapter 2 -- The Contract

June 1st 2006

I Slept bad that night tossing and turning, i was hoping for a deal that i couldn't say no too or atleast a deal i could say yes too, and so i was up around the 6 am and felt like i had been up all night, strolling over i checked the fax, nope nothing there, next to check was the Email and there it was, it was only a proposal basically an outline of what he could offer. Quickly looking it over it definately wasn't a contract that i couldn't refuse, actually after seeing it i wasn't sure i could say yes but i'd talk it over with Jo and then later with Dave.

Going over the deal with Jo most things seemed ok, We would be provided Accomodation in a 3 Bedroom House in Droylsden for the Entire length of my contract, if the contract was terminated we would get 4 weeks notice on the property and Airfares would be provided back to Australia, we both would get a Car each to use at our disposal for the first year of my Contract. Jo would be provided a venue for her business and the equipment required, Dave was great like this if the club needed it he would get it, he's invested alot in the club without the handouts that the other local sides have got, it's a real credit to him and Droylsden.

The real stumbling block came in the wages

110 pound each per week Part time contracts, we couldnt live on that, there was other incentives and bonuses, and a percentage of the takings if a profit was taken, also he had procured a Personal sponsorship for me but the amount was undisclosed. Jo would also keep the profits from the business whatever they might be if they were over the cost of lease of venue and equipment etc etc, but all costs would be incured by the club if a profit was not established.

We talked it over and unless we got more details on what sort of weekly wage we would get with incentives etc we decided to not commit it was an excellent oppurtunity and maybe a great stepping stone, but still i wasnt prepared to throw away everything we had as a family.

We gave Dave a ring about 8 pm our time which happens to be around 8 am his time and went over the proposed controct in more detail, we were happy with most of the deal and he sounded relieved, he was aware of the big but coming and knew what it would be, he thought we'd be worried about the wages and them on their own he agreed wouldnt be enough, he gave us a figure of what would get roughly a week for both of us and although it was alot less than both of earn now it was probably worth a shot, the personal sponsorship for me would be enough to get us by.

I told Dave it looked like he had a deal but we would finalise a decision in the next day or two, it was time to talk the family. We talked it over with Nicole our Eldest and she was happy to stay here and help look after the business, both her and Zak would stay at the house and things would flow by normally, except we wouldn't be there. Zak was a little subdued about the move, and a bit disappointed i wouldnt be here to see him play, there wasnt much i could say except apologise, I told him your welcome to come play at the Bloods but he definately wouldnt get a contract of the same calibre as the Perth Offer he had, he laughed and no more was really said about it, Truth be told if he did come over, he would probably be the best player on the team bar none, from what i seen in the conferance final.

June the 2nd

So it was decided we rang Dave and accepted the Offer, he was rapt but very busy tying off loose ends, I had a training camp to go to, a resignation to hand in and had to organise a few other things with the AIS, Jo organised the Centre and basically everything was good and tied up our end or so we thought. Dave arranged the tickets for the 17th June.

June the 17th

Everything was sorted, feeling nervous about the big move, I've had 2 weeks now to think about it and the more i think about it the more daunting it is, I've left a great job here and Australia Football is really taking off and some of the talent coming through will hold us in good sted for the future, Our ripping win versus Japan in the Cup a couple days ago just underlines how much better we are now, Timmy Cahill was awesome in the fightback and to take the game 3-1 in the end was a just result, we play Brazil tomorrow looking forward to seeing how that will go.

We left that day around 3pm and arrived in Manchester around 9am their time about a 30 hour trip with a stop off in Singapore and London Im happy to get on to solid land even with the stop off's it was still extremely cramped, I think i'll definately be pushing for First class or atleast Business class next time.

[Panpardus]

Chapter 3 -- England the Beginning

June 18th

So we got through Customs and everything was sorted real quickly, got to love having dual Citizenship, Dave was their personally waiting to pick us which was a nice touch, he'd organised our house already which was a nice little 3 bedroom Terrace House on Gloucester Drive which he took us strait there to get settled and rest up a bit after the flight, he said he would swing by later and see how we were going.

Basically when we got there we threw our bags down in the hallway had a quick look about, it wasnt anything flashy but it was nice and homely, one of the bedrooms was converted into a nice office, gee thanks Dave now i can take my work home with me, he had warned me though even though its a part time contract my first few months would be real hectic and maybe after that things would settle down.

First things first, take a power nap, zip down local we passed get a few beers for the big Game tonight Aussie v Brazil.

Dave turned up close to 4 we had a quick chat, but he said he had to run informed us that one car was in the Garage and gave us the keys and also gave me a new mobile phone, apparently the other car would be available around the 2nd of July. I settled back that night and watched the game, we went down 2-0 looked a little flat after the great game against Japan, well it would all come down to Croatia game now in a couple days.

The next couple days went by without incident Dave came in and gave a tour of Droylsden, mainly for the Mrs (Jo's) benefit she'd only ever been over here once and that was 3 years ago, he showed her through her new workplace, it was all ready to go, later she told me its not the best equitment but would be fine, i think she was pleasantly surprised, she knew Droylsden had it hard. We went down to the Slaughter House (Butcher's Arms ground as some of the fans affectionally call it) had a look around and met the groundsman (Tony Durose) while we were there. The ground looked fairly good a nice covering of grass at moment, a bit dry and patchy in areas but wasnt to bad all. The players were still officially on Holiday and wasnt due to show up till the 26th, Aeon would be here for a meeting on the 24th he's been the assistant manager here since 2003 and has a part time contract till 2011 another man called Doug Smith would be joining us aswell on the 24th. Dave passed us our full contracts to look over, they would be signed officially on the 2nd of July which was a Saturday, he wanted all the fans to come and see the unveiling of the new manager officially, even though they would be told about it at the General Meeting scheduled the day before.

June the 24th

The 24th roled around another Saturday, the thing about a Part time club is that most people have stuff to do during the week to survive, so alot of things get scheduled for the weekend, The Aussies had a great draw a couple days earlier versus Croatia and know we would face Italy on the 26 the same day I got to meet the players in an un-Official Capacity as Manager.

As it turned out Doug Smith was an Investor and one of Dave's mates he would be the acting Chairman in Dave's Absence and basically all big Financial matters would be handled by him. Aeon was here i'd met him a few times before, he was a bit surprised Dave was going to name me the new Manager but was happy to serve still as an Assistant Manager. I said i'd offer him a mutual termination if he'd like, but he assured me he had no problem with my appointment to the position was just a bit shocked Dave was leaving but he was looking forward to the season. It was a short meeting us four went through general things like the player contracts, to the new staff who would all start at the same time as me.

Dave had hired a new scout a local by the name of Andy Davis and had given him a one year part time contract, he was to basically just scout the opposition had a good eye for fitness but not the best or most reliable scout out there but at a twenty per week plus a few minor expenses he was probably worth the cost. After a bit of discussion i got the green light to hire a new scout who would travel around the country to look for players who might be interested, he was only allowed to scout England though the club couldnt afford too many expenses. I asked Dave and Doug if he could do Wales as a joke just to see if i could slip a few other areas in, No was the unanimous reply, cause then you'll ask if he can travel to Scotland, and then it will oooo France its just through the tunnel what about there. heheh Dave knew me too well.

The new coach who would help both me and Aeon was a man named David Palmer he was 31 and kept a firm approach on the players, he was reasonably adaptable was good at getting to the Mental side of the players and had a decent tactical mind aswell, a relative unknown in the business by Pacey seemed happy with him and so i'd give him a shot.

The only other staff were Jo, Aeon and Myself, Jo would meet Aeon tomorrow when he came over to go through the squad list, we left the meeting there and organised a time to meet tomorrow that didnt interupt with then England - Ecuador game.

[Panpardus]

Chapter 4 --The Squad

[b} June 25th

Dave and Aeon turned up around lunch time at the house, after introducing Aeon and Jo and some idle conversation and we went through tp the study to go over the squad lists, i'd done a little revision on them the night before, basically going back over the information i already had researched we had 22 first team squad players one was a youth player though but he was included in the first squad, we had 2 keepers, 8 defenders, 6 midfielders and 6 strikers. Just by working on the numbers i could see we were real short on midfielders and heavy on the Forwards Lynch was our ownly Defensive Midfielder, Morris and Jagielka were able to play Central Roles then there Tandy a promising left sided attacking midfielder and Fitgerald a right sided attacking midfielder, and some young 16 y.o also who played out on the right, K williams.

I'd asked Aeon to get me a team report for some standard formations just to see the information he give me, i asked for strengths and weaknessses of the squad as a whole, and an estimate of the position we'd finish, Dave didnt want to bias any opinions so he was just going to oversee a few things and give general comments.

Aeon got a folder and gave me a couple reports, going through briefly all the players on the list

Paul Phillips was the obvious first choice in goal, Mark Westhead lacked the ability to even play at this level, he didnt have a iron clad contract and would be a person we should be thingking of get rid off, He'd go free no one would buy him, but we needed a back-up first.

3 possible right backs Carl Ruffer, Jimmy Williams and Neil Hall.

Carl was 31 Determined Centre Back excellent takling a good eye for a pass , can play down the right, but dont count on good delivery of crosses or movement, better as CB waste of time on the right

Jimmy was 23 a young determined right back average in most areas, decent crossing shows a bit of potential

Neil was 34 very similar in skill to Williams just older but wont get any better, Jimmy is a lot more determined and should get the nod ahead of Hall

2 possibles for left back Chris Adams and Danny Warner.

Chris 30 Great team player, works hard, good tackling and marking, fearless competitor

Danny 28 decent speed, good spread of passing crossing etc, can play in the left midfield aswell, valuable backup

4 Centre Backs Carl Ruffer, Gary Burke, Steve Halford and Chris Robinson

Ruffer 31 already discussed - alot better suited to the Centre role

Burke 33 slow great heading and good marking and tackling is way below par

Halford 25 Backbone of our defence, not the quickest but good alround and strong as an ox

Robinson 22 Average all round youngster, nothing outstanding, shows a bit of potential

Looking at the backs Phillips would sit in Goal have Adams out on the left, probably chuck young williams on the right and have Ruffer and Halford take Central roles with Robinson as a backup, Burke isn't getting any younger, but a good pre-season could bring him up to scratch, Warner is great cover for both left sided defence and wing.

Midfield

2 possibles on the left Jamie Tandy and Danny Warner

Tandy 21 a decent left sided player with potential needed to improve, but reasonable in all areas

Danny 28 great backup on the defence, but a possible starter on the left if Tandy doesnt cut it.

2 on the right Ian Fitzpatrick and Kevin Williams

Fitzpatrick 25 the only real option on the right average technical abilities and a bit lacking but he's better than Kev 16 young and very creative, decent speed just lacks the ability to pull of alot of things he tries

3 for the Centre Kevin Lynch, Gareth Morris and Steve Jagielka

This is our Strength along with our Attack

Lynch 31 good defensive Midfielder average allround ability fairly solid playing in front of the backs

Morris 31 Great allround player in this league, good finisher and general techincal abilities can get forward a score goal, a possible leader for the club

Jagielka 28 Same mould as Morris lacks a bit in the technical areas but is quicker and a definate dangerman, also a possible leader at the club.

Unsure really about midfield maybe play a Lynch just in front of the Defenders with Jags and Morris to head up the central midfielder, problem with this is we'll lack width maybe have Tandy on the left getting forward and lets Jags roam out to the right aswell.

Attack by far our strongpoint, we can score with these players and are always dangerous the pick of the crop is Fearns 28 great finisher, good composure and always knows where the goals are, fairly determined but his laziness can hinder his performances.

Banim 28 is balanced attacked fairly solid and reliable, always leads from the front.

Daly 24 Young Determined and talented, needs to work on a few things but maybe just ahead of Banim.

Denham 23 Good linkman has flair and is creative, and always manages to get in good positions, just has trouble finishing off, and is a bit slow, maybe turn into a midfielder would be a valuable asset to have there.

Rapley 28 Determined alround ability nothing flashy workmanlike, good backup

Talbot 26 Sound, allround type very determined also good back-up

So there it was the squad i had to work with and reading through the list we strikers in abundance, could maybe have a three pronged attack with Fearns, Banim and Daly or maybe work in Denham as a link man

Basically my thoughts from talking with Aeon and Dave, what they were telling me were looking at 4 in the back, the defence was often suspect last year so sitting a defensive midflieder in front of them might be a good idea, unless we can recruit someone better defenceman. The right side is weak and a potential problem with young Williams and Fitzgerald there, so maybe playing three Central midfielders with them making runs to wings. then either having two Forwards or maybe 3 if we only play two in central midfield.

I'd need to do some trials to get an idea for myself, I'd worked with decent talent for the last 8 odd years but prone to mistakes as all young players are, but playing with an older group would take getting used to and its hard to change fundamental things in a players game when theyre older and more set in thier ways i'd be better off setting up something that they can play to already. So first order of business would be to get some competative action going in training just to see what i had for sure but from these preliminaries talks were definately need strengthening in the midfield and defence, any sort of injury there would leave us very exposed.

Settling back into my seat i pondered a few questions

"Aeon, with the squad we have where do you think we'll end up?"

Rubbing his chin Aeon replied "Honestly i think 8th to 12th, with a good run we could push for a playoff spot but we need alot of things going our way, any injuries and were screwed really the backup isnt that great, except in attack where you could rotate them easily

"Hmmmm, well from what i understand this wont be an acceptable result for the year" Dave nodded his head in agreement to my statement "So basically we need backup in the midfield for starters, and maybe a right sided midfielder.... Also we need another good centre back to put some pressure on those there and a starting right back cause you dont think Jimmy or Neil or Carl could hold the position comfortably,... Correct so far?" I asked Aeon

"Well Carl could play right back and probably hold it down ok, but you wont see to much drive, if he plays right your going to need a more talented right sided player, I dont think Ian or Kevin could provide what we need for 90 minutes. We need a backup Centre Midfielder incase of injury, or would can sign someone mid season if we get in trouble."

"Aslong as they're free and fit under the wage bill" Dave joked, but i knew he was serious.

"A good centre back would come in handy, but dont forget getting a new keeper, Philo is great as this level but does drop a few a make a couple errors, but if you think thats bad your not gonna like Mark at all

It was then the phone rang and my first stroke of luck came, It was Zak, he'd turned down the offer and was wondering if he could come over to England to try his luck here, he said needed a change and thought it might be fun to play over in England for a bit, I really dont know his reasons but i didnt ask, why would a 17 year old kid need a change?, especially when coming here could ruin his career or atleast set it back, a couple years in the A-League could set him up for a decent career. I told him i'd ring him back later on that night.

Dave could see me grinning, i was happy he could play here with me and he would be a huge boost to the team a real promising midfielder who could play centre or left and move into more attacking positions, he was fleet of foot, his passing was solid, he hits a ferocious ball, only set back though was that he was a bit of smart arse though, although he does get the crowd going, and his movement of the ball would be good at this level. He could be the difference.

I told Dave, he was obviously rapt he'd seen him play, "[i}I'll have the papers drawn asap and get the airfares organised[/i]" , My first signing for the club was my son a possible Australian Player of the future (well hoping so anyway).

Aeon didnt know much about Zak, so i gave him a few of the games that we'd taped to look over as he left

We concluded business for the day, I was happy that we solved a possible midfield problem and I would manage my son in his first professional contract, a bit unhappy that Zak hadn't signed for Perth a higher profile club but things work out in Mysterious ways.

I told Jo the news, she was happy her baby was coming over, she didnt really care that he was not joining Perth, truth be told she's a big AFL fan and was a bit disappointed that he'd chosen football over Aussie rules, but all the same she was real proud of his efforts.

I rang back Zak and told him everything was organised i'd ring him later on when the ticket details were through, and Dave was already getting the papers drawn up.

"[i}But dad[/i]" he said "I only want the tickets to come over so i can trial for some of the bigger clubs"

My mouth droped, went all dry, and i swear i near had a heart attack there and then, i'd never thought about the possibility of him not playing with the Bloods, going over our previous conversation quickly in my mind he never actually said he wanted to play for us either, just come over to England and try his luck

He burst out laughing on the other end of the phone "Im joking dad, i'd be happy to come and play at Droylsden"

I felt a Homer Simpson moment coming, if he was here i would of wraped my hands around his neck

"Why you f***cking little s**t, I near had a f***cking heart attack"

He was still laughing on the end of the phone a mumbled something about giving him a ring with the details.

Just for that i'd make sure he got a little bit less in his contract, that will teach him.

[Panpardus]

Chapter 5 -- Meeting the Players and Fans

June 26th, Monday

The big day arrived where i'd finally meet the players and few of the more hardcore fans, a players meeting would start around 4 and we'd go over a schedule, a few general things and Dave would drop the bombshell, i was a bit toey, all the staff would be there aswell.

The players turned up by 4, Dave sat them down and told them the news, a few were shocked, others had heard varying rumours but there's always rumours around a small club like this especially concerning Dave. A couple openly questioned the future of the club, was he pulling out, Dave quelled the unrest quickly stating that he was not pulling out of the club and he would still be owner and the money wouldn't be a problem. He introduced them to Doug who would be the acting Chairman in his absence and then he introduced me to them, I'd already met a few of them before on previous trips. But two to three weeks stints at a club dont mean too much.

I tryed to start out confident you dont want players thinking you lack confidence, especially the younger types, so I told them a bit about my background.

"My career has a bit of a funny start to it really, I began in Australia playing Juniors made a few representative sides and was considered a good talent, I was picked up pretty quickly to a Scottish Team when i was 16 thanks to my Dad, he was a good scout back in his day, and I thought i was pretty good back then aswell, especially to get noticed by Scottish Team, but as i later found out, good ol dad had got me out of the country through his own pocket and a mate of his took me on at their club as a personal favour to him as the father of a girl i was seeing told my dad he was going to break my kneecaps for knocking up his daughter, something i was quite unaware of at the time."

This brought some laughter from the players, the talk was starting well.

'Anyway i played there for a few years and got noticed by a English Team who wanted to sign me they were second Division at the time or Championship as it's called now, negociations went well and i signed for them at the around the start of the season. Over the break I traveled back to Australia and thats when i found out about my young daughter Nicole, anyway to cut a long story short they both flew back to England with me, her father hadn't forgot me and wanted to keep the promise he made to me father, luckily he didnt, and the girl in question is now my wife and your new Physio."

Scanning across the room the players still seem interested so i went on to a bit of my playing days in England

"I played at Swindon from 87 through to 96 amassed just over a 100 games, before I had an injury that pretty much ended my career, one of the highlights for me and probably the club was the 92/93 season, the same year the Premier League was formed actually, we won promotion to it through the playoffs, at the time I was attracting a fair bit of attention aswell from a few top flight clubs, When preseason started for the 93/94 I was eager to try my skill in the top level unfortunately i blew out my left knee and never played again that season, the season after i came back midway through but i after a year and half out i wasn't anywhere near the standard i use to be, i went out on loan to a few Lower league clubs and was half decent, but nothing spectacular. Swindon and I decided to part ways then in May, they were rebuilding and had a solid side and i didnt really fit in with their plans anymore."

From there i had a few offers in the Lower Leagues to come down as a player/assistant manager everyone was a bit wary though as knee injury's back then weren't as easy to fix, but i knew it was time for me to come home, I had a young family, Nicole was 11 i think and Zak was 7, and Australia felt like the right place to be. I took an player/Assistant Job at a local club until a minor re-accurance of my old injury forced me to quit in my second year, I finished my assistant's job that year and took a Job at WAIS where i've been ever since, developing young Talent, I also work for the AIS as a Laison to some clubs over here when our Youngsters come on trial and work experience, I've had quite a few coaching jobs offered to me over the years but this will be my first Managerial Position and i want it to be a successful one."

A few cheers and nods of acknowledgement at my last statement, So far so good, now to goals

My goals for the club is to turn you guys into a more professional unit, I am going to be giving a few of you an offer of a full time contract depending on training and the friendlies, I've already acquired a new player he would be joining the squad in early July, he's young Australian Midfielder with considerable talent he will be getting a full time contract. I'm also chasing down a few extra signings to make the fighting for positions on the pitch more competative, no ones position will be safe.. I have also been in contact with a few specialist coaches aswell and am looking to expand our Staff so Training will be more beneficial. I want to get promoted this year as im sure all you do aswell."

Again i noticed a few nods in the crowd

I also went on to speak about the player interviews that would be taking place from Tomorrow as i wanted to speak to each player individually, they'd take no longer than half hour but i wanted them over before pre-season training started on Thursday night. I gave an outline of what pre-season training would consist of to the collective groan of the players, pre-season was going to be Hard and anyone that didnt give their all would not play in the first friendlies, we have an intraclub game organised for the 7th to see where were at, and then 5 friendlies starting with Burton on the 12th.

