Blarney

Smales-Braithwaite Signed Benni began his career with Manchester City in their youth development program. He's sinced bounced around to several different clubs, never really realizing the potential that many thought he first had. What was the reasoning behind signing him here? Sounds like a perfect reclamation project to me. Obviously Benni once was thought of as a good prospect and although he hasn't shown the sort of form that got him signed in the first place he's still only 21 and we think he fits in here perfectly. Is he going to get first team time? That's the plan. He'll play alongside Lewis just like Aaron did and hopefully the 2 of them will find the same sort of success and work well together. What are the expectations? The same as almost every player here. Train hard, work together as a team, do your best out there on the pitch. It's pretty simple but that's what we ask.

Match Twenty-Eight

FA Trophy Fourth Round Supporters will be talking about this match for quite some time. You're down 1-2 at the half and seemingly playing on your heels. Eastleigh comes out and scores a quick goal in the 2nd half to make it 3-1 and you have to be thinking this isn't your day. Somehow you come back and notch it at 3 with a dramatic extra time goal from McGavin and then win it in penalty shots with Halstead blocking their first attempt. When will you come down from this one? *laughs* Maybe not for quite some time. It was just an excellent match. We didn't give up and just kept pushing until we got what we deserved. Despite seemingly playing most of the match in your backfield you only gave up 4 total shots. What was working for you today? This was the definition of a bend but don't break defense. They were really working us over. They were pushing the ball up the pitch and we were definitely playing on our heels as you said. It seemed like every time I looked up they had the ball in the first half and we were running backwards. But we found a way to prevent them from getting shots and that's what mattered. After the half you seem to have adopted a much more attacking offense and started putting pressure on them. Was this part of the game plan or more reactionary? We were down 2-1 at the half and then 3-1 rather quickly into the 2nd half. At that point we basically had nothing to lose. Despite the fact we were limiting shots, they kept putting them in the back of the net. It was either just keep doing what we were doing and hope for the best or try to change things up and make our own destiny and that's what we did. And it worked.

Jarvis Out Supporters are rightfully very concerned with the news that Jarvis has been sold. What was the thinking behind making this deal. We understand the concern. Aaron was a team leader and we hate to see him go but this is the business behind the game. We have been in communication with Aaron multiple times this season about whether or not he wanted an extension to his contract which was up at the end of the season and it became apparent that he wanted to move on, which is absolutely his right. He's a fantastic player and felt that he wanted to take a step up in his career. There's very little we can do about that when it comes to the end of a contract. At that point we're left with 2 things to do.... we can either ride it out and let the player go for nothing or we can make the best deal we can and get something for him. In this case we decided to get what we could in return before his contract was up. I would imagine supporers will understand that but it won't take much away from the sting of losing probably the best player on the club, especially when you're in the thick of a promotion battle. It's certainly not the best situation but we have faith that Lewis Collins - who has been side-by-side with Aaron all season long - has the ability to step up and be the main guy up front now. Is there any chance of bringing in reinforcements now or are you comfortable with the club as it is? I'm always looking at ways to make the club better but there's really nobody on the radar that we're absolutely gearing up to try and sign a contract with. I'm happy with what we have here and think we can continue our good form otherwise I wouldn't have made a deal.

Match Twenty-Seven

Match Twenty-Six

December in Review Schedule Excellent month for the club. We did lose in the 2nd round of the FA Cup but that was somewhat to be expected. Was a good match nonetheless. We won in the 3rd round of the FA Trophy to advance. Very happy. And we picked up 5 wins in 6 league matches and extended our unbeaten streak. Table There is no breathing room at the top... but at least we're at the top. Unfortunately Yeovil have a game in hand and are tied in points with us. We have them by a significant margin in goal difference though, if it ends up coming down to that. NLS Team Stats NLS Player Stats Gulls Attacking Data Gulls Defending Data Finances A profitable month.

Match Twenty-Five

Match Twenty-Four This win puts you at the top of the table by goal difference. How satisfied are you with the way the club is playing right now? I'd say pretty darn satisfied. We're on a good roll. We're winning some games that maybe before were ending up in a draw. We're just in good form right now but that doesn't mean we can stop and think that it couldn't change at a moments notice if we get complacent.

Match Twenty-Three

Match Twenty-Two

Rumor Mill

Match Twenty-One

FA Trophy Third Round Another big tourney win. The boys pulled together today and really put on a show out there for our supporters. You allowed only 9 shots today with only 2 on goal. How did you shut Altrincham down. Not as well as they shut us down since we only managed 4 shots with 3 on goal. The difference is we got one past them and they didn't. Honestly we trained really hard the past couple of days in front of goal. We knew they were going to come at us given how our last few tourney matches have gone. They probably felt we were weakest in front of goal and that was definitely something we needed to shore up.

