Accies v Atkins/West Wickham musicians at Crystal Palace 23rd June 2011

And the video from 23rd June 2011 at Crystal Palace v Atkins/West Wickham musicians.

Accies v West Wickham musicians at Dulwich 2nd June 2011

Here's the video from the game v West Wickham musicians on the 2nd June 2011.

Insert Joke About "Offensive Tackle" Here

Old Hill Wanderers Reserves vs Swinburne Reserves in Melbourne, Australia. Wanderers player Aaron Eccleston, formerly resident of Macclesfield in the UK, is sent off for refusing to remove his genital piercing. The referee takes him off for a look at the crown jewels before brandishing a red card. I don't actually know whether any Effra players have any such adornments, but Andrew Dade will be checking you all before our next fixture…

Tips For Thorny's Next Half-Time Team Talk

Many of you will have seen this before, but it bears repeated viewing! Warning: the audio is not office friendly! Then Leyton Orient manager John Sitton displays a mastery of man management - does anyone know how they got on in the second half?!

Old Name, New Team

In case anyone thinks they recognise the name of this Thursday's opposition, I should clarify that Atkins FC has no connection other than the name to Atkins Rail. The Railwaymen are one of a few teams over the years who we've elected not to play any more. Atkins FC are simply named after Atkins Road, apparently. Pure coincidence. They might feature some familiar faces from West Wickham Musicians and apparently they recently played Dolphin Riders on the Bar Pitch, in a match which finished 4-3, although I don't know which team prevailed.

So a sort of new opposition this week, and I owe a debt of gratitude to West Wickham Musicians' gaffer Hugh, who made a few phone calls to help make sure the Accies had a match this week. Beyond the call of duty and I propose the next time we play WWM, either we give them a discount on the match fee or the club buys Hugh and his old mates a post-match beer each. Any objections?

In other oppo news, you may remember that last summer we played against The Queen Vic, a pub team based on the coast of Kent who include an ex-schoolmate of mine, Danny Rhodes. They beat us 4-0 – I remember it as a closer game than the scoreline suggests but they took their chances very well. I've taken the liberty of scheduling another match against them, a pre-season friendly for them, which will actually be our last match before playing the Dutch in Rotterdam. I reckon it'll be a proper workout against a well organised side, a good test ahead of the Dutch.

Up the Accies!

Goal Line Technology

I've checked out the video footage of Yusuf's controversial  goal 9 days ago.

Bilal watched it 4 times and was  fairly sure that it wasn't a goal. - he texted me to say we should offer to chalk the goal off. I watched it and i was 95% sure it wasn't a goal either. Then i slowed it down. To my surprise you can clearly see the ball hit the back of the net and bounce out. It was a goal. 100%*. 

Big thanks to Thorney for his sportsmanship on the day for trusting the Southside player's word. 

(*video clip available on request)

By the way - great performance this Thursday. Thoroughly enjoyable  game vs a decent  Crown Agents side.

Penalty taker distraught; keeper jubilant… and yet…

The slow motion replay of this penalty kick is almost, ALMOST unbelievable... If you haven't already seen this, you will love it. I'm told it's in a playoff final for the Italian Serie D or some such:

From The Archives

If you score the club's first ever 5-a-side hat-trick, which also happen to be your first, second and third ever goals for the team, what better way to mark that achievement than by printing out the intheteam.com news report and sticking it inside a notebook?! Love this jpeg, courtesy of Mr Patterson:

Last week's game… and a new formation

From Mr Thornes:

Firstly, to score six goals for the second week on the trot is no mean feat, so well done. Secondly its nice to get a couple of consecutive wins. Although i'm not really a fan of naming names i did think several players stood out for me. Luis was excellent, especially during the last twenty five minutes of the second half. Barry had a superb second half, looking back to somewhere near his best after a relatively quiet period. Greg had a particularly effective first half, poaching two real strikers goals. Sam capped off an excellent personal week with the goal of the game- a crisp volley into the roof of the net after a Zicoesque aerial flick from Neill. My choice for Man of the Match though, was Dave. Apart from one pass that went astray early in the second half I thought he didn't put a foot wrong. All night he either won the ball, or received it, and then quickly played a short, incisive pass to a team mate. It's exactly how I would like us all to play.

Anyway, along with all the good stuff there was also, unfortunately, lots that should give us cause for concern. The first fifteen minutes of the second half were really poor. We totally stopped passing and moving, against a team that, in reality, were beaten. Our lack of composure and a sense of panic gave such encouragement to the opposition that they could, and probably should, won .With better application, a couple of special bits of skill and a fair amount of luck, we rallied to score three quick goals. Against better teams we will not be able to get out of jail so easily!

Our problems were caused, in my opinion, by two basic failures that it seems we just can't prevent creeping into the Accies general play. The first is that players are still taking too many touches on the ball. It's pretty simple really- if you are taking more than three touches on the ball it's frankly too many. Play it simple and quickly, and then either look to get it back immediately, or make a run which will open up space for someone else. It's so infuriating simple. When we don't do it it makes the game so difficult.

The second is, in essence related, to the first. It's the seemingly pathological desire we have to hit long, low tariff, 'Hollywood' balls. They almost never come off and usually only succeed in giving the ball back to the opposition. It's really something we have to stop doing as a team. It's high risk, distupts the pattern and structure of the team -as it stops us moving the ball up the pitch in small compact units- and shows a real lack of patience and composure. As I said at half time last week, if we keep the football results will take care of themselves. It may sound strange but we shouldn't be concentrating solely on winning, but rather on keeping the football and playing as a team. I feel sure if we all give this some thought before games we can develop improve dramatically.

On a final, and more positive note, in the next couple of weeks we are going to attempt to implement a new formation for the Accies. It has to be said, I normally don't believe in making football any more complex than it needs to be, and hence am not usually keen on tinkering with formations. Such a change of thinking has come about for two reasons. Firstly, 4-4-2 almost certainly isn't an option when we play the Dutch, as they always play 3-5-2, which leaves our midfield exposed and overrun. Secondly, we really need a plan B, as its too rigid for us to always rely on 4-4-2, particulrly if things are not working out. We are going to try and learn to play 4-2-3-1, which isn't anywhere near as complex as it sounds. I'm going to be sending an email out in the next few days explaining how I foresee this system working, and we will probably give it a first run out on the 16th. If anyone wants to chat to me about this, or anything else for that matter, I'll be a round after the game this Thursday. Otherwise here's looking forward to a great game this week against a team I don't think we have had the pleasure of playing before.

Up The Accies.