"Any questions?" I asked scanning the room

Jags poped up (Jagielka) and yelled out "Yeah can we grab a beer now"

"[i}oh thats right, I knew i forgot something, thanks Steven for reminding me, were going to be a more professional unit this year there will be no drinking alcohol during the pre-season or the season proper[/i]."

Well you should of heard the outcry, like effing hell was the general consensus, when i started laughing they settled down and realised i was Joking, i've never seen so many relieved faces in my life.

"First shouts on Dave, we all know he can afford it" as I made my way for the bar.

About 7pm a fair amount of supporters arrived, Dave made the announcement, and generalities were explained, they took it pretty well over a few pints, they were told to turn up at the Meeting planned for the 31st where all the details would be explained, I mingled through the crowd and seemed to get a pretty good vibe, met a few of the Supporters Club people aswell, these guys are the heart and soul behind the club, Steve who does the programmes seemed great, a lady called Helen who does the website design and maintenance for the supporters, Carl Flaherty was there aswell, he goes to all the games and takes the photographs and then makes them accessible through the web. Overall had a great time and meeting everyone makes it all the more real.

Left around 10 pm and was glad to get home a bit tipsy but nothing too bad.

27th through to the 29th flew by, i was studying the transfer and free markets pretty Hard and I had the list that Dave gave me a couple on there looked promising, and i pulled a few strings to get some basic scout reports done, they'd hopefully be in before the next month, but i was to be informed if any players were being moved for.

The Local press caught wind and wanted an Interview but i told them that it was to be official on the 2nd so they'd have to wait till then, I didnt need any distractions. The player interviews went well, no problems, answered a few questions here and there but generally the players all seem a good bunch.

Part time contract...Bah ive been working more than a fulltime job since i got here, especially these last couple days, and im not even officially a manager yet.

[Panpardus]

Anyone have any thoughts, just trying to provide a bit of background information, Its pretty long winded so far and my style of writing changes Day to Day.

The matches will start soon, im interested what everyone would like to see, concentrate on the matches or more behind the scenes or a bit of both, or alot of both.

Any sort of feedback is appreciated

[Panpardus]

Chapter 5.5 -- The big game

Very late on the 26th or very early on the 27th

The Big Game

Still monday the 26th

So i get home and realise i've missed the big Aussie game versus Italy, can't believe that slipped my mind, flick through all the sports channels and thankfully there's a replay on soon, so i grab a quick bite and grab a beer from the fridge, Jo heads off to bed and I settle back and enjoy the show...well maybe not.

It's a gripping game, ive knocked back a few more beers than i should of, but we look the better team overall in the first half although Italy have had the better of the clear cut chances but its all square at the end of the first half and things look promising

5 minutes after the restart Materazzi sent off, ooo this is good, knock back another beer, were pressing pressing pressing all through the half but just cant get the goal, Buffon playing out of his butt and Italy doing what the do best, Its nerve racking sitting here just guzzling the beers. It's getting up towards the end of 90 now and Aloisi has been on for about 10 now and were still pressing for the elusive goal, Gus will probably ring a few changes at the start of extra time.

Here they come at us, christ ref just blow the whistle im thinking, Lucas slides oh god dont slide, Grosso dives, hehe the ref won't fall for that.

"What.... What the f***... oh your f***ing kidding me, oh this is just f***king bulls**t, you refs have shafted us all the way through this tournament and you give that you f***ing piece of s**t diving twat a penalty oh where is the justice" I scream at the TV, throwing a few more choice comments aswell to follow.

Jo must of heard me going off and runs into the room asking whats going on.

"Oh not much were being bent over and copping it from the refs again" I say just as Totti cooly slot it the penalty home

"*****, oh this is just f***ed" I mutter then the ref blows for fulltime, im so disgusted at that and without thinking i pick one of the empty beer bottles or so i thought, it still had a bit left in it and heave it at the tv. *Smash* oh s**t im thinking great now i have to clean that up.

The bottle has exploded, for such a little amount of beer it seems to have gone everywhere, I get up from my seat to investigate, and stagger a bit, hmmm i am a bit drunk, looking down there's more than a few empties littering the floor next to my seat. Getting over to the TV i see it's got a nice healthy coating of beer, and damn it a small chip in the screen aswell, thats gonna cost me. I bend down to the power point and before i can turn it off all hell breaks loose inside the TV, there's arcing and strange noises coming from it, I hear a bit of bang, then woooooof i hear, The inside of the TV is on fire, could this get anyworse.... yep there goes the lights, Circuit breaker is down. "Oh this keeps getting better and better" I rant, Jo heads off to switch the power back on, I reach down to unplug the TV there's a decent glow coming from inside the TV now, but the putrid smell coming from it is worse, I move out of the way and step on a bit of glass that instantly sends shockwaves through my foot, Now i was going to town with the swearing and cursing, its near pitch black, ive got blood p*ssing out of my foot, probably glass still in it, so i decide to limp across the floor to get to the bathroom so i can look at this cut in my foot, i get to the doorway when the lights come back on , i have a quick glance back, the glow from the TV has faded out, but the smoke is still wofting out from the back of it, theres a broken bottle on the ground in front of the Tv and now's there trail of blood leading to the doorway where im standing, I look down at my foot, the cuts not to bad its deep but there doesn't appear to be any glass stuck in it from what i can see, its just bleeding alot.

"Jesus Christ, Matt was all this necessary over a game on telly, look at the blood on the floor that wont come out. Seriously I hope to dear god that you dont loose a game in the season, if your gonna act like that " with a slight pause and a pleeding sort of look at me she started again "Well lost for words are we?"

One thing sprang to mind, I probably shouldn't of said it, I knew she wouldn't see the funny side of it

"Well, we better not have any bloody Italians in the squad or they'll be out on the arse before training starts on Thursday"

As i guessed she definately didn't see the funny side to the comment

She walked off in a huff and went and got me a towel so i didnt wreck any more of the carpet, I managed to get to the bathroom and Jo fixed up my foot, in which she wasn't particularly gentle, there wasn't any glass in it as far as she could tell. She left the same way she came in and went and cleaned the Loungeroom, I hobbled up stairs and got ready for bed.

Jo came in about half and hour later, I gave her my best druken smile, with which she returned another look of disgust and start shaking her head at me, I rolled over and turned off the lamp and tried to get some sleep, there was a snowballs chance in hell i'd be getting any tonight.

[Rarebit Nutter]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Panpardus:

Anyone have any thoughts, just trying to provide a bit of background information, Its pretty long winded so far and my style of writing changes Day to Day.

The matches will start soon, im interested what everyone would like to see, concentrate on the matches or more behind the scenes or a bit of both, or alot of both.

Any sort of feedback is appreciated </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My advice, write for yourself and don't worry what other people think. As long as your writing style is comfortable for you keep with it. Although don't flit between 1st and 3rd person (not that you are). Try and have good grammar ie. capital letters in the right place etc, makes it better to read. Finally don't ask for people to comment, they will comment when and if they feel it is needed/deserved.

Keep going

[Panpardus]

Chapter 6 -- Pre Season Training

29th June Thursday to 2nd July Sunday

Extremely busy through this period of time Names coming from everywhere, people to see places to go and of course our infamous first training run, run being the key word. Everyone turned up full of spirit and eager to please, everyone left completely knackered with a few leaving the contents of their stomachs in varying places around the ground, it was a hard running night designed to test endurance, speed, agility, acceleration and get an overall fitness level.

On the Transfer front things were looking promising, Zak was due in on the 4th, preliminary talks with Ashley Fickling had gone well and we was hoping he would sign he wasn't a big imposing centreback but he had the skills and looked the part. Durham had given us permision to approach player/coach Richard Ord, no price has been arranged with them and none would be if he didnt come free he wouldnt come at all. Jason Kearton an ex Aussie keeper seemed interested in taking a part time role as our goalkeeping coach if he could feasably fit it in with his Business commitments. Aeon Little told me that Dean Blackwell the ex Wimbledon champ was looking for some work aswell, we jumped at the chance to get him to the club and offered him a contract strait away. A couple other players were being looked at mainly defenders and a midfielder, but we were struggling to find anyone decent that could play down the right either in midfield or defence that we thought would want to come to the club.

The General meeting went smooth, Dave spoke his piece, wished the club well, it was a boring night full of mumbo jumbo that i didnt need to here, by this time Kearton had all but signed, Blackwell looked promising aswell. A few scout reports that i pulled strings for come back as a waste of time, which was disappointing, and finding someone to play on the right was still eluding us. Training was going well the players settling into a groove and there wasnt too many stomach contents being left around the pitch now.

The 2nd of July rolls in, it's a big day down at the Butchers arms, a decent fanbase has turned up, all the players are on hand, the local press is there aswell. I sign my contract infront of the masses a few photo's are taken and i give my first interview to a local from the Tameside Advertiser. All the questions you expect whats your plans, where do you think you'll finish, how am i finding coming back to England, etc etc. A few questions about having the wife aswell that i didnt expect but were easy enough to answer, I also told them that my son was due get here around the 4th so then they're be 3 of us here. A few more brief questions ensued.

After the interview Doug approaches me and reminds me about the meeting when all this is finished, the event winds down late in the afternoon and people start to leave, and Doug and myself head into his office to go over a few things.

The meeting goes well but he's concerned about the amount of coaches ive approached, i explain theyre all essential to the success of the club, he's a bit wary of having more than one coach, if Ord, Keaton and Blackwell all sign that will be 4 with Aeon as Assistant and me Managing thats 6 coaches, things are looking up if we can get these people to the club i tell him. The squad list gets mentioned and i tell him that there's maybe 3-5 that are possible to get rid off, but i'd like to see them in action in the Intra club before i make any firm decisions, he seemed a bit shocked that I had so many earmarked. We discussed getting a parent club, it would provide an injection of funds and the possibilities of getting some quality loanees. I had to agree and he said he'd look into it and get back to me, I recommended trying to get a championship club as I think getting anyone from the premiership to play here at a part time club will be nigh on impossible. We go over finances which all seem good at moment, the wage budget is still under and even if with the signing of Zak and Fickling if he accepts we'll still more than enough to sign the coaches aswell.

A knock at the door stoped the meeting and Doug introduced me to Dave Colley, a local scout with some talent at unearthing good youngsters, talking with him I was very impressed and told him what i was looking for player wise, he seemed to think he could get something along the lines of what i wanted, He was offered a contract on the spot and said he'd get back to us in the next couple of days.

[Panpardus]

Chapter 6 continued -- Intraclub match

Monday 3rd July to Wednesday the 12th

It was great to get through Yesterday with the signing and interview but now I was officially the Manager and I must admit it felt great to sit at my desk at home and think about it, but work needed to be done, checking the emails of which there were a several, a couple disappointing and couple great ones aswell. Scanning through the scout reports that came back were fairly negative one even suggested it might be better to play with 10 men instead of signing the player in question, brought a chuckle but disappointment aswell, Dave sent one wishing me all the best now its all official and threatened unpleasent things if i wrecked his team. Nothing of note on the transfer market, no one wanted to come here on loan, not even a few of the aussies that i'd been in contact with. Kearton sent one that he'd be in sometime today to sign the contract that was a huge bonus, Also Durham had accepted an offer of zip for Ord and we were free to discuss contracts.

I ring up Doug who's down at the club going over a few things, and tell him Kearton will be sometime today to sign a contract, and that Durham have accepted and were free to discuss terms, he tells me i better come down the club as there's a message waiting for me on the answering machine down here.

Jumping in the car i zip down the club and exchange some idle chat with Doug before he plays the message for me

'Listen ere you convict, we sent your kind down there for a reason, we don't want you over ere, get it

your destined to repeat your predecessors achievements of not getting promoted anyway so why bother, your team's crap your crap, we're the best side here in Tameside, so just go p*ss off home where ya belong' *beeep*

I couldn't help but laugh, Doug casually explains that Dave use to get similar messages about the team, it's someone from Altrincham they hate us with a passion even though were apparantly not even worthy as rivals, if it's not leaving messages here they plaster crap on the message boards of the supporters club website. Just thought i'd let you here the first one before it gets deleted.

The days flow by reasonably smoothly Zak arrived on the 4th, both Dave Colley and Dean Blackwell sign up that day aswell, I send Colley out strait away to find me a right back, Training is going great you can see the sessions are getting easier for them even with just the few running sessions we've had, David Palmer had a run in with Jody in one session, and know its Fearnsy who isnt too happy. This isnt the harmony i wanted to see.

Thursday night training there's a huge blowout between half the squad and Palmer apparantly they dont appreciate they way he talks to them, later on that night a few of the players talk to me privately about Palmer.

The day of the first hit out, its only a intraclub match, but i've got in a professional ref and we'll treat it as a fair dinkum hit out, just without any bone shattering tactics. Have a quick talk to Doug about David Palmer and we both decide he's got to go, Doug offers him a round 1K for his troubles and the decision is a mutually terminated contract, Wow he didnt even get through a week.

Intraclub game

Me and Aeon have split the main squad into reasonably equal teams going through the tactics Im gonna play a standard 4 at the back sit a midfielder infront of the defence, 3 central midfielders but with the outsiders making runs to the wings and i'll just play the 2 upfront. Aeon just goes with the Standard 442 so we can see how it plays.

Game kicks off at 7.30 its a nice night, but the crowd is way lower than i hoped.

Both sides get into some good flowing moves with a great chance for us around the 6th minute Lynchy smashes a through ball through the midfield and into the penalty zone for Zak to run onto, Rutter just manages to get there in time to clear, otherwise Zak would of had a chance against Westhead to open the scoring, except Westheads sitting on the bench and Aeon has the local youth keeper in. I'll have to have a word to him about this.

About 15 minutes into the game i see something that amazes me at this level Lynchy once again threads the needle this time he's found Jags sitting just outside the zone, Jags controls it beautifully, pushes it out to his right and drives one home into the top right. I can't help but be impressed his training and general attitude will get him the first full time contract offer of the existing players.

Aeon's side get a few chances and move the ball around well as they try for a equaliser, but Lynchy is playing well infront of the defenders and they're not getting any real good opportunities. Tandy's made a few runs, but been very quiet and his crosses haven't hit the target. Fitzy on the right is much the same. Morris is working hard with the strikers but our defence is holding it together.

At the end of 45 were still 1-0 up with the majority of possession, Lynchy is dominating for us and Zak and Jags are also reaking havoc through the midfield, Daly and Banim are doing just enough up front but dont look as dangerous as the midfield which is a bit disappointing. The defence has been solid aswell Halford playing well and Adams has cut out Fitzy all together.

Aeon's side is struggling to cope with Lynchy, mainly because Tandy and Fitzy aren't doing enough on the wings, Fearnsy and Rapley are getting fed well by Morris but cant get into decent positions. Atleast theyre working and moving around which is pleasing.

The second half starts and i've convinced Aeon to give Westhead a go a few chances here and there but basically not much action from both teams, a few changes were made giving some time to the youth team but the second half wasn't much of spectacle my team ran out 1-0 winners, a few promising signs was Zak roaming around the midfield making some great runs down the left, Jags was great, for Aeons side Morris was solid all day and Fearns tried hard aswell, but the Man of Match and 20 pound bar tab went to Lynchy for a great performance. A few disappointments was Tandy on the left who never got going on Fitzy on the who was kept quiet by a good performance for Adams.

All in all not to bad of a hitout and know i have a few things to work on for the first friendly.

Saturday 8th to Tuesday 11th

Training is good through the period, Fickling signs for us, we recruit Steve Thornber to take over Palmer's coaching position, Richard Ord also signs and his Tactical knowledge has been great for us and the transition from changing formation has gone over alot smoother, we've changed from the previous 442 to a 4132 with 3 central midfielders. Still struggling to find a noteworthy rightback but Colley says he's got a few he's watching and will get back me to soon. Also looking for a keeper but will try to get a decent loanee, although no one is willing to come down at the moment.

[Panpardus]

The Friendlies

Wednesday the 12th July

Our first proper friendly match against Burton is due to start within the hour Cloughy's mob are here and getting ready and strangely enough I am more eager to see how my side plays than i am nervous, with some solid training behind us we look alot better and with the fitness increase im hoping we can maintain the high tempo closing down game that i want us too especially against a Conference National side. The team needs time to gel together better but im sure with practice it will come.

Phillips gets the nod in goal and Fickling gets his first run after signing on the right, Adams takes up the left fullback spot, Halford and Ord sit in the Centre of Defence with Lynchy just infront of them. Jags, Morris and Zak get the nod for the Centre Midfield roles, Jags on the right making the occasional run, Morris controlling the Middle and Zak making runs through the left. Daly slot in at a centreforward role with Fearns playing just outside him on the right, I think Zak can exploit the left wing so i want to create some room for him by trying to leave the left side open and shuffling the forwards to the right.

The game starts and it doesn't take long for our first chance, two minutes in Adams throws in to Zak just over the halfway line, Zak turns hits a nice ball through the middle into the corridor for Lynchy, who hits a great high pass for Daly to run down in the Penalty box, Daly gathers, sidesteps a defender but gets squeezed up on the byline, Fearns gets open, but Daly goes for the impossible shot, it clatters against the crossbar and keeps going and its cleared to safety. Nice passing is great to see so early.

We settle well after this and look confortable on the ball, good passing and we definately look the better team, sometimes though its not the better team that scores and on the 25th minute we were exposed to a bad bit of marking, Ordy gives away a free around centrfield halfway from the kickoff and Penalty Box, they pass it off to an unmarked man down the right who's given free reign and not effectively challenged, from the byline he hits a long cross to Thomas who's made a run from the left wing to be just inside the area a near level to the far post, not a defender anywhere he close, he has a nice first touch and time to settle, Phillips comes out to Narrow the Angle, but he's easily beaten as Thomas places it in the back of the net from 10 yards. Great move by them, but im real disappointed by our lack of marking, and clossing down of the crosser.

Our confidence doesnt seem to dented after the goal we outplay them for the rest of the half creating some good chances, Daly slams a header in the back of the net just before the break from a superb 40 yard pinpoint pass from Zak on the left, but its judged offside, so we go in to the break 1 down but in control.

Walking in to the changerooms for the halftime break We had played some great football i just wish there was more than the 150 odd fans to watch, Im not to fussed by the scoreline i want us to keep playing the way we are, if we lose playing this way ill be happy, but if they keep playing this way I fairly certain we wont get worse than a draw, I explain this to the team and tell them to relax and just let it flow.

We come out from the break and were starting the way we finished, pushing them everywhere going for the goal Zak almost scores from a corner after 5 minutes but it goes just wide, 5 minutes later were equal a nice run and pass to Morris from Zak, Morris just on the edge of the box slots one to Fearns on the 6 right of the six yard box, steadies and drills it home, a small deflection but the keeper had no chance. 1 all

I ring a few changes on the hour and soon after Fearns gets another from a similar spot, this time from a nice Tandy assist after good build up from Morris. 2 - 1 up with 25 to play.

Our defence has been awesome and we've limited them to next to no chances except the first half goal. Flicking in his first game for the club playing on the right has let nothing get through and he comes off for a well deserved rest, Lynchy is letting nothing come through the Centre either and Adams on the left is solid as a rock. We finish out the game in complete control, they've had a total of 4 shots and one on target, to our Dozen or so, we've had more of the ball which is pleasing aswell, its a good performance alround from the lads. Fearnsy picks up the M.O.M and gets the barcard, with Flicking a bit unlucky. Cloughy though the Burton manager was clearly not happy with his team, he didn't hold back in the changerooms afterwards.

[Panpardus]

Thursday the 13th -- Saturday the 22nd

Doug gives me some bad news he can't find anyone that wants associate with us as a Parent club which isn't helpful so now i've got to redouble my efforts on the transfer scene , Dave Colley or Coles as i call him tracked down an a keeper who we offered a trial to and now he's looking at a player who cover any position at the back and not bad cover for the Midfield aswell, he's pretty sure he'll be a great signing just waiting on a few things.

The second friendly against Bristol City is up next, A div 2 side this time, it will be interesting to see how we measure up.

Bristol City at Home Sunday 16th

Fortunately a few more people turn up to the game and by all accounts we break the 200 mark, its another great day around the 22C and we have an unchanged starting lineup, just made a few changes to the subs bringing in G.Burke(Burky) and Neil Hall for their first runs, appart from that its all the same.

The first 25 minutes im sure is played in our own third, Bristol is peperring our goals but luckily enough were keeping a decent enough line and form that they havent had any good chances, what we did to Burton last game is being done to us now. Half time comes and we've managed to push em out of our third, but we haven't managed a single shot either on or off target. They're also dominating possession. Zak playing ok down the left just trying to do a bit much.

