Orient Young Boys - A Mini Reportage...

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From The Beginning Of Recorded Time (Or Thereabouts)

Accies midfielder and founder member of our glorious club, Luis Sandoval came across this photo "while perusing some old pics" recently. The picture was developed in May 2o00 so is definitely from the first 6 months or so of Effra's life. It shows Graham Dietz, Ian "Gaffer" Holmes and Chris Osborne. Not sure why the Gaffer is pointing – possibly it's a post-match post-mortem on how we came to lose again? Also, I'm considering fining the Gaffer retrospectively for not wearing his official club-issue dark blue shorts…

Longest header ever and not by Andy Thornes!! (I'm not having much youtube luck, but 3rd time around this should work now)

Watch Jone Samulsen score from his own half! Unfortunately footage of Andy Thornes' headed goal from his own six-yard box 18 months ago doesn't exist on youtube.

Accies 4 v 3 Atkins FC, Thursday 11th August 2011

Finally, a version that hasn't been censored (thanks to EMI and MPMG for preventing the previous sound track from being heard by about 25 people). Enjoy.

Accies 5 v 3 Wessex Rangers, Thursday 18th August 2011

Watch the hi-lights of the game v Wessex Rangers here copyright permitting!

8 days in my footballing life

Saturday 3rd September 2011, Rotterdam, 4.30pm, Effra Academicals 5 v 2 Flacas & Fat Boys.

Thursday 8th September 2011, London, 8.30pm, Effra Academicals 1 v 0 Ladywell.

Sunday 11th September 2011, Los Angeles, 11am, LA all stars 5 v 2 Burbank FC.

P 3 W 3 F 11 A 4.

One Dietz Cup, two man of the match awards, two assists and one goal.

New Accies Record! (It took me fully 4 years to get round to doing this)

This coming Thursday I'll bring along our other trophy (we're double winners) to Palace to pass on to whichever member of the squad would like it on their mantelpiece for a while. I've been meaning to update/replace the 'WINNERS' plaque on the Anglo-Dutch Challenge Cup for literally years. Finally got round to it yesterday. See below – 3 years of hurt, bookended by the two Accies triumphs.

Southside match

I'm looking forward to the match on Thurs. 

The 11-1 mis-match  in the summer represented a high point for Southside  and a  new low for the Accies.

Since then, the Accies, by all accounts, have morphed into a  really good team. Southside's form, in contrast, has taken a bit of a nosedive.

Will Effra  turn the tables on Southside or  can Southside re-discover    a bit of form?

Rotterdam 2002 Style

For more vintage Accies in Rotterdam pics head over to the Accies Facebook page and check out the new album!

Accies Archive Pics

Here's one of a selection of Accies archive pics now on the Accies Facebook Page. More pics will be appearing in albums on there soon...!

From The Archives: "The Big Cetacean"

Just a couple of months before this blog was begun, back in the days when The Hut maintained an Accies website, the following match report was posted. I'd love to know who wrote it, the author did a fine job (says "the not 100% Dade") and I think I've corrected most of the typos just now. It's a shame Perre didn't play in this match – he must have been an unused sub because his uncle Junior played in goal and mate Keith was in midfield. The reason it's a shame is that this archive post would've been quite apt with Perre due to make his 100th appearance tomorrow night – he made his debut on 4 September 2008, just over 3 years ago. 100 games in just over 3 years: good going. Sadly Perre only got to watch the match described below, not play in it – but I'm glad he stuck with us (and we stuck with him!)

Anyway, into the Accies time machine we go…

Effra Academicals 4 – 1 Dolphin Riders

16^th October 2008

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre

KO 8.30 pm

Attendance: 12

Despite losing 2-4 in to Wycliffe the week before the Accies came into this fixture full of confidence. The squad bolstered in recent weeks had led to an improvement in results, which despite playing well for the previous two months had eluded the team. A win against Dolphin would be the first time Effra had beaten them twice on the bounce.

The team was set out to maintain its defensive shape but break quickly on the counter attack. Andy Thornes was recalled to the midfield and Barry Gardener joined Gary Hutson at centre back. Stuart Dade made a return to left back after missing three out of the last four games, which had left question marks over his ability to hold off the challenges to the position that has been his own for much of the last 5 years. Mickael Lejeune was back in on the left wing with Bobby Rachenberg missing through illness. A strong bench included captain Neill Robertshaw and player/coach Simon Mesner.

