Nottsborough, League, Away, Drew 1-1
Team: Stead, Pearce, Alexander, Bell, Davis N, Harris P, Whittaker, Spenny, Williams C, Chambers, Kucinovic
Scorers: Harris P
Scribe: Alexander
I am fast learning that you never have the team out on a Saturday that you select on a Monday. Just when you think that everything is sorted something else crop’s up to bite you on the ass.... enough moaning... We travelled to Notts with a strong team and looking to get off to a positive start to the new season. Having got promoted last season and having your first game away to the team who won the league, we were under no illusions that this was going to be anything but a difficult game.

Conditions were near perfect, slight wind, flat pitch with a nice covering of grass and a team full of youth and confidence (apart from Pete Harris). We started a bit ragged and were giving Notts a bit too much respect and were guilty of giving our men too much space. Notts started to take control but couldn't convert their dominance into goals with the help of a bit of luck and good defending we went in at half time 0-0. We had quite an open discussion at half time and all agreed that if we were going to get anything out of the game we had to work our socks off and try and play to feet as much as possible especially Pete Whittaker's!!!!!! (Cocky B*****d) at half time recalled one good move, which happened to involve him... We made a good start to the 2nd half and managed to take the lead. Colin playing on the right wing hit a cross / shot that found it's way to the back post where Monkey Harris came sneaking in and coolly fired home. This riled Notts into a couple of changes and they started to turn the screw. Their equaliser was a little fortunate. Their brut of a centre forward chased down a hopeful punt up field and somehow managed to bundle his way past 2 defenders and our goalie (with the help of a hand) and slotted it home. To be fair they hit the bar twice and also the post. Even the most oneeyed fan would have said they deserved something out of the game.

Both teams then had a couple of chances to win the game but it remained at 1-1. Overall a great start to the season. Our new keeper Chris Stead had a fab debut making several crucial saves, everyone gave 100%, Pete Harris didn't moan too much or fight any of his own team. Bring on the Owens next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Owens, League, Away, Won 4-2
Team: B Parsonage, Whittaker P, Alexander, Bell, Davis N, Harris P, Bynoe, Stack, King, Dixon, Goran, Chambers
Scorers: Dixon (2), Harris, King
Scribe: Alexander
The 3's roll on.

Another week, another fantastic result. To have 4 points from 2 games with them being away at the team who won the league and then away at Owens who are always strong and had won 8-0 the previous week is a great start.

Although it's just the 2nd game into the season confidence is very high and everyone seems to be enjoying their football. Big thank you must go out to Ben Parsonage who played for the 4's on pitch and then did us a huge favour by playing in goal. And he wasn't too bad although his kicking was pretty awful!!! Onto the game. I would say Owens started the faster of the 2 sides and had a couple of half chances early on but weren't able to capitalise. We then took the lead when a long free kick was headed on and Dixon neatly rounded the keeper and finished with his right foot!! My memory is never the best so if I get the scoring order wrong I apologise now. The first half was then played out with no real clear cut chances. We then went 2-0 nil up with Pete Harris (joint top goalscorer) finishing after Dixon had a good shot saved. We were looking very comfortable at 2-0 until the oppo forward was played onside when the defence should have all been up and finished with a good strike in the bottom corner. 2-1. Owens could now sniff they were in the game and tried to up the tempo and pushed forward. The defence held firm and we started to play more on the counter attack. It was one of these breaks that put us 3-1 up and back in control. Dixon (i think) played a nice reverse pass to Matt King who cooly placed the ball round the goalie. Game over!!! Unlucky Owens....

We then rubbed salt in the wound when a freekick was whipped in from Whittaker, Dixon and Goran both leaped with Goran shouting 'Gorans Got', Ed took no notice and headed the ball in while the oppo were all crying like 10 year olds to the ref shouting you can't say 'i've got' Goran tried to explain that he did actually call for it but they couldn't understand him...4-1. Owens got a late consolation goal to make the final score 4-2 to the bogs. We then sang / shouted ebogs as loud as we could while Owens were trying to get in their changing room, have it!

Overall it was a really good performance. I'm not going to name, names as everyone played really well. The commitment was spot on and if we continue to play with the same desire and passion we are in for a really good season.