Make a few changes at the half try to go more counter attacking role, They're still dominate possession but we aren't letting them get a decent chance, everything's long range, it all changes in the 55th Minute as Ord gets caught with the ball by Lambert who strolls into goal with no one but the keeper to beat, he makes it 1-0 and thats they way it stayed, we were completely outclassed and never looked capable of scoring, we didnt even manage a shot on goal which my also be from our poor passing, which i wasn't happy with at all, Disappointing to say the least, but the upside is the defence is looking great at the moment. Paul Philips or Philo picks up the barcard for some good stops but truth be told it was a good alround effort from the Philo the back 4 and Lynchy.

After the disappointment of the game Coles gave me the all clear on Monday on Jon Rattlesturr looked like a good investment, he was promptly offered a contract a man that can cover so many spots is always a handy acquisition. A couple reports from Loanee Keepers were also available and there all young and looking for first team experience, Sam Ashton from Bolton was the stand out, so we approached Bolton for a season long loan, and made an approach at Crewe for a Welsh Keeper called Owain Fon Williams for the same period, we didnt hold out breathe, but was hoping we'd get young Williams. Both offers were accepted by the clubs, just waiting on the players to see if they'd want to come down.

Northwich Victoria at Home - Thursday 20th

The third friendly looked a bit more promising, up against a Conference National side again, we made a few changes to the side, young Jimmy Williams started at right fullback while Fickley moved over to the centre with Burke joining him for his first start, Tandy started in midfield taking the leftcentre spot and Banim joined Fearns in attack.

It proved to be a fairly even game through the first half, Northwich were slightly better, bit more possesion and had a few more shots, but we were playing well enough, our passing was up from the last game and we made a few good moves. Northwich penetrated the area a bit more than i would of liked and had a few good chances but Philo was up to the task and we went in nil all at the break. Everyone was doing there job we just needed a little something extra, I just asked them to relax and let it come.

After the break we started well creating a few chances and keeping possesion, but we were unable to set-up good scoring chances and the shots we had only one made the keeper save and that was a Through ball from Ord, Fickley got crunched in heavy aerial challenge, and didnt look that well holding his ribs as he come off, hopefully just some winding but better to be safe than sorry. Our defence was good again with Lynch the best player on the ground, and i was happy to get a draw in front of the lacklustre crowd.

As it turns out Fickley has some minor swelling and bruising around his ribs and will be absent for 2 or so weeks, but Jon Rattlesturr signed on the dotted line, his versatility will be great to have in the side. Danny Tate has also agreed to come on a 2 week trial.

[Panpardus]

Sunday 23rd July

Wakefield at Home

This was a game i expetected to win and win well, Wakefield were a Northern Premier league side and not a good one either, a good win here could the get the crowd going or so i hoped and word of mouth would get us a few more supporters through the gates. Again though we were disappointed as 150 or so people arrived to watch the game if we didnt start getting a few more the money was going to get burnt quickly.

The game started out slow for us, nothing working, passing was off, we were second to the loose balls, and you would of though Wakefield were in the better Division, with a nice crafted move they split our defence with a through ball to Highly who eased passed Burke who didn't have a chance of catching him and set up Bitton-Price with another superb ball, in which he easily slotted into the net giving our Keeper no chance. I was fuming at this point 15 minutes in 1-0 down at Home to a crap team, I kept my cool on the sidelines but things didnt improve, Ord broke down chasing a ball in the 29th. Jo said it was the groin not sure on the severity though. Even with the break in play we couldnt find any rythym and at half time we were still 1-0 down and not looking like scoring any time soon.

I let fly at half time, told them exactly what i wanted and if i didnt get it, then just bring their runner's to training for the next two weeks, as they wouldnt do anything but Running laps and doing sprints. I brought Zak on for Tandy and moved him to the left attacking midfield and let Moz (Morris) and Jags hold the Midfield positions i also emphasized i wanted a more attacking mindset from the team, we weren't going to win this sitting back. Jody Banim who was our captain for the day revved up the guys aswell after i finished and when they went out they looked like they wanted to play, and luckily for them they did.

From the restart we crafted a beautiful move that Rapley got onto on the sixyard box, he narrowily missed with the ball running across the face of the goals and lightly kissing the Upright before going out.

Moz running through centre span and neatly beat his oppponet, he layed the ball in the path of Banim who made a dashing run down the right side showing his marker a clean set of heels, before Chamberlain came in barged him off the ball which resulted in a freekick for us about 30 yards just out on the right. Zak and Moz stood over the ball but it was Zak that struck a magnificent curling drive over the wall into the top left corner of the net giving their keeper no chance, a sensational freekick, and now he's letting the crowd know as he runs up the sidelines with the team in tow, The crowd going off with delight. Hopefully that will get us a few more people in next game.

We're really starting to dominate proceedings now and 10 minutes later we're 2-1 up Jags playing a nice give and go with Young Jimmy Williams, he threads the needle to Banim whose sitting out on the right, Banim continues to the Byline beating one player and hits a nice weighted cross to the near post where Rapley outjumps his opponet and guides it into the back of the net.

Within 3 minutes we make it 3-1 with Zak taping in the easiest of rebounds from a Rapley shot which hit the upright, which was set up once again by Banim, after half time we've been electrifying Banim is in everything, Zak is cutting a weaving through players, Jags is on Fire and Rapley is unlucky he hasnt scored a hatrick by the end. It could of easily off been a much better scoreline, but after the start ill take 3-1, the crowd was appreciative, and if we string a full 90 minutes like that last half we wont lose against anyone. Banim wins the M.O.M just edging Jags and Zak and Rapley.

After the game Doug tells me that there's good news and bad news, I went with the bad first, The young Crewe keeper Williams has rejected our loan offer, but he might consider a smaller time from what he was saying but the good news is we dont need him anyway, Sam Ashton from Bolton has actually agreed to come here and play for the Season. This was a great day finally some luck with Loans and someone wanting to come here and a win aswell.

Wednesday the 26th

Oldham at home

This was a danger game for us, Oldham were a Div 1 team and easily had more skill than our team, we could get demolished and the crowd which has swelled to over 200 for this game could not want to see us play again, hopefully they would realise the quality of the opposition if we did get beat easily, but its not a thing you count on, on the other hand if we can manage a decent result we can build on this coming into the season.

I went with my Best team possible with the new Loanee Sam Ashtonin goal, but this wasn't a day he would want to remember we were slaughtered in all areas of the ground, Oldham came here to play, and the difference in skill was all too telling, by half-time we were 3-0 down Oldham were moving the ball with ease, everyone of their goals was great, nice build up clean crisp passing, switching play at ease and picking out men in the box and their targets slotting them home with apparent ease. We'd caused a minor problem, like their keeper had to retrieve a ball once from over some sponsors signs.

I was a bit baffled at what to do, so i tried to close the floodgates at half time, changed the team around a bit to a defensive operation, gave them instruction to sit back and only attack on the counter, hit as many long balls as you can and play for time, no diving or faking injuries though as if you do that your out. I can't stand that crap. We lost 4-0 in the end which wasnt too bad the second half was better for us, we actually forced a few saves from their keeper and only conceded one ourselves.

Realistically they are 3 Divisions above us so i wasnt too downheartned, and we would have a chance to make ammends at Leek Town in a couple days for our Last friendly.

[Panpardus]

The last of the friendlies

Thursday the 27th to Monday the 31st

Waking up the day after the last game, well it wasn't a game more of a lesson really had seen me in not the best of moods, even though Oldham were 3 divisions above us and an obvious skill difference seperated the both teams, something was missing, my research on opposition needed to improve, so far i'd just been concentrating on my team and trying to get players that would help, along with supervising training, and running back and forth between the staff it didn't leave alot of time for scouting, and thats when it hit me, we pay someone to scout our opponets for us. Scrambling out of bed i headed down to the office found the number i was looking for and began to dial.

AD: "Hello.. this had better be good do you know what time it is?"

Me: "Is this Andy Davis?"

AD: "Yeah it is, why who wants to know?"

Me: "Your soon to be ex-employer if you don't pull your finger out of you arse, we've had 5 games already and

I haven't heard boo from you about anything remotely concerning any of opposing teams, I've been busy though so I am going to give you a chance and we'll just leave it at that, but will HAPPEN is YOU WILL get me some sort of report on Leek before we play them on Saturday or you won't need ask your next paycheck, and this report had better have more information than where their f***ing ground is.... do you understand what im saying to you Andy?"

AD: "Yes sir i'll get right on it and report back friday night, my apologies sir it wont happen again."

Me: "Looking forward to hearing from you Andy"

Ah, that felt better i thought to myself as i put down the phone and sure enough a rather nervous looking man gives me a report the following night at a light training session, It wasn't to bad considering he'd had a day to put it together, possible line up 442 although he hadn't seen play from all reports he had they'd never varied from it, Ethrington (forward) was their best player and might need to watched was the recommendation, and they had a player out injured. It would do.

Talking to the team after practice i asked them all to assemble at the ground at 1.00 that would give us 2 hours before the 3 start to go over a few things, anyone later than 1 would sit on the pine. Leek was about a 50 minute drive at worst about 40 miles to the south, so it was decided a coach wasnt necessary and everyone would get there under their own steam.

The game went to plan and we ran out pretty convincing winners, having the majority of play we were never headed the first of our 3 was a bizarre own goal which came from when the ball took a nasty diversion from the undulationg pitch, the backpass was hit too hard in the first place though leaving the keeper without a chance.

All the work on setpiece training recently was paying off and Ruffer powered home a header from a Morris corner in the 28th minute, the best goal of our campaign so far was when Jimmy hit Zak with a nice ball that he switched from right to left, Zak running up the left didnt give the 2 would be tacklers a chance and from the byline picked out Moz making his run on the near post who neatly headed home. Leek scored a late consolation when our trialist keeper Danny Tate was thwarted by another bad bounce as he came out of the box to remove a dangerous through ball, the ball got past him and their dangerman Ethrington swooped on it to score an open goal. Danny was a bit disappointed but, he stopped alot of chances with his great ability to read the through ball and a few saves he made gave me the confidence to offer him a contract although as a backup player. Ruffer though did enough to edge out a few others to narrowly get the MOTM and the 20 pound barcard.

The end of the month came along, all in all it was a decent pre-season and even though we didnt play anyone in our league i was confident we would do well considering our results, A staff meeting was planed for the 2nd of August to go over the pre-season and all staff except scouts were required.

[Panpardus]

August

Staff Meeting

We had our big first staff meeting and all coaches were present aswell as Doug and Jo, Fickling had recovered from his ribs but Ord was still out for around 2 weeks and would miss the first game vs Scarborough. Appart from those two we had no injury concerns, Aeon had agreed with my assessment that our Fitness had greatly improved over the month and we looked more like a unit, but there was still a bit to go before a good gel. We went through the squad performances coupled that with training and it was decided that Burke, Hall, Fitzy and Westhead were no longer required and they would have to be told, also young Chris Denham would be put on Notice that he had 1 month to show a noticeable improvement and Talbot was told the same.

Chris Adams, Jody Banim and Terry Fearns would be offered full time contracts, with Ruffer and Lynchy as possibles if they could keep up their performance's over the real season. The new signings had all settled in nicely and i felt we had a team that would compete well, Aeon being the pessamist still didnt think the new intake of players would get us better than midtable, his pessamistic thoughts were starting to irk me, maybe he was one of the people who thought the worst so they could be pleasently suprised when things went well, time would tell if i could put up with him or not, Ordy believed we could get promotion, the team was starting to play well with the formation and unstanding of the tactics was getting better day by day, Dean didnt have an inkling he thought we had a good team but didnt have a reference to compare it too, if the results against the Conference National sides were an indication as I was hoping it was then would should do well in this league was his assessment, and lastly Steve Thornber had the same assessment as Dean and myself. We rapped up the meeting

with everyone happy and looking forward to the first game, well everyone but Aeon.

Later on the same day i had my first Board Meeting, we went over the Friendly performances which Doug believed were good and kept us in good shape, he would put the appropriate boys up on the Transfer Market, and make some approaches to other clubs to see if they wanted them aswell. A bit of a shock was the shape of our finances even though i was 600 under the wage budget our wages was about 22K per month and couple with other expenses meant we were in the red already, with the friendlies gate receipts just covering match day expenses, we needed alot more people through the gates, to even break even. Doug assured it wasn't too bad this club was often in the red for long periods but if we could a promotion though it would end any fiscal difficulties, and with the club challenging for promotion this season we should get enough in gates to keep us afloat. A few more generalaties were discussed but Doug wished me the best on a successful season.

With the meetings behind us i met with the players that were to be sold and told them their fates, we would be actively looking for new clubs for them, and they I had no problem with them still training with the squad, Hally was the only one who took it bad, storming off out of the office, but Burke and Westhead took it well, and Fitzy was keen to show me that he could be a good player for the club, it all starts at Training i told him and we'll see how it goes. Calling Denham and Talbot in I suggested if they didnt improve training over the next month they would be deemed surplus, they got the messages but once again time will tell.

Burke moved to Gateshead within days of going on the Market, i was happy for him, he'd be first team there without a doubt, I was surprised when Prescot Cables made a bid for Westhead but he accepted and we wished him all the best, I never did find out what the deal with him and Aeon was but it hardly matters now. Hally proved to be a stumbling block no one was interested, he was causing unrest in the squad so we offered a mutual in the hopes he might leave saving us some cash in the mean time, he wasnt impressed that we were trying to shaft him of his rightful dough as he put it so we paid out his contract and sent him packing. Fitzy hasnt had an offer either, but he's buckling down, we'll see if he can make inroads into the squad.

Preperations for the imminent season were in full flight, I've never been so busy in my life, Paperwork here there and everywhere, trying to communicate with the Part time staff was hard at times, scanning the markets, supervising training all were taking the toll, Nerves were getting worse as the first game came closer, Just needed to get a good start in August and then things would hopefully settle down.

[Panpardus]

August

Game #1

Our first game against Scarborough would be a good challenge, predicted to come third in the league despite have coped a 10 point deduction because of last years administration problems we knew they would come out hard, they needed a good start to season. Boarding our run down coach for the long trek out to the east coast I was a bundle of Nerves on the inside but trying to show a calm exterior to the players. We had announced the Squad the night before, including emergency's but everyone was invited to come on the bus for our first game, we arrived at McCain stadium at around 1 ready for 3 pm kickoff. In the two hour trip i'd gone through changing the line up's over and over, but in the end i settled for the same one i had last night.

Ashton in goal, Adams on the left, Fickling on the right edging out young Jimmy Williams who had been impressive in his last few friendlies, and Halford and Rutter sitting in the Centre of Defence with the Lynchy sitting just in front, the midfield was easy with Jags, Moz and Zak showing they were clearly the standout midfielders in the side, this time i'd play Zak in a more attacking role on the left instead of in the centre, Banim would play up front with Fearnsy beside him. The subs were hard to pick, Philo took first spot as the backup keeper with the versatile Rattlespurr joining him, rounding out the other 3 spots was Tandy, Jimmy Williams and Rapley got the nod over Daly because of his form in the Friendlies was slightly better.

Kickoff approached and giving my first official team speach, I urged them to relax and don't make to much a deal of the first game, there's no real pressure on us all the pressure was on them in front of the home fans, just do what you do best, have fun and enjoy the moment, I wish i could take my own advice.

We started off strong in the first half and it was us that looked the home team, confortable over the ball, nice accurate passing and looking dangerous everytime we go forward, at the end of the Half were level at nil all but were dominating possesion and had 7 shots to 1 with several chances going close. Sensing we could kill em off early, i moved Zak back to the Left Centre roll, he wasnt getting the chances and was closely watched, maybe in a bit of Traffic he could more influencial, revving up the players wasn't hard, they were pleased with the first half and could sense the win aswell, We were clearly the better side we can win this i urged them.

The second half was alot of the same we dominated from the start and were rewarded on the 51 minute mark when Zak made a telling tackle in our half, moving quickly with a little run he passed through to Lynch who was sprinting forward with the counter attack who inturn hit a nice ball up the spine to our newly named Captain Jody Banim who beat his marker and slotted the ball calmly past the keeper, we were 1-0 up and looking good. As it always happens after a goal the opposition gives a little more and Scarborough came out firing after the restart, but superb play from Lynchy ang Jags and the back 4 limited them to 3 shots from outside the box that didnt even trouble the keeper. I made the change bringing Zak into the Centre and and bringing on Tandy for Moz who had picked up a caution, last thing i needed was a red to give them a chance. As it played out we quelled their momentum and were never pressed again, towards the end of the game Scarborough picked up a few yellows for stupid tackles and roughing our players up, but the team were professional to the End with Rapley and Rattlespurr enjoying some time on the ground in the dying minutes. A fully deserved 1-0 away was a great start for the club.

The trip back was great, I picked up a few cartons of beer for the lads which we all promptly drank on the way back and the celebrations continued on back at the Clubhouse where Jags was givin his barcard for his MOTM performance. Listening to other scores coming through, Title favourites Kettering demolished Workington 8-0 at home.

Game #2

Liverpool edge out Chelsea in a penalty shootout for a win in the Charity Shield, but on the local front Jody Banim signs a new full time contract for us, I get the feeling he was waiting to see how we went in our first game, but its done now, and thats Ord, Jags, Chrissy Adams, Fearnsy, Zak and Banim who are all on fulltime contracts now which i feel is a step in the right direction for the club.

Our second game at Home is against one of our fierce Tameside rivals Hyde who have also had a win on opening day, the crowd is building and by the end of the day the 738 fans are disappointed as we stumble to a 1-1 draw, in a game we should of won confortably. We settled good but Hyde had comeout laying some viscious tackles trying to un nerve us, they'd got lucky with a few warnings, but when their player headbutted Moz things looked like they were gonna get ugly. The ref quickly took hold of the situation and promptly giving out a red to their player in the 15th minute. by 20 minutes Hyde had acrewed 2 more yellow's and were all over our players it was getting stupid out there. The ref was keeping hold of the game barely, he went overboard though a gave Lynchy a yellow for holding on although there was practically nothing in it, after that the game settled down a bit and we went into the Half time break unable to convert our domination.

The second half seen us come out firing and on the 10 minute mark after the break we were one up with anothe Banim goal, which was set up by Jags who was again vying for the MOTM, 5 minutes later Zak released Fearnsy with a sensational 60 yard pass, but their keeper Dooley was up to the task and parried it out of play. A couple heavy tackles again from Hyde seen me we bring of Lynchy and Fickling for Rattlespurr and young Jimmy Williams playing his first game.

Still playing well with the majority of possession and trying to kill the game with another we were caught on the counter when our Defence went a bit to far forward and left Moz as our sole defender, Our throw was in intercepted and smashed forward, Seddon zoomed past Moz to get the ball running into a 1 on 1 with Ashton but he made no mistake and it was 1 all. We couldnt take a trick after that, Seddon was killing us on the counter, when we did go forward we looked unlikely to score, and on the rebound and with 10 men they looked more like scoring. Rapley came on with 10 to play but for all of our overall dominance in the game we came away with a 1 all draw.

A disappointing result which i relayed to the team after the game.

Game #3

Ord resumes full training just after the Hyde draw and should push for selection after this one agaisnt Worksop.

In world news Inter sign Valencia's David Villa for 32 Mil, i can only wish i had that sort of cash to splash about.

A Home game against Worksop, a should win game, Rapley gets a Start for Fearns whose been a bit lacklustre and Rattlesturr gets his first start for the season, and as per the last few games were on from the whistle, looking dangerous and with the amount of ball we have its looking promising. Half hour in and we're still going strong Worksop haven't had a sniff and were pressing hard for a goal, but disaster strikes on the 40th minute, Fickley makes a stupid costly error on the right giving up the ball when he had plenty of options, Worksop quickly run the ball into the Penalty area and a neat cross is put away were 1-0 down and Worksop have scored from the only chance they had in the game. After the half we can't take a trick, numerous scoring chances are saved in a what proves a MOTM performance from their Keeper, we out run, out shoot, out class them but we can't even get a point, the crowd leaves disappointed, and were winless at home still after 2 games.

Game #4

Spent alot of time with the Strikers during training, as we can't seem to get the ball in the net even though we're getting good chances and hopefully today's trip to Blyth we can get on the score sheet. Me and Aeon decide a few changes are in order to shake the team up a bit, Fickley gets droped after last weeks mistake and Jimmy Williams gets the nod, Ord comes in to partner Rattlespur at the back and Tandy gets a start with Zak hiting the Pine.

We're off to our usual start and Tandy looks fired up, he makes a dazzling run down the left sweeping past a few defenders, when he props and lays it on for Adams on the overlap, Adams narrowly misses, a few minutes later Tandy is given a yellow for an accidental elbow but instead of the warning stiffling his play he and Adams combine again this time Adams hits wrong side of the upright and it goes out for a goal kick. Blyth see the danger and tighten up on Tandy and on the 20 they score on the counter, a lack of concentration costing us, and Rattlespur is looking uncomfortable.

