Forms signed, no fine this time

At 6.30 on Thursday, I go to sign the match report from the previous week. The league official points out that the opposition have failed to enter the score and goalscorers so as far as they are concerned it finished 0-0. I dont know what will come of this, whether they will take the email confirmation (which was 3-0) or whether we will be awarded a point. Watch this space!!!

First game, first black mark

I'm sat on the PC minding my own business when an email comes in from the club secretary. I forgot to score the referee and sign the official match form after our first game. This offence normally carries a £15 penalty however the league have been lenient and have said that if I go and sign it they will let us off on this occasion. A simple phone call to the league official is all it takes and a date and time is arranged to sort out the paperwork.

Anybody know a referee

Monday night and our first home game of the season is looming. This is normally the time I have to phone the opposition and confirm Sundays game. However, seeing as its a local derby, I have already spoken to their manager at a childrens birthday party, so far so good....

In the Nuneaton and Bedworth league this season however, there is a shortage of referees. I try 2 who we used last season but they are unavailable for various reasons. The third one however agrees to the game although it involves him coming from one end of town to the other forcing a 10 minute delay in the kickoff

New season starts amid much optimism

After a 5 week summer break and 3 weeks back in training, the season finally kicked off this Sunday. With only 7 players available for duty its going to be a tough start against one of the fancied teams this time round. We hold our own without really threatening and finally go down to a 3-0 scoreline.

After the game I emphasise to the players that the difference between us and the top teams is self belief and confidence. If we can work on this then we will go places this season

Junior football is not cheap

As you can imagine, everything, even at this level costs money. The boys pay their subs each month but that only covers the basics. For example, we require a gazebo for our summer tournaments to keep the boys out of the sun when we are waiting for our next match. A team like ours that has only been formed for the bext part of a year simply cannot afford things like this. I have therefore created a donations page on our website. If you are feeling generous we would be very grateful for you to visit our site and pledge as much or as little as you can afford. all donations will be to the benefit of the club. If you are interested please visit http://www.stnicsfc.co.uk/under8s/donations.html . Thank you

Anybody seen the training kit

Three months ago, I agreed sponsorship for our training kit. As it currenlty stand, I am still waiting for payment before I can order this. I am phoning up the company who is sponsoring us every other day at the moment and I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we will all have the same training attire and take the first step on the ladder to looking like a professional team.

Season over but the hard work continues

Apologies to the regular readers that nothing has been posted here for almost 2 months. Its been a hectic time preparing for the end of season presentation which went really well and was enjoyed by all. Added to this, I managed to damage my knee and have undergone an op to repair the cartiledge and have also damage the ligaments. As they say, 'the show must go on' as we have summer tournaments to prepare for. We have played one so far at Hinckley United and started with a very credible draw, after this, things went a bit pear shaped and we lost the next 4 games without putting up much of a fight. I would like to thank my assistant for all his help in running the team whilst I have been off my feet.

Only a point but it seems like we've won the league

After 15 straight defeats without a goal, we managed a 2-2 draw with the team one place above us. Things started badly as we went a goal down early on and the majority of the fans looked on in stunned silence. These lads, however are made of stronger stuff and midway through the half we were awarded a penalty. This was superbly dispatched into the corner to start wild scenes both on and off the pitch. Incredibly we took the lead in the second half with a wonder goal that would have lifted us off the bottom if we could have held on. Unfortunately we conceded another but we were more than happy with the 2-2 score to get off the dreadded zero.

Season drawing to a close but the work is not

With the climax of the season fast approaching, the workload is increasing tenfold. The end of season presentation will soon be upon us and the work involved is staggering. Jobs include the selection of trophies, sorting out food, securing sponsorship and selling horses. On top of this, I am producing a digital celebration of our season which is taking up an absoloutely huge chunk of time.

Anyone remember our last training session?

We are now in March and we have only had one training session since Christmas (plus 2 friendlies). With this in mind, and the fact that even with a dry week, pitches could still be waterlogged this weekend, I have taken the early decision to book a hard surface for training. This will give us some much needed time to work on tactics that will give us our first goals and hopefully first points of the season.

I have circulated job adverts to my parents advertising for 2 new coaches. One of these positions will be to replace my current coach who is relocating. The other is a new post which will hopefully mean that for every 3 players, someone will be watching over them to speed up the development process

Total Washout ... again!

