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.