Awards Night

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for their kind words last night, coming from people who know the game, it means a great deal to me! I still maintain that there are more worthy winners than I, based on form, fitness, commitment, and the other one!
Hope everyone had a great night, well done to all the organisers and thanks.
One thing I would like to have said, which I think sums up the quailty of people we have in our club perfectly, is about Neill Robertshaw. Two years ago, when I was made redundant, Neill offered me work with him, even though he was struggling himself. It was such a great gesture, and, like I say goes to show Effra Academicals is so much more than football.
Here's to everyone who's pulled on the red and blue shirts, roll on the next ten years.

The Coach goes Crazy

Imagine, 2-0 up at half-time and cruising to victory, then the Accies let in two soft goals. What are the odds of Thorny running up the grandstand and pulling out the seats? Thats similar to what happened in the Champions League the other night with the coach of the Romanian champions, CFR Cluj.

Film clip

I filmed 2 mins of the Accies ...erm... unlucky departure from the MI Cup. I did manage to capture the Accies goal and miss all the Ewell Ones. What are the chances of that happening?

See you all tomorrow.

Just as well we don't have a "Miss of the Season Award"

This may not be an Accies match, but it doesn't matter who you play for, your age, gender or ability, there's surely no beating this miss? If Andy Thornes had hair, and attempted to score with his left foot instead of his head, even just from merely inches away from the goal line, unchallenged, would it look like this? Perhaps we could re-enact it tonight, just to see? I'm only saying..!

You're off Son!

I couldn't help but feel the scorer of this disallowed goal should be very thankful he doesn't play for The Accies. Given his amazing show of petulance by throwing his Captain's armband to the ground in disgust, surely our Shiny Pated Coach would be left with no alternative other than to substitute him???

Last week's game… communication again! (Sigh…)

Another post on behalf of Thorny:

Three wins on the bounce and lots of good stuff from last week. Three well taken goals and several excellent individual performances. It's great to see Steve's form continuing on an upward spiral (?);Tim Howard, sorry Lee, had another rock solid game, which will hopefully continue all the way to Christmas; Dave continues to turn up one week in three and look like he hasn't been away; and Bobby and Neill both looked back to somewhere near full fitness after pretty chronic injury issues.

The downside to last week was primarily a lack of communication, or rather our lack of proper communication. Getting the Accies to talk to each other was something I made a top priority during this temporary period where I will be picking and organising the team. I thought we had made significant improvements in recent weeks, but our last game made me realise how foolish that assessment has been. I'm not going to re-state my views on this – they are clearly outlined in previous blogs – but will only say from now 'til the end of the year, if a player cannot talk to a team-mate properly, ie not swear or abuse him, or just generally deride his ability, he will be replaced by somebody who hopefully can. We all want to win and play well and this is undoubtedly best served by encouragement and constructive, friendly criticism. If a player makes a mistake he isn't doing it deliberately and shouldn't be treated as if he was trying to sabotage the team. This helps nobody. Anyway, enough said.

This week is a cup game against MRC Ewell. After our first game in this competition, where I made several selection cock-ups, this is just to let everyone know i will be treating the game as a normal Accies football night. Selection will be made from a squad of 15, who will all play roughly the same amount of time, barring injuries or communication issues (see above). In my opinion this gives us the best opportunity to win. My ideal is for us to play as a team with everybody making a contribution. We have done this before and I am confident we will do it again this week. I actually think this could be the game when we put in a truly great performance for 90 minutes. Whatever happens let's make sure we enjoy it and win or lose together, with everybody giving their all.

Last week's game… progress and congestion…

Another post on behalf of Thorny:

I'll keep this brief, as the previous match report covered most stuff I wanted to mention. Firstly, I still believe there is a lot more to come from the team, but our communication is generally getting better, and as a result, our football is moving in the right direction. Without sounding contrary, or too negative, I did feel last week was a slightly backwards step though, but one that I am confident we will put right in the coming weeks. As I keep stressing, if we all talk to each other quickly and clearly it will have a direct effect on our passing and movement, and hence our football in general.

Secondly, it's also worth warning people that this week looks like being one of those unenviable occasions where we are over-subscribed - I reckon we might have as many as 18!!! All being well everyone should get football though, as apparently the opposition are likely to be short. Apologies in advance for anybody who gets left out of the Accies 15. All I can say is that selection will be made in as fair a way as i know how, which means recent commitment will figure heavily, as will the issue of whether you have already missed a game this year - although those who haven't are in an increasingly small minority. Anyway, let's try to raise our level on Thur and continue our good run of form. Oh and if you do miss the 6pm Wednesday deadline this week it will almost certainly result in you not making the 15, so drop Stu a line ASAP!