A Game too far....

I suppose the best that can be said about last night's 2-4 defeat was that when we played, we played well and when we didn't we were punished. All in all I don't think we deserved to lose the game on the balance of play as we created a fair few chances throughout the match but finishing was our nemesis yet again.

We need to be more clinical in front of goal when chances arise, as well as being more selective about when to pass and when to shoot. When we attack with confidence we are very threatening but on many occasions we give away the ball too easily and instead of trying to wrestle back possession we leave the defence exposed to breaks and there is only so much they can do before being breached.

Hopefully players will be contemplating this prior to next weeks MI Cup match and these errorswill start to be eradicated.

Injury time

I have about 10 minutes before I need to leave Now Towers and head for Palace, so I thought I'd knock up a quick post before setting off to face Claxton.  I wanted to say how great it is when injured Accies attend matches, lending their support either in practical ways (assisting the Coach with tactical shenanigans; videoing the action) or just as Barmy Army members, shouting encouragement.  It shows terrific commitment to the cause when a crocked player comes down to stay involved - and believe me, that commitment is noted by those of us who are "running" the club.  I know how it feels to be on the sidelines as I missed a couple of months back in 2005 with a horrible shoulder injury.  Sadly my video work at the time left a great deal to be desired (Phil will testify - he says my efforts are 'comedy gold', which wasn't the effect I was aiming for).

So if you're out of action at the moment or, heaven forbid, at any time in the future, please do keep turning up at the True Theatre Of Dreams (still don't accept Man Utd's hijacking of that title for their home) - it means a lot to those of us out on the pitch and it shows tremendous commitment.  Right, got to go!  Up the Accies!

full highlights

Best make a brew and put your feet up for this one - it's quite a long clip.

There's loads more good footage that'll probably end up in an end of year or anniversary DVD,

In truth, the quality of the camerawork surpasses that of the football but i hope the film reflects that it was an enjoyable, friendly game.

Oscar speaks

....just about.  Great to see Oscar on Saturday. From the evidence of this interview it looks like he had to go deep into the red zone to pull out what was an excellent performance.

Penalty shootout

Here's the penalty shootout.My favourite moments include Gobby's emphatic penalty and the look on Ant's face when he realises he's going to have to go and fetch the ball after Oscar blazes high and wide. Also, couldn't help enjoying Billy's superlative 'Mr Burns' impression - at least Billy had his mate Alex there to...ahem.. console him.

Highlights of the actual game to follow in the next few hours or possibly days.

Also - don't think we actually decided on names for the 2 teams in the end - any suggestions?

I've always liked Real Ale Madrid as a sunday league name.

Free Blue Peter badge for winning entry.

Post match interview

Steve and Mes start a rumour in this short clip

Goal?

For what it's worth I think this footage shows that Tremayne was correct in his decision not to award Steve's 'goal' on Saturday.  

There's lots more great footage from Saturday's anniversary match - Big thanks to Mes for his sterling work behind the camera. 

Thanks to everyone who came on Saturday to play and to watch the game.

I'll put more footage on the Blog tomorrow if i get time.

Anniversary Match Day Programme

Here's the plan:

Two 45min 11 a side fixtures tomorrow.

2pm Current Accies XI vs Oppo XI

3pm Dinamo Bar Pitch XI vs Streatham North End XI

If either tie is level after 45 mins , a penalty shootout will decide the winner.

Hopefully everyone will be able to play in both fixtures. The first fixture is self explanatory. For the second fixture, attendees will be split into 2 squads to form the 2 sides.

Should be a great afternoon - emphasis is on having a bit of fun, not winning at all costs. . Strictly no dodgy tackles and no handbags.

Please all turn up by 1.30pm , so we can be ready to kick off at 2pm.

Up the Accies!

Grafton Strollers Full Time Score just in...

"4-1 F-T. Coach with last kick of the game"

Grafton Stroller Live Score Update (21:58)

"3-1 up. Perre 2, Thorny 1"

A non-statistical post!

To win 7-3 in a game full of attacking football is a marvellous way to spend a Thursday evening in London.

Let's talk about goals but not the ones you think I mean. Sam's goal owed much to his 'bust a gut' run after the ball was cleared from the corner. If you watch the video, Phil (I think) hit a great clearance from our box to the half way line. I thought I could get the ball and had two go's at the defender, the second one knocking the ball away from him a couple of paces and making him stumble. However, I was on the wrong side of him to get there easily and thought that he'd recover before I could get the ball. But like a cross between a giraffe and a cheetah, Sam arrived at great speed and left the 1860 defenders trailing in his wake. I was running to his left and just behind him so had a great view of him looking up to see where I was, clocking the 'keeper then shaping for the shot and putting it high in the net (in a similar way to Joe's goal two weeks ago). It was a lovely finish but his alertness from the clearance and his great run gave him the opportunity.