6 minutes later were another down a goal mouth scramble from a corner which we fail to clear and Niven hacks it in, 2-0 down. The rest of the half were getting run over, Rattlespurr is clearly unnerved and puts in a poor performance, Halford replaces him at half time.

Its a more even contest again after the break and when Blyth go defensive around the 70 minute mark, I bring on Zak for Tandy and give the go ahead for a more attacking mindset, Blyth do everything to keep us out, repelling us constantly and just when ive given up hope of comeback Fearns crashes one against the bar which Banim gets to first, a grast last ditch tackles jars the ball free and Zak gets on to it 7 or so yards out, with a nice turn he powers it at goal, Forster gets in the way and guides it in the back of the net, its ruled an own goal, unlucky for Zak not to get the credit.

Just inside injury we pull off a great comeback a crucial Jags interception and he releases Fearnsy, playing it past one defender and cutting inside another he caps off a great move and were all square with not long left.

Unfortunately Banim is hit with a nasty tackle in the last plays of the day in which he twists his ankle, Stockwell gets his second yellow but there's no more play so it doesnt affect us too much. A great result for us and after the game a local reporter ask's me a few questions.

REP: "A great comeback for your team there, did you think it was possible?"

ME: "I thought Blyth tried to shut the doors a bit early and our persistance was rewarded, my team is always capable of scoring goals"

REP: "A couple injury's though to some influential players, Zak Burnie and Jody Banim both out and with Banim's influence telling this season do you think others can step up ?"

Me: " Sure Jody will be missed, he's been in good form so far but young Daly should be able to step in for him, and Zak's injury seems minor so he might only miss the next game."

REP: "Good luck for the rest of the season"

ME: "Cheers, ill see you around."

Game #5

Jody's injury was a bit worse than first thought, a bad sprain and he wouldnt see any action for a month possible two, Zak would miss the next game with a gash on his arm that required some stitches but all going well he should be back for the game after. Tandy had a clash of heads in training and some severe bruising around his eye will keep him out for the next week or so.

Hucknall Manager Kevin Wilson got his second warning aswell for a nasty spray at the ref officiating in his last game for them.

Playing Moor Green at home and saying we needed a win was an gross understatement, from our opening game of 730 odd supporters they droped to 600's with a draw, now with the loss we expected to be 500's, we needed a win to stop the decline. Stressing the importance of a full 90 minute contribution from everyone was my main goal in the pre-match, we need to win this one, i expect us to win this one. I went on..

From the get go the players look inspired, with a few forced changes Danny Warner playing his first game for the year in the left centre midfield and Steve Daly making his official Debut for the club partnering Fearns up front i was a bit worried, but on four minutes Daly opened his account for the club and the supporters were cheering, instead of letting the pressure off as we can do after scoring we kept it on and was rewarded when an Ord corner was met by Halford's head on the near post who sent the ball gliding across the face of goals Harrop couldn't direct his header away and put it in his own net. We went in to the half time break 2 up and full of confidence. The only worry was an injury to Lynchy who'd hyper extended his knee.

I couldnt stress the importance of keeping our performance up, we needed to maintain concentration and not let up, to the boys credit we piled constant pressure on them and in the 55th minute Fleming was shown a red card for pushing over Moz in front of the ref. I dont know what he says out there but Moz is getting a reputation as bit of a antagonist out there. Moment's later Daly secured a brace when Jimmy Williams made a nice run and picked him out with a pinpoint pass, we were never troubled for the rest of the game and were a tad unlucky not to improve on the scorline, but a 3-0 win was great and the fans were happy as was Daly who picked up the MoTM award in his first official game with a two goal haul.

Game #6[\B]

As good as the game was against Moor Green the trip to Harrogate was as bad, Philo had his first game in goal and Rattlespurr moved in front of the defence covering for Lynchy who was out for 2 months. Halford returned to lineup at Centre back.

Nothing was going right in the game, Hunter slammed in his goal after a dubious free kick on 11 minutes for the home team and even though we matched em with possession we couldn't penetrate their defence and at half time we were 1-0 down and hadn't looked like troubling their keeper.

If the first half was bad, the second half was dreadful we never even got started as they immediantly scored after the restart killed any resistance our team had, and it was fitting they scored another two near the end, a game I'd rather forget and thats what i'll be telling the players.

August was done, not the ideal start, we had plenty to work on and a few injury's were creeping in, but i was happy with the depth of the squad, and was hoping for an improvement in September.

[Panpardus]

Games Overview

#1 Away v Scarborough 1-0 Win.

Dry - Banim (52) MOTM S.Jagielka (JAGS)

#2 Home v Hyde 1-1 Draw Attendance 738

Dry - Banim (54)

Hyd - Seddon (71) and MOTM. -Harrison (red) 14

#3 Home v Worksop 0-1 Loss Att 661

Wrk - Froggat (40) Wilson MoTM

#4 Away v Blyth 2-2 Draw

Dry - Foster O.G (89) Fearns (90) Banim - Inj

Bly - Fenton (20) and MoTM, Niven (26), Stockwell (red) 90

#5 Home v Moor Green 3-0 Win. Att 597

Dry - Daly (4,60) and MoTM, Harrop O.G (30), Lynch - Inj

#6 Away v Harrogate 0-4 Loss

Hrg - Hunter (11), Dunning (47), Preston (80,84) and MoTM

League Ladder after August

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

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| 1st | | Kettering | | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 1 | +17 | 14 |

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| 2nd | | Harrogate | | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 4 | +7 | 12 |

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| 3rd | | Hyde | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 5 | +5 | 11 |

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| 4th | | Blyth | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 11 |

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| 5th | | Vauxhall | | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 4 | +7 | 10 |

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| 6th | | Workington | | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 9 |

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| 7th | | Barrow | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 8 | +2 | 8 |

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| 8th | | Stalybridge | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 8 |

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| 9th | | Leigh | | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 8 |

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| 10th | | Alfreton | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 8 |

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| 11th | | Droylsden | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 8 |

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| 12th | | Hinckley | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 7 |

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| 13th | | Nuneaton | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 7 |

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| 14th | | Moor Green | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 7 |

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| 15th | | Lancaster | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 7 |

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| 16th | | Hucknall | | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 6 |

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| 17th | | Worcester | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 5 |

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| 18th | | Worksop | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 5 |

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| 19th | | Gainsborough | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 5 |

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| 20th | | Farsley | | 6 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 11 | -7 | 4 |

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| 21st | | Redditch | | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 3 |

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| 22nd | | Scarborough | | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 0 |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10 points deducted from Scarborough

[Panpardus]

August Report

With the first month of competitive football behind me there was a sense of relief, not badly positioned in the league at 11th the team was still gelling and getting use to a new style of play, consistency and Concentration were letting us down, but with the team getting fitter and more mentally tougher I was hoping September would be a bit better for us.

Met with Doug Smith on the 2nd and we went over a few details, He felt we were showing good signs, but agreed our concentration during games let us down. The finances had steadied but we still posted a loss of about 8K, We needed to impress the fans soon to get the gate receipts up, another month like August and we’d not get the crowds hooked before the weather worsened and when there was bad weather the fans tended to stay away.

There wasn’t too much else to discuss, just the general things that went on, admin details, team reports from morale to injuries and we had a few popping up now but Jo was doing a great job, injury prevention was the key and a lack of injury’s during training with the workload so heavy was a testament to the job she was doing thus far. Coaches were also discussed and Doug had to agree that the team was really starting to benefit from the few extra viewpoints we had.

Denham and Talbot were giving their all on the training field and I’m glad they were taking my talk seriously, Talbot in particular was shining, staying back after training and doing more work was impressive for a part-timer, and with Jody out for awhile he might get his chance sooner rather than later. Denham was still a bit away and behind Talbot, but we were seriously considering trying to convert him into more of an attacking midfielder, Dean Blackwell said he would undertake the challenge, but with his busy schedule this month it would have to wait to October.

Our first mini awards were given out for the club, the coaches, Aeon and I thought an incentive of giving out a best player award for the month would increase morale and give the players something to aim for. Despite an injury in the last game Lynchy took the award narrowly from Jags.

Zak wasn’t playing to expectations, he was told we needed more from him in the coming month and Fearnsy wasn’t delivering as we had hoped either, Daly had moved to the first striker in Jody’s absence, apart from that the team was doing ok in all other areas, the new signings were still settling but we’d take stock after September.

Dave Colley had finished a quick scouting of possible right backs in England and we were happy with what we had at the moment, so he was asked to scout the reserve’s competition. Andy had been good after we had our chat and so far he’s reports on the opposition were coming in on time.

Looking forward to taking on Nuneaton in the coming days.

[Panpardus]

September

Game #11

It was a wet and wild Saturday when we took on Nuneaton and in a pre match interview I was asked my thoughts on the outcome of the game considering Nuneaton were picked for promotion, giving the briefest of responses I said we were a good chance of wining provided we played to our potential which I think the reporter was happy with as the rain was getting worse and the day colder.

Zak was back in the starting lineup and Ashton claimed his spot back in goals and in the conditions the game was very even, but a double from Fearns on the 26th and 39th minute put us two up just before the break, he looked fired up for the game and our talk had paid off. McPhee clawed one back for Nuneaton on the last play of the half but I was rapped to be 2-1 up at the half.

The rain worsened and while both teams carved out chances the conditions were not conducive to good flowing play. Zak was playing was ok, but I thought I’d move him in the middle giving Moz a rest and bringing Warner on the left side, what I did not expect was the Morris backlash, he was furious at being subbed, which annoyed me, and I told him that if he didn’t it like he could pack his bags and p*ss off, the club as whole is bigger than his ego, and I would sub who ever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

Warner came on to play well and Zak seemed more confident in the centre, Fickling come on for Jimmy Williams and played well, and Ruffer was brought on at the Death knock, with both teams struggling to get shots on target, we ground out a good 2-1 win infront of 198 cold fans.

Game #12

Another away trip this time up to Barrow-in-Furness, around a two hour trip again give or take 10 minutes. Tandy has resumed training but was left out of the lineup just to give him a bit more time, Morris was relegated to the bench after his outburst, where Zak would take over and Warner was starting again on the left, on the trip up we heard that Barrow coach believed Fearns must be stopped if they were to get a result, which gave the striker a bit of swelled head to say the least.

We got off to a great start, with Halford heading in Zak’s corner on the 10 minute mark, a minute later it was two nil with Zak going around a opponent and playing in Fearns with a superb pass, with the only the keeper to beat he made no mistake slotting it in the corner. Barrow’s manager’s prediction was coming true. Playing confidently we were looking like scoring a third at anytime, but Barrow found a way to stop Fearns, a jarring tackle sent the striker to the ground holding his ankle. Jo ran out and had a look, but it was clear Fearnsy didn’t want to come off so with some of the magic spray on the ankle he continued on all be it very gingerly.

Unfortunately with the stoppage we lost our ascendancy and by the half it was 2 all, with Barrow playing well and carrying the momentum. Fearns was clearly in discomfort so Talbot come on in his stead, his perseverance and dedication in training had gotten him his chance now he just had to do something with it.

Barrow continued on from where they left off not losing the momentum they had from the first half, they were causing us all sorts of problems at the back, but when a stupid backpass was pounced on by Daly we pulled one ahead, and now we had the momentum in this topsy turvey game.

With 15 minutes to go and us dominating possession we didn’t look like losing now , and when Zak found Talbot free just outside the penalty box from a freekick, the forward stated his intentions to be a more integral part of the squad with a thunderous drive that I don’t think the keeper even saw enter the back of the net!

The game was well and truly over when after 80 minutes a great build up involving Jags, Zak, Jimmy Williams and Adams was finished off by Daly with a 25 yarder to seal the win 5-2.

Daly received the MoTM award for his two goals, but Zak had his best game so far for the club getting 3 assists and was unlucky not to be given the award, in truth it could have been given to any of 5 players.

Needless to say the trip back was made in high spirits, and a few cartons of beer made their way again onto the bus, The clubhouse was going off later in the night, with fans and players celebrating into all hours, Sunday would a late start for me as the huge hangover that loomed would be have to be slept off.

[Panpardus]

Just a quick note that the games should be game 7 and 8, not 11 and 12

[Panpardus]

Game #9

With the team full of confidence our next match was another away game this time we headed down south to play at St. Georges’s Lane against the Worcester Team, with Ord out with a Slight strain Ruffer came back in to the starting line up, aswell as Tandy making a return to the bench after his head injury.

The team was starting to gel well, and in a confident mood after our last away win, but Worcester weren’t interested on what we had done and proceeded to give us a football lesson in the first half, despite their total domination we were only 1 down at the half. I urged our team on in the half time talks, we can still win this I told them, they’ve given it their best shot and only managed to get one through, your fitter and stronger than these guys, now go out out there and show them how to play.

We were a little better, after the half, but Worcester were still all over us and after 62 minutes Wilding intercepted a pass and put his second past Ashton, making a double sub Talbot got his chance to impress again and Morris had a chance to redeem himself, this time Rattlespurr didn’t look to happy at coming off, but wisely he didn’t do or say anything to earn my wrath.

We didn’t look like troubling the scorers with 1 shot so far in the game and Worcester dominant all over the ground but it was some Individual brilliance in a 10 minute spurt from Zak that gave us a draw, not a well deserved draw either.

8 minutes to go in regular time and Ruffer launches a hit and hope bomb down the field, with Zak in pursuit the Worcester defender made a mistake and Zak’s in on goal, he rounds the keeper with ease but now has to shoot from the narrowest of angles with 2 defenders closing, instead of trying to place it in the net he hits a rocket which thunders in and theirs his first goal for the club. The Barrow team immediately goes on the defensive and makes 2 subs trying to close up play but another Zak rocket this time a volley from 30 out, sails into the back with the keeper not moving. With our third shot of the day we’d manager to tie the game and on the 87th minute Daly was furious when ref David Storrie didn’t give a penalty when Zak was bundled over in an aerial challenge, and when Daly kicked out at Glasgow in retaliation for something he said the ref showed no hesitation and sent him off for an early shower. The whistle blew for the end of the game a few minutes later and we’d escaped with a draw with Zak earing the MoTM with a two goal haul.

[b}Game #10[/b]

Returning home with a game against Gainsborough would see us cruise to a 2-0 victory, Daly was suspended and after getting a stern lecture from me and an official warning he promised to improve his behavior. Adams sitting out aswell through accumulating 5 yellows the side was shuffled around, Warner moved into the left fullback role while Tandy made his return to the starting lineup, Fickling also returned to give Jimmy Williams a well earned rest at rightback, and Talbot started his first game and did not disappoint with a nice goal. Jags knocked in the second with half hour to go and with Gainsborough not getting a chance to get anything going, fulltime seen Zak get his second MoTM award in a row and the 600 strong crowd were well pleased.

Game #11

Struggling Farsley came to Slaughter House to see themselves cut up all across the park Talbot reveling in his recent starting position made the best of starts slotting home Zak’s pass in the second minute, when Tandy fired in a low cross on 19 minutes Potter couldn’t get out of the way and put the goal in his own net. Farsley got one back after half time with some good play, but when Morris was brought on after the restart he was putting his name up for a recall to the starters when he intercepted a pass, rounded two players and slotted the sealer past the keeper. Jags was awarded the MoTM with a good solid performance in the Centre, and our largest crowd for the year some 748 people cheered the side off, a great month of football had seen us move from 11th up to 3rd the only game left was against Worksop in the FA cup 2nd Qualifying round, a team we owed for their lucky 1-0 win earlier in the season.

FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

The worst of conditions greeted us for this game and with the ground covered in puddles of water that the rain was making bigger as we watched, we knew it was going to be a hard slog and amazingly 190 people turned up to watch, but were no doubt disappointed as the game ground out to a nil all draw, Fearns had a penalty chance that slewed well wide but in the conditions who could blame him.

We had a replay in 5 days at their home and if we were good enough we’d go through, plus we owed them a home defeat and that was to be our motivation for the match.

[Panpardus]

September Review

Going into the monthly review with Doug I was feeling pretty good, we had increased our league position by 8 places and now we were in 3rd place, a playoff position. The team was gelling together well and our concentration on the pitch was better so we were less prone to giving up easy goals, I put that down to the fitness program that we were on, with our increased fitness, we weren’t tiring as much, so the players stayed focused for longer. Training injuries were pretty much non existent which was great, but with the teams we were playing going for increasingly rougher tactics to try and unsettle us, we were succumbing to more match day injuries, Jo was doing a great job though in the rehab department. The coaching staff was in high spirits and Dean will be starting with Chris Denham this month to try and turn him into a useful attacking midfielder. Andy Davis was doing a good job with the scout reports and Dave C was still scouting the Reserves comp, without much luck.

Doug was happy with the overall performance of the club but we lost another 8K for the month, the wet weather in two of our home games cost us some revenue, but with the supporters fully on board at the moment were hoping to get the crowds up at the game, just needed the weather to stay away.

Training has been superb and morale at the club is excellent, Moz is out for around a month with his strain, and Lynchy is still a month away with his knee, Rapley was unlucky with a late tackle from the last game and looks like a 1 to 2 month layoff with his fractured ribs, on a good note though Jody Banim has returned to do light training and his ankle is looking strong, about a week away from joing the rest of the squad.

Zak’s solid month of form won him September’s player of the month beating out Jags and Stevie Halford, hopefully it will continue and with him holding down the centre roll and Moz keeping him honest it holds us in good stead. Talbot also got a special coaches award, for someone who was almost cut he’s turned it around and now looking at regular spot.

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Kettering | | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 24 | 4 | +20 | 24 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Harrogate | | 11 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 20 | 7 | +13 | 21 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Droylsden | | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 14 | +7 | 21 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Hyde | | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 9 | +8 | 19 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Workington | | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 19 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

[Panpardus]

October

Traveling to Worksop for the replay I must admit I was a bit worried already playing them at home twice for a 1-0 defeat and a nil all draw, their defence appeared to have our measure. With Moz out, with the injury from the last game Rattlespurr moved up to the defencive midfielders role it was the only change on the starting line up.

Worksop was once again defending well and we found it hard to snatch a goal from them but on the stroke of half time Jimmy Williams sent a beautiful cross in from deep on the right and Talbot continued his scoring form and powered a header past the keeper for us to take a well deserved lead into the break. The second half we pressed hard for another and kept them locked up mostly in their own half, but were unable to improve on our score, as it turned out the Talbot goal was enough to see us through to the next round.

Game 12

Jody returned to train with the squad full time, but lacking a bit of fitness we left him out of the side, with Fearns and Talbot playing well up front and Daly offering good support from the bench we felt we could give him some extra time.

After the season opener where Workington succumbed to a 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Kettering they had ran themselves into some good form and were currently 2 spots behind us in 5th place, and playing at their home ground we thought we were in for a tough battle.

Upon arriving at the ground Andy Davis our scout informed me that Workington manager Tommy Cassidy thought the main threat would come from Daly, I had Daly penciled in a sub for the game, but after hearing that I moved him onto the ground and informed Fearnsy he would be sitting on the pine today.

I’d have to thank Cassidy later as moving Daly onto the ground proved decisive for us as he opened the scoring on 14th minute. Workington struck back on the 25 in what was proving a free flowing game, 4 minutes later Talbot was leading the chase from a long ball when their keeper Summergill came out to try a dispel the danger, Talbot got to the ball first just outside, Summergill had badly misjudged and the poor tackle that ensued earned him a early bath as the ref had no hesitation in sending him off for a professional foul, with the freekick in a goodspot and their second choice keeper now in goal Zak produced another good strike unfortunately going narrowly over, but now we had a hour to try and secure a win. 10 minutes before the half we were shocked when Workington went 1 ahead and some superb passing and movement of the ball that made us look like we were one player down on the park instead of them. We struggled to get going anything after that and at the half we were still 1 down.

Calling the players in close at the break, I stressed the importance of going out and pressuring them from the start, don’t let up till we get the goal back and then push for another, there’s 45 minutes left and we can win this still, and when they went back out they looked full of fire.

Workington were hanging of for dear life, our pressure was intense and on the 52 minute we were rewarded as Zak hit a trademark screamer from the edge of the box which thundered into the back of the net, we had drawn level. From that point the players were unbelievable our ball skills were brilliant, knocking it around the park with consummate ease, we were finding holes everywhere in the defence and at the end of the game we were 6-2 winners with Daly adding another 3 to take his tally to 4 for the game and Stevie Halford headering in one to get in on the party. Needless to say Daly was named Man of the Match for his efforts. If it wasn’t for Cassidy’s prematch comments it might have been a totally different result. I think it’s fairly obvious what happened on the long coach ride home and at the club afterwards, Sunday wasn’t a day I seen too much of, rising about 5 pm for a shower and another dose of the headache tablets I quickly retired back to bed.

Jo was less than impressed.

