The squad for our Double-Header at Home to Turnford Geese at Hazelwood this coming Sunday is as follows:
Darryl Johnson(GK)
Alan Barnard
Terry Moore
Martin Loveday
Stuart Dorward
Tony King
Terry Brown
Danny Hagan
Jim Arrowsmith
Steve Cokell
Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo
Daniel Daley

Please confirm your availability by 10.00.p.m. on Thursday evening.
Tony King is on the Rota for the opening-up/nets job.

At the moment, the following players are unavailable, but they may be able to play at the last minute:
Conor McGovern (Injured), Danny Smith, Rob Brown & Kris Spyrou (Social commitments) & Paul Woolston (Babysitting).

Despite our 6-0 defeat in the second match of our Double-Header against Flamstead End today due to having no substitutes to replace injured/knackered/pissed players, Trevor is adamant that he/we will NOT chase up players to play in a particular match who do not get in touch of their own accord.
These include the likes of Danny Green, Scott Jenkins, Tem Adil & Peter Murphy...all of whom have said previously this season 'Just give us a call if you are short' !
Trevor expects these sort of players to check the Forum every Friday to see if they are needed, then to post a message on there themselves saying 'available'.
Simple isn't it ?
...except for all we know, their meaning of 'needed' is if we only have ten men...not as part of a 14-18 man squad for a Double-Header, even though we can pretty much guarantee them at least 60 minutes if they are prepared to turn up for them.

We also have numerous players signed up who have not played at all yet for various reasons.
Trevor is happy for other players to contact them and bring them along to Double-Headers for a run-out (if we have less than five subs), and he doesn't care who they are as we have not got any really poor players registered. Everyone can do a capable job.
Daniel Daley has said he will ask Jamile Little to come along this Sunday.
Others who have not played yet are Robert Jackson (Tem's mate), Aaron Illsley (via Jim) and Jamie Martin, Joe Ansell & Paul Duffy (via the ex-London Ajax players).
It's up to you, the players, to persuade these people to come along and go sub.

Sorry, does Trev not understand that the likes of Danny Green, Scott Jenkins etc would be doing us a favour by playing, not us doing them a favour by giving them a game. I'm sure they're not overly bothered about getting out of bed on Sunday. Surely it's the managements job to chase these players up and ask them nicely to play?

Scott never even had a response to his last post offering to play. I know it was posted late at night but even after the event, a little, "cheers for the offer Scott, we've got some more double headers coming up so we could definitely do with your services at some point". We could have done with Scott in the centre of midfield on Sunday in fact, whilst Dan Smith and I were blowing out of our arses.

Totally agree with Rob, I have spoken with Danny (not ben able to get hold of Scott) and they wre not overly impressed with getting a text not even a call on the morning of the game when they had offered to play.

This is why we struggle to get a squad of players because some people are treated very poorly.

Rob, as you know, I was well annoyed at losing like that yesterday in that second match, and as a result, I have a good mind to take over as Manager myself in terms of choosing which players to phone/text on a Friday to call up into the squad if we have less than 14....and yes, I would go for the best ones first irrespective of whether they have paid Annual Subs or not !

I know exactly what Trev is thinking here though.
Because he is now Lino every game, he cannot concentrate on making x amount of substitutions in these Double-Headers. He wants to keep it simple by only having one or two subs and just hoping that we don't get injuries.
I therefore suggest that we get a squad of 16 this Sunday and Stuart makes the substitutions from the pitch.

The biggest problem is on Saturdays though. That's when players invariably drop out, but I can't do anything about it because I am out all day.
That's when Trev has to make the decision to phone players himself, but he won't.

Available - no alcohol for me this Saturday night either

Available. Have we not already had this bollox chat already this season? Why can we not just contact people, or at least reply to their requests when they offer themselves to be available, and have a strong squad rather than give Trevor an easy Sunday morning just like Lional Richie. We may even win something, you just never know!
But then again, i remember a thread or someone mentioning that Trevor was more of a coach on a Sunday rather than a manager during the week. Is this correct? Should Lol sort out the squad for Sunday's during the week?

Maybe (as I did that for 7-a-side), but then what do we do when at mid-day on a Saturday we have a squad of 14-16, but by 9.00.p.m. (when I finally manage to sit down after work and check my texts, e-mails & Forum messages, we are down to a bare eleven ?).
This has happened numerous times over the last few seasons. I then text people at 9.00.p.m. and I either don't get a reply because they have already gone out for the night, or they text back saying they needed to know earlier in the week as they have already planned to do something else.
If you phone or text them on the morning of the match...as I did with Scott & Danny Green the other week...I don't get a reply because they are asleep.

Back in the 70's before mobile phones and computers were invented, we used to bang on players front doors 30 minutes before the kick-off to wake them up and get them to play. Even physically drag them out of bed and throw cold water over them.
Are we going to have to resort to that just because Trev won't chase up players himself on a Saturday when I am working ?

By the way, this Saturday I am filming an evening Cup Final in Bishops Stortford and won't get home until midnight, so there is absolutely no chance of me chasing replacement players up on a Saturday evening this week.

Also, the clocks are going forward an hour this Saturday night.
Anyone remember that match Away to Larsens a few seasons ago when three players turned up an hour late and we lost 8-4 or something ?
I think Daley was one of the culprits.

I cannot believe the above comment. If I had five substitutes I would not have to be linesman and would happily concentrate on substitutions. I have repeatedly said that I want five substitutes for double headers.

When we had four substitutes the week before Kizza ran the line and I was able to discuss my reasons for my team selection with the other substitutes who were not happy with being on the bench. Unfortunately, I could only use three substitutes and one player did not get a game. This is why I do not mind if I only have three substitutes for normal games although I would still prefer five to give me a choice.