Not for the first time this season the weather has played havoc with our preparations. On Saturday morning I make a special journey to the training venue to assess the pitch before my players are due to turn up. On the way to the venue, I get a call from the club secretary saying that the pitches are unplayable, not only for Saturday but also for our Sunday game. The all to familiar news is broken to the parents via a phone call. We have now had one proper training session since Christmas and its getting frustrating.

Calls to the opposition and the referee are made to inform them of the cancellation of Sundays game and an email is sent to the fixture secreatry on the league.

Hopefully we will have better luck next week but the forecast still looks very dodgy

New system, same result

Sunday morning comes, we set off from our home ground at 9.30 in the morning, still a little sceptical of what kind of pitch lies ahead of us. By this time, news has filtered through that every other match in the town has been called off. Surely the oppositions pitch must be under water too. On arriving at their ground we were in for a real surprise. There pitch looked glorious. Situated on a hillside, the rain water had drained off leaving it sparkling beautfully in the morning sunshine. At 1-0 down at the interval and facing a second half attacking downhill, things were looking good. Again, it was not to be with a 4-0 scoreline but things are definatelty moving in the right direction.

Anyone for Water Polo?

At last a Saturday morning where we had no friendly and the weather was bright and sunny. We would finally get a proper training session, or so we thought. On arriving at the ground, it soon became evident that the pitches were not safe, due to the amount of surface water. I set up a goal and began the hopeless task of trying to drain the surface water. By the time the squad had arrived, the pitch was already cutting up and then my coach went over and twiste dhis knee. The only decision to take was to cancel the session as I did not wish to risk futher injuries.

A call to Sundays opposition to establish the prospects of Sundays game confirms that the game is still on as their pitch is in good condition

Danny Boy the goals, the goals are flowing

After 5 months of trying, we finally mange to score a goal against a team of our own age. I got to the ground an hour before eveyone else so that I could set up, assess the pitch and give my lad some extra goalkeeping practise. On a ground which was wetter than I thought it would be, I decided to move the match to an adjacent pitch so not to cut up our normal match pitch. With our first real attack we had the ball in the net for a deserved lead. This only lasted for a minute and it was all square again, a goal in the final minutes of both halves mean we lose 3-1 but the effort was certainly there and against a team that has had at least 1 years more experience than we have, things are coming together nicely. This fixture again, leads me to believe that we will do OK next season when the league gets split more fairly.

Toyota Link Extended for another season

I met with the Head of Listers Toyota in Nuneaton this morning to discuss the prospect of them extending their generous sponsorship for another season. The meeting went very well and Listers have agreed to sponsor our training kit for next season. This will be a great help to us as currently there is no standard training kit. We will now look professional both on and off the pitch

Sir Terry agrees to present trophies

Imagine the situation, its Saturday evening, you are relaxing in front of the TV and the phone rings. Its one of the greatest ever players to wear the colours of the team you have supported since your childhood. Well that is exactly what happened to me. Terry Angus, known from this point onwards as Sir Terry phoned me up to agree to present the trophies at our presentation evening. I have known Terry since my FA coaching course where he was one of the coaches and he has kindly managed to fit us into his hectic schedule.

Terrys career started in the 80s at VS Rugby before a move into league football took him to Northampton and then on to Fulham. Terry returned to the non-league scene with Slough Town before moving to the Boro in 1998. Prior to this season Terrys record for the Boro reads an impressive 288 games and 18 goals, including the last minute screamer against Altrincham in the Conference North playoff and THAT last minute header that set up the FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough that will forever live in the minds of every Nuneaton fan.

Boro legend could make guest appearance

Tonight I made a phone call to one of Nuneaton Boroughs all time great players. I met this player whilst doing my FA qualification and if all goes to plan they have agreed to hand out the trophies at our presentation night. I need to give him a call tomorrow evening to confirm the details and then hopefully I will be able to reveal who the mystery player is.

Managers meeting takes up whole night

Our monthly managers meeting takes place on Monday at 7.30. This is the first meeting for a couple of months due to their not being much activity in December because of the Christmas closedown. We go through all of the usual stuff shuch as accounts, upcoming events, etc. The main meeting finished at 9.30 and the majority of the attendees depart.

The under 8 managers stay behind to discuss the format of our end of season presentation evening. This needs to be planned to perfection as there will potentially be 150 people in one location at the same time. We leave this meeting at 10.40 by which time the car has frozen up and needs clearing before I can get home.

