A message from this week's oppo

If anyone needs help getting fired up for tomorrow evening's match, take a look at this text I received from the oppo's Gaffer, in reply to my usual "all OK for Thursday?" text message:

"Spot on. Prepare 4 a tonking!"

I suspect the mild-mannered Barry from Grafton Strollers had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he typed that out, but either way I thought you'd like to see his message!

"Left-Back Kids"

The Werewolf and any other Accies left-backs past or present might want to look away now... Clip from Danny Baker's 606 programme.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Even though last night's game ended in a disappointing 3-1 defeat, I can now see some things begining to show signs of improvement. The second half display was very encouraging as we took game to opposition and unsettled them with some good play as well as pressing space and nicking 50/50 balls.

Against an oppo that was a lot more mobile (age a significant factor there though) we tried to cut off routes to goal and it began to take shape.

Significant performances from Mesner, Sene, Gardener, McDonald were overshadowed by a good battling first game back for Graeme 'Werewolf' Were but even that was surpassed by the 'Big hairy Cornflake' Dave Rudd who offered to go between the sticks and was inspirational, although he may have dug himself bit of whole while we search for keeper in coming weeks.

A mention for Billy Monckton who formed oppo for game at short notice and again was quite afactor in his teams win and hopefully will bring that form forward to our upcoming fixtures.

For the first time this year I am begining to look forward to games as I can see improvements all over park and when it clicks it will be a good sight to see.

Score Draw

 Footage of Ant's last game before his move to Northampton.

Have a look at Perre's excellent goal.

The last 10 minutes: text update!

10.03pm: I wish I could type faster. Mott just shot into the side netting. It's all over! 2-2!

10pm: Not long left, surely we can get this draw and end the little run of defeats. Last time we played Mott it ended 4-4, so another draw on the cards. Coach Robertshaw is shouting: "Stop panicking" Lots of defending going on, with the Accies trying to attack on the break.

9.58pm: Controversy! Referee Henry blows for time, with the lights still on and maybe 5 mins to go. Good sense prevails and the match is restarted. Good grief. The Hut is explaining some weird Accies keeping mix-up to me, I can't follow it.

9.57pm: Brilliant, that was brilliant! Someone slid a ball in and Perre smacked it in from about six yards out.

9.56pm: Billy's making a run and The Hut says he's worse than Wally Waller! One for the Norwich fans, there. Luis is indeed on the pitch, GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!

9.55pm: Right, let's see how easy it is to type while The Hut talks me through the closing stages. Ah, speakerphone will surely come in handy.

9.52pm: As I type, Anthony has just received his hero's farewell, so young Anton is in goal and Mr Emery's Accies career has come to an end, at least in the 'turning up week in, week out' sense. A hearty round of applause is the least this Accies legend deserves. So long and thanks for all the saves - hopefully there'll be other opportunities for Ant to play for the Accies again in the coming months and years.

Live Update!

Well, what else can I do when I'm stuck at home, under the thumb, instead of cheering from the touchline?! With half an hour to go, we're 2-1 down, having gone 1-0 down early doors, then equalised thanks to a Thorny goal following a long throw, only to go in at half-time 2-1 down.

A third successive goal from a long throw - Stoke City, eat yer heart out.

The starting line-up was: North-Ants, Elbows, TBALT, Munky, Gobby, Miami, Thorny, Joe, Shaky, Rushy, Dangermouse. Barry has come on for Luke, Spudgun has come on for Andy Dade and while I received the latest news from touchline reporter The Hut, I heard the Coach telling Luis to get warmed up. I believe that later in the game Anthony will be subbed to a hearty round of applause, bringing to an end a glorious era of goalkeeping from the one and only No 1. Gutted that I won't be there to join in for that.

So hopefully we can keep our concentration and bag at least an equaliser - failing that, anything less than conceding 5 goals again would be nice... Come on you Accies!

Early lead vs Wycliffe

We lulled Wycliffe into a false sense of insecurity with these two early goals last week.

Thanks as ever to the Hut, who kept kept the film rolling throughout  last week's horror show.

Rauschenberg!

My ears pricked up this morning while listening to a podcast (this one, if you're interested) when I heard what I thought was someone mentioning someone who shares a name with Accies no 17, Robert "Bobby" Rauchenberg.  Sadly it turns out they were actually talking about Robert Rauschenberg, but still, worth one minute of my day to fling up a random blog post!  Anyone else know of any Accies stars who share a "famous" namesake-except-for-one-letter-of-the-alphabet? No? Oh.

