Well, who'd have thought it eh? The upstarts, the new kids on the block taking on the establishment, taking on the big boys and given them a frosty spanking! Especially on the back of some pretty crazy results.
We had been soundly dicked in our last few games except for a brace of draws against Stanton so coming up against (table topping and local rivals) Botley Village was a daunting fixture to see coming up.
Having had last week's game called off due to 'adverse weather' (a puddle), we were able to have a little break and look ahead to this game with a bit of a fresh outlook. As always with home games I got there early to set up the pitch and unlock the changing rooms only to find that some other bugger had already taken them, leaving me with some spare time to shoot back home and get my thermals on to stop my testicles from frosting over.
The ground on our pitch was pretty solid so the Botley manager (a lovely chap incidentally) offered their pitch for the game. The Botley pitch is the 'good' pitch. It isn't covered in leaves and dog shit and is also about double the size of our one. - Although I am sure this is an exaggeration as measurement guidelines can't allow for such radical differences in pitch sizes. But nonetheless, it was fucking cold.
As usual, most of the lads were late and our Left-Back/Dinosaur/Chatterbox Jon Grant turned up with about three minutes to spare which almost prompted a last minute formation change. On top of this the referee was also yet to make an appearance. Luckily, he did eventually turn up and much to my joy was camp as Christmas.
Anyway, I should probably discuss the match at some point as some believe that to be the main feature.
We lined up in our now standard 4-4-2 formation with Adam Baker taking Goalkeeping duties. The new Full-Back pairing of Jon and Ryan Grant (Gary & Phil) at Left-Back and Right-Back respectively. The solid Centre-Back pairing of Scott 'Grandpa' Wagstaff and Callum 'Grandson' Foote. A holding Thom 'Xabi' Wilkinson with Ali 'Quaffing Ales' McClymont completing the Central Midfield. Dan 'Probably A Mentalist' Burgess at Right Midfield, Phil 'Seduction' Kimber on the Left. Nik 'Brick Shit-House' Jones making his debut start at Centre Forward with fellow debutant Ralph 'Kockott' Stansfield completing the line up. (NB: Kockott is a reference that only former Dynamos players will understand, but will also agree wholeheartedly with).
This left the dependable Lewis Jenkins on the bench with Failed-Player/Manager Christopher Nobbs on the bench.
From this point on the game was a massive blur of visible breath and shouting punctuated with cries of joy and much splattering of mud.
However, there were numerous highlights from almost all players and I at least knew that we ran away clear winners coming out 5-1 to the good in the end with Nik grabbing the opener and Ralph getting a club record four goal haul.
The general gist of the game was: They had more possession but did not use it well. We had less possession but made the most of it. We kept things tight defensively and played quick counter-attacking football and in the end we deserved it.
Anyway, here are Nobbsy's choice moments.
1. Adam Baker producing two utterly immense saved, one tipping a top-corner bound ball just wide, and the second tipping a goal bound header onto the crossbar and eventual safety.
2. Ryan Grant being totally wiped out along with a Botley player by the onrushing Adam Baker much to my amusement.
3. Scott Wagstaff pulling out one of his trademark last-ditch slide tackles to keep our goals conceded to just one.
4. Callum Foote pulling off numerous clearances, best of all was a ball bobbling on the line that he punted away/over.
5. Nik Jones' opener. A beautiful bit of play capped off by some calm finishing and poor goalkeeping rendering me mental and eventually leading to a one man pitch invasion by yours truly.
6. Ralph Stansfield. (He was a highlight in himself with his non-stop running, playmaking and fine finishing, A true Captains display).
All in all I could not have been more proud of my team this weekend and so the Man of The Match award is to the HHAFC team of 27 November 2010, a date that will forever be etched on my heart.
HHAFC x
Monday, 29 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Things get mental... 0-10, 2-2, 0-10, 1-1!
Over the last four weeks we have conceded twenty three goals, scored three and made a return of two points. To me, that makes absolutely no sense at all. But between two absolutely dysmal 10-0 losses we have managed to draw two games.