Perre's goal was well deserved as in the second half he gave the Lambeth boys a roasting (not the type the tabloids associate footballers with) particularly down our right flank. The finish with his side foot on the run, ahead of his marker was highly skilled. But let's not forget the assist from Joe, a delicious curling left foot low cross from the left wing after a sprint down that side following good approach play from both players previously in the build up.

I also enjoyed two comments at half time. Neill described a gap in the opposition's defence as 'a fucking big fucking hole'. I'm not sure exactly how large this is but it sounds enormous. Andy Thornes then called the Lambeth back line, 'Slugs'. I'm sure he meant they were slow rather than they were leaving silver trails behind them. It reminded me of David Brent after he has been told off by Neil Godwin, the new boss from the other office, referring to the 'Swindon lot' as 'little slugs'.

Here's hoping for more goals and a few more comedy comments this week.

A largely meaningless table, posted purely to see what it looks like and to 'prove' that we're on 991 goals...

Year	Pl	Won	Drwn	Lost	For	Against
1999	30	2	2	26	17	77
2000	92	16	14	62	60	161
2001	181	38	46	97	131	303
2002	194	29	47	118	128	356
2003	112	39	29	44	150	180
2004	47	18	6	23	128	179
2005	41	8	7	26	68	140
2006	62	19	10	33	111	174
2007	34	11	4	19	81	98
2008	38	8	4	26	65	123
2009	33	7	6	20	52	104
Totals	864	195	175	494	991	1,895

Stats: The Big One

OK, a quick one before I turn in for the night.  By my reckoning (ably assisted by Excel's ability to count), in all matches across all forms of the game (we've played 5-a-side, 8-a-side, 9-a-side and 11-a-side over the years) for all the many teams under what I traditionally call 'the Effra Academicals umbrella', a total of 991 goals have been recorded as scored.

Some might say it's a somewhat arbitrary figure, as it includes goals from a couple of ad hoc 5-a-side mini-tournos down at Elmers End in 2006, where we split into 3 teams and had a competition, but for my money those games/goals count as the matches were refereed and the results were recorded for my "official" stats document.  Besides, the mere fact that I've managed to figure this out before we pass the milestone is, in my sad existence, tremendous news!

So, does anyone think there should be some prize for the player who scores what I shall refer to as the 1,000th Accies goal?  And if so, what?  And how would you feel if we were on 999 goals and you stepped up to take a penalty?  Yikes.  In the meantime, I'll do my best to double check the total before we get any closer to it!

Just to keep Stu on his toes....

Just been looking over few stats(some good, some bad), and just have few points to stick in with a view to upcoming games...

Over the last ten games our win percentage is 40% which is extremely encouraging we have also scored more than we have conceded (32-28) so we are averaging 3.2 goals per game! Our overall win percentage for the year is 21.2% but our current loss percentage is 60%. This is mainly down to a very poor middle section of the year in May and June where we only managed two draws in nine games.

But the way we have rallied together since this period and have started performing to our capability is a testament to the desire of the players witin the squad and long may it continue.

It's all looking good.....in da accies hood!

7-3, it's been a while since that sort of scoreline has been in our favour, but if it was ever deserved last Thursday was it. An absolutely superb all round team performance even given 'The Mighty Mes Show' on the goal front!

A very slow start from us, which was something we had not suffered from for a while, cost us a poor goal for which everyone shared the blame. This was just the catalyst we needed to burst into life, the movement at times when attacking was mesmerising and the passing matched at times to make us extremely difficult to defend against.

Again, the defence were outstanding as we were under pressure for several periods throughout the game, yet Lee and those in front of him repelled wave after wave of oppo attack. Each time we were under the cosh we were also very threatening on the break (Sam goal and Mes slide shot are examples of this).

Again the signs are very encouraging as our run of form continues to impress. Thanks to asst coach Tremayne for his handling of the game again judging subs with great finesse.

Long term signs are good with Andy Dade on the road to recovery as well as Tremayne and hopefully Graeme and Bobby not too far off the selection headaches will continue.......unfortunately now I have lost a form player in Mr Sene for a month at least but that is for reasons we are all happy for and wish them all the best.

Up the Accies

1x marauding run as per request

Stu - Here at 'The Accies Blog'  we value  feedback from our readers.

I'm sorry that on this occasion you felt that your contribution  to the team's performance was not adequately reflected in the weekly highlights package. Whilst not seeking to excuse this editorial failure,  'The Accies Blog ' would like to point  out  that Mrs Elbows was due back from the shops any minute, resulting in a curtailment of the usual quality auditing process. 

 I hope that this clip goes some way to restoring your confidence in 'The Accies Blog'

Goals galore

By the miracle of  modern technology - here are the full second half highlights - coming to you like a digital phoenix from the flames. Perre's goal, a couple of near misses, an 1860 O.g and  the 3rd and 4th goals from Mes. Phew!