J. Heath; P. Caldwell, B. Gardener, G. Hutson, S. Dade (G. Were) (N. Connolly); J. Sene; A. Thornes; K. Cumberbatch (N. Robertshaw); M. Lejuene, (S. Mesner) T. McDonald, B. Monkton.

The Accies started the game strongly with Sene dictating the play from deep. Cumberbatch’s movement caused problems for the Rider’s defence, which looked loose. French wide man Lejeune was also a threat with his pace and crossing from the left wing.

It didn’t take long for the Crystal Palace men to open the scoring when Monkton showed further evidence that he is getting fitter after his 6 month injury layoff by reacting quickest to a loose Dolphin pass and firing through the ‘keeper’s legs from inside the penalty area.

Dolphin stepped up their game and came back into the match. Gardener and Hutson, otherwise dominant had a 15 minute period where they wobbled and words were exchanged between them and Heath behind. A stock Riders lobbed ball over the top was latched onto by the visiting centre forward. With Heath deciding to stay in his area, Hutson tried to make up the ground. He executed a perfect sliding tackle in the area just as Heath went to ground. Sadly for the Accies with both home players down, the big cetacean got up and clipped the ball into an empty net.

From then on the home defence looked unbeatable with anything not mopped up by the back four dealt with expertly by Heath.

The Accies fought back and with Were on for the not 100% Dade, Robertshaw and Mesner to join the midfield and attack respectively they created more chances. Thornes missed a header that he would have normally gobbled up from an expert Lejuene corner but McDonald made the pressure pay with a cool side foot to take Effra in 2-1 at half time.

The game was a battle for the first 30 minutes of the second half with both teams aware of the importance of the next goal. Caldwell, in a brave performance and Mesner tightened up on the tricky Dolphin left winger to stem the flow down the Accies' right. The midfield went from a three to a two and back to a three as Effra sought for the right formation to make the break through. Sene kept pulling the string throughout whilst Cumberbatch was moved over to the left wing and swept past his opponent imperiously several times on dashing runs. Connolly came on for Were to maintain the defensive solidity. Heath was equal to nearly everything that got past his defence and when beaten there was Thornes to hook the ball off the line.

The Accies then started to really stretch their opponents with Monkton’s pace on the other wing complementing Cumberbatch’s and Mesner moved into his fifth position of the game as centre forward. It was no surprise when Monkton made his 2008 total 9 goals after a sweet Thorne’s through ball, pushing the Accies into a 3-1 lead. For the last ten minutes the Riders were swamped and Effra made it four when Monkton’s great cross was met by the accurate pate of Thornes who arched himself to reach the ball that was slightly behind him and place it wide of the keeper. The Accies almost made it a fifth when Mesner’s clever through ball was nearly latched onto by Thornes, now in rampant mood.

Effra Academicals were on the attack once more when the referee put Dolphin out of their misery.

A beaming player/coach Mesner said afterwards that the Riders were swept away by a towering wave of attacking play. The Accies look in good health as they approach the end of the year.

Man of the match: Gary Hutson. A rock at the back against very dangerous opponents. He came back from a shaky 15 minutes to put in a towering performance.

I do like a nice team photo

My dream of course is for there to occasionally, say once a year, be a photo taken of the full squad. But of course logistically that is basically impossible as we're never all in the same place at the same time; there's always someone absent. So I'll have to settle for a pic every time we have a 'big match'. Here are the 12 good men in Rotterdam 2011.

It's official – it says so on the trophy!

To be honest I found it quite tricky to photograph something that's essentially a mirror! Anyway, here's the proof that a week ago today we went and and won The Dietz Cup.

Goals, goals, goals

Last night with Sam's 19th goal of the year, he and Perre's combined total of goals for 2011 reached 38. This breaks the Accies record for a goalscoring partnership of 37 set in 2007.

Most of the 2007 goals were scored by Gary White who grabbed 26, still the best total by one person in a calender year. However that target is well within reach of both Sam and Perre.

Gary White's goalscoring ratio may never be beaten, he got 31 goals in 32 games but Sam's ratio is highly impressive. He now has 42 in 78, or 1 in 1.86, and may well become the first Accie to score 50 11 a side goals at this rate.

Perre's over all goals to games ratio has improved massively this year going from about 1 in 5 to a very respectable 34 in 99 or 1 in 2.91. No doubt he'll be intent on improving this before the year is out.

Toshack and Keegan, Beardsley and Lineker, Shearer and Sheringham, Cottee and McAvennie, Rush and Dalglish, Shearer and Sutton, Cole and Yorke, Bebeto and Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo, Heath and Herbert.

Hold The Back Page!