From football manager to weather forecaster

Last nights hunch that the weather may play a part in todays fixture turned out to be correct. After looking out of the window and seeing all the ice on surrounding cars, the writing was on the wall. By the time we got to the ground at 9am and the temperature still -2 things were looking bleaker by the minute. I made my way from the car park to the pitch to assess the situation and it was obvious that the pitch was not safe for football at any level. After discussions with one of my fellow managers who was due to play on the pitch next to ours, we reached the easy decision to call both games off. A quick call to the referee who agreed with us was followed by a call to the opposition manager who, fortunately had not yet left home. It was too late to contact my players so we made the most of the time and had a team photo in the wintry surroundings. We are now two fixtures behind schedule so the season now looks like it will strech out to the end of March at least

Clean sheets all round

In a change to our normal Saturday morning training session we made the short journey to play in a friendly against one of the teams in the other section of the league (we are split in to halfs because of the number of competing teams). This game would provide good experience to the lads as the opposition are of similar ability to ourselves. We turn up at the venue at 12.30 and go through our normal warmup routine which consits of some light jogging, simple stretches, ballwork and shooting. The goalkeeper goes through his own routine with the goalkeeping coach. After some last minute instructions, I am powerless and its down to the lads. They do not disappoint, in an end to end game which both teams were unlucky not to score, the game ends 0-0. This is a very pleasing result to us as it is only our second clean sheet of the season, both being in friendlies. If we could just produce one in the league it would enable us to get off the dredded zero.

In the evening, in preparation for tomorrows game I prepare the players refreshments, blow up the match ball which is fairly flat after 2 months of inactivity, print out the man of the match slips and make sure I have the referees fee. I am unusually organised, hopefully this means that the morning will not be too frantic. A look at the weather forecast shows that the temperature is going to drop to -2, the referee may have a tough call to make about the prospects of this fixture.

A night on the phone!!

What a busy night Mondays can be for a junior football manager. Just after 6pm I contact the referee to confirm his availability for next weekends game. This goes smoothly and within 2 minutes the task is complete. Next its a call to the opposition manager to confirm they are available. The phone just rings out so I'll need to try again later. On to the next set of phone calls, I need to speak to the parents of 3 of my players to confirm that they are available for Saturday afternoon. This takes another 30 minutes as we chat about the previous game and I get positive feedback as to how things are going. Once I have established that all my players are available I then need to phone the manager of Saturdays opponents to confirm the fixture. Again, we get chatting about the format of the game, start times, etc. Another 20 minutes pass before I finally get off the phone. Several more attempts to contact Sundays opponents prove fruitless. I'll need to try again the following day.

Best performance, same result

The days starts at 7am as I have to print out the parents player of the match voting slips as I forgot to do them the night before. Once this is out of the way I need to make sure I have all the official player documentation and our half of the referees fee. By 8.30 we, are ready for the off, drinks, training balls, player of the match trophy and our new recruits recently arrived waterprrof jacket are all packed into the car.

We arrive at just gone 9 to find the pitch, rather surprisingly in good condition. The players are put through their paces to get them warm and focused for the match ahead, this is going to be a tough one and each player needs to be on top of his game.

Last minute instructions are issued and its on with the game. The lads do not disappoint and come off 1-0 down at the interval. The second half is just as tight and a 3-0 defeat somewhat disguises the fact that we put in our best performance of the season so far. After the game, I score the referee, sign the official forms and give out our teams awards. Then its off home to reflect on another defeat, but more importantly a superb all round team performance. These players are getting better each week and I wouldnt swap any of them.

********

Its 2.30pm and I am just settling down to watch TV and the phone rings. Its one of the coaches of a local team who is looking for a friendly fixture to give his squad players a run out. They are looking to play the game on Saturday afternoon which will mean us cancelling our Saturday morning training session to accommodate the fixture. I provisionally agree to the fixture subject to availability as I believe the more match practise we get the better we will become. The fixture will also allow me to give some of my regular players over the past few games a 15 minute appearance as I look to make sure my squad rotation system is fair.

Drinks ready, let the game begin

On the eve of the resumption of the Astro league, we are finally going to get some use out of our new water bottles which were kindly donated to the team before Christmas. In the interests of hygiene, I have carefully marked each players squad number on the bottle so they use the same one each week. I spent 15 minutes making sure the bottles were clean before making a total of 12 drinks for the squad and coaches, hopefully the players will be in need of a drink when they leave the pitch with something to show for their efforts.

If todays training session is anything to go by, we could cause the opposition some problems as both attackers and defenders looked sharp.

