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2006/7 Tables

28 October 2006

Nottm 0 Bridge 2

Team
Humphries, Hannan, Hillier, White, Cupitt, MacDuff, Keating, Bett, Pang, Cunningham, Stedman,Abbott, O'Keeffe

MotM - Ben Hannan

TotD - none

Mentioned in despatches

Greg Cunningham
Tim Stedman
Ollie Humphries

The writer went into the this match thinking that this would be a tough game against second in the league. To my surprise and despite the scoreline we held them through to the last quarter of the match when through a lapse in concentration they scored the 2 goals to seal the game.

The work rate and committment was excelent. Ben was particularly effective at left back and deserved the man of the match award. Tim and Greg's work rate throughout the game was impressive and a couple of "heavy" tackles continues to confirm Greg's nick-name as "Chopper". Ollie produced some fine saves to again keep us in the game.

We are still guilty of holding on to the ball too long and not looking for the easy passes. However on the evidence of this game we can work through this.

We have a couple of tough games coming up and I am hoping that this form will continue.

The result was disappointing but the positive messages taken from the game are that we worked hard and competed throughout hence the TotD mug stayed in the bag.

Tim again impressed with his "Terminator" impression in the showers - "I'll be back"!!!

Well done everyone and see you on Saturday

21st Oct - Lough T 5ths 5 Nottingham 2

Man of the match - J Bett

Totd - M Abbott- (he made too much of the foot injury)

Mentioned in despatches
R Weston
M Keating

Team

Westbury,Hillier,MacDuff,Burd,Cupitt,Keating,Bett,Cunningham,Stedman,Abbott,White,O'Kee ffe,Weston,Willott

Overview

We played well up front and had a significant number of attempts at goal. The problem was that L'boro's keeper played an absolute "blinder" and saved some great shots. With that kind of keeping we were really up against it.

The backs this week were at fault in not marking their players effectively and 2 of thier goals came from this.

A disappointing result because on the whole we did not play that badly.
 

14th Oct - Beeston 6s 4 Nottingham 1

Team-

Humphries, MacDuff, Stedman, Hannan, Abbott, Bett, Peng, Cunningham, Cursham, White, O’Keeffe, Willott

In attendance: Rich “the Man with the Golden Thumb” Hillier

MotD: Tim “Beau Brommell” Stedman

Totd: The mid-field

Mentioned in despatches

Oliver Humphries

“Chopper” Cunningham

We welcomed Bo Peng for his first game with the club and the return of Tim Stedman back from injury,

We started off with el capitaine deciding that in addition to the pre-match pep talk the team would enter into a spot of pre-match PT with a short 5km run around the perimeter of Highfields. Now GO’K (he with the red hair and tattoos) must of got wind of this since he  managed to find a traffic jam and was a tad late!

What with the wet grass and soggy shoes, this proved too much for three venerable players who managed to find a short cut back to base. This may have contributed to their rather tired performance.

Watch out guys the motivator “Golden Thumb” is back next week and after watching the performance feels we have got a little complacent and is going to unleash a dazzling array of warm up exercises to stretch those hams or back as the case may be. Attendance mandatory –even for you GO’K!

Regarding the match – as David Coleman may have said – it was a game of three halves.

In the first 20 minutes we held the upper hand with some fine passing. The goal came from a superb cross on the right by James and converted by G’OK thus ending a goal drought extending back for two games.

The rest of the half saw Beeston regrouping and applying real pressure exposing the back row. Players became unmarked and despite Ollies protestations to the mid field it was not long before the equaliser.

Second half started badly and again the back row was exposed to real pressure and in no time a second goal was scored.

After that we lost confidence resulting in poor and ineffective passing and losing our shape. Even the penalty corners, our success from last week was ineffective. Not even “Golden Thumb” could motivate us from the sideline. Inevitably two further goals were scored and we ended up 1-4 down.

So guys we have to learn from this. The league is challenging and there will be no “freebies”.

On a brighter note “Beau” played a great game at right back and held off the attack on many occasions despite the occasional wanderings up the pitch and deserved the man of the match award. The best was yet to come when in the showers this Adonis started stretching out like one of Rodin’s statues. Quite funny and one to be saved for the end of the season,

Chopper rose to the occasion with some extremely “professional” tackles. Ollie yet again kept us in the game with some superb saves.

