Bert

The amount of Southampton fans that will have booked travel and some even hotels

Although it seems like they’ve accepted it and start on -4 next season. 

Wow. This is going to start all sorts of appeals. 

55 minutes ago, CoventryFox said:

 

Patel

Budinger

Kelly  - os

Rehan Ahmed

Eskinazi

Turner - os

Cox - wk

Ben Green

Holland

Mike

Scriven
 

if no Rehan then Trevaskis and an order reshuffle 

Comfortably bat down to 11 there. 

14 hours ago, LBTufty said:

Have a feeling we're going to miss his destructive hitting in the coming Blast. Beyond the openers, our batting doesn't have that X factor, at least until Rehan gets back

I’m not as sure. He was good when he was good but he was very inconsistent. We’ve got a really solid opening pair and Green, Cox even Mike coming in lower order can sometimes be good for explosive runs. 

Disgusting tackle. Unbelievable it’s not a red. 

1 hour ago, syston_fox said:

Potentially! Which side are you with? It's our first season and so started at level 5 and coasted through that. Got promoted to 4A and think we finished with something like 5 wins, 5 defeats and 2 draws. 

 

We try to play level 3 teams in friendlies and always been competitive, winning more than we've lost. I think the only difference between level 3 and 4 is the consistency really of doing it every week. 

 

What are people's thoughts on game time during tournaments? So hard to get a balance right when you have such mixed abilities! We try to make it fair in the group stages but then once knockout starts, it's really hard to change something when a game is on a knife edge. A squad of 10 in a 6-a-side tournament was an absolute killer. 

I think it’s all about equal game time in tournaments. I as a parent wouldn’t be happy if one person got more time than other, whether it was my lad getting more time or not. 
 

We have a squad of 9 which is too much for 5 a side. During the normal season we’ve been having 2 lads have a week off on a rota basis which has worked really well.

The tournament Saturday was a bit better as it was 6 a side and we only had 8. Knowing we were guaranteed 4 games the coaches again rotated so each of the boys got 3 full games and sat out for 1 of them. In the semis and the final each of the lads got equal game time. 
 

Into Sunday we had our full 9 and knowing we had 7 games, they all got 3 and half matches and should they have made the knockouts their game time would’ve been evenly split. 
 

I was there early yesterday and caught the end of the under 8’s final. One boy got subbed on and off within 2 minutes, didn’t even get a touch of the ball and came round to his dad absolutely distraught. 
 

1 hour ago, 21st Century Fox said:

Ah ok, B2 was closed when it went to General Sale, so might need to add that to the total, if that's the case.

I’ve got mine in B2. 

Really enjoyed that one, maybe a bit more so than yesterday. Whether it was the minimal expectation I don’t know.  
 

Our boys missed out on a semi final spot by a single goal, on goal difference. They really seemed to up their game against higher level opposition. 7 games played, won 2, drew 2 and lost 3 and the biggest defeat was only 2-0.
 

They were the lowest level team in there so can come out with huge amounts of credit, even more so after yesterday’s rollercoaster. 
 

Another well ran tournament, decent facilities (apart from the parking) and everything seemed to run smoothly. 
 

Sporting Loughborough level 3-5 tournament up next for us on the 13th June. 

13 hours ago, syston_fox said:

I thought I spotted you as we were driving off.

 

I take it you lot played that Benfica side? We spotted their results and was clear they had entered the wrong level. (I know the organisers and they will be gutted that that happened.... The coaches of that side would have known  what they were doing when they entered into that though! )

 

We were in the u9 group. Had a rough group stage and then came to life in the knockouts. Got to our final and lost 2-1. The heartbreaking thing is that the winner came from an error. Ball played back to our defender and he trod on the ball and fell which let their striker in on goal. Horrible way to lose as had been a great performance and even game. 