[Panpardus]

Monday didn't prove to be a much better day, nursing a hangover for the second day seen me staying at home, after the days work Jo informed me that Jags wrist injury was a bad sprain, we could give him injections to get through the next couple games but we were much better with it healing naturally, so that what we did, he would be unavailable for the next week or so.

Our next game was a 3rd round qualifier for the F.A cup at home against Eastleigh A conference south team, I dont know what it is with cups but we were behind again at half time, and only managed to get a late equaliser in the 80th minute thanks to Jon Rattlespurr slotting home his first for the club.

The replay was played on the southern cost of England and Dave our Owner and new Bournemouth manager made the short trip over to watch, I wanted a good performance from the lads so Dave would be impressed and in a fast and furious paced game that lasted the whole 90 minutes we were victorius 2-0 from a Zak double on the 5 and 17th minutes. Unfortunately with what was becoming a alarming trend, tackles on our midfielders were getting ridiculous, late and somewhat dangerous tackles seemed to be the norm and when Zak was stretchered off and taken to hospital shortly after scoring his second with what looked a severe rib injury, I made my mind up to do something about it when we returned home.

I congratulated the players on the win, and Pacey also poped his head in and congratulated them but i was more concerned how Zak was, Dave gave me a lift over to the Hospital where Jo already was, he was rapt with our league position and after seeing how we played today he could see why we were doing so well. He said he was doing ok at Bournemouth and with a bit of luck they'd finish in the top half but not much else was said as the hospital was fairly close. I thanked him and he promised to ring soon.

Zak's had broken ribs a nasty injury that would see him miss atleast a month's football which i wasn't impressed with and with his good form at the moment it would be interesting if someone could step up.

Zak was to be kept in overnight to a couple days depending on how the pain was and just to rule out other complications it strengthened my resolve to right a letter to the F.A, it was a particularly crude tackle that the player wasn't even warned or booked for, yet 15 minutes later he was booked for holding, sometimes i just dont get the refs.

Zak returned home after 2 days in the hospital, the pain was quite bad for him everytime he breathed but the painkillers he was on helped. In that time I'd written a formal complaint to the F.A and was hoping for them to atleast look into the situation.

The local paper had also printed an article in that time about the Bloods and my Management with the headling "Burnie gets the Bloods Boiling" it was a good article about how good our form had been and since i'd been in charge and that we'd knocked in 28 goals and 15 games. It went on to mention a few good wins like the recent 6-2 win over Worthington and 5-2 win over Barrow which both happened to be away games. Hopefully it would attract a few more fans to the gates and it was definately an article for the scrapbook.

Game #13

Our next game was to be a good one with the top team Kettering making a visit, 917 paying customers passed through our gates the best so far for the season. It was a tightly contested battle with each team not giving an inch. Craig Westcarr opened the scoring for Kettering just before the half with an inspirational solo effort that even earned the ooooo's and aaah's of our own crowd. The second half was much the same as the first, tight , fierce but strangely fair, no rash tackles were made and the game was a good spectacle to behold. We leveled the game when our captain Jody Banim placed one home in the 69th, a well worked goal and this being his first game back from injury and only being brought on 10 minutes before hand it was high fives alround. The game ended with a draw but not before we had our chances to win, Kettering found themselves reduced to 10 when Roget was judged to have commited a professional foul in the 79th but we failed to capitalize on their reduced numbers, all in all it was a fair result.

F.A cup Qualifying Round 4

Cambridge came down to the Butchers Arms ground and our largest crowd of 1250 were there to witness the spectacle, Cambridge were in good form sitting in 6th place in the Conference National, but we were in good form aswell and I was hoping we could produce an upset. Unfortunately Cambridge were in scintilating form an easily dispatched us 2-0, they controlled the game from start to finish and we barely had a sniff. Still i was proud of our players and was hoping we wouldnt be too down beat. The supporters clapped the team off, but there looked slightly less of them at the end of the game.

[Panpardus]

Brief October Report

October was over we had a decent month, remaining in 3rd place and a first for the club this year we actually made a profit of 5K. My monthly meeting with Dave was short he seen no need to go into any great depth the club was traveling well so he couldn’t see the point in wasting both of our time. Fickling received the player of the month with some great performances down back. The only thing of minor concern was that Denham was not happy with training for a new role, we’d give him another month to see how he went and assess the situation then, but Deano was feeling that Denham wasn’t putting as much effort into it as he could.

Game #14

November started out poorly a 1-0 loss to Hucknall at their home was disappointing we had most of the play outshot them by 3 to 1 but luck wasn’t with us Banim hit the upright twice and numerous other chances went close, but Hucknall scored the winner when Jamie Tandy was lazy and didn’t run for a ball, which he was clearly closest to, Hucknall’s Fox picked up the loose ball then skipped around Tandy who put a terrible effort on the tackle aswell and hit a measured cross for Ricketts to put away. Tandy was immediantly subbed and will be lucky to play in the next match. Two things I won’t tolerate laziness and playing for free’s.

F.A Trophy Qualfying Round 2

Playing Leigh at home in another cup match, our form at home in the cups had been less than impressive so far so I was eager for us to get a result. Leigh came with intentions of spoiling our party, and that they did as yet again we conceded the first goal, Ellington pouncing on rebound to put it in the net un opposed in the 16th minute. Yet again we would have to come from behind.

The start of the second half had my blood boiling and almost had me removed from the bench, in yet another late challenge Taylor had come flying in to challenge Jags for the header, while Steve had nodded it on Taylor successfully completed a head clash which seen Steve coming off and heading off to have x-rays for what we later learned to a fractured cheek bone. Jumping out from the bench I proceeded to tear into the umpire who looked dumb founder that I had seen anything wrong with the challenge, I was politely warned by the fourth official twice before he told me one more word would see me gone. It was Aeon who pulled me away. I was seething on the bench, after my barrage the ref decided he would pull up every small little thing, the game finished and I stormed strait into our change rooms. I’d managed to cool down some what, and realized my anger was more at the officials than the team, I sympathized with team, but told them we missed a golden opportunity to proceed in the cup, that was the third game we lost in a row, I would not tolerate a fourth.

Game #15

Leigh was back 4 days later, I still hadn’t had a message back from the F.A so I decided to fight fire with fire and see how other teams liked it. The order was to tackle hard show no restraint if you can get the ball get it I don’t care how its done, nothing stupid that’s gonna get you a red I told ‘em though. With our depleted ranks Ian Fitzpatrick earned himself a start and was told he needed to perform and to the team it was that I expected a win today, no excuses.

We started off great, some heavy tackles stated our intentions right from the start and Leigh looked a little shocked at our intensity. Banim opened the scoring for us with a powerful header from an Adams free kick and from a similar position Fitzy headed in a goal this time the provider was Gareth Morris and we were looking good at 2-0 up in 15 minutes of play. Carrington narrowed the margin to 2-1 on the half hour mark but from there we were never troubled, our intensity in defence and over all tackling in the field left Leigh stunned and didn’t manage a decent shot on goal, In fairness we didn’t trouble their keeper much aswell, but we kept possession and the result was exactly what we needed.

Game #16

With a ten day break before our next home game against Lancaster, I lightened the training and gave the boys some time off, Zak was back doing some light training, and by the day of the match he was fit enough to take to the subs bench.

Once again I instructed the team to tackle hard and it was seemed to work for us again, the opposition was intimidated, and there was no late or stupid tackles coming from them.

Our passing was as good as I’ve seen this year but it was Lancaster who scored first a nice header from Mat Bailey on a tight angle opened there account. Our pressure was good and tackling was still hard, I credit our first goal that of an Own Goal to Taylor to the physical pressure we were putting on them, half time came with us level.

Zak came at the restart, and with instruction for the team to keep the intensity up we looked a lot livelier, with Lancaster sitting back and letting us come at them, it was Fitzy that scored making it two in two games when Morris again the provider hit him a nice pass that he slotted into the right corner giving the outstretched keeper no chance.

We slackened off to our own detriment after that and Lancaster leveled it at 2-2 a few minutes later from a corner that was powerfully headed into the back of the net giving Ashton no chance to make the save, the game finished a draw in which was slightly disappointing, but we’d managed to sneak into second place so all wasn’t bad.

Game #17

After the 2 fine performances for us I gave Fitzy a reprieve and took him off the transfer market, he would stay off the list aslong as her trained well and played well in the games, he was to be a backup at the moment and nothing more. He was happy with the role and assured me that he would be trying to make himself more of a regular.

I don’t know what happened in our away game versus Hinkley but we were comprehensibly beaten, Ashton was having a dud which everyone is entitled to know and again, it just hurts a lot more when its your keeper, so he was subbed and Tate brought on the half along with Zak but by then the damage was done 3-0 down and with Hinkley not looking to let us back in the game it finished at with the same score, although it could have been worse as Tate lasted only 17 minutes in his debut, the momentum from a full stretching save seen him careen almost comically one would say into the upright, bad luck for him though and the team as he had a nasty gash above his right eye, which would see him not continue, Stevie Halford went into goals and did enough for the score to remain unchanged.

[Panpardus]

November was a disappointing month for the team although we actually climbed one place on the ladder, getting knocked out of the F.A trophy was disappointing and to have another injury to a midfielder from a late tackle was infuriating, if you can’t beat em join em is the old saying so that what we did. A win a draw and 2 loses was the form for the month.

Doug wasn’t too concerned he was happy we were in 2nd and so should of I been really, Inconsistency’s in form plagues the teams in the Conference North, but slowly I was starting to iron them out. Finances were on the decline again we droped another 8k for the month but the board wasn’t too worried we always lost money during the season, but made it up in the preseason to get back to square, If we could get to the Conference National then we could look at making a profit, but until then Dave and Doug were apparently happy to remain afloat.

The only concern for the month was the Chris Denham had dropped of his training and was making noises about not wanting to play in the midfield, I had a quick word with him and he seemed to take it in that we didn’t another Striker and going to the midfield would be his best if he wanted to make it into the line-up.

I was looking forward to December, with 5 league games for the month it would take us too the half way mark for the season, it was a good chance to see where we were and where we were headed, Dave Pace was coming down for a meeting in Early January, so hopefully the team could produce, and we’d there about in the promotion race still.

Ladder:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Kettering | | 17 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 32 | 9 | +23 | 32 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Droylsden | | 17 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 32 | 24 | +8 | 29 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Harrogate | | 17 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 28 | 17 | +11 | 28 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Hinckley | | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 29 | 21 | +8 | 28 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Hyde | | 17 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 23 | 15 | +8 | 28 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Blyth | | 17 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 14 | +7 | 28 |

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Panpardus]

December proved to be a decisive month for the club with some decent results, our first game was a short trip inland to Rivacre Park to play 9th Place Vauxall. Paul Phillips was brought for only his second game of the season and Zak was back in the starting lineup, other good news was the Steve Jagielka or Jags as he was known around the traps was back to full competitive training after recovering from his cheekbone fracture, he was still a game or two away though just to see how training went.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

The Tameside Advertiser, Sunday 3rd December 2006

“Droylsden looking the goods with Matt Burnie having the Midas touchâ€

In what was billed as a close game between 9th place Vauxall and 2nd placed Droylsden, the Vauxhall fans were at bit of a loss to explain the 3-0 defeat, but as an interested observer it was clearly a few tactical masterpieces from manager Matt Burnie that handed the Droylsden the win. A close game in the conditions was broken apart when Droylsden returned from the break with a more direct approach, a slight reshuffle as Adams was introduced to the left back role and Danny Warner moved up to the subbed Tand’y’s position at left Centremidfield.

The move paid dividends as Adams turned provider for Terry Fearns as he slotted his first goal home in nearly 11 hours. Captain Jody Banim pounced on a shocking back pass 4 minutes later to send the Bloods into a 2-0 lead, and when Ian “Fitzy†Fitzpatrick was introduced in the 72nd minute it was clear Burnie had the midas touch as with his first foray, Fitzy beat his opponent and sprinting down the right flank hit a sublime cross in the trying conditions for the visibly relieved Fearns to power in a header that gave him two for the game. Droylsden were never challenged after that and although Vauxhall had the bulk of possession, they couldn’t get past Richard Ord in Defence who received the Man of the Match for a stunning display that seen him successful in all dozen or so tackles that he layed.

Speaking to Burnie after the game he was clearly rapped with the team after their 2nd half performance and as modest as ever he said the players deserved the take the credit for executing the plan to perfection

With fellow Tameside team Stalybridge Celtic traveling to Butchers Arms next week Burnie handed an ominous warning to their fierce rivals saying that “There was nothing better than getting a good win over your rivalsâ€, and with confidence brimming down at the ‘Slaughter House’ it should prove to be a good game.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Tameside Advertiser Sunday 10th December 2006

"Celtic clot the Blood's flow"

In an anticlimax finish to what was billed as a good game yesterday between fierce rivals Droylsden and Stalybridge the result was ground out to a dull nil all draw, Stalybridge were clearly out for a draw as they went in with a 451 formation and seemed content to hold possession in their own half, even when Droylsden were clearly attacking and leaving holes, the Celtic didn’t even try to muster an effective counter attack, speaking to Burnie after the game, he was clearly upset with the manager John Reed’s tactic’s for the game, and not willing to risk my job for printing a direct quote, Burnie said in a very very watered down version that he was strongly disappointed with the negative tactics employed and could see why John Reeds team didn’t have a hope in hell of getting promoted playing that sort of way.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Panpardus]

December continued

We returned to our winning ways and against Alfreton at their Home we a managed to come from a 2-0 deficit to win by 2 at fulltime. Fearns was in full flight as he opened our scoring, was involved in the second as his shot rebounded out to Lynchy who slotted a great goal through a congested six yard box, Fearns scored his second and the teams third as Substitute Daly layed on a lovely through ball, Fearns could of easily had a hatrick, maybe more if Alfreton’s keeper hadn’t of hit a purple patch. Deep in injury time Zak finished off a great comeback with an uncharacteristic goal that seen him calmly place it into the net instead of smashing it in.

Great news for the club as we moved to the top of the tables for the first time, although we had played an extra game, with no more games until after the Christmas break, Dave came through and managed to secure me three tickets for the family to go and see Man U play against Middlesborough at Old Trafford.

Watching United and making comparisons is truly a disheartening thing, to say they were great was an understatement of the highest order, the only thing they were missing was scoring in regular time, they stepped it up another gear though in extra time and Ronaldo with some truly mesmerizing runs destroyed Middlesborough’s defence, he even surpised me and managed grab an assist, at the end of the game United ran out 3-0 winners with Rooney knocking two. Their field passing and movement was something I could only dream off, the pace of the game was also amazing, TV doesn’t do the game the same justice as being there. Zak was dumb struck it was his first time at the ground and I think he was hit with the United Bug, even Jo was impressed which was nice.

Coming back after Christmas seen us play Reddich at home, they must of heard about the Stalybridge game and low and behold adopted a 451 formation strait from the whistle aswell, us being a little rusty with a 10 day break failed to capitalize on the couple of chances we created and the game ended in another zip all draw at home.

In the four days before the Scarborough game me and the coaching staff devised a few plans to beat the 451 formation but it was thanks to Ordy who was the main contributor and managed to get the players to up to speed with what we wanted. It resulted in a 4-0 whitewash against the bottom team with Fearnsy running rampant, Zak smashing in another long range effort and Jody capping a great captains performance. Lynchy was the key in the game and from his defensive midfield role dominated the tempo of the game superbly launching attack after attack.

At the end of the year we were in 1st place although it was tight at the top few spots it was a great effort by all involved. Zak earned the clubs player of the month just pipping Fearns and Danny Warner who was instrumental in our success for December.

[Panpardus]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Tameside Advertiser

31 January 2007

Droylsden – The season so far

Australian Matt Burnie took over the reins from prominent Tamesider Dave Pace at the start of the season and up until the new year they have looked the goods occupying an incredible first place in the league. With many pundits questioning the former manager/owners motives in which he has categorically denied the selling of the club it has been Burnie who has kept the belief that the club is still strong.

In all reality Pace has made a masterstroke in appointing the Australian with his family relocating over they have a new Physio being Joanne Burnie, (wife) and young and upcoming star Zak Burnie (son) who would of never joined the club otherwise.

Playing an attractive brand of football has seen the fans steadily increase and the winning hasn’t hurt either with a record of 11 wins 7 draws and only 4 losses they led the rest of the pack by a solitary point.

But if Burnie thought it was going to be an easy season, January brought him back to earth, the side only managed 1 win in their 5 games which has seen them slip down to 4th place and 5 points behind Hinkley, with competition extremely high for playoff spots and realistically anyone from 12th could still make it, the Blood’s will have to stop the form slump and start getting some wins on the board to have any show. Although they were picked to come 8th at the start of the season, the good form has given them a taste of success and anything but a play-off spot would be considered a disappointment to the club and fans alike.

Read tomorrows report and see how Hyde has gone so far this season.

Carl Smith, Sports

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Panpardus]

February

After the disappointing month we have intensified training again, if the players can’t keep up the good results then they don’t deserve to have an easier time in training, there was no January club awards as we honestly felt that no one was worthy of receiving it.

A game against Nuneaton brought some added excitement, when their manager went blabbing to the press about how they would beat us and effectively ruin our chances of promotion, all they had to do was to stop Daly and they would no have trouble. Looking at the odds for the games it had us at an incredible 9/1, even the bookies are thinking our bubble has burst.

Another frustrating game seen us walk away with draw in controversial circumstances, Nuneaton jumped us early, scoring in the first minute, but an equalizer came when Fearns drove one home from the spot after Zak was crudely hacked down in the box, the offending player wasn’t even given a card.

The half seen both teams walk in equal and playing a good brand of football, plenty of chances at both ends, although we weren’t capitalizing on our shots, missing the target way too many times.

The game continued and it could have been anyone’s games but in the 77th minute Jody Banim tucked away a rebound into an empty net and we were one up. We were defending well, repelling all their attacks and continuing on with our own, but with a few minutes to go the ref robbed us by giving them a penalty for a slight push on the very edge of the box, the penalty was there if you follow the letter of law but seeing there was 3 or 4 other instances of that happening through out the game, some of them way worse, it was just a crap decision and one I voiced my opinion about that seen the FA fine me.

What followed this game was an unacceptable 1-0 defeat at home to lowly barrow, we dominated possession and most of the play was in their half, our midfield was sensational but the forwards were missing chance after chance, most of the time they couldn’t even hit the target from dead in front, We are blowing our chance for promotion with these results.

Another loss this time at the hands of Gainsborough at their home, once again it was our forwards who couldn’t hit the target, the partnership will be changed for the next game against Worcestor.

The forwards got the message in this game, Daly came off the bench to fill Jody Banim’s position, Banim and Talbot were dropped and Rapley came into the side as the backup striker. Daly opened the scoring for us on the 15 minute mark, it took a deflection though probably why it was on target. Gainsborough equalized immediately and it looked like being one of those days, the crowd which was decreasing in numbers alarmingly over the weeks weren’t that happy. General play was good for us the passing was good and the so was the defending it took till the 67th minute before we scored, Zak curling in a nice free kick from the edge of the box.

The 68th minute brought a surprise another goal this time it was us, Daly was hit a great thru ball by Lynchy, showing some skill he rounded one before blasting past the keeper which went into the bottom right hand corner, me who is getting very cynical at the moment will have to ask if he was aiming for the middle of the goals. Zak rounded of the performance with a rare header from a Tandy cross to complete the game 4-1.

Luckily we were still in 4th place but the signs are not looking good another month with only 1 win anymore of these sorts of months and it will be over for us.

[Panpardus]

March

Doug called me in for the meeting in March, the first real one since the beginning of this year. We went over the team’s performances in detail, overall he was still Happy and so was Pacey, but the form slump was a bit of a worry, I told him were were working on it, the general play was still good, It was just that we couldn’t capitalize on the good play, missing the target from just outside the six yard box was inexcusable, and what we were doing far too often.

Finances were steady, down about 50K for the year, but that’s a normal thing, Some players contracts had still not been finalized and we went through the state of those, the ones left would need to prove themselves in the coming weeks if they wanted to be retained, the players in question were fully aware.

The only other thing to go over was the fine handed out to me for my comments in an earlier game, although he agreed, I was told I had to be more careful, they were coming down hard on people now, Managers critizing the refs all the time would result in less people wanting to do the job, which wouldn’t be good for the game. With the meeting over we went down the local for a few beers. We were still 4th something to be happy about but hopefully the improvement would come this month.

Farsley Celtic 22nd in the league and we were traveling to their home to play in our first game for the month, our shooting at training had improved, and I was looking for a good effort from the team but most of all a decent percentage of shots on targets to shots.

I wasn’t disappointed Fearns and Daly were doing well we had over 50% conversion for the shots on goal, and not surprisingly we ran out easy 3 nil winners on the day with Daly grabbing another 2 and Fearnsy grabbing one.

