I have had to concede the match this morning and have texted those who were still due to be playing, and phoned the Referee and our opponents to save them an unnecessary journey.
We will get fined £25 and may have to pay the Ref his £35 even though he did not attend the venue.

Up until 8.30.p.m. yesterday (Saturday) evening we had a reasonable starting eleven (including Gavin Mardell & Jamile Little, with the other 9 being regular first-choice players). We also had Jacko and myself down as subs and Kris due to come along for the Second Half.
However, out of the rest of our 39 registered players, there was absolutely nobody else available whatsoever. We got replies from most of them and there were several 'Sorry...not available's'. You can judge that reply how you like !

Rob then told us last night that he had to work, then this morning Jacko texted to say he had done his back in getting out of bed, Kizza texted to say he fell over last night and aggravated an ankle injury that he suffered last week, then Jamile texted to say that he had to babysit. I also had no confirmation that Daley was playing when he always does either on the Forum or by text at some stage...although he has since phoned me and reckoned he texted Trev to say that he was playing, so that left us down to just 8 players for the First Half (including me)...as far as I was concerned.
Although Kris was due to turn up at Half-Time, the game would have been a farce with only 8 (or 9) men including me. I have a pulled muscle in my lower back for a start, but unlike others, I would have started the match and played through the pain.

I spoke to Trev this morning and he is prepared to believe that the cry-offs were all genuine excuses and it is just one of those things. 'Sod's law'.

I had an angry text from Loveday this morning because he had gone to great lengths to get off work to play in this match. He wonders whether it is worth playing for Rovers any more. I agree with him 100%. I am just as incensed as he is.
Today is another example of Rovers having to take a back seat to work & family commitments for the majority of our players, while how the fuck do so many of our players get 'injured' on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning...or from playing 5-a-side kickabouts with mates from work ?!!!
I'm sorry, but some of the injury excuses we had had this season are far too feeble for my liking, and it is another indication of players only wanting to play if they feel like it or are not doing anything else.

I will be doing this spreadsheet of excuses shortly, but I think I can safely say now that the players who will be at the bottom of the 'culprits' list are Darryl, Barney, Terry Moore, Loveday, Tony King, Steve Cokell and Conor.
These seven players have been a credit to the club this season and we need to find another 10 who can give their level of commitment if we are going to still be running next season.
Hopefully that will be some of our existing players, but if they can only play 2 or 3 out of every 5 games because of work & family commitments or continual injuries from playing for other teams, then I don't think that is any good to us and they should retire now...whoever they are !

Should this have been called off during the week? Based on who you know who is unreliable and who isn't, we should not have been in this position. This was always going to happen. We only really ever had 8. Is it worth it for people like Loveday who have put themselves out to play when other people cry off who we always knew were unreliable? Trevor should have said that Daley had text. Jamile must have known about baby sitting plus where was he last week? And we still include him in the starting 11??? If Rob has to work then so be it. As you said, Rovers don't pay your wages hence no videos/match reports. We may now have to pay £60 insted of the £50.

All in all it's turned to shit because we hoped everyone would turn up. I think the core of the team knew this would happen

"....we need to find another 10 who can give their level of commitment if we are going to still be running next season."

You had another one until even Carol Vorderman started getting call-ups sooner....

Murf, are you saying that if you had been asked (or put in the squad straight away) on Monday as opposed to being contacted on Thursday, then you would have been able to play today ?

Fair point if that is the case, but the problem we have is that virtually all of our 39 registered players seem to be in a similar situation where they like to plan their weekends 7 days in advance. We have hardly anybody who is prepared to play when they are texted on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning because they are already doing other things, so when we get 5 or 6 players drop out as late as that, it then results in a non-fulfilment.
To be honest, we are lucky today's debacle has only happened once this season.

The only answer is to make sure that the squad picked on a Monday consists only of players who do not play for Saturday teams or work 5-a-side teams and/or are not in a work or family situation that frequently sees them having to drop out within 48 hours of the kick-off.
That would mean saying goodbye to Danny Hagan, Stuart, Rob Brown, Danny Smith and several others, which is o.k. if we can find similar quality players who are committed to play every week and are not injury-prone, but I very much doubt if that will happen.