At the moment we have a squad of about 16 who are available most weeks but every week at least two can't play leaving a squad of 14. The problem comes when three are unavailable the same week and someone drops out on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. For the record Kizza's text was received 22.41 on Saturday night. Obviously we could phone people on Sunday morning but how likely is it that any of the other registered players will turn up knowing that we already have a squad of 12.

I am unaware of any of our squad who only want to play 45 minutes or 60 minutes of a double header but if we can phone round a get a squad of 22 you can all have one game each.

If we had a squad of 12 for the Great Eastern match and a squad of 15 for the double header with Flamstead End I don't think this debate would be happening.

I forgot to name Jacko in the squad so if he is available he will be sub in the first game.

Just to set the record straight, we offered to play Thursday or Friday I think and lol/trev decided that they would rather wait on players that were maybes!

As I and most would predict that maybes turn to cry offs, and I get called Sunday morning. (Scott as well)

So the first post saying its up to us to contact early to show that we are availble to help is bollox, as we did!!!!

Anyway, Jacko did you enjoy watching Stoke "smash the shit" out of spurs???

That was me who sent them a text on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago (I can't remember who it was against) telling them they were needed. I did that off my own back without asking Trev as I sensed we were going to be short. In the end, I think we had 13 (without Danny & Scott turning up), but we were lucky.

If I had asked Trev, he would have said don't bother. This is because he is far too overly optimistic that all players originally named in the squad will play, whereas I much prefer to treat somebody who says they 'might have to drop out' as meaning 'they WILL be dropping out' !

If I had phoned Danny & Scott on that Sunday morning, what good would that have done ? The first question they would have asked is 'Am I starting ?', but how can I answer that ?
Phoning players on a Sunday morning to persuade them to play must be Trev's job only.

The reason Trev won't do that is because it clearly says in our rules on the 'All About The Club' page that players must phone him if they are asked to play/named in the squad and need to know if they are in the starting line-up or not (because they have better things to do if they are not).
That doesn't happen because most players have never read the 'All About The Club' page, so unfortunately a certain amount of bending of the rules will have to take place (by Trev) if we want to make sure we field squads of 14 or 16 for the rest of the season.

Yup I'm now fighting fit, well fighting anyway. So I'll pop along.

RE: Stoke/Spurs, the ref was a fucking joke, yet again, he sent one of ours off for fuck all, twat. And lets just say it was a different result outside the ground ;-)

I just sent Conor an e-mail about his work 7-a-side tournament that he wants filmed (when England are playing USA ! ) and it has come back with an 'out-of-office until Monday 29th March' reply.

Does that mean he is off work with his knee injury or was it a pre-planned week off ?

Did the Spurs fans pay more than you expected for the sacks of coal you brought along with you?

Does that mean he is off work with his knee injury or was it a pre-planned week off ?[/quote]


Call him. Oh no, you can't, just read the "all about the club" page. Hee heee

As hardly anybody has put 'available' on this thread yet (thanks to my rants sidetracking them ?!), I will most certainly be phoning 16 players this coming Friday, irrespective of the rules !
It will be a Double Non-Fulfilment otherwise !

Call him. Oh no, you can't, just read the "all about the club" page. Hee heee[/quote]

I decided to break the rule and use the old fashioned telephone, albeit a modern i-phone mobile one. Conor answered and we had a conversation. It was much more fun than e-mail, text or forum messages.

He is off work on leave but he is injured. He is definately not playing on Sunday and seeing a specialist on Friday. He may need an operation and expects to be out for the rest of the season.

At the moment I have a squad of 12 with 2 goalkeepers. I would like 4 more substitutes so I do not have to be linesman and can bring them on.

The Forum deadline is 10 pm on Thursday otherwise I'll be on the phone.

I think i might wait for a call to see what it feels like!

Available

Available this week but not easter weekend.

I am happy to pick Terry Brown up if he needs a lift this week. Rob / Terry let me know

Available,

Thanks and i really appreicate that Loveday, I spoke to Rob yesterday and he should be ok but i'll let you know either way

So...the 10.00.p.m. Thursday night deadline has gone, and with the inclusion of players who have texted, e-mailed or simply said 'see you next week' last Sunday, I make it that with Conor definitely out injured, we have just a bare eleven including two keepers ?
These are as follows:
Darryl Johnson (GK)
Terry Moore (RCH)
Alan Barnard (SW)
Martin Loveday (LCH)
Tony King (RM)
Terry Brown (CM)
Danny Hagan (CM)
Steve Cokell (LM)
Stuart Dorward (Attacking CM)
Daniel Daley (CF...an hour late because he will forget to put his clock forward)
Simon Jackson (Battering Ram CF !)

This means Trevor will now need to phone players (this evening when they are all out on the piss after work...the Friday night tradition ?) in the following order of preference:
Rob Brown
Danny Smith
Kris Spyrou
Jim Arrowsmith
Kizza
Wooly
Jamile Little (via Daley)
Danny Green
Scott Jenkins
Tem Adil
Peter Murphy

If he can only get two definite 'Yes's from that lot, then he will need to start phoning the following to find at least another two and therefore make sure we have at least three outfield subs:
Jamie Martin
Clark Williams
Andrew Warmerdam
Aaron Illsley
Gavin Mardell
Aron White
Paul Amico
Foysol Ahmed
Joe Ansell
Paul Duffy
Rob Jackson
Gary Cokell
Ramel Palmer

Sorry chaps, I doubt it very much if I will be there as I am staying in Birmingham on Sat night. Don't count on me, get a squad together and if I can get there at some point, I'll be the 16th man.

I can tell you now that gary won't play.

Jim and Kizza are both playing so we have 13. I have left a message for Terry to get Jamie to play.

Anyone else who is available please phone me!