I have to report that the TotD mug that Chopper successfully bid for on e-Bay requires immediate surgery on account of having an argument with the road. The prognosis is looking good and we expect a full recovery in time for next Saturday.

And finally…for those in need of a little lift after a night on the bottle, Richard’s thumb guard may be what you need. Check out his web site- www.beat the droop.com.

7th Oct - Nottingham 2 Nuneaton 2

Team

O Humphries, D MacDuff, T Henry, R Hillier, W Cupitt, B Hannan, G Cunningham, J Bett, M Abbott, M White, G O'Keeffe, J Willott

Honours

Man of the Match - O Humphries - our new goalie kept us in the game with some great saves.

TotD - G O'Keeffe - for throwing his toys out of the cupboard (again!!!) - with some justification as he had just been "chopped" in the "D".

Mentioned in dispatches

J Willott - scored the equaliser. Superb on the wing with both pace and skill. Instintively knew where to pass once in the "D".
R Hillier - a good game at centre mid after playing first at right mid. Passes and tackled the ball well.
T Henry - in his first match played a good game at righ back.
G Cunningham - significantly better game from last week. Got some good passes in and tackled well.

Comments

We welcomed four new members to the side this week - Oliver Humphries (goal-keeper), Rich Hillier (CM), Tom Henry (RB) and James Willott (RW). It was pleasing to note that they all had excellent games.

We started off with the usual pep-talk from el-capitaine (MA) and the tattooed wonder with the red-hair (GO'K) - "keep possession, hard passes, marking --etc etc". This seemed to work well as we did all that and had a good first quarter with lots of possession.

Cracks began to appear towards the end of the first half when the backs got caught out again and they scored a very soft goal.

1-0 at half time.

A further pep talk ensued - which cannot be repeated here for those of a sensitive disposition. However I can say that it involved a white stick and a certain part of the anatomy. It must have worked because we immediately gave away a short corner resulting in a further goal. 2-0 down.

A tough battle raged for the next 10 minutes resulting in a penalty corner being awarded. The ball was "drilled" out at 2mph by JB, stopped by el capitaine for the tattooed wonder to shell into the goal. But for some reason he didn't - he passed it to Martin who scored. This is the sort of team work we like to see in the 5ths even though the golden stick is up grabs - Graham decided to let Martin have the honours!!. I understand afterwards that this was planned, which given my experience of this XI over the years sounds incredulous!! 2-1 down.

The next few minutes saw a concerted attack by Nuneaton, exposing yet again the frailities of the back line. However Oliver saved some absolute "blinder's" to keep us in the game and allowing us to push forward and gain an important penalty corner. At this point the tattooed wonder "appeared" to have got chopped in the "D" - I say appeared because I didn't see a lot of except for the throwing of the stick, the jesticulation of the arms to the umpire etc etc. I don't know what he was worried about we got the short (unless of course he was angling for the penalty!). This so incensed the man that he couldn't bring himself to take part in the routine. This routine was enough to earn him the TotD mug, which he received with good grace and requested that we keep it warm for him for next week!

We actually had a few false startson this short- Nuneaton broke too early, the keeper lost his helmet (twice). The second time he lost his helmet - the umpire was going to give on on-side bully - until it was pointed out that it was his fault. Penalty corner number 3 - out to Martin who as cool as a cucumber passed right to James Willott who sent an absolute "ripper" into the back of the net. 2-2 and thats how it remained to the end of the match.

Apart from the little incident mentioned above, the game was played in good spirit and the result was probably fair and shows that even when we're down we carry the fight to the end.

A little more strength in the backs will help and we should see this happening over the next few weeks.
 

Report - Donald McD
 

30th Sept 06
Nottm 3 Burton 3

Man of the match - James Bett - hat trick

TotD - Greg Cunningahm - calling for ball on a 16 yard hit that was intercepted by a very young colt player who then went on to score. (Mind you the hit out from YT was a bit weak!!!)

Mentioned in dispatches

Robin Weston - a veritable hare on the wing

Ben Hannan - very solid at right back

Assessment

We were down on numbers for the openner and had a lot of the play but in usual 5th team manner failed to convert a good number of chances presented to us. The goals against were from poor marking at the back. It is fair to say that the back line did lack a little experience. The forwards and mids played well as a unit however we did tend to get drawn into the middle rather than stay wide.

Overall the result was fair but very frustrating.