Murf, I think out of all our other registered players who have been left out in the cold by Trev's policy of picking our best players for the squad whenever they are available, you are just about the only one who has never (or rarely) dropped out less than 48 hours before a match and left us in the shit.
We could therefore change the policy for next season to name a squad of 14 every week and include you in it. However, there are then numerous weeks that you are unavailable in the first place because of your trips abroad and to Arsenal Away matches, and that gives us another problem.

So you are as pessimistic as I am then, Deej ?

I left it until Sunday morning because I was pissed off with Trev continually telling me to be positive and that Jamile, Kizza and others would not let us down again.

I must admit that on this occasion, I really didn't think that so many would drop out. Obviously they didn't read my warning that I posted on this thread last night (at 8.31.p.m.) that I would kick them out of the club if they cried off this morning !

I am not going to put blame on any individuals but I will clarify a few facts.
On Monday we named a small squad of 12 due to injuries and unavailability.
Jim Arrowsmith and Terry Brown then both informed us early in the week that they were unavailable due to 'other commitments'. We do not know what these commitments were but at least they told us early in the week to allow us to chase up replacements.
Rob Brown informed us on Saturday of a problem at work which was unavoidable.
Jamile was left out of the squad because he did not turn up last week but because we were short I chased him. He replied by text on Saturday morning to say that he can play only to text on Sunday morning at 08.41 that he had to 'look after his son'.
Simon Jackson text at 08.21 on Sunday morning that he had 'done his back in getting out of bed'.
Kizza text at 08.21 'I was out last night and went over on the ankle I did last week. It is really bad'.
I text Daley earlier in the week but did not get a reply. I think he sends texts to my old phone even though I text him from my new one. Daley had told me he was playing before he left last Sunday so we should not have had to chase him anyway.

The eight players who were still available and, in particular, Loveday who had made special arrangements to become available do deserve praise. It is difficult to ask those who were unavailable to apologise because they all had excuses. It was not a case of people just not turning up. We just seem to be the unluckiest team in the world with work and family commitments and injuries.

I would just like to re-iterate that unlike most other clubs who non-fulfil, today was not a case of players not turning up because they are pissed off with results or the Manager or whatever.

I'm pretty sure that most of our players enjoy playing for us, but too many of them simply have other priorities.
In Jacko's case, he didn't want to turn up and aggravate an injury that would have stopped him playing cricket, which is his No.1 sport.
In Kizza's case, if he had aggravated his ankle injury playing today, it would have stopped him dancing (or whatever he does on stage with his theatre company ?)

It was just one of those days...but I think it is something we are going to have to look at closely for next season and get some players in who don't have to work on call or have babies to look after on Sunday mornings.

...but then those of our players who already train with Saturday clubs wouldn't be able to train with us.

In an ideal world, we would have what Cheshunt Corinthians, East Herts, Enfield Royals, Flamstead End, AFC Cheshunt and Turnford Geese have all got...quality players (mainly in their mid-20's) who have given up playing Saturdays in order to treat their Sunday club as priority. That's why they all have training and they all turn up an hour before the kick-off and warm up properly. We are never going to have that because we don't have the contacts from the Ryman League, Spartan South Midlands League, Herts Senior County League etc. to find those sort of players.
We will therefore continue to have players dropping out injured on a Saturday night/Sunday morning or from going out on the piss Saturday night.

Well if it makes it easier to get a squad together then so be it i wont sign on the season coming up.

As I say, it won't happen anyway, because we don't have the contacts to find totally committed players like that.

I have calmed down a bit since Sunday and have realised that the occasional non-fulfilment and/or heavy defeat because of players dropping out on a Sunday morning is just something we will have to live with. Half the teams in the League are in the same predicament as us where they can't have training because of other commitments.
I would rather have that than see the club fold up just because we can't find 16 totally committed players.

I will still sign up your mates from Old Parms, Dan...and any other quality players that can be brought along by existing players, and who knows, that might be good enough to see us win the League or a Cup even without training and with some matches seeing us field only 10 men because of injuries from the day before.