Match Twenty Hampton manager, Mel Gwinnett, was very critical of both you and your club before the match. Your response was that it was mind games and you didn't feel you needed to respond. How do you feel now and was this any vindication of proving him wrong? I had nothing to prove to him personally and neither did the club. I couldn't care less what he thought before the match and I certainly don't care now. Reports are that he was on the hot-seat prior to this match and another disappointing result could spell the end. What would you say to him if you had the chance now? Three. Nil. Enjoy your time off. *****as it happened he was sacked after the match*****

FA Cup Second Round You can't be too upset here today with the way the club performed. No, not at all. I thought we played a good match against a very good team. So moral victory? I'm not a big fan of that term honestly. I think just like sometimes you see things you don't like in a match you win, you can see things you do like in a match you lose but it doesn't mean you take any sort of victory from it. Regardless it was quite an effort. Absolutely. Notts is a much larger club and something we aspire to be. We went out there and had a solid game plan to try and slow them down and we accomplished that. Unfortunately they got one through and we didn't. They completely shut us down in front of their goal to where we couldn't get anything off. All credit goes to them but I'm still proud of the effort.

November in Review Schedule Another win in the FA Cup and a win in the FA Trophy with 3 wins and 2 draws in league play. Another good month. Table We're finally starting to see some separation at the top. 13 points separate #1 from #8 now. We're sitting in 4th, 4 points off the top spot with a game in hand. Need to find some more wins to keep pace. NLS Team Stats NLS Player Stats Gulls Attacking Data Gulls Defending Data Finances Finally turned a little profit. Helps when you win a big competition match.

Match Nineteen

Match Eighteen

Match Seventeen A big win against a club that was #2 on the table. What do you attribute the win to? Hard work. Good trianing. Belief in the system. All 3 blend together to form the performance on the pitch. So if we can, this makes 17 unbeaten in league play yet you find yourself 4 points back from the top spot which is held by Weymouth who have lost 3 matches. How do you explain this? How do I explain it? A lack of wins. Okay so listen, it's a classic glass half full or half empty scenario. It depends on how you want to look at it. We can be happy that we haven't lost or we can be angry that we're not winning a majority of our games. Personally I'm going to take it that right now we're on a 17 match unbeaten streak but at the same time we've only won 9 of those 17 matches. Which means that rihgt now we're right in the thick of things which is where we want to be. So we just continue and we train and we tinker and you keep doing everything you can out there to find a way to win. But I'm not going to be upset that we're struggling to find wins as much as we'd like.

FA Trophy Second Round

Match Sixteen You took an opportunity to rest several of your first 11 and it almost backfired as you were down 0-2 at the half. These are chances you take as a manager. Guys need rest and you have to find the right time to do it, especially when you just don't have a lot of depth. We play the cards we're dealt and hope for the best at times. We played much better in the 2nd half and deserved to get something from the match I thought. Your up against Hornchurch who play in the Isthmian League Premier Division in a FA Trophy match next. Can we expect a full complement out there or will this be another opportunity to give the guys some rest? I'll see how the next few days go but most likely I'm going to take the opportunity to sit some guys and give them some extra time off. And you still don't feel it's disrespectful to the other club? So here's how I look at it. They can take it as a sign of disrespect if that's how they want to take it. And they have every opportunity to go out there and beat us and teach us the lesson of not underestimating them. In the end, I have decisions to make for my team and one of those is when it's best to rest guys. Whether you get us at full strength or not... play the match and make us pay for our decision. That's how I view it when we go up against a bigger club and they do the same to us.

Match Fifteen Edge of your seat stuff that was. I'm going to guess you went through a full range of emotions during this one. Up 2-1 at the half, then 3-1, then 3-2, then 3-3 and momentum was definitely on their side. But Collins saved the day in extra time and I was able to breathe again. Great stuff. That makes 15 unbeaten in league play now. Any end in sight? Well I certainly hope not but we're not worried about it either way. We're out here to win but we're not going to fall apart when the streak ends and one would assume at some day that it will.

**this game has a funny way of bringing things full circle**

FA Cup First Round The dream continues. Don't pinch me. The changing room must be electric right now. The lads put in the work and they deserved this outcome. Emotions are very high right now but as always this is one game and we know the story continues. So we already know you're up against either Wrexham or Notts County in your next match. Do you have a preference who you'd rather face? You know either club is going to be tough to face. I mean let's be honest. Wrexham obviously has the name and right now probably the most recognition because of their ownership but Notts County.... man that was some crazy season last year between those 2 clubs. Whichever it is we're going to have to be at our best.