This coming Sunday sees us playing top Cypriot (KOPA) Sunday League side CETINKAYA CINAR in another Pre-Season Friendly on the grass pitch at the Southgate Hockey Centre (where we play 7-a-side on Thursday nights). 10.30.a.m. Kick-Off.
Tem and/or Oz will have to tell me how Cetinkaya Cinar is pronounced, as I haven't got a clue !

I will be e-mailing all players later today to have a rant about the lack of timekeeping (and other things), but basically we do NOT want players strolling along just 5 minutes before the kick-off.

As for the squad, once again it's a case of whoever is available gets at least 45 minutes, but if we have more than 16 (which is pretty unlikely), then Trevor will leave some players out completely.
At the moment, we are assuming that the following players are available...if they could confirm asap please ?
Simon Jackson (GK)
Ozel Ozerman (GK)
Alan Barnard
Terry Moore
Martin Loveday
Jim Arrowsmith
Tony King
Dean Assiamah
Rob Brown
Danny Hagan
Lee King
Daniel Daley
Lexton Harrison
Tem Adil
Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo
Julian Carvey
Conor McGovern
Danny Smith
Terry Brown
Jamie Martin
plus any new players who are at 7-a-side this coming Thursday night.

Cetinkaya Cinar, like us, enter the London F.A. Sunday Intermediate Cup every season, but unlike us, they normally reach the later stages !
Their squad listed on their website is like a Who's Who of local semi-pro football with plenty of well-known names there from the Ryman League and Spartan South Midlands League, but that is the sort of quality we face most weeks in the Waltham Sunday League, so it's a necessary test for our new players.

available.

Yup I'm OK

Guys, before you get Lol's email.....

If we really want to try and compete this year then we need to do a proper team warm up, and that is purely based on you guys being able to turn up at the right time. I'd like to suggest that for all games this year that we agree, not to turn up at 9.45, but for all of us to be ready to do the warm up at 9.45 so that would really mean getting there at 9.20/30.

Thoughts please.........

I'm available for this.

For Jacko's email, I agree - we would benefit much more from having a proper warm up. I know I'm one of the serial offenders for not turning up at 10am, but I always make sure I have enough time to warm up properly before the start.

I would suggest that everyone should be ready to warm up for 10am. I don't think we need to do more than 15 or 20 minutes warming up, then perhaps go back to the changing room / touchline for a final brief from Trev in terms of corners, tactics etc.

Available Sunday. I agree with Barney and Jacko. We do 20 min warm up for Saturday football so why not on a Sunday. Mosty importantly we all need to be present for Trevs team talk so we all know who's where for corners etc...

Correct...and this is what I have said in the e-mail I have just sent to everybody.
More than 20 minutes warm-up is too long for Sunday League footballers. Everybody will go down with cramp in the Second Half if we do longer than that.

I slightly disagree with Barney where he says go back to the changing room for Trev's final briefing. I think we should only really do that if we are at Hazelwood and it is cold, wet & windy. It is too impractical anywhere else, so the touchline is best for that.

The ironic thing about yesterday was that the four players who were keenest to do a pre-match warm-up (Barney, Daley, Lee & Dean) were the ones who turned up late, although for Lee & Dean that was Oz's fault as he was giving them a lift. He thought we were playing at Hazelwood !

Or to be more precise, everybody needs to be listening to Trev's team-talks so we all know who's where for corners etc..!

Because so many people turned up late yesterday, what happened at Half-Time (and presumably just before the kick-off ?) was players were all chatting to each other in groups and not listening to him at all. It was all because they didn't get a chance to speak to each other before the game and then because they all bugger off straight on the final whistle and don't stay for a shower and a drink.

Available for this one.

For the record Lol, it's pronounced CHETIN-KYE-YA JINAR.

Bit of a mouthful I know.

available

The way things stand at the moment, the following eleven players are definitely available for this Sunday:
Simon Jackson (GK)
Darryl Johnson (GK)
Alan Barnard
Terry Moore
Martin Loveday
Dean Assiamah
Danny Hagan
Lee King
Daniel Daley
Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo
James Mandell (A new player who played 7-a-side this week)

We then have a number of players who cannot confirm yet due to family and/or social commitments, or have not told us one way or the other if they are available or not. (At the moment, we are assuming that these players will all be turning up unless they (or the players who normally bring them along) tell us otherwise:
Jim Arrowsmith
Tony King
Lexton Harrison
Rob Brown
Terry Brown
Jamie Martin
Julian Carvey
Conor McGovern
Tem Adil (Injured ?)
We are not going to chase any of the above players up. It's up to them to turn up of their own accord...but preferably let us know first.

Also, a reminder that we want everybody there in time to be out on the pitch by 10.00.a.m. for a properly-organised warm-up. Barney says he will put his alarm clock on this week !
If we have a decent-sized squad turn up on the day, Trevor will leave people out of the starting line-up who turn up late for the warm-up.

Jim is definitely not playing (due to family commitments). Confirmed this morning.

If anybody else is in the same situation (e.g. Rob Brown) and is going to 'have to' drop out, can they please let us know during the day today ?

If they let us know tomorrow or on Sunday morning that they are not playing, then that's too late and we will probably end up with just a bare eleven including two goalkeepers.

I'm not going to be able to make it until approx 10.45 at the ground.

Available

My foot injury is still not looking promising at all so I'm very doubtful for this one. Gutted as I would liked to have played against these lot.

Text Im available for sunday

Lau, I already said in the other thread that you will have to treat me as an extra man. I won't know until tomorrow morning if I will be able to make it. So like I said, don't not pick somebody in the squad because I'm a maybe. Get the squad together and if I happen to turn up and we have too many players and I cannot play, then so be it. I won't cry!

My fault. I forgot about that.

The situation at the moment is that we might only have a bare eleven (not including Darryl) because Kizza sent me an e-mail earlier in the week saying 'I work most Sundays'. I am hoping he only meant that he can't stay for a drink because of that, not that he can't play. I think he copied everybody else in, so you can all tell me if I am reading it correctly or not.
I have texted him anyway to find out if Julian Carvey is playing tomorrow.
If they are both playing, we will have 13 plus a sub keeper...the same as last week.

I have heard nothing from Conor, so I assume he is still injured, while presumably, Terry (Brown) and Jamie are not going to be there if you cannot play, Rob ?
We don't have anybody else we can bring into the squad anyway, so if you, Terry & Jamie can't play, then it's more than likely we will only have 12 or 13 players...and we need to be stronger than that against a team of the calibre we are playing tomorrow.

Over to you, Trev ?

Lexton has just dropped out because of family commitments.
Both Trevor and myself have tried texting/phoning Kizza but we can't get any answer.

At the moment we have just a bare eleven including two goalkeepers, one of whom will not be there until after the kick-off.
It looks like I will have to play (in defence) and not video the match.

Just another typical Rovers match !

Kizza is not playing. He is working for the next two Sundays. He claims he sent myself & Trevor a text earlier in the week, but I definitely didn't receive it.
It also means Julian Carvey is not playing as he has no lift.

We definitely only have 12 including myself & Darryl.
In fact we may well end up with even less than that...