Last Week And The New Year!

Posting on behalf of Captain Thornes:

Firstly, I am flattered and honoured that the club wants me to carry on picking the team in the role that I had last year. It's not something i take lightly and I can guarantee I will do my best to make this a successful year on the pitch for the Accies. I thought last week's game was a great start, as we played the kind of simple, pass-and-move football that we have been striving towards for a while. Having managed to do it once I hope this gives us the confidence to keep playing this way for the rest of the year. We might not win every game if we do, but I feel sure we will enjoy our football much more this way than any other style we might adopt.

As i said in the dressing room after the game last week, to single anybody out as Man Of The Match wouldn't be right, given everybody played a significant part in a great performance. As many of you might have noticed I am not a great fan of Man Of The Match awards generally. They encourage individualism in a game where a strong collective spirit is crucial. MOTM awards are also a very subjective decision and usually ignore some of the less eye-catching, but equally important efforts of less high-profile players. I also believe that raising the levels of someone who is having a bad game is more important than praising a player who is playing well. Anyway I'll probably proceed with this in a fairly ad hoc way. The main thing is we have a squad of players who all make a contribution.

Pretty much everything else will stay the same as last year. I am still committed to everybody getting approximately equal playing time on a Thursday. The only exceptions to this would be injury, a very obvious lack of fitness which prevents a player from doing his job on the pitch, or a player repeatedly ignoring specific instructions given before or during a game. Otherwise, I think our aims this year should be to enjoy playing as a team, win as often as possible and retain the Anglo-Dutch Cup. They are certainly my aims. If anybody needs to speak to me about anything my number is 07828 950790 - drop me a text and i'll quite happily call you back, so long as it isn't the middle of the night!

Up the Accies!