Good at Being Bad

Unfortunately Miami didn't film Mes's goal.

Fortunately, this being a big game, Mickael  was also filming the game with a second camera.

Unfortunately, Mes's early strike was the high water mark of our night's endeavours. 

  True to form, the Accies shit it on the big occasion. A bright start soon gave way to the sort of tragi-comic farce that so often makes a mockery of our pre-match optimism. Mott hit back with 2 goals of their own and the Accies never really recovered. Even so, Perre had 2 great chances  in the first half to wrestle the initiative back from a neat and tidy Mott McDonald side. A close range header and  long range strike both whistled over the bar. 

In the second half, Gobby was unlucky when his heroic last ditch challenge was judged to be a foul. The Mott  penalty was converted to create what turned out to be an unassailable 2 goal cushion.

 Mott were never able to relax though and were made to sweat until the end, although in truth the Accies  seemed more likely to start a fight than a comeback.

A crushingly disappointing night then, but let's keep things in perspective. This was only the 3rd or 4th poor performance in our past 15  games. The real test of character will be whether we can bounce back with a good performance next week.

Congratulations by the way, to  Thorney and Stuart, for whom the night marked a 100th and 200th Accies 11 a side  appearance respectively.

Big thanks to Charlie for bringing down a barmy army of supporters for the night. Just sorry we didn't give them something to cheer. What chance a return to Accies action in 2010 for the popular ex Red and Blue regular?

Accies-related quiz time! What do these famous fellas have in common?

Me and the other Ginger Pele

As you'll see here, I'm not the only "ginger baldy" (© TBALT) who's about to play his 200th 11-a-side game for his beloved club!  Super Gary Doherty, who Spurs fans were devastated to lose (ahem!) when he signed for Norwich, is also hitting that magic milestone – also in a cup game (the prestigious Round 2 of the FA Cup).  Wish I had as many career goals as Gary, mind you...

Learn from the master

 Luis was very excited about capturing this aberration from Mes.

Sorry Mes - I'm sure i'll be posting some masterful moments from you later this week.

How to keep injury free

Footage of Coach making sure no-one got injured ahead of this week's important cup game.

Raging Bull

Footage of our gentle club manager  behaving as if someone's pepper sprayed his plums.

I hope you're happy, Caldwell

All-time 11-a-side appearances stats for anyone who's played 5 or more games for us now feature somewhere in the right-hand column of this here blog.  To say that it took a bit of time would be reasonably accurate.  Still, at least now the current playing squad can enjoy the fevered excitement of the battle for 9th place between Simon and Joe; plus the equally thrilling jostling for position between Neil and Neill and between Barry and Tremayne...

What is mildly exciting – just pretend to go along with it, why don't you – is that a week on Thursday, if selected, I will make it to 200 appearances and Lex Luthor will reach his century.  Nice one.

I might treat myself to a few weeks off before I start tackling the 5-a-side appearance stats...

Goal Of The Year 2009

I did a quick trolley dash round the Accies video vault and grabbed the first dozen goals that i could find.There are more - 2 of Sam's excellent goals for a start. Remind me of any other missing goals and i'll dig them out and put them on a second film. Also I know Mes has a couple of goals on a mini DVD disc. 

  We're going to have a MOTD style Goal of the year competition- details to be announced soon - winner to be announced at at the awards dinner.

 The cameras only captured some of our goals - so if you can remember  any other good goals, we could film  Fantasy Football style re-enactments next week - unless we've got better things to do.... like train for a cup game.

Great Effort All Round

Last night's 2-1 loss to Dolphin was an unfortunate affair. After having to face an incredible onslaught of weather in the first half we were level at 1-1 which was a great effort given the circumstances.

The defence were superb in their application, even when changes were made at half time they soon got their rhythm back. Once we went behind in the second half the team really went for it, aying intelligent and attacking football which on other night's would have reaped many a goal but it was just not to be.

Players seem to be picking up their game and attitude with MI cup game on horizon and I just hope this attitude and application carries on as it is bringing good results and breeding confidence

Stat fatigue

Spurred on by Elbows, my evenings are currently taken up by staring at cells with numbers in them, as I edge closer to conclusive stats on 11-a-side appearances.  For now, Mr Caldwell, as a taster, here's the Top 3:

1.  Stuart Dade      199 (I should be dropped for the Mott game just to spite me)

2. Andrew Dade    181

3. Phil Caldwell    173

Now, pre-match sleep awaits...

Christmas Meal

  Message from Social Sec.

Luis has left a small holding deposit for the meal at Lorenzo's  - fri 4th Dec.