Something else I am looking at at the moment is an overhaul of the Management Committee.
I spoke to Stuart last night and he is offering to resign as Captain for next season because he cannot commit himself to play every week due to work & family commitments.
Also, Trev is going to Australia for two months in December & January and I think he is also taking lengthy holidays to Cyprus and Las Vegas as well during the course of the season.
We are thinking of getting in a new Team Manager (an ex-Pro or Semi-Pro doing their coaching badges would be ideal in my opinion) with Trevor as Treasurer/Assistant Manager/Coach/Club Lino.
If that happens, some players might show a bit more commitment. I know I can't prove it, but I still think some excuses given by players on a Saturday night/Sunday morning throughout the course of the season have been false and the real reason they dropped out was because they were pissed, due to be going out on the piss, or the missus wouldn't let them play.
A new Manager might be a better 'man-Manager' and stop players being tempted to do that.

Bite Up!!!

My point was purely that if the policy is to pick what you/Trev consider to be the best available squad, and that excludes certain players on a continual basis (not just me), it is entirely unrealistic to expect those generally excluded players to:

a) monitor the forum week in/week out on the extreme off chance they get a call-up and

b) continually prioritise Rovers/keep weekends free only to be continually surplus to requirements

I can only speak for myself but playing was my priority and, Arsenal away games on a Sunday and the odd weekend away aside, I kept myself free until the end of January. But even the most keen and patient have their limit and I met mine.

So, bearing in mind my general points above i.e. a) and b), I don't see how it can be a surprise or disappointment that players deemed surplus to requirements for almost all season aren't free when Rovers come calling in desperation for the last couple of games. In other words, do a Jamie Carragher.

Cheers,

Murf

Agree completely with Murf... we either need to involve players on the fringe / not quite in the best starting 11, or risk losing them. We can't expect people to drop things and want to play for us when they've been left out of the squad / been an unused sub when we're at 'full strength'.

We need to find a balance between keeping the committed players happy / involved, and picking strong starting line ups. I don't see an easy way of doing this if I'm honest, but until we do it, we're going to have the odd situation like last Sunday.

Absolutely. Nail on head.

I was considering "not bothering" by the end of Jan as i only played in 1 game before Christmas! However, i have fuck all else to do on a Sunday so i'll turn up. But this, as Pete and Barney have said, is a large part of the reason why people are not available. Also, people think they should be in the 1st 11 ahead of others and get pissed off when they are sub or asked to run the line!

I do think that if training was to happen then perhaps we would have a bigger availabilty at this time of the season. But then you'll have the problem of people not being able to make training etc.....If 16 people can make it every week then we should be fine. A balance of starting 11 and playing a full 90 mins can then be found but it needs those 16 or so people to commit every week.

I am probably not going to play next year (whoo hooo i hear!) but it has nothing to do with this situation.

Yeah i will not be playing next season either but can i say that this problem has been all season and we hav been lucky on many occassions in fielding a side but this is sunday football and it happens to most teams,

You had commited players, just dicked on them! If I remember last seasons end of season do at trevs??? Who was there? Good luck guys, great club dont let it fold.

So basically what you are saying here is that a fair number of players that Trev picked as regulars, particularly early on in the season, were still picked for the following week's game when they had 'not turned up' the week before.
I can assure you (and Murf, who I know has a bee in his bonnet about this), that on the very rare occasion(s) that happened, those players were not picked for the squad the following week initially, but ended up back in the squad because people like you and Murf were working nights or had gone away for the weekend.
We are not going to drop him/them in two weeks time just to give you a game then !
I know you can do that sort of thing and have more of a rota basis with Norsemen Dan, because you run 8 teams, but if we did it with Rovers, we would definitely finish bottom, then most of our regulars would leave and we would end up like Rosemill, White Hart and Chase Side Old Boys (all ex-Premier Division teams) who are getting relegated every season and end up in the bottom division because we are not fielding a settled side.

I know we might have a new Manager next season (or probably not because nobody will be interested ), but the way things stand at the moment, because we only run one team, we will continue to operate a system where the best players are picked every week in order to try and win matches at this level, and a bit of leeway will be given as regards payment of subs (which we rarely have a problem with anyway), turning up late, and dropping out at short notice.
Believe me, that will be the same as most other clubs in the League.
We may lose a lot of 'fringe players' if we have a big squad, but we will attract good players if we have a chance of winning something.

