This Thursday sees us playing our last Thursday Night match of the Summer against North London Rovers, and we have to win by as big a margin as possible in order to win the Plate League Title. ( This thread explains more about that).
The match is an 8.00.p.m. Kick-Off.

The problem is that we have too many players wanting to play, especially as we didn't play last night (Bank Holiday) and have had to cancel training on Wednesday night because of this match.
A lot of players are intending paying their Annual Subs on Thursday night so that they have a chance of being picked in the starting line-up this Sunday, so it would be unfair to leave them out.
I suggested to Trevor that we could ask the Southgate Hockey Centre if we can use the other half of the pitch at the same time if nobody has hired it for training, but he thinks that would be a waste of money...they will charge us about £40.00...and that we wouldn't have enough players turning up to have 7 playing the 7-a-side match and 10 or more using the other half-pitch for training.

So...the squad for this Thursday is therefore going to have to be the same 9 who played last week (i.e. Jacko (GK), Barney, Hagan, Ricky, Ben, Lexton, Cascoe, Daley & Lee ) and we will have to leave Terry Moore out again. I can't leave any of those 9 out to put him in. It's impossible to single anybody out. Trevor will be there as Manager this week.

In my opinion though, if the other half-pitch is available (probably unlikely though), we could easily get another 7 players over there including myself and Tim Beeden. I am thinking five out of Tony King, John Scouller, Colin, Yianni, Kizza & Loveday for a start.
The players who are not on the pitch for the 7-a-side match then join in with training instead of standing still on the touchline 'doing nothing' as a sub.
I know that Jacko would prefer to face shooting practice in a full-size goal than play in a 7-a-side match where he may not have to make a save. Tim could then play in goal in the match, or Jacko & Tim play a half each.

If we have a minimum of 17 over there on Thursday night and we charge everybody £5.00 each, that will cover the cost of both the 7-a-side match and hiring the other half-pitch for a training session.

I will need some feedback on this today though, otherwise it won't happen. I will need to contact the SHC tomorrow (Wednesday) to get the other half-pitch booked.

I'd prefer an hour in full size goals if possible.

See you there for the game (although a squad of 9 isn't ideal). I'm not that fussed about training, we'll be doing plenty of that once the season is underway.

I have just spoken to Terry Moore. He has family coming round tomorrow night, so he doesn't mind missing the game (or training), although he will play if needed.

He thinks it might be a bit risky booking the other half of the pitch as we might only get 3 or 4 players for that (most likely just myself, Jacko and two subs from the 7-a-side match) and we will then lose a lot of money. I tend to agree with him now that nobody is bothering to get in touch. I haven't got time to text/phone them all.
Bit hard on Jacko as I know he needs the practice, but he'll just have to wait until next Wednesday for that now I think.
I will be amazed if the pitch isn't already booked anyway, as surely they would have had both 7-a-side matches on at 8.00.p.m. otherwise ?

We'll go with the original squad of 9 for the 7-a-side match.

Thanks for the confidence boost Lol....!

Ricky has dropped out for tomorrow night's match due to family commitments, while Terry Moore now definitely cannot play due to a work do (I think he said ?).
That's o.k. though, as it leaves us with a squad of 8, which is better anyway.

We managed to win 8-1 tonight and when I left the Southgate Hockey Centre at about 9.45.p.m., it looked as if the score of the Locomotive Southgate v. Enfield Bears match was either still 0-0 (deep into the Second Half) or certainly a very close game with no sign of Locomotive Southgate winning 7-0 or Enfield Bears winning 13-0...which they both would have needed to win the Plate League Title after our result !

I think we can therefore safely say that we have won the Plate League, but that may not be confirmed until we turn up there to play on Monday and ask the Referee ! Hopefully they will put the result on their 'Fixtures Live' website tomorrow though. (It will display here if they do so, so just keep checking that page).

When I handed in the Result Card to the bloke with the beard behind the bar afterwards, he didn't have a clue if we get a trophy or not for winning the Plate League. He told me to phone Liz at the SHC tomorrow and find out. Presumably we would then get awarded that on Monday night or when we start training over there on Wednesday night next week.

Trevor is busy with family commitments tonight, so I may not receive the details of tonights match until sometime over the weekend. I will update this page as soon as I get them from him.

By the way, another team (from the Greek League) had booked the other half of the pitch for a training session while our game was going on, so that idea wouldn't have happened anyway.

I'm sure this guy was playing for North London Rovers against us last night ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8BY86AO5Bs

**** me you really are busy......