One hours travel each way and two hours on the park and my only noticeably contributions were being involved in 'the ankle' challenge and the tired dead ball incident on 119 minutes !! Deeply hurt and looking for solace in a scotch and vallium cocktail. Where's Murph when you need cheering up, hey ??
THE FREE KICK WAS A SHOCKER THO !!!!!!

I'm here Mac....well, as a reader, I went away with the impression that you'd had a good game....mentally I edited out the focus on that last throw of the dice free kick....but if only...?!

Just to say that I have nearly finished editing the video and found loads of discrepancies in my match report which will be corrected in due course (as always).

It's because it's impossible for me to tell what happened while I am actually filming, and Trev's notes are always too vague and only include the goals.

...that's why I make it up!!!

I have now finished editing the video and as usual, I have changed some of Trev's Marks Out Of 10.
I can't believe he was initially only going to give 'Warmers' a 6.5 !!
Warmers and Wooly (who was my Man Of The Match) were both excellent and saved us from a real hiding with numerous blocks, last-ditch challenges and important defensive headers. They were both an 8, but I have docked Del down from a 7 to a 6.5 as it looked on video as if he (alongside Flory & Terry) suffered the most from their quick players taking them on and beating them for pace.

The reason Flory and Terry were left so exposed to that in the full-back positions were because we had Del and Stuart playing in the wide midfield positions and they tuck inside too much instead of getting back in a line with the rest of our midfield to mark the opposing team's wide midfielders when we lose the ball.
It meant that we created chances (with Del and Stuart always involved in that) whereas if we had had Speller and Murf (for example) as our wide midfielders, we wouldn't have had a shot, but would have only lost 1-0 in a boring game.
The compromise to that (and I think Trev's initial idea ?) was for Paul Ellerker to patrol the left-hand side of the pitch in front of the back four and Johnny Mac the right-hand side (or vice-versa), but Johnny Mac stayed mainly in the centre-circle and Paul Ellerker ran his bollocks off chasing players across the pitch and couldn't keep up with them.
It's just things like that that need a bit of 'fine tuning', and once all our new players get to know each other (and Trev's ideas), I'm sure we will be alright.

Other things I noticed from the video were as follows:

- As I suspected, their No.8 broke his ankle because the pitch was so crap. He lost his footing with his left foot, then landed awkwardly on his right while trying to regain his balance. Johnny Mac didn't even challenge him. Thankfully, John was in the way of the camera, so you can't see the break happen on film.

- Their first goal was Darryl's fault. He should have dived head-first on the ball as No.12 tried to cut it back from the by-line for No.7 to tap in, but for some reason Darryl tried to do a standing tackle on him and just missed the ball. I think he even got nutmegged !

- It looked as if Conor was a yard offside for his second goal. This is now showing on Clip Of The Week.
Did Ritchie flag ?

- Their second goal was NEVER a penalty !. The ball ran down the top of Terry's arm but he didn't even know where it was ! ...and their No.12 was clearly leaning all over him in the aerial challenge, so it should have been a free-kick to US !!!

- Their third goal was a good far post header by their No.5. Stuart got a challenge in but the guy out-muscled him. Flory actually ducked on the line and the header went over him, although at some pace, but what was Darryl doing standing at the NEAR post ? He would have caught or punched away the corner quite easily if he had been standing in the middle of his goal.

- They should have had a definite penalty when a combination of Flory and Warmers brought their No.10 down just inside the box. Really clear on video...and the ref was only 5 yards away !

- Their winner was a really good finish by their No.10 from a clever first-time through ball over the top after Flory had given the ball away in midfield and left himself and Warmers out of position.

- Yes Johnny Mac, that free kick at the end was very depressing
It looked as if poor Darryl was itching to redeem himself.

All in all though, we did well to give a team as good as that a decent game.
They probably won't win the London Cup because other sides will have faster players who will outpace them at the back if they continue to get their offside trap wrong like that, but as far as attacking play goes they are one of the best sides we have ever faced...and even better than Aris and Dees in my opinion !

Is this what they call being damned with faint praise, Tone?

I thought I was on cos I was looking at their fella & thought I was level. I admit in looks close on camera but it's not the best angle.

What is funny though is that you can tell Warmers is a new player as he's the only one who comes and celebrates with me!!! When will you f*ckers celebrate a GOAL!!! After all, that's what it's all about!!!

Well, obviously, I have to wait until you get back to the centre circle before I can congratulate ya !!

Lol, my 100th goal for the club and it doesn't even get clip o' the week. It's a disgrace!! McGovern is right as well. Us not celebrating looks as though we go back and let the oppo put it right without dropping their heads, waiting for the inevitable as such. Let's have more fun!!!

Stu, I do have your goal saved as an alternative Clip Of The Week. I did mean to say that I will be showing that as well, but I forgot.
I will put it online sometime on Friday to give people time to see Conor's goal first.

The 'celebrating a goal' debate is interesting.
In all my experience of filming matches for other clubs over the years (and watching the celebrations of our opponents), it is really noticeable that teams whose players are all in their early-mid 20's 'go a bit mad' with their celebrations, but teams whose players are all in their 30's (like us) just 'jog back' and accept the odd handshake here and there.
It's definitely all to do with the age factor. If we look back at our videos from the early-mid 90's when Conor was younger, everyone used to join in the celebrations then (mainly because they were still 'buzzing' from the Polo Club the night before ?!)

Goal Celebration is all well and good, but the goal must be good first. I have been an admirer of yours for a while now and keep watching clip of the week, I must say that laurance does some fantastic work with the camera to catch all your moments that well. Yet I do find that the clip of the week is very boring, for example, this week the goal that Conor Mcgovern scored was like any other goal that you might see on a sunday morning, perhaps that is why your team does not go 'mad' when it hits the net. You all look like responsilbe adults, surely at this level of football and hand shake is good enough?? what are you asking for BJ's? If Conor was to have struck in a 40 yarder then I think that would be more cause for big celebration, little tap ins are pointless, but any of your players scored a decent goal is hard to believe.

Stuart's goal is now showing on Clip Of The Week.

I think people were celebrating with Flory (off camera) for doing the cross, even though Conor & Steve Cokell couldn't celebrate with Stuart because he was on the floor injured after scoring.