To confirm the booking we need  a list of 20 people confirmed as attending - and we need £5 per head deposit.

It would be a huge help if each of you could confirm to Luis this week whether you and your partner plan to attend - and please hand over the cash so that Luis can secure the booking this week.

  It'll be a great night - the food and drink is really good at Lorenzo - and with the added spice of the annual player awards it should be a really enjoyable event.

The Excel Spreadsheet Never Lies, as Bucks Fizz nearly said

My adventures in statto-land continue and this morning I finally concluded my work on the "all-time goalscorers" list - the table showing who has scored all of the 1,002 goals in Accies history.  Naturally, the infallible nature of Excel has shown up my old-school adding-up as being predictably inaccurate, in particular at the top of the table.  For reasons best known to the bit of my brain that once helped me scrape a grade C in O level maths, Oscar has scored 74 career Accies goals, not the 71 I'd previously thought.  I suspected 71 was wrong as I didn't think it included his 2 goals in the 11-a-side between AC Effra and Inter Effra, but even that only added up to 73, so where the 74th goal came from is anyone's guess at this stage.  I will launch a full investigation, but Excel formulas never lie, so there must be clear daylight between Oscar and Graham Dietz, the latter being most definitely on 71 goals!

Still awake?  Here's the Top 10 (not including OGs):

Jonathan Patterson 74

Graham Dietz 71

Joe Sene 64

Ian Holmes 61 (my old stats document gave him 62 - maybe I stole one of Oscar's goals and gave it to the Gaffer?)

Simon Mesner 58

David Rudd 57

Steve Spurdens 42

Kenny Butler 35

Gary White 31

Andrew Dade 31

Impressively it contains 5 fellas who still play regularly!  Further down the chart is Thorny on 27 goals, Elbows on 26 and RAUCHENBERG! on 13.  And now I really must go before my Board of Directors clocks me one...

Huff and puff but just no luck!

Last night's game was a great game for the neutral but a heart attack for COACHES!! End to end stuff that makes football such a beautiful game at times. We started the game extremely well defending strongly and looking for the breakthrough albeit by trying extravagant passing that needs to be eradicated as the risks did not need to be taken.

Mickael started well up front chasing the ball down and trying to wi flicks for Mes but with not much luck. We grew stronger as the half went on and an inspired substitution from the coaching staff (hooray to us) led to Steve playing a quick though ball which sub Bobby ran on to and finished in style with a strong shot beyond the keeper's reach.

Yet again though we were undone by taking our eye off the game and being caught out by a hopeful cross that fell behind the forward who executed an overhead kick that evaded both Stuart and Lee and hit the roof of the net. After this we again began to dominate the game again, but time and time again instead of short passing we were looking for balls that were 'Match of the Day' material instead of proper football. The forwards were making intelligent runs just to be ignored or turn around to see players losing the ball and this was frustrating to watch.

We began the second half in a more positive manner, using the ball with more intelligent but again our choice of ball began to go awry. Moving Joe into midfield although he was playing well out wide reaped dividends as he put a superb ball through for Bobby to get his second with another controlled finish.

After the goal we were under a bit of pressure and although the defence were excellent throughout, they reacted a little slowly to Barry's interception and the forward stole in to finish. A word on the defence, they were asked to play the offside line last night and it worked very well when they moved as a unit as long as they worked together they were strong and difficult to break down and they should be lauded for their efforts in playing this system.

A 2-2 draw is at least a positive result and not a defeat, a game we could have won but were unfortunate not to win. A good all round performance from Joe earned him a deserved man of the match award but also Lee make some excellent saves throughout the game and Barry had an ecouraging 90 mins after his injury so things begining to look up again.

Up the Accies!

Grafton Game - Extended highlights

Here's a 3x longer version of last week's highlights package.

Rudd classic

During yet another stalled attempt to put together an Accies anniversary video, i did at least have the pleasure of stumbling upon this gem. One of my favourite all time Accies goals from one of my favourite all time Accies. The footage doesn't quite keep up with the ball but then neither did the keeper. Stu- what was the year?

Preparation

Quick note to say thanks to everyone for confirming attendance for this weeks game.  It makes a big difference if Neill has a full 48 hours to plan for the match.

Let's build on this by all  aiming to get to the changing room a few minutes before 8pm so we can be changed and ready to warm up by 8pm.

All to play for..

After a game against a much improved Grafton side, we still have it all to play for in our next MI Cup match. Whatever the result against Grafton a win would really have been a requirement against Mott's to ensure passage to the next round.

As long as we work together towards the next match with enthusiasm and confidence in our ability I am sure we can progress to the next stage.