Well that would have been from Trev's policy of asking players not originally in the squad to check the Forum every week and indicate their availability to come in as a replacement then...which as Murf says, he (and probably 20 or so other players) was/were not prepared to do.
We know that Trev will not phone/text players to chase them up to play, hence the same squad being named.
Of course when I then did that for our last two matches because of players letting us down the week before, nobody was interested because they were pissed off that it had not happened at the start of the season.

As for the starting line-up and subs' situation come Sunday mornings, it was probably more a case of trying to put square pegs into round holes. For example, lets say Darryl had let us down the week before (not that he would !), but then the following week he is still in a squad of 12 (including Murf) because Jacko is not available. Would we put Darryl sub and Murf in goal against Cheshunt Corinthians ? Of course we wouldn't !

Here is how I see things for next season at the moment...Trev will resign as Manager anyway, even if we don't get a new one, because too many of our players don't agree with his man-management. I will then have to be Manager (and not film the games)because nobody else will do it. Stuart can't as he is not going to be available much due to work & family commitments.
We will have a squad of only about 16-20 players, several of whom are more of Division Three or Four standard, because Hagan's mates now don't want to join (can't get up on Sunday mornings) and Smithy (who was going to bring along a load of new players) now says he is leaving.
We will probably have quite a settled team and a good team spirit because I WILL phone players and chase them up to play and I WILL drop players who piss us about and put other players in the starting line-up ahead of them on a rota basis when that happens. Also, unlike Trev, I will tell it to a player straight that they are not good enough, and if they don't like it...then tough ! They can either go sub or fuck off.
The matches not being filmed will only be a problem for me, not for anybody else, but if it keeps the club going, then so be it.

We will undoubtedly finish bottom and get relegated because most of our better players are retiring next season and at the moment there is not a cat in hell's chance of us getting any new players of Premier/Division One-quality in, but if we have enough players who are still prepared to turn up most weeks despite losing every game, then that's fine.
I will do everything to keep the club going.

Is that o.k. with everyone ?

Good to see you being optimistic/positive as usual... I think you missed the bit about a 747 crashing into Hazlewood mid-way through one of our games.

Can I just remind everyone of 2 things:

1) I only gave up checking the forum end-January as there's only so much unrequited love a guy can take and

2) Please donate the 2 nicker the club owes me for running, sorry walking, the line during my last non-appearance to the next "New Jade Socks" fund.

Cheers,

Murf

Genius

can we employ murf to do the match reports. he is too funny.

Player Manager / Reporter / Lino????

Man management is the main problem as we can see, My brother finally had enough after playing in goal 2 weeks on the trot and was dropped from the squad the week after!!!

Trev will still be Lino/Coach.
With somebody else as Manager, it means Barney will not need to shout at Trev to put his flag down and 'phone someone...quick' during a match when we go down to 10 men and have no subs.

I have not said that I will resign as manager.

However, I have not enjoyed the job recently and have no problem if it is felt to be in the best interests of the club to replace me.

When I started as manager we had committed players who turned up every week to training and matches, listened to my tactics and we progressed from Division 5 to 3rd in the Premier Division.

We still have a squad of players capable of playing at Division One level but we have very little chance of winning anything due to unavailability through family or work commitments and some unfortunate injuries.

We have to decide whether we should continue trying to pick the strongest available XI at the risk of losing more loyal players or go with loyalty and accept the inevitable relegation that will follow even in my optimistic opinion. I think opinion will be split on this and we risk losing our better players if we decide not to pick our strongest side.

I think everyone needs to be honest and decide what we want for next season. We need to know what will persuade them to sign up. I apologise if I made mistakes with squad and team selection this season but I believe our mid table finish is a good performance in a strong division.

I suggest that we forget what has happened previously and have some positive suggestions for how to improve the team for next season.

Well said Trev. I agree 100% with that.

Let's hope we get some honest answers instead of people just saying 'I'm not playing next season'.