Excited all round!

It's Thursday, its 10.30am, already I'm getting my kit together, and have that slightly sick feeling in my stomach I only get on match days. Later, during the warm up it'll turn into a full blown retch, which I used to put down to eating too close to kick off, but since I cut that out, I know it's pre match excitment(I do'nt get nervous!!). This is a typical non work day pre match routine, I'll leave ridiculously early, as for some reason the 6.15 train does not stop at my station, and try to enjoy the 1.5 to 2 hours journey through the tail end of the rush hour to Palace. Work days will see me leave Welwyn Garden at 17.21, and enjoy the much quicker, but more hectic train/tube bonanza. It used to be so easy, 2mins walk from house through the car park, arrive at pitch side, even living in Bromley it was a 40min bus ride. How do other long distance Accies make it on a Thursday?
I'm equally excited to hear rumours of the return of the Dutch games. They are easily the pinnicle of any Accies season. The first year I played, myself Luke and Ant were asked by a Dutch waitress why we were in Holland, we told her playing football, she asked us if we were professionals! Gza put me and Sue up in a themed hotel, unfortunately Sue's vertigo prevented us sleeping in the jungle room, and we were woken very early on match day by one of those giant pipe organs outside. We enjoyed post match bitteballen, made out of shit supposedly, oh and I scored twice in a 3-1 win!! Bring it back ASAP

Emergency! 999!

Clearly the last thing anyone needs on the day of a crucial cup match is the distraction of a meaningless statistic. So look away now, strikers. Because the Accies have scored 999 recorded goals and so, maths fans, our first goal tonight will be the 1,000th in the club's history. Maybe everyone should be wearing vests underneath the Accies tops with "1,000 - just done it" and a Nike swoosh? No, definitely not - nothing would be a greater guarantee of us drawing a blank in front of goal.

Not sure where I'm going to be later, so the thrill-a-minute typo-fest that is the Live Text Update might not happen tonight. But I'll be in mobile contact with the Barmy Army of injured Accies and I demand good news! Good luck lads - and thanks in advance to any fellas that come and help us out. Up the Accies!

Accies in MI Cup strong squad shock

Against all the odds it looks like we've actually got a strong squad for this week's cup game. Joe is now available , so we should have  a strong  first 11 plus at least 2 subs.

Greg's brother in law Charlie is available if needed.

Return of the Anglo Dutch Cup?

 2010 could be the year that the Dutch mount  a belated challenge for the cup that was won in dramatic style by the Accies in 2007.

More details to follow over the next few weeks.

Also in the pipeline - possible 3 team tournament in Durham - Lots of football fun, and we may even get to stay in a castle.

Plans are still at a very early stage.

All i need you to do now is let me know whether you're up for a trip to Holland and/or the North East. Events are likely to take place in the spring and autumn of 2010.

Two-Two

Good goal from Mes.

I'll put more highlights on the blog over the next week if i get time

nil-one, one-one.

Here's Claxton's first goal and Sam's swift response.

plenty more good footage. 

Thanks to Miami for some excellent camerawork.

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....