The first 10-0 loss was against the ultimate cunts of the league, West Totton. A team most probably made up of ex-cons that took a few hours off from glue sniffing to give us an absolute hiding or from another point of view, a badly disguised assault.
Thier own manager kindly offered to referee the game (!) and we were subsequently treated to 90 minutes of takles that were almost waist-height.
I will not dwell on this game too much as it'll just make me angry and luckily since this game, our friends at Botley Village beat them 2-1 at home (Botley Rec, where we ground-share...) to displace them at the top of the league. Needless to say they managed to have two players sent off in this encounter and should have had the majority of the team against us...
We then went to Stanton and played out a 2-2 draw. It was my first game in full manager mode and it went well. We kept shape and we played some good football at times. We went 1-0 down (as usual!) but James Guppy scored two rediculous goals, one a speculative effort that the keeper let bobble over him, and the second was a terrible cross that somehow went top corner. We should have won the game but Nik Jonrs made a bit of a boo-boo and allowed them to equalise from a close range header by freezing to his line.
The next game v Allbrook Reserves was a masterclass in lack of discipline and effort. We played most of the game in our own penalty area and subsequently shipped another whopping 10 goals. The pick of the bunch however was when Nik Jones made a clearance into the face of an opposition player which rebounded into the net. Comedy gold (in retrospect).
Following 'Allbrookgate', Dan and I decided to overhaul our playing style and tactics-only was on the menu for our next training session.
The game yesterday was the first fielding our new flat 4-4-2 Zonal-Marking system and we looked a lot better. The game was against Stanton (again!) and I was (again) on the touchline trying to make sure the lads all remembered the training session and played how we wanted. We were unluckly to go 1-0 down as a free kick bobbled about in the area for a Stanton player to head home.
Luckily for us we did not lose shape and continued to play well before a stray ball on the edge of the box was lashed home by Lewis Jenkins to make it 1-1. The game was soured when Stu Morgan lashed out after an off the ball incident and was rightly sent off.
Hopefully over the next few weeks we can work further on our new simpler style and start to pick up some less random results! Here's hoping!
HHAFC x
The first 10-0 loss was against the ultimate cunts of the league, West Totton. A team most probably made up of ex-cons that took a few hours off from glue sniffing to give us an absolute hiding or from another point of view, a badly disguised assault.
Thier own manager kindly offered to referee the game (!) and we were subsequently treated to 90 minutes of takles that were almost waist-height.
I will not dwell on this game too much as it'll just make me angry and luckily since this game, our friends at Botley Village beat them 2-1 at home (Botley Rec, where we ground-share...) to displace them at the top of the league. Needless to say they managed to have two players sent off in this encounter and should have had the majority of the team against us...
We then went to Stanton and played out a 2-2 draw. It was my first game in full manager mode and it went well. We kept shape and we played some good football at times. We went 1-0 down (as usual!) but James Guppy scored two rediculous goals, one a speculative effort that the keeper let bobble over him, and the second was a terrible cross that somehow went top corner. We should have won the game but Nik Jonrs made a bit of a boo-boo and allowed them to equalise from a close range header by freezing to his line.
The next game v Allbrook Reserves was a masterclass in lack of discipline and effort. We played most of the game in our own penalty area and subsequently shipped another whopping 10 goals. The pick of the bunch however was when Nik Jones made a clearance into the face of an opposition player which rebounded into the net. Comedy gold (in retrospect).
Following 'Allbrookgate', Dan and I decided to overhaul our playing style and tactics-only was on the menu for our next training session.
The game yesterday was the first fielding our new flat 4-4-2 Zonal-Marking system and we looked a lot better. The game was against Stanton (again!) and I was (again) on the touchline trying to make sure the lads all remembered the training session and played how we wanted. We were unluckly to go 1-0 down as a free kick bobbled about in the area for a Stanton player to head home.
Luckily for us we did not lose shape and continued to play well before a stray ball on the edge of the box was lashed home by Lewis Jenkins to make it 1-1. The game was soured when Stu Morgan lashed out after an off the ball incident and was rightly sent off.
Hopefully over the next few weeks we can work further on our new simpler style and start to pick up some less random results! Here's hoping!
HHAFC x
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