Old Actonians, League, Away, Won 5-3
Team: Kucinovic, pearce, Williams, Alexander, davis, king, stack, bynoe, weightman, harris, dixon
Scorers: Dixon (2), Harris R (2), Stack
Scribe: Pearce
4 points from the first 2 games was a great start, and today against a decent actonians side we hoped to continue that. We opted to take just the bare 11 today, a decision that could’ve gone against us but fortunately we came away with 3 points. We started sloppy, giving the ball away and missing tackles, it was only a matter of time before we conceded, poor defending from a free kick led to them taking the lead! This kicked us into gear and we started to take complete control, we were getting a lot of joy down the right and a great ball in from matt king was met by Dixon to power his header past the keeper. From this point we dominated the oppo and after a decent passage of play down the left Weightmans all, except harris who gambled at the back stick and tapped into the empty net, missed ball in. With half time approaching we pushed for a deserved third, and got it when another great ball across the box was met by Harris he headed well but the keeper made a great save but stack was on hand to finish well.

Second half kicked off and we were a mess, we couldn’t pass, tackle or anything, we basically allowed them back into the game, some sloppy defending and it was 3-2 then just a few minutes it was 3-3. On another day we may have crumbled but we showed real character and slowly pulled ourselves back into the game, a superb Weightman corner was well put away by Dixon and with just 5 minutes to go we got our fifth goal, another great ball in was flicked on by Dixon and Harris was hand to score his second.

This was a great result, another in a fine start to the season, but what impressed more than anything was the character we showed to get ourselves back into the match when it looked like we had thrown it away great result! Impossible to pick a man of the match today so I’m going to put the whole 11!!!!!!!

Old Parmiterians 3, OBC, Won 5-1
Team: Goran, Pearce, A Williams, Alexander, Davis, Bradshaw, Langdale, Bynoe, P.Harris, Dixon, R.Harris.
Scorers: R Harris, (4), E Dixon
Scribe: Williams A
Going into the cup match on Saturday, our confidence was very high having had a great start to the season unbeaten in a higher league after successfully winning promotion last season. We were up against Old Parmiterians who we knew little about. Unfortunately before the game the opposition had a similar kit and it would have been a kit clash. Therefore we had to get a new kit in an emergency.

We started the game a bit shaky with Old Parmiterians attacking us making it a bit difficult. As the half went on we began to keep our shape getting a grip of the game. We started to put Old Parmitarians under pressure hitting them on the counter attack. The break through came mid way through the first half when a ball was played through the centre to Rob Harris, who spun away from the defender and smacked in a cool finish. We began to step up the play, passing the ball around effectively. We were then awarded a penalty when the ball was played in the air to Rob who was then blatantly pushed over. He then stepped up to take the penalty and sent the keeper the wrong way to make it 2-0.

Just before the first half Old Parmiterians had a great chance to bring a goal back which started a bit of a scramble in the penalty box that led to the ball nearly crossing the line but Danny Pearce was there to make sure the ball wasn’t going in and made a good clearance. The ball then fell to one of their strikers, who was at an acute angle and I slid in to get the ball. He collapsed and screamed like he had been shot! One of the most blatant and worst dives I have ever seen. I gave him a piece of my mind. He should be thankful he still has some legs to walk on after the game.

The second half and we started relatively well knocking the ball around growing in confidence, creating more opportunities. We made it 3-0 when Rob Harris shot from about 25 yards, what seemed to look like a scuff which fell into the arms of the goalkeeper only for him to spill the ball right into the path of Dixon who was quick to react.

Old Parmiterians where starting to create some chances of there own but couldn’t find the net. We were giving them far too much time in a lot of areas of the pitch. We took our foot off the pedal a number of times during the second half.

Old Parmiterians pulled a goal back, which was bit sloppy defending to let them get anywhere, near the goal. We made two substitutions taking off Bradshaw and Pete Harris. Chambers and King replaced them. We then extended the lead scoring a couple more goals making it 5-1. The build up to the goals was top class playing it around at the back then through the midfield up to the forwards. Dixon playing a big part in both goals and Rob Harris was there to head in two more goals and adding to his impressive tally of four.

The final whistle went and was a hard earned win. Surprisingly even though we won 5-1 we didn’t play as well as we could of. The positives were that we were very clinical in front of goal and took our chances very well. We also played some good football at times that was very pleasing to watch. The negatives were that we need to cut out silly mistakes leading to opportunities or even goals. Even though in that game we were winning quite comfortably we can’t afford to stop playing and let the opposition come back into the game. But at the end of the day we got the win, which was the only thing in all our minds, and we got the job done which is the most important thing. Well done boys!!