Home versus Workington seen me abuse the ref again this time for what looked clearly a dive in the box, which they converted for the only goal of the game. Our strikers reverted back to the old form of missing sitters, and my further comments after the game would see me serve a touch line ban against Kettering. On reflection the decision was probably right, but when a player is fouled and the theatrics cause him to spectacularly roll 8 times along the ground grab his ankle when its all done and then immediately get up when he hears the whistle it just irks me, if one of my players did this they would be severely warned and a repeat would see them looking for a new club.

Hucknall was our next home game, but first we had to play Kettering away, it should have been a win with us being 2-0 up with 15 to play for reasons that escpae me Aeon failed to get the team to go defensive, and subbed out our Jags on the right centre for Tandy who can only play on the left, in the end we were lucky to get a 2-2 draw, I don’t think Aeon will be at the club if we make the National league next year.

My return at the Hucknall game seen us cruise to victory with a lovely 3-0 win. Zak bagged 2 before the main break and Fickley converted a corner for his first goal of the year.

Dave Colley rang me on the 20th with an interesting prospect it seems Mark Crossley the old former Welsh international wants some first team action, Coles was chatting to him and Crossley said he would consider making a move here if the price is right, with a few other clubs sniffing about though we’d have to move quick, unfortunately I didn’t think we could afford his wage bill, but I set up a meeting with him after Hull accepted a free transfer bid.

The day after I received a phone call from Johnny Kosmina, it seemed Zak was being called up to the Australian under 19’s for a friendly against Uruguay over there, he was touching base with me to see if we could spare him, The pride in me at the moment is too immense for words, Zak was about to play for Australia, I will never stand in the way of anyone playing an International game be it friendly or normal game, u19’s or seniors. He was to set off tomorrow for the game on the 26th which meant he would miss the Leigh game.

Zak was rapt as well when he was told, and Jo actually cried, it was a great day for this family, I never played an International for Australia, something that I regret deeply, back in my day we were looked upon badly by the clubs if we chose to play, so we always had a slight injury here and there which would prevent us from flying or playing.

We missed Zak in the Leigh game but it was our scoring again that lost the game for us, unable to score even though we had plenty chances, this would haunt us if we couldn’t fix it soon.

Crossley agreed to come to the club if we could pay him 1000 pounds per week, unfortunately no matter how much pleading I did, Doug wouldn’t authorize that amount per week. The deal was rejected and he signed with Leceister, with a bit of luck we might get him on loan next year.

The last game of the month would see us play Hinkley who were in first place, with us being in 6th it was predicted to be a big game, but it ended in a boring nil all draw, the game was dominated by the defences from both sides, we managed to get 7 shots away but no decent chances, likewise our defence did a terrific job as well limiting them to 3 shots for the game. Coming into April we had a lot of work to do if we wanted to make the playoffs.

The end of the month seen me renew my contract for another year, Doug and myself were hoping this would bit of a morale boost for the players to see the manager sign for another year.

[Panpardus]

April

I couldn’t believe my eyes this was by far the worst performance I had seen at the club in all my time, a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Lancaster who were only just behind us in points, we were beaten in all areas of the pitch. I take my hat off to the Lancaster team it was truly a great team effort by them matched by an equally poor performance by us, We’ve slipped to 7th now and play-offs are looking like something to aim for next year.

My team talk was harsh on the players, we had 4 games left and to have any chance of getting there we would have to win three out of four at least, maybe all 4.

Stalybridge would prove to be an Obstacle it was a big rivalry and this time we were the traveling side, As always there is reports in the paper about this and that but we tried to ignore the hype that the Tameside Derby’s drew.

Our team was out to prove a point in the game and a point they did prove, we were the best Tameside team in this division as our boys cruised to victory, smashing 4 past the Celtic. Morris and Zak got both our first half goals off free kicks, it stunned the home crowd which was nice and when Mark Hume was sent off for them in the 22nd minute you could here a pin drop. Lynchy knocked in a nice goal on 39 and we took in a 3 goal lead at the half. Lynchy added another on the hour, and the Celtic fans were piling out the gate, it’s a great thing to decimate your rival, confidence would be high and we had gotten back into 6th place with the win.

Our last three games would see two at home , Alfreton and Vauxhall, our last game for the regular season would be at Redditch which would probably decide if we made play-offs or not.

Alfreton were just above us in the league 4th versus 6th but our goal difference was vastly superior, with a win we would equal them on points and move atleast 5th which was the last of the playoff positions, and win we did in a game where only one goal separated us.

Daly grabbed the goal in injury time of the first half. We were peppered with goals after the half but a magnificent performace from the back 4 and Lynchy made getting good chances impossible in the end they didn’t get a single shot on target and we ran out 1-0 winners and moved into a play off position. The disappointing thing was that only 217 people turned up to watch for such a pivotal game.

Vauxhall was next and another game we couldn’t afford to drop any points on.

A Terry Fearns hatrick sealed the win for us which was nicely supported by Steve Daly who gave him 2 assists, Zak the other. 600 people turned up this time to see us move into 4th place.

With the ladder so tight anyone from 8th place could still make the playoff’s as Alfreton were playing Blyth they would need a 5-0 win and other results to go their way to have any chance.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

| Pos |-Inf---| Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st |-Pl----| Workington---| 41 | 20 | 11 | 10 | 61 | 51 | +10 | 71 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd |-------| Hinckley-----| 41 | 19 | 11 | 11 | 74 | 51 | +23 | 68 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd |-------| Nuneaton-----| 41 | 20 | 8 | 13 | 65 | 54 | +11 | 68 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th |-------| Droylsden----| 41 | 18 | 12 | 11 | 72 | 48 | +24 | 66 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th |-------| Blyth--------| 41 | 18 | 12 | 11 | 49 | 41 | +8 | 66 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th |-------| Lancaster----| 41 | 19 | 8 | 14 | 62 | 55 | +7 | 65 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th |-------| Kettering----| 41 | 17 | 13 | 11 | 65 | 42 | +23 | 64 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th |-------| Alfreton-----| 41 | 18 | 9 | 14 | 58 | 59 | -1 | 63 |

</pre>

The Last Game

The two hour trip down to Redditch was nerve racking, we needed to win to secure a play-off, a draw might do it but we couldnt count on it. The game plan was simple, start off slow and work our way into the game, if you had a chance go for it, just don't leave ourselves open. If it was all square just before half time we were to go more attacking, I would give the signal. by Half time i should have around the ground scores, so we re assess at half time.

We played to our plan at the start, going slow for the 10 just to work our way into the game, some desperate defending on our part was good to see that the lads were focused. Around the quarter hour Daly made a break that brought me out of the dugout, he just skimmed the outside edge of the left upright, goal kick.

I didn't want to sit back down the nerves were getting to me, but they settled a bit as Daly was put through by Zak and this time he made no mistake slotting the ball under the diving keeper, 1 up and a few fist pumps later, I gave the signal to reset, go slow and steady, nothing stupid.

We were flowing well though and before the 20 we had 2 really good chances with Fearns hitting the crossbar and Zak just heading one wide, things were looking promising, Reddich weren't attacking at all, we cut every attempt that they made out.

2-0 we went just on a quarter way through the game, Fitzy made a nice run down the right with an enticing cross that the keeper just couldn't quite get to, the result was that it fell to Fearnsy and he put away the easiest of goals with the keeper stranded.

This time were told to sit back the back 4 kept right back not allowing any long balls to catch us out, while the midfield was to play a stopping role and just knock thru balls for the Forwards to run on to, It worked well for us and Redditch didnt look like scoring. Just before half time Fitzy took a big knock and was concussed, Jags was brought on, he'd been lacking a bit of form hence him sitting on the bench for the last few.

Half time 2 up and i was frantically calling all the people i had around the grounds, Blyth were beating Alfreton 2-1 so Blyth looked like staying up although Alfreton were pressing hard and scored one just before half time, the Lancaster Nuneaton game was all square aswell, same with both the Kettering game and the Hinkley one. We would be going back out defending for our lives although we were in second place at the moment all Redditch had to do was equalise and were back down in 4th or 5th.

The first ten minutes were awesome for us, just not at our game, Alfreton hit two quick ones to go 3-2 up they couldnt get above us no matter the result, but them winning meant Blyth couldn't either, Kettering were struggling, and Hinkley were still at a draw, Lancaster scored 2 quick ones past Nuneaton aswell so with them loosing and us above them we couldnt get knocked out by my calculations.

Our defence was great, the second half was just us bottling play up although Redditch weren't really threatening they managed to score a late consolation goal in injury time, but we would win 2-1 and secured second place. We were in the playoff. The nerves were gone for the time being.

[Panpardus]

The Play-offs

“2 days, are you having a lend?†I asked

“Na, I’m serious we play Lancaster in Lancaster at the Giant Axe for the first Leg†replied Aeon.

“Christ, they're not giving us much time then to recover,…. How’s Fitzy?â€

“He wont play but best if you ask your misses,.. We couldn’t of got a worse team to play either, you remember that thrashing they gave us a couple weeks back, 5-1, I don’t like our chances†Aeon remarked.

“You’re to pessimistic Aeon, it’s a play off game 2nd versus 5th , were the 2nd placed side, it’s a different ball game. We’ve had a great run to get to second place our forms good I think we’ll do okâ€

A Big crowd was there to greet us, well greet isn’t the word that should be used but it sounds better than heckled, cursed or jeered. The nerves had me everywhere but I think I got it through to the players that today’s game is a different kettle of fish. Finals are different than regular games, more scrutiny, more pressure, it’s all about who can settle first and follow the gameplan.

Our was simple we’d sit back for the first quarter hour and just let things flow, no big breaks to start, no getting caught out from a long ball, just work our way into the game.

We settled the better, the opening minutes seen us passing well, it was crisp and accurate, just moving it around giving everyone an early touch which was great for the players, Jags was back in for the injured Fitzgerald and it was he who set up our first assault on Lancaster’s goal, a nice run from the centre to the right hand edge of the Penalty box tapping it past one defender and firing a hard ground ball across the face just out of reach of the keeper, Daly arrived a fraction of a second too late and the ball crossed the byline for a goal kick, sooooo close.

Chances were hard to come by with both teams playing carefully, but we took one of ours on the 26 minute mark, Morris with some sublime skill, skinned one and nutmegged another, hit a nice angled pass in between both centre backs for Steve Daly to run onto and smash our first in the top right corner, the keeper didn’t move.

Instead of them pressing to get a quick equalizer it was us who extended our lead 2 minutes later when Jimmy Williams hit a cross tantalizing close to the keeper, who misread the flight, this time Steve was on hand and hit the open net giving him his second.

Lancaster’s keeper was having a torrid time of it, nerves clearly getting the better of him, and when Fearnsy stood over the penalty kick in the first minute of injury time, all he had to do was put somewhere remotely near the corners and we’d be three up, unfortunately Fearnsy was as nervous as their keeper and our most reliable of penalty taker’s put it into the stands high and right, their keeper hadn’t moved. Still we went in 2-0 up at the half looking the better team, Lancaster had hardly made an attacking run into our half.

It was a different Lancaster side that came out after the break, the absolute pasting that their manager had given them at half time had done the trick, our defence was clearly their equal though and we repelled all their attacks comfortably, on a counter Fearnsy had a great chance, but nerves were telling and instead of striking the ball cleanly he kicked the ground first duffing the shot which trickled into the keepers arms, he was subbed and Jody Banim came on with immediate effect, a nice ball placed out to the left by Jags had given Jody 10 yards on the nearest defender, by the time Jody had reached the penalty box on the left though his defender had caught him, but a nice feint towards the byline and then cutting back towards the centre opened enough room for a another hard grounded cross picking out the late arriving Morris who slammed it past the outstretched keeper, 3-0 up and 15 to play.

Our defence was superb for the rest of the game, didn’t give them a sniff, and when we were walking back into the change rooms I patted Aeon on the back as gave him everyone’s favourite line when you call something. “I told you soâ€.

The Return leg which again only gave us a two day recovery seen us play in front of our largest crowd this year some 1600 plus people, and we didn’t disappoint, well Zak didn’t anyway, seeing the keeper slightly off his line he launched one from 40 yards out, with the precision of a premier league player it went into the top right corner leaving the keeper no hope in the world, and all this in the 3rd minute of play.

Lancaster were going all out now 4-0 down overall and with nothing else to loose but a bit of pride, they pressed us hard looking for goals, but a team that’s pressing that hard leaves big holes, and Zak’s from this year was proving he didn’t need much of hole, and so it was him again this time provider after a nice interception, gifted Morris a goal from a nicely weighted cross.

In truth we should off scored more, Zak had his second overturned with a dubious offside call, but we ran out easy 2-0 winners and at 5-0 overall, it was a great day for the club to at least achieve the same as last years results, but we were hoping for a bit better result in the final this time though.

[Panpardus]

The Final

My hands were shaking in the rooms before the game, not from nerves this time from excitement, we were playing Nuneaton and this was a team that hadn’t beaten us this year and didn’t really have the talent up front to beat our defenders.

Going through the pre game tactics it was much the same as our first Lancaster playoff game, start slow keep it all together and just work into the game, The players seemed confident, all except Fearnsy anyway who went to the toilet about 8 times before the game started, the decision had already been made to start him on the bench, and Dean Blackwell one of our coaches had the job of calming his nerves.

I’d prepped the teams all I could, and awaited them out on the pitch, I was chatting with Dean near the dugouts when Dave Colley our scout wandered over to have a quick chat and wish us luck. It seemed there was about 10 scouts that he new in the crowd and they had all came here for the same reason. Zak had been earned himself a bit of a reputation and the scouts were here to see how he handled the big day.

“Where they from ?â€

“Couple div one sides, Forest’s scout is there as well as Wednesday’s, but the main ones are Wigan, Middlesborough and them 3 guys sitting up the back are the ones that will stop you retaining Zak for next year, you should recognize 2 of themâ€

“aaa ****, that’s not good, Beardsley and Venables. Aren’t those two in charge of Chelsea’s Youth system now?â€

Dave Colley just nodded “Yep and the man next to them is Ray Townsend they don’t send him to see just anyone, he’s the head scout at Chelsea, all you can do now is try and get a good price for him. Phil Cannon was there for that home semi, he’s there lower division scout, let’s just say that goal last week is still a talking point at the momentâ€

Dave was about to continue but the players were coming out on to the pitch, not long now until we knew our fate for next year.

The whistle blew and all was good for the first 4 minutes we started the same as we had been starting, nice and settled but Nuneaton McPhee had other ideas as he tore through our defence single handedly and put one under the Ashton for the first of the game, It was a great individual effort.

We increased our tempo after this but it was still Nuneaton who had all the chances, this time our defence was better more efficient, repelling a good half dozen attacks before the half. Zak was being man marked and didn’t have an impact on the first half, but we needed more from the whole team if we were to win, and at the moment it didn’t look like we would.

I gave my half time speech, urging the players on, telling them we were still in the game and giving the usual instructions, we changed our game plan, a bit more direct and attacking, from the restart we would hit them hard, we had to try and get this goal back as early as we can, the longer it went on the harder it would be, but never once should we lose belief in ourselves.

It was Jody Banim our captain who brought them all in close and gave them a truly rousing speech, the players responded and were visibly pumped, but sometimes things said in the changeroom aren’t brought out onto the pitch, Im glad to say this isn’t one of them times.

5 minutes after the restart Jody headered in Zak’s corner, he lost his marker in the crowd and popped up on the near post to neatly tuck it home, the players didn’t rest on the laurels either, and we were attacking hard, Nuneaton were shocked I think, they say back and let us come, when Zak grazed the post from a free kick just outside the box it brought a collective oooooo from the crowd, 2 minutes later and in an almost identical position the crowd were cheering , same free kick this time it grazed the inside of the post and hit the back of the net 2-1, half hour to go.

Steve Daly made it three with 20 to go, Jags the supplier this time a nice little touch in the box gave Steve enough room to have a crack, taking a slight deflection it whistled into the net.

If Nuneaton were shocked before now they were gob smacked, The last 20 minutes wouldn’t have seen the ball enter our back third for more than 20 seconds I think and on the death knock Zak popped up to nod in his second of the game and seal his fate.

It was a surreal experience for me, I was elated with the team we, had secured promotion to the National next year, but loosing Zak would see us struggle, maybe we could keep him but the chances were slim. We’d be losing Danny Warner as well, I couldn’t see him holding a position down so we accepted an offer for him from Hucknall, he just to hammer out the details in the contract and he would be on his way. About 5 others would be leaving and I was desperately hoping to get some good players in.

We won I kept telling myself, but I couldn’t get next season’s woes out of my head for long enough to savour the victory, it took till much later that night before I could celebrate hole heartily, the result of a lot of beers and quite a few bourbon’s.

[Panpardus]

The Off Season

A week was behind our great win in the Final, and truth be told I was still a bit hungover, A 5 day bender with bits of sleep here and there had taken their toll on my body, Jo has gone back to Australia to check on things there and I’ve called a staff meeting for tomorrow to go over next season, expectations, players to get rid off, players to get, all the rigmarole you expect in an off season. The coaches were assigned parts of the squad to go over and give me a report on and we’d assess them at the meeting

Meeting:

With everyone there we proceeded into the meeting, Most of us still jovial and buoyant over the promotion, we went through the strengths and weakness of the season and it was our concentration that needed improving, with more fitness it would come, and now in a higher league we all agreed we needed a tougher preseason than the last one. Our teamwork was great and that’s what got us promoted, an ability to work hard for the team when we both had and didn’t have the ball was a key factor. The forwards were good a bit inaccurate but good all the same, the midfield was magnificent, and the defence was great as well, in saying that were under no illusions that we needed to strengthen in all areas to compete next year.

Jason handed out his reports and we all went over them:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Sammy Ashton – Loanee 35 games, 33 con, 6.57 avg

Decent season and good in general play, a decent Con North player but we’ll need better in the National, His one on one’s let him down and aerial work is below parr, his ability to squash the thru ball is second to none though.

Paul Phillips – 16(1) games, 21 con, 6.53 avg

Not a bad season, but makes a lot of handling errors, consistency is lacking aswell, decent in the one on ones and aerial, but only be a back up really

Daniel Tate – 0(2) games, 0 con, 6.00 avg

What can you say about someone who plays less that a half in total game time for the season, not much. Backup at best.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Our Goalies were going to be a problem Ashton wasn’t good enough to loan again for a higher division and Phillips and Tate would struggle in the league was the general consensus, needed a decent keeper, would keep a close eye on Loan availabilities.

Richard Ord did the defenders and passed out his assessments

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Daniel Warner – 27(6) games, 7.06 avg.

Decent Season but lacked a bit in defence, was better rotating through the midfield, Selling anyway so ?

Ashley Fickling – 41(3) games, 7.00 avg.

Best defender in the squad can cover anywhere and did through out the season, played his best games in the centre, although was good on the right when needed. He should retain his position next year, although at 34 he’s not getting any better.

Richard Ord – 18(11) 6.90 avg.

Great back up, struggled a bit with injury, Mastermind Tactician a must keep player/Coach *grin grin nudge nudge*

Jon Rattlesturr - 40(5) games, 6.84 avg.

Versatile and had to be he played every position over the back, had a run in the hole when Lynchy was injured and also covered the midfield, a must keep really if just for his versatility.

Craig Robinson – 0(2) games,

Didn’t see enough, trained ok, replacement maybe needed.

Chris Adams – 35(4) games, 6.78 avg.

Did well at left back providing support and got forward aswell which was good, should be ok but a backup would be nice to have.

Jimmy Williams - 32(4) games 6.78 avg.

Surprised everyone with his performances, decent and hardworking and managed to get forward and assist in some crucial goals, give a chance next year.

Carl Ruffer – 9(5) games, 6.57 avg.

No more than backup, replace

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

So there it was, we all agreed Defence would be our biggest problem, Aeon was being a twat saying we needed to replace them all and if we didn’t we would be strait back down, I’ll speak to Doug about replacing him.

Dean Blackwell did the Midfielders.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Zak Burnie - 41(4) 16g, 19a, 10 mom 7.42 Rating

Will be a key to our success next year, enough said

Kevin Lynch 37(1) 3g, 3a, 1 mom 7.18 Rating

Great season at DM, doesn’t have the stats other players do, but he has the overall package, and reliable as ever, give him a chance to see how he goes although getting good cover wont hurt.

Steve Jagielka 36(3) 2g, 4a, 3 mom 7.18 Rating

Good season, gave some strong performances, was always there abouts, tailed off towards the end of the season so maybe rotate a bit more.

Ian Fitzgerald 12(7) 2g, 3a, 1 mom 6.79 Rating

Did well to get back in side, doesn’t have the quality though and will be reserves next year, sell or release

Gareth Morris[/b} 26(9) 4g, 5a, 6.74 Rating

Disappointing showed glimpses but struggled to get back into the team when Zak was moved into the centre. Good Back up though.