Training allowed to go ahead

We finally have good news about training. We have been given the all clear to train on grass this weekend. This will give the lads some much needed time on a soft surface in preparation for Sundays league game. I am only expecting a maximum of 7 players to turn up to the session as prior commitments and birthday parties have somewhat decimated us. The 7 that do turn up will be put through their paces in fitness, passing, moving as well as some set pieces which will hopefully lead us to the promised land of our first league goal.

Weekend game scheduled to go ahead

I received the call tonight from our next opponents to confirm that the weekends game was still scheduled to take place. With all the previous bad weather and the forecast of more to come I was slightly surprised to hear that their pitch is unaffected. We must now make sure Saturdays training session goes ahead to give the lads some much needed preparation as it has been almost 2 months since our last fixture.

Almost a Kitastrophe

Our new recruit finally received his kit at training on Saturday. It appeared all was well and everyone was happy. However it transpires that the kit was not the size that was was ordered and it is still too small. This would mean another phone call to the supplier to try and come up with some kind of agreement.

Looking through his order book, the supplier has ordered the size he wrote down, however I recall ordering the bigger size. A new kit has now been ordered which hopefully will arrive sooner rather than later.

Waterproofs all round

A quick call to our waterproofs supplier means that our new recruit will at long last have a jacket like the rest of the playing and coaching staff. I have been promised this jacket in a weeks time and, after my dealings with this supplier in the past, I know that timing will be accurate. As I am only ordering one jacket, I have to pay an extra £5 for delivery from the supplier. In hindsight, I would have been better off ordering an extra jacket when we only had 9 players.

Weather forces training move

As I look out of the window there is blue sky and white fluffy clouds. However, looking at the weather forecast for the coming week, these conditions will not last and Saturdays training session looks to be at risk for the second week running. I can't afford to miss another session as people are paying subs and will be getting nothing in return. Early this morning I have taken the decision to move training to a hard surfaced location. These sessions are like gold dust at this time of year as almost every team tries to make alternate arrangements. The first location I contacted had one session available starting at 8.45am which would not have been popular. The second location were more acommodating and we get booked in for an hours session at 11.15am. Although this is 30 minutes shorter than our normal sessions it will give the lads a runout and get them used to playing football again with the resumption of the season only 2 weeks away.

Once home from work, a quick email to all parents is required to inform them of the change in venue. A phone call will be made later in the week to all people who do not acknowledge the email.

New kit finally arrives

Well after 6 weeks of chasing our kit supplier for 2 shirts, we finally have a breakthrough. Both shirts will be available for collection on Saturday morning. Our latest recruit will, at last have a home and away shirt which fits him instead of having to borrow ones that are too small. All we need now is for the weather to improve so that he gets the chance to wear them.

Raring to go but the weather beats us

We resumed training after the Christmas break on January 6th in readiness for the final installent of matches. On a soggy school field, fitness work was the order of the day as the player brushed off the cobwebs. They soon got back into their routine and worked very hard in the first session of the year. Everyone was eager to get the season up and running again as we prepared to face our nearest rivals the following week. If we could somehow win this game, we would almost certainly avoid finishing bottom.

As the week progressed, the weather took a turn for the worse. Each day brought more rain, it was aparent that our fixture was in jeopardy. This left me with a big dilemma. Do we risk playing the fixture on a bog and run the risk of it being a lottery or do I bite the bullet, call the game off and disappoint the lads. These thoughts played on my mind for 2 to 3 nights and it really was a close call. However, a torrential downpour on Thursday morning made my mind up for me. I had little to choice but to call the game off. It was a decision that I wish I didnt have to make but in the end it was the right one. What it meant was that instead of running around a football pitch on Saturday and Sunday, I would now be decorating!!!

The season so far

Well its been an eventful season, with only a few weeks to the registration date, we only had 6 players. This was troublesome as the games we would play were 7 a side. Decisions needed to be taken, do we have one final push at recruiting players or do we pull out and risk shattering the dreams of 6 little superstars.

Word got around and by registration, miraculously we had 8 players, we had made it. Our dream would become reality. By the date of the first match we had signed another player and had the luxury of using 2 substitutes.

From this moment onwards results were not important, we were playing regular football and that was a major achievement for us, win lose or draw, it didnt seem to matter.

As Christmas arrived we were still searching for our first goal and our first point. This was not for the lack of effort but I am sure that both will be just around the corner.