THE EDMONTON ROVERS FORUM
We finally return to League action in Division One this coming Sunday when we travel to Castle Road in Hoddesdon to take on in-form Cheshunt Town, who have only lost once in their last 6 matches. Full details are now on the Forthcoming Fixtures page.
Castle Road is not an easy place to find and we have only played there once before (in recent years anyway) when we lost 3-0 to Asco about 3 years ago in a nightmare performance. We badly need some more players to be up for this one as we really don't want to field a bare eleven (or less) for a second week in a row, while of course we need a goalkeeper (assuming Barney will be fit to play as an outfield player ?)
The squad will be announced after training on Wednesday night as a lot will depend on who turns up there.
As you will have seen on another thread on this Forum, Danny Hagan announced his resignation from the Captaincy and the Management Committee at our match yesterday, and Trevor will therefore be leaving him out of the squad for this match if we have enough players without him.
Yes, we might not be good enough without Hagan and our current dismal run of 9 defeats in our last 10 matches may well continue, but we have numerous players moaning that they are never given a chance, so it's now up to them to prove that we are good enough to win matches with them in the side.
I am not anticipating any of the other 10 players who played yesterday to leave/lose interest as well, although Frankie Karemo may not be available every week due to living in South London and not being able to attend training.
Last Wednesday at training we had 19 players there including myself and Daley. We both stood and watched because it was too crowded. After the usual shooting practice, we did an 8 v 8 attack v defence drill into one goal with Jack Tompkins as the keeper. I have no idea how Jack managed to injure himself (to drop out of the Asianos match) as he had nothing whatsoever to do in that training drill !! He was just standing there bored sh!tless. It was a farcical situation as there were just too many players involved on just a half-pitch and nobody was able to get a shot in at him ! It was just one big bundle like a kids' kickaround in a playground.
Another problem last week was that more than half the players in attendance didn't arrive until about 9.20.p.m. !!! I know some players 'work late', but I'm sorry, that is taking the piss. What is the point ?! When players turn up half way through the session instead of at 8.30 when they are supposed to arrive, it makes it extremely difficult for Trevor to plan anything, then he gets loads of stick for being indecisive and making training 'boring' when they finally arrive. We never know in advance who is actually attending training as hardly anybody uses Teamer or the Forum to tell us.
Jack (Tompkins) will not be at training now for the forseeable future as he has changed his work shifts again, so we will not be doing any drills with goalkeepers this Wednesday. Hopefully training will be better as a result, and if we get 19 or 20 there again, then we will split up into three groups doing different drills.
I also suggest that we now start signing up Riaz's mates to play on Sundays.
Obviously none of them are as good as Hagan, but if they can get out of bed on a Sunday morning, that will do me ! 
We can then start saying goodbye to those who can't...and there were three of them yesterday.
Trevor has named a squad of 16 for this Sunday's match Away to Cheshunt Town as follows:
Jack Tompkins (GK)
Garry Cover (GK/Outfield)
Lexton Harrison
Terry Moore
George Stahlmann
Krishan Singh
Ryan Foreman
Danny Hagan
Francis Karemo
Leon McKenzie-McKay
Jack Bangs
Daniel Daley
John Scouller
Daniel Cascoe
Martin Cruickshank
Lee King
If any of the above are not available, then either Junior Brown or Ali 'TJ' Sowe will come into the squad to replace them (if they are available themselves).
Alan Barnard will also be there, but as he is still suffering from a thigh strain, he will only play if we have less than eleven or no goalkeeper...as was the case last Sunday.
I wont go into why some players are in the squad and others are not, as it is extremely complex ! Players who are not at training should be phoning the Manager (i.e. Trevor) anyway if they want to know why they have been left out.
We had 16 there at training last night including me, but 7 of them were Riaz and his mates, none of whom are registered. Most of them seemed happy to sign up to play on Sundays if we want them and two of them said they were central defenders, which is obviously useful. If they bring photos next Wednesday I will sign them up, but we will probably need to see them a bit more in training before they can be put in the squad. The biggest problem last night was that nobody knew each other's names, so it was just one big 7-a-side kickabout (albeit three-touch) with everybody just calling 'yeah' or 'ere ya mate' whenever they wanted the ball ! 
The other players at training were Barney, Jack Bangs, John Scouller, Martin, & Lee, then Lexton, Ryan & Krishan all turned up at 9.20.p.m. again.
Leon, Frankie & Junior were all going to attend but dropped out. (They let us know though). Everybody else was working (as normal).
Adam Hurrey (who wrote it) plays for one of my regular customers for filming Cup Finals (The Ship FC from West London). His brother Ollie is (or was) their Secretary and is one of my Facebook friends.
That article is getting massive publicity at the moment. It's everywhere you look on Facebook & Twitter.
Regarding No.8 on that list ('Away'), I remember in one of our matches, our goalkeeper at the time, Stavros Elia, shouted to one of our defenders who was in possession of the ball 'Go away'...meaning kick the ball away downfield. The defender (can't remember who it was) thought Stav meant go away as in walk away and leave the ball to him ! Cue a panicked last-ditch clearance by Stav just as a forward was about to score from the loose ball.
Can't see 'Lino' or 'Can Ya ?' on that list.