Frustration

This evening we turned the early promise of a surprise 2-0 lead into a frustrating 2-2 half-time score and a despairing 5-2 final score.

The early lead was thanks to 2 similar goals - both from Gobby long throws, both flicked on by Thorny - the first headed into his own net by an oppo defender, the 2nd headed in by Shaky. Given that we rated the oppo quite highly at the start of the game, to storm ahead like this was a treat and no mistake.

Sadly Wycliffe FC sorted their lives out - in fact they could've scored straight after going 1-0 down but didn't; but at 2-0 they quickly got back into the game and the less said about the equaliser, the better. The 2nd half saw patches of good play from the Accies punctuated by 3 Wycliffe goals. Plenty of huff and puff from the red'n'blues, but precious little else from where I was standing - but to be honest I don't like criticising any aspect of the performance because I didn't play so it seems mean spirited to find fault with the 14 who did. Hence the 'Frustration' motif - as The Hut and Coach09 will testify, it's hard being on the touchline unable to directly influence what you're watching your mates going through. Not that I put myself in anything like the same bracket as my two talented but injured teammates in terms of ability, of course!

I suspect the Coach might be wishing he'd saved his 'ARRRGGGHHH' headline for his next post... Neill hates losing and takes it personally/cares so much that it really hurts when he watches us concede 5 goals - I was worried about him in the dressing room after the final whistle tonight. Chin up, top man.

Team (I'm still struggling to contrive - and know some of these are contrived, believe me - those last couple of nicknames...): North-Ants, Miami (sub: TBALT), Gobby, Munky, Elbows, Spudgun, Thorny, Rushy (sub: Joe), Shaky, Mike (sub: Luis), Dangermouse
Scorers: Own Goal, Shaky (a goal to mark his 100th appearance, well done Mes)

Up the Accies - good (early) night.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Not much more I could think of for a heading, as the frustration mounts, we come to play one of our more accomplished opponents and 'squeaky bum time' doesn't seem to cover my sense of foreboding.

On the plus side, many aspects of our current form are very promising. Last weeks game saw a lot of moving the ball from wing to wing and plenty of crosses into dangerous areas, this is very pleasing to see as we are spreading play and not getting congested. In my mind (as small as it is), we only lack the fitness to compete with many of the teams we play and that is something that is a little out of my control.

All I can ask is that players do some personal training in the breaks between games and hope they can find the time.

We still seem to lack confidence on the ball and given some of the talent available I find that hard to understand. Losing Stuart 'Marathon Man' Dade until after his little Sunday morning amble in a few weeks is a loss. Not over looking his new level of fitness, his attitude and application to his task is first class and the loss of his presence on the field will be something else for us to cope with.

So we need to go into this game with renewed optimism given some of the expansive and exiciting football we have been producing. If we can focus for a whole game and not give in we should be able to turn things around in our favour.

Barmy Blog Army!

This is my boss. His response to my Facebook status from last week ('Andrew Dade is sorry to report a 5-3 Accies defeat') was:

'...on the plus side, reading the Accies blog on the train every Friday morning is possibly the highlight of my week. My fav line today..."a classic shambolic Accies few minutes at the start of the 2nd half".'

Just thought I'd share the fact that even non-Accies love reading this blog. I'm sure this will make his day : )

Stuart Dade on the 0-6 defeat to Atkins Rail, 19th February 2009

Phil, Luke, Andy Dade and Gary after the 0-6 defeat to Atkins Rail, 19th February 2009

Phil Caldwell on the 1-5 defeat to Dolphin Riders, 12th March 2009

Neil Gardener on the 1-5 defeat to Dolphin Riders, 12th March 2009

Luis on the shirts from Lima, 26th February 2009

Coach Robertshaw on the 1-0 win over 1860 Lambeth 26th February 2009

Last night in pictures

The beautiful stadium, pre-match; four new kits await their owners; and a grateful Accies No 40...

Suicidal Tendencies

Sheesh. Right now, it seems no one knows how to give away stupid goals like we do... This evening we lost 5-3 to a team I thought were called Becket Chambers, but seemed to actually have a different name that I can't even remember. In the first half we outplayed them in most departments but still went a stupid goal down... but our luck hadn't run out at that point and an oppo defender elected to head a Dangermouse cross into his own net. 1-1 at half-time and we were feeling confident.