Jamie Tandy 23(13) 4a, 1 mom 6.69 Rating

Really disappointing, didn’t show the consistency needed to be a full time player, needs to work hard next year, give 1 more year to prove himself

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Midfield was great this year, Zak, Lynchy and Jags held it together with some good backup, but with Zak looking like going things would need to be improved.

Steve Thornber and Pat Connel did the Forwards

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Jody Banim – 18(8) 9g, 2a 6.88 Rating

Slightly disappointing season, injury hampered it though but proved his worth in the final series, good bit player if nothing else.

Terry Fearns – 34(6) 18g, 4a, 4 mom 7.08 Rating

Good Season, got lazy and complacent in parts of the season though, not the best in big games. But worthy of a chance in the National.

Robbie Talbot – 13(11) 4g, 1a 6.88 Rating

Did well when challenged, tailed off badly though, Reserves or free transfer.

Kevin Rapley – 3(9) 6.33 Rating

Didn’t do enough although a bad injury crippled him early, free or release.

Steve Daly – 34(5) 20g, 9a, 5 mom 7.21 Rating

Great season had a small form slump in middle but a very promising player, and should get a birth easily, 20 goals in a season is nothing to sneeze at.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Attacking looked Ok but a talented forward would be great to have, would start looking for one aswell.

Concluding the meeting and going over all possibilities it was decided we need a keeper firstly, definitely needed a few defenders, Left sided and Centre Backs would be nice, Midfield was strong, depending on if Zak was still there, but backup’s would be good. And a good forward would be needed for the incoming season

We would need to cut Fitzy, Rapley, Ruffer, Talbot, and maybe Robinson..

[Panpardus]

Off Season (cont)

The off season was proving to be hectic, early June I had hundreds of emails to go through, phone calls, interviews it was getting a bit much, 14 to 16 hour days were killing my life. All this while the players were on holiday, when they came back it would be even more hectic.

We had a reserves and Youth team playing this year, and Aeon didn’t inspire confidence in this regard I would bring it up with Doug to see if we could pay him out and get someone a bit better.

I was working with Dave Colley pretty intensively aswell early June going through his lists of all possible players, out of hundreds of players the only one we could get was Richard Hughes a young Midfielder from Notts Forest who would provide good back up, Warner had gone to Hucknall, and other’s were told there contracts were not going to be renewed, we were sure about Robinson or Rattlespurr so we were going to leave them on Month by Month.

No keeper wanted to come to the club, this was a huge problem for us, We were struggling to get anyone decent who was interested full stop, and on the 7th I was called into Doug’s office things were going Down hill.

“Hi there Matt, come in and sit down we have a dilemma to solve “

“Oh†I exclaimed not sure what he meant

“Have a look at this†Doug said as he handed me a document.

It was Chelsea’s bid for Zak, so far there had just been enquiry’s and when we told them we wanted three quarters of a mil up front and 50% on the resale all of them went running, Chelsea’s offer was a bit different though.

“800 kay and 25%....... You’re gonna accept it, aren’t youâ€

“I am afraid we have too, its too good to pass up, his valuation is a touch over 50 kay at the moment we’d be mad if we didn’t sell for this, and honestly who wouldn’t want to go to Chelsea at the momentâ€

I nodded my head in agreement, it looked like we had just lost Zak to Chelsea, while we were talking a phone call came through, Lille had just matched Chelsea’s Offer, now we definitely had to get another decent midfielder, although with him going to Chelsea he wouldn’t play, maybe we could pinch him back on loan for the season.

With a 800K in the bank or there soon to be it would mean a bit more spending money and indeed it was, Doug said I had 80 K more to play with now, and the rest would be invested in the future of the club, I suggested better Youth and training facilities which was accepted, also we should go fully professional now we had the money, with the facilities and a more professional outfit we could get better quality players down here ensuring our survival, cause at the moment we weren’t attracting anyone. Doug took the suggestion under advisement and would get back to me on the Professional status of the club.

Days after the meeting Dave Colley called me up, more bad news, West Ham had offered him a contract, we were never going to be able to match it, and the 1000 pounds we were getting as a fee was a joke for a scout of his ability, I would be sad to see him go but happy when he brought a few players files to look over before he left, some off them actually wanted to come here.

Zak was rapt when told about Chelsea and Lille and he lated signed for Chelsea on the 12th, we seen no reason to hold him here so he went down to London to get accommodated. Jo went down with him and stayed a week, all which Chelsea paid for.

Things were coming along on the transfer front, we’d had a handshake agreement with three defenders to come and do a 3 week trial after the holidays, and Dave recommended two decent scouts who we signed up before he left. We couldn’t find a keeper though and it was causing a lot of heartaches, we had a crack at Paddy Gamble from Forest but he wasn’t interested in either a full time move or coming down as Loan and there wasn’t anyone else suitable, This would be a long month going through squad lists and ringing people to see if the could come down on loan. Most of the time the bids were accepted and when we talked to the player in question they couldn’t stop laughing, like it was a huge joke, it was dampening my spirits.

I’d had enough of Aeon, and went in to Doug’s office and told him I wanted him sacked, Doug was strangely agreeable, but when he said its coming out of my budget I knew why, Aeon was given the news and 14K to be on his way and the search started for a new Assistant Manager, I also persuaded Doug to get me a secretary as now the club was in the National I needed some help with the day to day things, he was happy oblige, the sad thing about it though was that she was on more per week than me.

Friendlies were organized, A few contracts were offered and things went smoothly. When Derek Asamoah was released by Shrewsbury I was pleased, he was the forward we needed and I had ear marked earlier as a good signing lightining quick and a good finisher he would be awesome in this league, He must have been a hour out of his club when I offered him a contract personally, it met all his requirements and a bit extra, but he said he’d give it a week and then get back to me, Unfortunately two other clubs saw the same opportunity and he headed of to Halifax a professional club and tipped to press for promotion.

My advertisement had paid dividends, 5 candidates for the Assistants Job and all of them were great prospects, even Jason Culina’s father applied, he’d be handy, maybe we could entice Jason over to play aswell, that would definitely solve any forward problems.

The standout though Steve Galloway who had been working in Sweden with Umea, all the right answers to the Questions that I asked seen me handing him a 3 year contract and 15K to Umea, A wealth of knowledge crammed into his 44 year old head with a good base in Sweden and Germany.

[Panpardus]

Season Two – Conference National

July was upon us and apart from the mad rush for players that we didn’t participate in, not through lack of trying mind you, it was a fairly uneventful month.

Pre-season was tough but the players were still in reasonable shape, no injuries to start us off, and Richard Hughes was the only new player we had so far, Matty Wolfenden (AM/F), Nick Mass (F), Matt Somner (D RC,DM) and Colin Cryan (D R, DM) were all on trial, as it turned out we signed them all for the start of the season.

We couldn’t get a keeper so Phillips and Tate would duke it out over the practice games to see who started.

With practice games against

AFC Wimbledon

FC United

Havant and Waterlooville

Boston Town and

Leeds

All went to script we easily accounted for the 4 teams below us in divisions but Leeds showed us why they are 3 Divisions above us, giving us a resounding 5-0 thumping at home infront of a full house.

A meeting between Doug and myself ended badly with me going off my nut at him, he was being a complete and utter twat, after reflection I still feel the same, He doesn’t care if we get relegated, he’s made his investment back now of Zak’s transfer, so why should he care.

Chelsea were willing to loan Zak out for the season as he was a reserve team player at the moment, and while there was other clubs in the hunt, we had the inside running being one his favourite clubs, and his Mother and Father being here, but proceedings were stalled when Doug wouldn’t authorize the 100% payment of his wages, he would only authorize 50%, it was 400 pounds difference a week for christ’s sake and I was 3K under my wages limit. He wouldn’t budge on it and I came with an inch of just reaching across and punching his lights out, Zak ended up moving to Wolves for the Season, when I rang Pacey about it he said there wasn’t anything he could do, he was sorry, but he was under pressure at his job and was tied down.

Early in the month of August the Australian press was abuzz as Graham Arnold had decided to stand down as Manger of Australia after getting second in the Asian Cup, which was a respectable result. The public were none to happy with his replacement.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

The Weekend Australian, Sunday Edition, 5th August 2007

Fans were confused and angry at the announcement of the new Australia Manager yesterday, In what was a surprise move, relative unknown Matt Burnie was appointed and will share the duties between club and Nation for the foreseeable future.

Here’s what a few supporters had to say:

CS of Sydney Australia writes : I can’t believe that Australian Football would do this, we start to get back on our feet, The A-League is running smoothly, a great result from Guus and the boys see’s us flying in the World Cup and then they set it back 10 years with the appointment of some no–hoper that no one has heard off except his local community. We deserve to have a world class manager and this has failure written all over it.

PN of Broadmeadows Victoria writes: It’s a shame that they feel they need to give the job to an Australian, this can be the only reason as why he was appointed. Even then im sure there must be better choices, Lets just hope he can do the Job we all expect.

A quick background search found theat he was a former professional footballer in England with Swindon Town where he was highly regarded, he had carved a great career out for himself, but a severe knee injury cut his promising career short. Taking a Player/Assistant Manager role seen him return to Australia with his young family, but a re-occurrence of the old knee injury put an end to his playing days. He later took job at the WAIS as a Youth Develepment Officer, also helping out the Australian Under 19’s and doing some work as a Laison between the AIS and some English Teams that offer trials and work experience to the young Aussie athletes.

His latest endeavor has seen him join Droylsden F.C a part-time club in England in which he did secure promotion to the Conference National Division, which apparently is quite an achievement, all though Burnie is a relative unknown in the world many think he has the ability to guide Australia to the World Cup but feel he should of at least had more than a single years experience in the job.

Interesting times are coming for Australia in World Football, and lets all hope Matt Burnie can deliver the goods.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Vodka&Coke]

Well done fella, Conference North/South always seem to be differcult leagues to get out of. Good Luck for the new season, who else has gone up via the South?

[bailey!!]

Dave Pace is a legend!!he does everything at droylsden!!went to a couple of games last yr look a gd bet 4 promotion this season 2

[Grey2cool]

ah the playoff's. i was lancaster and got knocked out in the semi's on penalties. also that damn 4-5-1 formation keeps popping up when i play and i have no idea how to beat that.

anyway good luck in the conference, good reading as well

[Panpardus]

Season Two - Conference National

Pre season went well, the players had trained hard in preparation for the new season which was a good sign, unfortunately Doug had decided against making the club fully professional so trying to get players was a battle when competing against teams in the same division that were professional, it turned out to be a full time job in itself.

I spent days on the phone and I think poor Jessica’s fingers were worn from the endless amount of faxes that she had to make on my behalf, I tried to get any keeper that looked better than the ones I had and believe me there was a few.

The odds came in for the season and as expected were odds on favourite for the drop, but 40-1 long shots for promotion, I think if all things went well we could secure a mid to low table finish, our biggest problem was depth and keepers.

2 days before the first game and one of my biggest problems had happened. Jessica paged me on the Intercom “Your wife on line 2 boss, says it’s importantâ€.

“Thanks Jessâ€

“Hey ***, whats upâ€

…..

…..

“ahuh, good news first thenâ€

…..

…..

…..

“yep…..ahuh….well that’s good then, so he’ll be back soon?â€

…..

“what do you mean it ties in with the bad news aswellâ€

…..

…..

…..

“oh f**k, please tell me your not seriousâ€

…..

“f**k f**k f **k f**k, …. Three f**king months, oh for f**ks sake I knew selling Danny would bite me on the arseâ€

…..

“Na ill be in here for awhile now, have to find a left back now, and they way it is at the moment trying to get a keeper I’d say my chaces are somewhere in between slim and f**k all getting someone soon……just chuck it in the microwave for me, I gotta go ***, I’ve got a crapload to doâ€

…..

…..

“Love you too,.. Byeâ€

I pressed the intercom button to get Jessica on the line “ Jessica can you get Gallo and Ordy here asap please we have a problemâ€

“No prob boss†she replied

Gallo and Ordy turned up and when I told of them dilemma they were as shocked as me to the seriousness of Chris Adams injury, 3 months with an achilles injury and then trying to get some fitness back we’d be lucky to get him playing again before the new year.

Me: “So chaps what options do we haveâ€

Ordy: “Fickling and Rattlespurr could play there in a pinchâ€

Gallo: “Don’t want to move Fickles if we don’t have to he’s our best centreback, we’d be robbin peter to pay paul so to speakâ€

Me: “My sediments exactly Gallo, I don’t like Jon on the wings either he’s a bit iffy there, anything from the youth squad that might be able to take the step up?â€

Gallo: “Lee Jukes is a name for the future, designated left back, good tackler, decent eye for a pass, works hard, gets caught out of position a bit but I think he’s a better option than Rattlespurr.

Me: “Thoughts Ordyâ€

Ordy: “Can’t hurt to give him a goâ€

Me: Ok then get him to training with the seniors tomorrow so we can have a look how he goes, we will make an assessment then, thanks again for coming in fella’sâ€

I rang both my scouts to see if they had any prospects, there was a few names so I fired off some enquires to the relevant clubs.

[Panpardus]

Season Two: Conference National

“Brent Goulet pleaseâ€

…

…

“Its Matt Burnie, Droyls…. Australian Managerâ€

…

…

…

“Hey Brent, thanks for that, and good luck in your new job aswell…. So whats the big bad U.S doing on the first of next monthâ€

…

“Want to come down to Sydney then?â€

…

“Excellent, well I’ll talk to you later, see you in Sydneyâ€.

My first act as an Australian coach, organising a friendly, now all I had to do was inform the relevant people, well I’ll just ring Johnny Kosmina and he can do that before I have to get on the coach to London.

Looking around the coach we had 5 new players all making their debut’s tonight including 17 year old Lee Jukes he looked impressive in training, but training is a bit different than a game, we’d see how we went, he did look extremely nervous though.

Here we were about to play Dags & Red, predicted to come midtable but they were playing down here, I wasn’t nervous about the outcome, what ever happened happened. I was hoping for a good effort.

It wasn’t a good start 2 down after 20, they were hurting us down the wings, young Lee was in trouble from the start, and Williams on the other side was on the same boat. To their credit they settled a bit and some good defending seen us go into the break still 2-0 down, our passing was good and we had as much of the ball as them as well, the only difference was we weren’t setting up our chances as good as them.

During the break I told my back 4 to push up a little more and don’t give them as much room, and we were to go a little more attacking as well, we had nothing to lose really, we all knew it was going to be a hard year might as well have a decent crack at it.

It seemed to work as Steve Daly netted 2 before the 10 minute mark had passed, his first a nice little effort when a defender failed to remove a corner, it seemed to bobble around in the box forever before he got a decisive shot on it, and his second was through some good play from debutant Matty Wolfenden as he brought the ball inside and hit a pinpoint pass to Daly who first timed it to the right of the keeper.

When Griffiths was shown the red for a dangerous two footed tackle on Jags on the hour, my hopes had risen for a first up win in the division, but sadly they were crushed when Makali-Smith got his second in the 68th and completed his hatrick 4 minutes later when young Jukes was caught dilly dallying on the ball. That little experiment had failed so we subbed him out for Jon Rattlespurr who didn’t really inspire the confidence. We lost 4-2 in the end, although I would of loved too I didn’t go off at the players or strangle Jukes for his costly errors, I just thanked him for his help and said I’d be paying attention to his efforts in the reserves with some good performances there he would see more time in the seniors.

Home versus Stafford would be a good test for us they had a first up win and were predicted for a midtable finish, so we could get an early indication of how we fared.

We played well and took the lead when Nick Maas scored his first goal for the club from a Jagielka interception and great through ball, now all we had to do was hang on to lead for another 70 odd minutes. The defence was outstanding and besides from a penalty chance that Tandy gave, Stafford got no other good ones. The penalty shot was hit strait at Phillips who managed to hang on, and we had our first win for the season in front of 1400 fans.

Another long trip toward London would see us play Stevenage, tipped for a chance at promotion we were going to be hard pressed, and we were, they outclassed in most areas which resulted in a comfortable 2-0 win for them, our defence tried hard and new signing Cryan was good for us, but our forwards failed to make an impact having a 6 shots with none of them on target.

Sutton were coming to town, and we were to have more bad luck, Richard Hughes the new signing from Notts Forest came down heavily after jumping for a header in training and broke his shoulder, It would see him spend a month on the sidelines, that made 4 now with Banim, Fearns, Adams and himself.

Despite the bad luck we had a great start, Maas headed in a super cross from Tandy on the 8 minute mark, and then Wolfenden capped off some great passing in the 26th minute, the move included new signing Somner, Jagielka, and Maas all which played some great one touch passes. A great sign for us was the willingness of the players to keep pushing with the 2 goal lead and when Jagielka hit a nice cross from deep right, the pressure was enough that Teague made a mistake and headed it into his own net for us to take a 3 goal lead in at the break.

After the half and with words that I was thrilled with our performances so far, the team rested back on the first half performances, instead of pushing for another to keep Sutton on their toes we sat back and let them come at us, and just after the hour they clawed one back when fumbly Phillips made an error and let a easy one through. Sutton kept pressing and we kept sitting back no matter how much I yelled from the sidelines and 2 minutes before the end of regular time Elvins put through his second, some bad defence and some worse keeping aided his cause. A good crowd again of 1400 plus people held their breath as Sutton had a few chances to equalise, luckily we held on to secure our 2nd win of the season and win 3-2, A wins a win at the moment and ill take them any way I can get them What’s pleasing is that Fickley has done well on the left for us and Rattlespurr seems content to play in the centreback role, its not ideal, but its working at the moment.

Before the end of the month I pick my first Australian Squad, with the likes of Cahill, Kewell and Bresciano in the squad I’d kill to have them at the Bloods. I resisted the temptation to call up Zak, although I don’t think he’d do badly I don’t think he’s ready and there’s plenty of people better at the moment.

The reserves had their first game which was played at home, something I’ll endeavour to come and watch when ever I can, and Gallo had the boys doing well, with Young Robinson doing well and getting the honours in 1-0 win

[Panpardus]

Season Two – Conference National

Following the Southport game at their home I did my first radio interview, it’s a new experience but one I can expect to happen a lot more now that I'm Australian manager as well. It’s a bit nerve racking, but I'm happy to get the experience before the tv interviews start to come.

“We have Droylsden and new Australian manager Matt Burnie here to talk about today’s game at Southport, where Droylsden were unable to sneak away with any points in a close encounter, how did you see the game today Matt?â€

“Well Tim, I don’t think we did too badly, our passing was good today and we had as much of the ball as them if not a bit more, the big difference is that they were able to create a few more chances than us, and it showed in the 3-2 result.â€

“You have played 5 games in the division now any first impressions?â€

“The teams are obviously a lot better, especially at home, we’ve had 3 away games now and struggled to get a score until today, but as we go on we’ll adjust and get better, you’ve got to remember that our captain Jody Banim and other influencial striker in Fearnsy are out at the moment, aswell as our first choice left back Chris Adams, but with our good home record so far we were sitting in 12th before this game so it’s not all badâ€

“It’s a good start we agree Matt, and you will look a better team with Jody and Fearns back in the team, so what do you say about Southports manager's Paul Cook comments about he didn’t see anything today that would suggest you will stay upâ€

“I’m not going to be drawn into commenting about other manager’s comments about us, we will just play our own game and see where we are at the end of the season, but honestly ill be disappointed if we can’t manage around 15th this year, we have the talent to do it, Tandy has stepped up this year in Zak’s absence and his first goal for the club is great confidence boost for him, and the fighting spirit shown when we scored another near the end, shows the other teams we wont give inâ€

“Thanks for your time Matt and all the best on the season ahead….â€

“Thanks Timâ€

“And now back to the studio with the latest resultsâ€

[Sean06]

Absoulutely great

[Panpardus]

Season Two – Conference National

The first of September seen Cloughy’s Burton Albion come to the Butchers Arms ground and I was quietly confident of getting a result against a team below us on the ladder and also picked as relegation battlers, but things didn’t start well for us Rattlespurr got sucked into a midfield heading contest from our goal kick in which he was beaten and seen the ball go back towards the goal where Rattlespurr should have been, Clare pounced on the loose ball ran into goal with only Phillips to beat, the season he was having he’d have as much chance producing a save as Chelsea would have in showing restraint and not buying a player for the season. Needless to say we were 1 down.

Burton stepped up there pressure and our defence was having a hard time hitting a target, but against the run of play with a lucky clearance that Jagielka had to run full tilt to get to he managed to pick out Somner in the middle who managed to flick a header over an opponent for Tandy to pick up on the left, he continued up field and with an early cross that picked out Daly on the near post we were all square. Our second came just after the break once again it was Jagielka who started the move with a fine through ball the newly promoted youth player Mark Jackson ran onto beating the offside trap in the process, carefully placing the ball under the charging keeper he scored his first ever senior goal for the club.