Some Footage retrieved

Managed to retrieve the build up to  the first goal of the second half

'ave it Sam

Thanks to Miami for capturing this footage  of Sam's great goal last night.

Unfortunately it  seems that Miami taped over footage Mes's fantastic four goal haul whilst filming  Mes's  semi nude speech. Sorry Mes. On the plus side I could make a few copies and get the DVD lady to sell it on as mild gay porn*. - few quid for the club - everyone's a winner.

*In response to feedback from Mes, the Accies Blog would like to Apologise unreservedly to the Accies number 10 for any distress caused. We are happy to concede that the semi nude footage of Mes could equally be marketed as straight porn for a female audience. In fact, good idea.... 

Random ramblings for 10 minutes

A few quick thoughts...

1. Nice 10th anniversary win, fellas.

2. Thanks for understanding re: the postponement of certain aspects of the anniversary do (all invited guests will receive email confirmation of the New Plan today). It probably helped that you all heard the news from a man (Mes) standing in his pants.  It kept the heckling to a minimum because we all just wanted it to be over... Elbows wasn't far off the mark (as usual) when he said "the day will be exactly the same, but without the speeches" - the truth is that the evening do, when it happens in January, will be much, much more than just a couple of speeches.  It'll be a truly fitting celebration of 10 years of this mighty club.  But for the time being, Saturday 17 October will do nicely.  We want as many players and spectators as possible for 2-4pm in the stadium, then all back to our favourite pub/nemesis (delete as applicable).  Elbows is considering an Accies "what happened next?" DVD quiz!

3. Enjoyed Joe's impersonation of Surrey Envelopes' "Fat Gazza" last night, and also listening to a few Blue Flag Sunday league "war stories".  I always enjoy the Blue Flag tales but I also enjoy the fact that the ex-Blue Flaggers are now playing football at a level where punch-ups and other acts of stupidity are foreign things!  Does that makes sense?  Well, I know what I mean, anyway.

4. Enjoyed the levels of positivity last night.  Although it helped that we managed to go in at half-time 2-1 up, not 1-0 or even 2-0 down!  We would've rightly been given a verbal kicking after 45 mins if Simon's goals hadn't turned the game around!  We deserved the first-half goals because as I recall, Joe forced a good save, the Coach stabbed a shot agonisingly wide and Simon had at least one other first-half chance, if not two, on top of the brace he scored - but my word, we needed the brace he scored.  It must've hurt 1860 Lambeth to have been so much on top of us, only to end up 4-1 down not far into the 2nd half.  Ouch.  When 1860 made it 4-2, I heard one of their lads say "Come on, we can do this," and remembering Accies comebacks in the past (0-3 down against the Dutch, anyone?) I did shudder at the thought that in football, anything's possible.  Luckily Sam made it 5-2 very soon after that Lambeth call to arms (and congrats Sam for a well deserved and emphatically taken debut goal).

5.  Anyone else in the club an Excel geek?  I've just started work on an Excel stats document to replace my current document which is basically a long-hand list of results and line-ups etc.  I'm a bit of a beginner when it comes to Excel, so if you know the tips and tricks, let me know and I'll email you the document, albeit it's very much a work in progress!

6. Son and heir is, not unreasonably, demanding attention.  So I'm off.  Up the Accies!

Dietz turn

In a vain attempt to get cracking with an anniversary film, i've  dusted off a few clips from the Accies' video vault. Here's some footage from a few years ago.

Photos

Here are some of the excellent photos taken by Joe on Thursday.

Just Bad Luck

Well, what can I say, in my personal opinion we were extremely unlucky in our latest contest with Dolphin. To lose 2-0 considering our performance is a little hard to take, but that's football.

Dolphin were always going to pull out the stops considering last week's game and the inclusion of John Lizou proved that they wanted to turn us over in revenge!

However we were not about to let them have it their own way and defended resolutely througout the game with the back four doing their upmost to preserve our current run, unfortunately we were undone by two clinical finishes by Mr Lizou.

Throughout the game we defended well and attacked very well, we mixed up our approach play and passing ranges and kept Dolphin guessing all the way, turning thier defence on a multitude of occasions just to find our luck was out, two dodgy offside decisions, a missed penalty and a goalie on form kept us from a deserved victory.

Well played to all and to Tremayne for his handling of the game from the sideline.

C.S.I

Hard to believe that Dolphin actually protested against the ref's decision to award  a pen. For the record it was definitely a  foul, certainly in the area and probably constituted an actual crime.

The ref was in no doubt - He pointed to the spot before Greg could get his Tazer out. 

He shoots...but he doesn't score!

Sorry Andy, but couldn't help posting this picture of your penalty being saved last night!