Once again, The Accies have hit the headlines in Rotterdam. Not content with Sam, Graeme and myself being photographed in the Rotown nightclub last year (click here for a reminder), The Accies have been caught up in a Dutch media circus again!

Hopefully we'll get a proper copy of this soon - with full translation from Mr Dietz - but in the meantime here's a photo of the local paper carrying the big sporting story of last weekend: the fantastic game and even better result against our Dutch friends.

Yes Stu, that is you! And you Sam - making it 2 media appearances in 2 years. And yes, I think that's Cuptain Thornes too!

Up The Accies and huge thanks to Flaccas legend Nils Ligthart for alerting us to this!

Zzzzzzztatattack

As previously promised, and as previously encouraged to pull my finger out by Phil C, I have now updated the appearances 'league table' somewhere down the right-hand side of the blog. To say that having done so "throws up some interesting statistics" would be stretching the truth, but here are the 'highlights' of the appearance stats (sans a soundtrack of music by Daft Punk or Steppenwolf that would see this blog post taken down by The Man. This is a reference that approx only one other person will get, sorry.)

• First up, yours truly has passed 250 Accies 11-a-side appearances. Hip hip replacement hooray. My younger brother Andrew is hot on my heels just 3 games away from the same milestone.

• Luis Sandoval, in the form of his life and fitter than ever, is on 196 appearances, so on the verge of becoming only the fifth player to reach a double century.

• Dave Rudd needs 10 more appearances to make 200, so might have to wait until early 2012 to be number six in that exclusive group.

• Perre Heath has played in 98 11-a-side matches for the Accies, so will very soon be the 14th player to have pulled on the red'n'blue shirt 100 times. Perre's hefty total is particularly impressive when you consider that he only made his Effra debut in match number 178 – so those 98 appearances have been from a possible 132 matches. That's impressive commitment (and a sign of a young player who has been thankfully largely injury-free).

And finally, a quick goalscoring stat moment. Graham Dietz almost certainly set an Effra record in Rotterdam for the longest gap between 11-a-side goals for the club. Gza last netted on 17 March 2005, coming on as a sub to score both goals in a 2-1 win over The Pullman. That was our 57th ever 11-a-side game. No less than 2,362 days later – or 6 years, 3 months and 18 days if you prefer – he bagged another brace, this time our first and fourth goals in the 5-2 win that was our 309th ever 11-a-side. Thanks to this site for doing the sums on how many days had passed between those matches! Depressingly, yours truly is the only Accie with any chance of breaking this record (short of some former members making a Dietz-esque comeback in the future, which of course would be most welcome). 30 September 2011 will mark the SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY of my one and only 11-a-side goal for Effra Academicals. I'd be tempted to ask that if we get a penalty against Orient Young Boys on 29 September, could I take it – except that I'd almost certainly miss it!

I think stat's quite enough of stat (hey, that might be my new catchphrase).

Up the Accies!

Cuptain Thornes!

What Andy T doesn't mention in his post below is the pivotal role he played in our win in Rotterdam. Every Thursday, he patiently asks us to play a certain way, communicate a certain way, and so on and so on. As all the club's previous captains and coaches would testify, at times it's a phenomenally thankless task. Some of the first 20 mins of Saturday's match might have been enough to make him tear his hair out (ahem), but during the remaining 70 mins, we followed Thorny's way to the very best of our abilities, and got our reward. Andy is right to say that all 12 of the squad contributed significantly in the match, but for his efforts week in, week out and his leadership on the day – including an inspirational half-time team talk – our number 23 thoroughly deserved to be the first Accie to hold The Dietz Cup aloft. Well deserved honour, mate!

Accies v Atkins FC, 11th August 2011

See the hi-lights of the game v Atkins FC on youtube now!

View From The Other Side #2

From Nils's Facebook photos, a shot of one of Flacas & Fat Boys' two goals yesterday. Good celebrations among the Dutch barmy army and it's less painful to look at knowing what happened next! Nils's comment on the pic is: "Op voorsprong tegen de engelsen 2-1 (eindstand 2-5!). In londen de return.. revanche" – I don't think you'll need a Dutch-English dictionary to work out what that means!

Victory in Europe

A great weekend, a great game and a great win. I will leave the full match report to someone else, but my brief report is that the game plan was excellent and excellently executed by all. Everyone played their part in a very satisfying win against a very good team with more subs on a blisteringly hot day.

Maybe it was something to do with the pre-match preparation

a bike ride around a lake,

and pancakes...