True to form though in the dying minutes of the game a comedy of errors seen Burton draw level, a shocking backpass by Rattlespurr and a heinous clearance attempt from Phillips seen him pick out a opposition player who would be sending him a gift basket in the post as he scored the easiest the goals when Philips didn’t even make an attempt to get back to guard his net.

What can you really say to the players when they deserve praise for how they played only to have a one wreck the result, I told them I was pleased with their effort, and told Phillips I was furious with his performance, I might have said more if I didn’t have to immediately go to Manchester Airport and catch a plane for my first ever game in charge of Australia.

Australian National Team

The Manchester to Sydney flight and the resulting taxi seen me get to the ground with 3 hours to spare, meeting the squad and generally going over a few minor things, I have thank my assistant greatly for getting everything done in time, Johnny Kosmina had done a good job. I was a bit nervous before the game but more excited not everyone gets to coach their country and this would be something I would cherish for the rest of my life and at the end of game it was time to talk to the SBS crew Les Murray and Robbie Slater in my first television interview before I had to jump on a plane again and get back to England.

LM: “So how does it feel to coach your first game for Australia?â€

Me: “I’m rapt Les, It’s a great honour to coach Australia and one I’ll cherish for a long time, the result could have been a bit better but I’m not disappointed with how the lads playedâ€

RS: “Matt you came out with a fairly attacking team, but failed to create as many chances as we expected, whats your thoughts on thatâ€

Me: “It’s all good Slats, we didn’t create an abundance of chances but the ones we did were pretty good, and the U.S are no slouches in the world game, looking at the positives we had 5 players earn their first caps tonight, with Schwarzer and Kalac both retired from internationals we need a keeper to step up and Danny Vukovic played well tonight for a young keeper I think he has a big future in the game. Neil Kilkenny also started tonight he didn’t set the world on fire but it was a good first up appearance and at 21 he’s only going to get better, throw in Thwaite 24, Sarkies 20 and Teinert 27 all making the debuts via subs I think it was a good result.â€

LM: “Lets talk about the goal how did you see it?â€

Me: “From the bench Les, just like my assistantâ€

This brought a few chuckles from Robbie Slater.

Me: “It was a good goal, well crafted, and had all the names really that you expect in a good move for Australia, Neill started it down back with a good tackle and passed out to Brett at right back, he played young Kilkenny in with a nice pass who first timed it out to Bresciano on the right wing with a quick run down the line he picked out Viduka on the far post with the quality you expect from him and Mark had no trouble putting in the back of the net, it was a quality goal all round, Two minutes after that Timmy Cahill had a chance to put us 2-0 up with that shot that had the posts rattling for some timeâ€

LM: “And the equalizer?â€

Me: “They got the equalizer just after we made a few subs and caught us before we settled, it’s a friendly and we want to a try a few new things, the younger players need to get some good game time up also, all in all it was a good performance I thoughtâ€

RS: “So Qatar next month at their home in Doha, how do you see it?â€

Me: “We’ll be going there to learn some more and hopefully pick up a win, at the very least I want a good performance, and of course we’ll be taking over some youngsters to get some time aswell so it will be interesting to see how they goâ€

LM: “Do you think your son will get a game soon? From all reports he’s quite the player and to be picked up by Chelsea must be a dream for himâ€

Me: “Zak’s a bit away I think, although he will be picked for the under 23’s Olympic qualifier that’s in a couple weeks, …. there’s a lot of talent in that squad so ill be keeping a close eye on it, anyone that plays well will always have a chance to get in. I think he’s happy at Chelsea, though at the moment he’s at Wolves on a season long loan which he’s doing quite well to answer the second part of the question.â€

RS: “Thanks for you time tonight Matt, and we hope to see more of you in the future, our last question for you is how are you coping juggling both jobs at the moment?â€

Me: “It’s a busy time, but so far I’m doing ok, I have every confidence I’ll be able to do both and give both jobs the best effort possibleâ€

And with that I was heading back to the airport to catch a plane back to Manchester

[Panpardus]

Season Two - Conference National

I arrived back in England from my in and out trip to Australia, I managed to get sleep on the plane and along with the excellent facilities on the plane I was kept up to date with the club business, which wasn’t much, I had plenty of time to prepare for our home game against Halifax before I would set out again to Australia for the U23’s qualifying game.

16th versus 14th placed Halifax proved to be an interesting game, we had the running early and should of scored twice in the opening 20, but Youngster Jackson getting his first start was a bit nervous and missed some easy chances, it was Jagielka who opened the scoring for us with a nice turn and shot in the penalty box from a long throw by Maas. Just before half time Halifax equalized when Tate failed to gather a routine ground ball, which went past him for the opposition striker to calmly place in the net. Tate was replacing Phillips who kept making these sorts of mistakes, and I think Tate thought it was some sort of good club to join.

The second half was uneventful except for Halifax’s winner, which was once again attributed to a keeper error, we lost 2-1 in a game where they rarely troubled us with chances, If I didn’t get a keeper soon, I was just going to play one of the Youth team they couldn’t do any worse.

Under 23’s

I flew back to Australia once again and met with the U23 squad there were some names of the future here: Zak, Hollman, Lowry, Musialik, Sarkies, Kilkenny amongst others. We went through tactics which Zak was familiar with as we would use the same ones I use with the Bloods with a few small modifications. It worked well as we took a 2 goal lead, Zak getting both, before North Korea got an important consolation goal in injury time to close the game at 2-1, they team now had to travel to North Korea, but that was a week away, I had a couple club games to take care of before then, so off I went on another plane and flying back to England.

Conference National

Another home game this time we were playing fellow relegation battlers and the team who were propping up the rest of the ladder, Worthington. Once again it was fairly tight although we dominated possession Worthington had as many shots as us, Tate was even playing well by nipping a few attacking plays in the bud early by getting to the thru ball first, it was in the 71st minute when the deadlock was broken, thankfully it was Wolfenden who got onto a lovely lob over the defence from Somner in which he rounded the keeper to his left and placed the shot into the back of the empty. Finally a win and a clean sheet, something to savour.

We were on the road and playing Rushden the bookies didn’t think we stood much chance against the 6th place team, and unfortunately they were right. We made two many errors in the back half, Fickling missing an easy interception was and then the communication error as Tate could of easily got it but thought it would be fun to let the opposition have a shot, which they scored with. Another Tate error resulted in the second being score as he fumbled the shot which rolled into the back of the net. At this stage I was resigned to just playing reserve or youth keepers, Injury time in the first half seen them grab another but atleast this was through good play from them as opposed to crap from us.

I went of my head at Tate at the break, that sort of performance would see him in the reserves and he’d be lucky to get a game there was my message to him and to the rest I wanted a 100% improvement in the second half .

My words fell on deaf ears as we returned from the break and conceded our 4th within a minute, I made my three subs one of them being Halford for Tate, might aswell have an outfielder in there. The 68 minute mark had me seeing red, Daly was tackled near the edge of the box which resulted in a free kick for us, when Daly gets up he looses the plot and plants a headbutt on the defender the ref charges over and instantly dismisses him, to make it worse Tandy comes over and starts arguing about the decision, and Tandy receives a yellow for dissent. Heads will role over this performance. Atleast we hang on and get to the end still only 4 down, with Halford doing the impossible and making a few saves.

Training on Monday was not pleasant.

“You up to my office now†I said as I was pointing at Steve Daly.

“You two there can wait in Jess’s roomâ€pointing out Tate and Phillips

“And you be ready to come up when I’m finished with those two†after pointing at Tandy I stormed up to my office with Steve Daly in tow.

“Well Steve, what the f**k do you call what happened in the Rushden gameâ€

“ummm, we played bad and got beat 4 zip awayâ€

His smart arse answer made angrier, if that was possible

“If you’re going to be a smart arse, ill sign your termination papers right now, call breach of contract, and throw you out of this office via my window†I spat venomously while tossing his termination papers over to get the message acrossâ€

This got his attention

“I’m sorry boss I don’t what come over me, we were getting beat badly and then I was tackled hard, I just lost my cool I supposeâ€

“Well really it’s not good enough, you’ve been strait redded once last year and I let you off with an official reprimand, this time you’ll get the maximum I can fine you which is 2 weeks, also you can **** off for them two weeks and think about what you’ve done, I DO NOT want to see YOU in that time,…. The F.A will look into the incident and if they don’t give you till Christmas off, I will be. You are suspended from first team football till the New Year where I will re-assess my decision based on your performances in the reserves. If you so much as get a double yellow you won’t play again this year. Are we clear on what I’m saying.

“Crystal Sir, I can only apologize and say I will doing my best that this never happens againâ€

“If it happens again Steve you wont need to apologize, just pack your stuff and leave, and one more thing if I so much as hear a whisper that your disgruntled at not being in the first team I will make sure you don’t play again this year be it reserves or seniors,.. Goodbye Steveâ€

and with that he turned and left, I’ve never actually gone off at someone like that before, it felt good to release my tension and I think he deserved it, next was these two idiot keepers.

“Greetings fella’s come in and take a seat each,…. Now why do you think your in here?â€

“Our performances on the pitch ?†answered Paul Phillips

“Yep that’s right quite frankly both you two have let the team down tremendously this year, and it wont be tolerated, Both of you will going into the reserves and ill find a youth keeper to fill the position or maybe Steve Halford might play there, I don’t see any difference if I play any of you two, or I have an empty net at the moment that’s how strongly I feel about itâ€

“Yes Boss†they both said in unison

“If your form doesn’t pick up, and I will be getting constant reports from Jason on your progress then you will be cut in the January transfer windowâ€

My mobile started ringing at this point and I told them to leave my office.

It was Dave Colley on the phone my ex-scout now at West Ham, he heard that Chris McKenzie was about to be released from his contract at Shrewsbury, he was a journeyman keeper that new his trade. I was on the phone to him within 20 minutes, I asked him to come on a two week trial, but if he trained well I would sign him sooner, He agreed and would come down to tomorrow nights training. When Jamie came into the room I was feeling a lot better, and just gave him an informal warning about his behavior, if someone headbutts someone else in plain sight of the ref don’t be an idiot and complain about the call. He took it well and went back out on the track.

Chris McKenzie turned up to training the next night and was offered a contract in less than an hour, great news for us was that he signed it the next day.

[Panpardus]

Season Two -Conference National

It was the middle of September and we were exceeding everyone’s expectations but mine I was hoping for a 15th placed finish but at the moment we were sitting in 18th.

Darlington away would prove a tough encounter they were fighting for promotion while we were fighting for survival, Darlington proved the more determined and within the first 15 minutes they had 5 shots on target, our defence powerless to stop the shots coming in, McKenzie was having a torrid time first up time but he was proving his value already with some great saves. We almost sneak a goal against the run of the play but Fearns is struggling so far this season to hit the target. Fickling is having a tough time aswell, so far very unimpressed with his form for the season so far and he makes another costly error which leads to Darlington taking the lead on half time with a spot kick.

It didn’t get any better after half time, numerous chances were saved by Kenzie but the floodgates would open and the game finished 3 zip thanks to McKenzie if he hadn’t of been in the team then it could well of been 10.

Steve Daly’s verdict was handed down he would serve an official 6 match suspension with 1 already down, but it hardly mattered as he would in the reserves till the new year.

The division leaders were to coming to town and we needed our best effort to be competitive, York were exceeding everyone’s expectations, considered a play off chance before the season started they were now 3 points clear. We seen why they were top of the ladder as they outclassed us all over the pitch, McKenzie in goal once again is under siege, and Fickling is not helping his cause with some poor defending and we succumb once again to a 3-0 result.

Under 23's

The Under 23’s were keeping me busy once again I was off, this time to North Korea, which was a fun trip through custom’s . We played some outstanding football there and the 4-1 win would see us enter the Olympic games asian qualifying group stage, Hollman was very impressive bagging a hatrick.

Conference National

I decided to search the loan markets again, you never know, and went through and offered 15 central defender’s a chance to come and play, other bad news was the our new Australian striker Nick Maas had hurt his shoulder in a training incident and wouldn’t be back for two months.

Some changes were made for the away clash versus fellow relegation battlers Tamworth, Fickling was sent to the reserves to get some form, while Harford was brought in Jody Banim also started back in the side. It was ominous start for us, Tamworth were peppering our goals but the defence was doing a half decent job at keeping them from distance, the ones that were on target McKenzie saved with ease. Our first attempt at goal was rewarded a good cross from Jagielka was swept in by their defender and we were 1 up courtesy of an own goal. It didn’t last long as another goal keeping mistake cost us goal, McKenzie tried to save a ball going out for a corner from a bad back pass, sliding across the ground he kicked the ball back out into play, that bad bit was it went to their forward who made no mistake hitting the back of the empty net from 25 out. The game degenerated after that into a defencive possession game, the score never changed and we had drawn 1-1 to stop the rot of losses. I was pretty happy with the result, but gave McKenzie a friendly bit of advice to just concede the corner next time.

Back at the office was endless paperwork going through the draw for the Aussie u23’s in the groups, looking over various scout reports and going through the endless rejections from players not wanting to come to our club, the normal run of the day seen me grab the endless rejections screw up the paper and have a shot at the bin that was on the opposite corner just for that task, I was pretty good at it now and rarely missed.

Rejection……. Shoot……….In

Rejection……. Shoot……….In

Rejection……. Shoot……….In

And on it went.

Rejection…… Shoot………In

Accepted…… Shoot ……In

Rejection…… Shoot………In

What the hell I thought and I jumped up and searched through the bin, a quick scrimmage resulted in the find, Joshua Vermooten a 19 year old South African Defender from Leeds had accepted, the paper work was done immediantely so he would available for our next game.

Weymouth currently underperforming in the league and sitting in 22nd would be our next opponent at home, a disappointing first half seen us 0 all at the break even though we had an extra man when one of theirs earned a strait red.

Pressing hard after the break seen us with some nice chances, unfortunately we could not capitalize and the game finished a 0-0 draw, the shining light was Vermooten a Man of the Match performance in his debut and the Leeds player looked like a good acquisition.

Australian Team - Friendly

My next game would see me fly to Qatar with the Australian team for a friendly, where some rumours had popped up that two Americans were now managing their team with some less than native players. The rumours were found to be false and in the stifling heat we squeaked out a good 1-0 win with Timmy Cahill the scorer with a trademark header.

[Panpardus]

Season Two – Conference National

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Tameside Advertiser - Monday 8th October

BANIM STRIPPED OF CAPTAINCY

We learned today that Droylsden Captain or now ex Captain Jody Banim was stripped of his role for his indiscretion in Saturday’s game against Gray’s Athletic. The bloods got off to good start when Cryan got his first goal for the club with a nice header on the near post from a Kevin Lynch Corner. Even though Grays had the bulk of possession they couldn’t penetrate the Droylsden defence until Banim was sent off for kicking out at Dale Jones after Jones had fouled him on the edge of the box. Gray’s then swamped the 10 men of Droylsden and even some great defence and good saves wasn’t enough to prevent conceding 2 goals and the match.

Droylsden Manager Matt Burnie wasn’t available for comment, but Assistant Manager Steve Galloway said ‘That sort of behaviour isn’t going to be tolerated from any player wearing the red and black, especially the onfield leader who is suppose to set an example’.

It is yet to be seen if Banim will also suffer the same fate as Striker Steve Daly who was banished to the reserves earlier in the season and hasn’t been seen since.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

After the fiasco at Grays we were to play Forest Green on the road aswell, despite a great performance from the lads we went down 2-0, it was a good game all-round with plenty of chances for both teams, the only difference being Forest Green took theirs, I can’t be disappointed but will be looking for a good result at Home versus Thurrock.

Thurrock came to the Butcher’s Arms ground with salvaging a point on their mind, they hardly came forward for the 90 minutes and we couldn’t penetrate their defence, it proved to be a very dull game, Thurrock left with what they wanted a 0-0 draw.

Aldershot were second in the league and looking for a win versus our lot, what they didn’t expect though was us to come out hard early, and in the third minute Mark Jackson scored from a goal mouth scramble that seen him place the ball just out of reach of the Aldershot keeper, the composure he showed belied his 17 years. Our defence again was impenetrable and we ran out winners Vermooten once again picked up the MoTM.

The F.A cup 4th round qualifier was a game to forget for us, Southport were simply magnificent on their home ground, it wasn’t that we played bad it was that they played so good, Kudos to them it was a magnificent performance and they fully deserve to progress into the next round with their 4-0 win.

At the end of month awards I was pleased as Josh Vermooten picked up the second best young player for the month, it was a great month for him and much of our success has been the result of his good work.

Away at Crawley seen Banim return to the side albeit as a sub and without his captain’s armband that honour had now gone to Colin Cryan even though he was a new player his influence on the pitch was evident. Banim played well and scored the our equaliser late in the game, we didn’t really deserve the result but at the moment ill take them any way I can get them.

Our Home game against Wrexham who were relegated from Division 2 last year was not a good one at all, we went behind in the first minute of play and to their credit the boys didn’t give up, Our defence tightened up and we even had a few chances of our own.

The game was stopped for 20 minutes while the ambulance came on to the ground to get Steve Jagielka with what looks to be a broken femur, according to Jo and she’s fairly certain he won’t play again this year and at 30 years old, he might not recover from the injury at all. My heart goes out to him and his family and I'm sure as a club we will support Jags no matter the outcome.

When play resumed the lads hearts weren’t really in the game but we didn’t concede and at the end it was still 1-0. It was confirmed later that Jags had broken his thigh bone

[Panpardus]

Season Two –Conference National

All the players and staff went in to see Jags at the hospital and we all wished him the best of recovery’s but when I went in I could see he was depressed, I told him not to worry about his future at the moment, the club would look after him no matter what his decision, and when he had recovered enough he could come down to the club and I’d give him a 1 year extension on the same rate, It was the least I felt I could do.

The trip to Kingsfield Sports Ground might be the turn around we need, In a prematch interview new captain Colin Cryan had told them that the boys were going to dedicate this performance to their injured team mate who was still in the Tameside General Hospital., I was hoping the did give it their all, I’d hate to see us thrashed in the game.

I need not have worried the players were clearly up for the challenge, the passing was second to none and the movement was great aswell. Vermooten who is having a great time down here grabbed his first goal for the club nodding in a Kevin Lynch corner on the back post, the players continued to push and were once again rewarded, 35 minutes gone seen Jody Banim break the offside trap and set up Fearns with a superb pass, that Fearns thankfully put in and his 11 hour run of not scoring had come to an end. Woking hit back strait away and reduced the deficit to 1 when Sankoh fired a hard low shot past McKenzie.

The boys came out after half time determined to win and within 10 minutes of the start we had a 2 goal buffer with Rob Hughes smashing in a shot from just inside the penalty box that gave the keeper no chance. Woking got a bit dirty after the last goal and received two yellows for harsh tackles, and then with 10 minutes to go had Little sent of for a professional foul on Banim, in the very next play Sheridan was sent off for a dangerous two footed tackle on Cryan and they were reduced to nine men which we easily held off and won the game 3-1. It was a great tribute to Steve and I'm glad the boys produced.

More good news was to come when one of our scouts informed me that Ben Davies an attacking right sided midfielder had been released by Shrewsbury, he would fill Jagielka spot easily, Ben was offered a contract and within hours he was a Droylsden boy. Like the saying goes when it rains it pours, and more good luck seen Ryan Malloy DL, Aarun Best DC, Aaron Allanson DC DM, and Ashley Carter ST all agree to come to the club for a trial., they all look promising and will be offered contracts.

An 11 Day break seen Exeter City the favourites for promotion come to pay us a visit, and the boys still riding on Jags injury produced a stunning performance.

It didn’t look good when we conceded a penalty which was converted in the 5th minute but Rob Hughes popped up to ram home another shot from the edge of the box 2 minutes later. New signing Ben Davies showed his class with a good free kick that takes a deflection for his first goal for the club and on debut, his second though after half time is a perfect free kick a dipping curling shot over the wall into the right side of the net, unstoppable. Exeter was stunned and we ran out 3-1 winners.

An away game at Cambridge would signal the half way mark in the season and a deserving 1-0 win to Cambride seen us in 18th place and 6 points clear of 21st placed Weymouth.

A 2-0 away loss to York who were still top of the ladder would see us crash out of the F.A Trophy Cup, once again we were outclassed and if we want to succeed at this level we will need to attract better players, and quite frankly with Doug as the acting Chairman it’s not going to happen, we need to go professional, and get our name out a bit more, were still seen as an obscure club, hopefully if we stay up more people will take notice.

We now had an eleven day break till our next game versus Dagenham and Redbridge at Home they were one spot above us on the ladder and a win would see us become equal on points we were 4 behind on goal difference aswell.

This is the table so far