Unfortunately the confidence disappeared, replaced by a classic shambolic Accies few minutes at the start of the 2nd half, and before we knew it we were 4-1 down. Unforgivable. We stuck at it and got a goal, a great Thorny header from a Spuds cross, and for a time there was hope that we'd get a 3rd goal to give the oppo The Fear. Sadly a remarkable cross-cum-shot from their right-winger looped over North-Ants and in for 5-2. Dangermouse, a thorn in Becket's side all night, made it 5-3 with not long left and it still felt like if only we had a few minutes to spare and could stop the madness at the back, maybe we could get something improbable. But of course not, and so it was that the aforementioned shambles consigned us to an all too avoidable defeat. All this despite us scoring 3 goals for only the 2nd time in 2009.

The other point to note was that Messrs Heath, Gardener B, Macdonald and Lejeune looked lovely in their brand spanking new Accies kits, as did Stuart Hymams, landlord of The Paxton, who was presented with a No 40 shirt as a very belated 40th birthday present. He seemed suitably chuffed.

Up the Accies. Goodnight.

PS I recommend 'Institutionalised' by Suicidal Tendencies. A riotously good tune.

F****in 'ell

There's lots of good stuff on The Hut's film this week. Check out Luis' South American skills, Thorney and Steve's comedy double act, Mike's nut busting  point blank blast, Miami's potty mouthed tirade and Gobbydinio's fierce late volley.

  

30mins heaven, 50mins hell

Well what can I say? Yet again we get defeated by a team not as good as the scoreline suggests.

For periods of he game we had control, playing good passing football and defending as a unit, then the demons kick in............Poor pass choice, not passing ball quick enough, running down blind alleys and poor control.

It is, as coach, very frustrating watching a team who you know can play good, solid and attractive football, underperforming to some extent each game. In the coming weeks we need to concentrate on passing when in possession and our running and marking when we do not have possession.

We also need to communicate precisely with each other as the game progesses so that players know what options are available to them, I am willng to give this time but players need to start taking responsibility themselves.

Goal

The Hut captured lots of excellent footage from tonight's game. He didn't miss either penalty. Ironic that. Highlights (& lowlights) package to follow in the next few days. For now, here's the goal. 

Accies Pay The Penalty

Well, that might've been the headline in a proper newspaper. I have to keep this entry brief because I'm way more tired than usual and my laptop is slow and unresponsive (there's an obvious joke at this point which I shall refrain from making).

Undeniably to ship 5 goals against Dolphin was a poor show and after 2 good weeks defensively, I'm sure the whole team holds its hands up on that front. Especially as "on another night" we could/should have scored [pause there to attend to son who is perturbed because Custard the cuddly animal of no discernable breed had "gone", aka fallen on the floor] 4 more goals than the one we did notch. Two spot kicks, a ludicrous save from Mickael's close range would-be netbuster, a one-on-one save vs Dangermouse, Luis hitting the bar... the list goes on. Must of course mention Elbows' Man Of The Match performance - Brian Potter hit the nail on the head when he said that besides his goal, Phil barely wasted any of his time on the ball tonight - an example to us all and no mistake.

Maybe it was the fact that things had gone badly in our own penalty area that influenced things going just as badly in the oppo's. Whatever, we lost 5-1 and I'll leave it to the Coach to blog about how we can/will improve next week.

Team: North-Ants, Elbows, Barry (sub: TBALT), Munky, Marathon Man (sub: Gobby), Miami (sub: Joe), Rushy, Thorny, Spudgun (sub: Mickael), Dangermouse, Shaky (sub: Luis)
Scorer: Elbows

The Alamo

We even threw the kitchen sink at MHP's goal in the second half. Unfortunately the referee's assistant ruled that the whole sink hadn't crossed the line and so the match ended 0-1. 

   This clip is much longer usual - I didn't have time to edit it down to 3 quality mins. All of the bits making us look a bit better than we really are, are in there somewhere though. You just have to rummage around to find them... or not bother, it's up to you.   

Twinkle Toes Models Secret New Kit

Stuart Dade shows how he keeps his athletic prowess up to scratch to perform 360 degree turns to perfection on match days