Statapology

Having been gently berated by Elbows for not keeping the stats column of this blog up to date lately, I've duly fixed the all-time 11-a-side goalscorers list. The biggest movers in 2011 have of course been Sam and Perre, who have leapt up to 3rd and 4th in the chart respectively. I believe anyone who scores 30 or more 11-a-side goals qualifies for a special medal - those will no doubt be included in the end-of-year awards dinner later in 2011. Simon's lengthy injury absence has meant his lead at the top has been cut to just 2 goals by Thorny. But Mes has managed one goal since returning to action (as well as one against the Accies!), so he's now just 2 goals away from becoming the first Effra player to reach a half-century of 11-a-side goals. Will he be wearing a "50 goals - just done it" T-shirt under his Accies top in Rotterdam this Saturday?

Bobby's 6 goals in 2011 have catapulted him into the top 10, while Joe's 4 goals have solidified his own place in the top 10 (level with Bob). Paul, Neill and Greg have all made good progress up the list, with Paul having made it to double figures in less than a year playing for the club (he made his debut in September 2010).

I'll work on the appearances stats over the coming weeks - can't sit at a computer for too long because it will hinder my back pain rehab!

In even more dweeby news, the first goal we let in during the recent 3-0 defeat to Crown Agents was the 1,000th goal we've conceded in 11-a-sides. We should have baked the scorer a cake. And on a more positive note, Joe's goal in the 2-4 loss to TPS recently was our 600th 11-a-side goal. Hooray.

Accies v Crown Agents 4th August 2011

At last, hi-lights from the Accies 4-2 win over Crown Agents on Thursday 4th August 2011 are on youtube.

View From The Other Side

Always pretty interesting to get the oppo's view on a match and, as they did when we played them this time last year, The Queen Vic's gaffer forwarded me this match report…

Accies 1 v 2 Queen Vic

It's not often we get to play on a surface like the one at Crystal Palace last night (well, once a year and hopefully an ongoing annual event...) so I hope you all enjoyed it.

This was a far more challenging game than a year ago when we ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. The home side were much more organised and proved themselves to be a stubborn and determined opposition. I thought we played pretty well in the first twenty minutes, carving out numerous opportunities to take the lead but their goalkeeper was excellent and we were guilty of snatching at any half-chances that came our way. The Accies then played themselves into the game, forcing us back as we perhaps became a little frustrated that we weren't ahead. They hit a couple of excellent long shots (one superbly tipped over by Tharpey) before taking the lead thanks to yet another individual error at the back. We've conceeded five goals this pre-season in five games (which is impressive) but they've all been due to errors of one sort or another.

We reacted well to the goal and should have been level by half-time so I was pretty confident that if we kept on doing what we were doing we'd every chance to go on and win the game and as it turned out that's exactly what transpired. What we need to take from the game is that patience is the key. If we keep playing our football, eventually even the most obstinate of opposition defences will crack. You just have to believe it will happen and not get frustrated with yourselves or each other.

A 2-1 win then and I think a deserved one on chances created and the amount of possession we enjoyed. We need to ensure that we take our use of the ball into the real season and not get excited by the fact that we are playing real games where points are at stake.

My only small criticism this week is what we discussed before the lights went out on the pitch. We must play football that demonstrates an awareness of the scoreline and how the game has panned out. You worked hard last night to get into the lead but then seemed (at times) to be determined to go on to score a third goal at the risk of losing the lead we had. Just take it easy. When there is a minute to go there is nothing wrong in working the ball to the opposition corner flag and keeping it there. Okay, it was a friendly but we almost threw the lead away by giving the ball back to them, getting caught on the break, giving away a free-kick and almost conceeding with the last kick of the game, in which case you'd have all come off the pitch deflated...

I want to instill a winning mentality boys...and win some trophies!

The least I want from this season is a cup final for us to enjoy.

Keep it up. Things are looking good.

Radfall will be another tough test on Sunday...

There you go – I should add that my old school mate Danny, the oppo's manager, told me after the game that the key difference from last year to this is that we are now are much more well organised unit, far harder to break down. Good to hear, given that this has been a key area we've concentrated on for some time now! Should also add that we've tentatively been invited to Herne Bay for an away tie, probably in May 2012. Could be good!

From The Archives: "Look At These Cripples" (Spain 2010)

Messrs Fallon and Holmes are the worse for wear following our exploits in the Trofeo Amistoso Something Or Other tournament in sunny Spain - but teammate Sandoval is in fine fettle.

Accies number 12 takes time out from fending off rioting idiots to perform ska tribute to our capital city's current troubles

Possibly.