Hopefully we can go on a good cup run this year and carry on our good start to the season, playing some good football along the way. I have every confidence in the team that we can certainly do it. Back to the league next week and let’s push on and get another win!!!

West Wickham, AFA, Home, Lost 1-2
Team: smith, pearce, bell, Williams, davis, king, langdale, voice, bradshaw, kucinovic, field. Subs chambers, dean
Scorers: Langdale
Scribe: Pearce
4 games, 3 wins, 1 draw a record that most teams would be proud of, well we were until today! We lost 3 or 4 key players but we still had a team more than confident of beating west wickham, no excuses today, we were not good at all! If we don’t buck our ideas up we will soon be off the pace in the league and out of the other 2 cups we are still in! We started ok, passing the ball around abit and staying pretty tight but the opposition dominated the half and we were fortunate not to be behind at the half! Second half was a shambles, we didn’t pass, tackle or just generally play any decent football! We went behind and we deserved that, but we got a brief glimmer of hope when langers scored a great goal! Unfortunately the oppo made us pay for some sloppy play and got the winner they deserved! Not good enough im afraid to say, and if we play like this again we will be struggling for results! Another cup game next week and the chance to get our season back on track!!!

Old Actonians, League, Home, Lost 3-7
Team: Weinrich, Barker R, Williams A, Davis N, Bell, Bradshaw, Barker D, Penny, Weightman, Goran and Field
Scorers: D Barker 2, Bradshaw
Scribe: Alexander
First of all may I apologise for being late, due to work. What I didn’t expect was that when I did turn up after 10 minutes of the game gone that we would be 2-0 down. I then had to painfully watch on the side as we kept leaking goals and were 7-0 down at half time. Yes 7-0. Yes Old Actonians are a good side and were top of the league but we’d beaten them 5-3 at the start of the season and on paper we had a really good side out.
We just didn’t turn up in the first half and made some really basic errors. I didn’t see the first 2 goals so can’t really comment on them but just overall there was no communication, people were diving in when they should have been staying on their feet and no one was taking any responsibility. There were holes all over the place and Actonians were exploiting them. I think that a couple of wise heads would really help but when you look around the side we’re not full of babies. And it’s not like we are playing a really complicated formation. People really need to ask themselves if they put in 100%. I think if most people are honest with themselves the answer would be no. Hardly anyone had a sweat on at half time. Just tale a look at Chalky on the other pitch he was sweating buckets….
Trying to be positive we did really improve in the 2nd half and played some really good stuff. If only we would have played that way in the 1st half. We really need a much improved performance next week and maintain our position in the league. I’m sure that if we cut out the silly mistakes we can. Come on the 3’s!!!

Weirside Rangers, League, Home, Won 3-2
Team: Lockyer, Barker R, Bell, Davis N, Haycock, Bradshaw, Barron, Penny, Weightman, Goran and Boyce N
Scorers: Haycock, Penny, R Barker
Scribe: Davis
Started the day with no captain so the ever present Nick Davis stepped in. After getting hammered by these in the away game we were determined not to lose again. Kicking into the wind in the first half we found ourselves under a lot of pressure but dealt with it well and still managed to created a few chances ourselves. However because of a wicked deflection there striker found himself through on goal and slotted the ball comfortably past Lockyear, who had already made three outstanding saves. But our hard work found us only a goal down at half time. A very inspiring team talk from captain Davis at half time riled his players up and made the team come out for the second half fighting. We went on to have the lions share of possession and went on to create several chances however couldn’t capitalise on these. Then the opposition went down the other end and made it 2-0 with another tidy finish. Davis then reacted by making a inspiring substitution and a brave change in formation throwing Goran on up-top, who started opening the defence up. Our pressure finally lead to a corner delivered by Weightman and finished by Haycock. Continued pressure lead to another corner taken by Weightman, Barker lost his marker well and nodded the ball in off of his bald head!

Some very important and reckless tackles saw three of the back four booked but also kept us in the game which enabled us to keep heaping on the pressure which finally paid off when Penny the Duracell bunny raced on to a through ball and calmly slotted into the near post with 5 mins to go. Davis then lined up a free kick on the edge of the area just a bout to pull the trigger when Haycock pushed him out of the way and struck it himself forcing a great save from the goalkeeper. All in all we showed great character to come back and our work ethic was superb throughout. Davis proved just how easy this captain lark is , Scott Alexander better watch his back!!!