 

Well run tournament throughout. Only gripe is that we played one team who were a disgrace and should have been kicked out. Had a player removed for swearing at the referee, their team kicked out at some of our lads and one player went through our defender. Got warned and then 30 seconds later he put in an even worse challenge - studs up into his leg. Aggressive and intentional. Magically their coach "didn't see it" and "he must have slipped" . Thankfully they got knocked out very quickly as were crap at football and relied on bullying 

 

Yes mate that’s them. Don’t get me wrong a good side and absolutely no fault of the children they were in that level. The annoying thing is there was a higher level tournament at the same age group at the same venue at the same time and I’ve absolutely no doubt they’d had a good shout at winning that one as well. You can hardly blame the organisers either, obviously they had no idea about them being from Walsall. The worst thing about it all is that it can be so demoralising for the boys and the exact opposite of what football at their age is supposed to be about. 
 

Gutted to hear your lads lost in the final, even more so when it comes through a mistake but I’m sure you’re proud of them for making it all the way to a final. I’m pretty sure one of my mates lads plays for you. 
 

Unfortunately as well, you’re going to get them sort of teams but karma always strikes and them getting knocked out was that karma. 
 

Onto Birstall today, I’ll just be happy if the boys are competitive and score a few goals because it’s a big step up in level today, but at least we are ready for that. 

3 minutes ago, Jaspa said:

Chelsea's money is their main draw. After what happened with Enzo you'd be asking serious questions going in. Basket case. Have to admire Alonso's self-confidence if it's that, unless he's just going for the inevitable pay-off ~2027.

He’s been at an even more power crazy institution in Real Madrid. 

Just bin all financial rules. 
 

The big clubs pretty much get away with spending what they want anyway which is why it was thought to be a good idea to create a level playing field per se. 

27 minutes ago, snoopy87 said:

Looked at that one for my lot, I'll keep an eye out next season after that review. Though how does a level 1 side end up in your final? Takes away all the good work your boys have done.

 

We kick ours ours off tomorrow in Peterborough at London Road. Lord knows what we're walking into. This one is just for an experience.

 

Pulling us out of a tournament later in May due to the group we've been put in. We've been poor for a while. Going into a tournament where the whole group is level 1, 2 of those side's the best in the county at our age group, just aint right for my boys. We'll get nothing but a hiding. My major gripe is they've put their own higher level side in the lower side of the tournament, a team who've smashed us twice. Tournament organiser sees no issue 🤷🏻‍♂️.

I mean for me it boils down to the team that won it rather than the organisers because this team came from the West Midlands so would imagine they had no clue about them and their standard and I’m not taking anything away from the boys they were a really good team and ultimately it’s not their fault.
 

We played them in the group stage and they beat us so our boys were a bit disheartened already starting the final because even they knew they were too good for the level.  
 

Final was scheduled for 2 and kicked off at 2:05 which for a tournament goes to show it was really well ran.

Good luck for tomorrow and the rest of the tournaments going forward. Can’t blame you for pulling them out - obviously their own team going in lower is never gonna get changed which is a shame. 

Mulder is defo gonna get a century isn’t he

Tournament season started for my lads team today. 
 

Played in the level 3-5 at Loughborough Dynamo. Great venue and really well ran. 
 

Got all the way to the final and lost to a level 1 side.

Another tournament to go at tomorrow at Birstall United but a much tougher task as it’s mainly filled with level 1 sides but could be a good learning curve for them all. 

Looking forward to the blast starting next week! Can’t beat a Friday night at Grace Road. 

Everton at home. Trophy day. Booked Prague the December before for that weekend. 

2 hours ago, AKCJ said:

The obvious one is the Maddison penalty.

 

Or had Everton not won their points appeal. 

He left at the right time. He won’t be returning as a player. One day maybe in some other capacity. 

Thirteen minutes?

4 minutes ago, Nolucklcfc said:

They won us the premier league man. 

The players you mean?

5 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Bollocks that. 

 

Rice fouls a West Ham player at the same time? Why is that not given? 

It’s not impacting him directly playing the ball. I don’t want Arsenal to win the league as much as the next person but Raya has his shirt pulled and his arm held. 

It’s a foul, if not by Pablo by Todibo. 

7 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Too early for me but Gary McAllister must have been excellent. He rarely seems to get mentioned but he won everything aside from a Champions League.

Yeah a Rolls Royce of a player. But certainly not world class.