I'm afraid all I know is that Sharpy scored our goal, Castle Rangers were a strong side, and Deano and Parker's pre-match preparation had only ended about 4 hours before kick-off. If anyone could leave a comment with line-up/subs I'll update the records.
Eye-ball
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
***2009/10 Season - Game 1 - 13/09/09 *** ****Young Knights 2 - 4 Oaks Athletic ****
The Oaks started the new season with a hard fought victory against the newly promoted Young Knights. This scrappy affair was not without incident, including injuries, two red cards, a missed penalty, and the usual array of goals ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous
Pre-season had been a short affair for The Oaks, with only two matches for Milesy to have a look at the squad at his disposal for the new season. He will be pleased that the squad from last year has remain more or less completely in tack, and that the few players that have been added will add real quality. The one disappointment is that Gollum’s continuing back problems show no sign of abating, and although we know he will be available if required, his involvement is likely to be limited this season.
With 14 players to choose from for this game Milesy went for the following starting eleven:
ppppppppppppppTyrone (GK)
ppDeano (RB) Milly (CB) Rob (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)
pNathan (RM) Jordan (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)
pppppppppppJamie (CF) Sharpy (CF)
Subs: Jimmy, Bill, Parker
The line-up included two brothers making their league debut for The Oaks; Tyrone is a seasoned campaigner who has played in the Premier division of the Sunday league. Less is known of the younger Jordan, but impressive pre-seasoned displays rightly earned him a place in the starting eleven.
The Oaks had been guilty of being slow out of the blocks in the two pre-season friendlies, but perhaps were a bit too keen to get stuck into the opposition with too many silly fouls being conceded around our penalty area in the early exchanges. This really set the tone for the match, with the sound of the referee’s whistle being heard on far too many occasions. We spend a lot of time lamenting about referee’s, and the conclusion is always the same; the team who are prepared to accept the decisions and hold their tongue more often than not come out on top, with this match being no exception.
A less than perfect start got even worse for The Oaks, as two influential players left the field injured in quick succession within the first fifteen minutes. You know when Rob stays down following a collision that things are bad, and the blood spewing from just above his eye confirmed our worst fears. With Rob heading off to A&E a quick re-shuffle saw Stu moving to centre back, Aaron replacing him in central midfield, and Bill coming into left midfield. The only people happy to see Jamie limp off with a groin injury would have been the Young Knights defenders, who had been finding his obvious quality difficult to deal with. However, they probably hadn’t banked on The Oaks having yet another prolific goal scoring machine waiting in the wings.
Given these disruptions, it was something of a surprise when The Oaks took the lead. The source of the goal was all too familiar, as a long throw in from Nathan went through the hands of the opposing keeper. The goal stood because the keeper had fondled the ball on its way into the net. I’m sure Nathan will argue that he should be awarded the goal, but because a goal can not be scored directly from a throw in the keeper has to take the credit.
1-0 soon became 1-1 when a good passing move from the Young Knights saw them cut through the heart of the Oaks defence and finish smartly pass Tyrone.
The lead was regained mid way through the first half when Sharpy bagged his first goal of the season with a curling free kick from just outside the penalty area that left the keeper rooted to the spot. Sharpy’s 21 goals from last season will take some beating, but if he gets anywhere near that total it will surely be a good year.
Surely no player can claim to be more loyal to The Oaks cause than Michael Parker. In over ten years at the club he has probably played in more positions than most, including being the regular goalkeeper for a number of seasons. However, his request to no longer be the No. 1 has lead in recent years to prolonged periods spent either warming the bench or treading a well worn path up and down the touch line with flag in hand. How someone with such a prolific goal scoring record (two games starting upfront, and two goals) has been overlooked for a regular striker’s berth beggars belief. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the man in action, just imagine the love child of Steve Claridge and Ade Akinbiyi, and you won’t be far off. We all know the lad can play, and natural ability combined with energy and enthusiasm meant Parker had quite an impact when he replaced the injured Jamie. His impressive work rate was rewarded when he arrived in the box to volley home a low cross with the outside of the boot – it was a quite superb finish, and gave The Oaks a two goal cushion which was to prove the catalyst for the self destruction of the opposition.
When half time eventually arrived the score was 3-1 to the Oaks, but everyone knew there was still a lot to do to secure victory.
The events of the second half reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons, where Lisa conducts an experiment to see if Bart is dumber than a hamster. Electrodes are attached to a cup cake, and the hamster soon associates touching the cup cake with a painful electric shock, and so stops trying to eat the cup cake. Bart on the other hand can’t see the link between the pain and his attempts to eat the cake, and so continues regardless. It would be unfair of me to compare the entire Young Knights side to Bart Simpson, but a few of their players definitely made Bart look like a young Albert Einstein.
Their failure to accept the referee’s decisions (regardless of whether they were correct) and the frustration they subsequently felt compelled to expel caused them to completely loose their discipline, and with it any hope of winning the match. Up to this point they had looked a threat going forward, and only a fine acrobatic save by Tyrone following a corner prevented them from closing the deficit. However, when they had a man sent off for what I can only assume to be foul and abusive behaviour towards the referee that was it, and they were soon 4-1 down.
Eye-ball was encouraged to sneak in unmarked at the back post for a corner, from which he was expertly picked out by Nathan. Credit must be given to Sharpy who acknowledged the call from Eye-ball and allowed him to head the ball back into the danger area where Deano was on hand to guide the ball into the net: 4-1.
No Oaks match would be complete without a paragraph dedicated to The Oaks keeper, and this time Tyrone gets his first taste of the spot light. Ty is different, in a lot of ways, to the keepers we have had in recent years, and it was clear that The Oaks defence took a while to acclimatise to the strange hollering emanating from somewhere near the goal behind them. Ty attempts to do all the things a good keeper should; he commands his penalty area, gives clear, decisive calls; marshals his defensive troops; and knows when to come for a ball and when to stay. He is clearly going to make a big difference to the side, and will hopefully enjoy himself in the process. Unfortunately, following this match, he does now have one thing in common with all the keepers I have played with at the Oaks: being caught off his line and lobbed by a speculative effort from 40 yards: 4-2. Oh well…..
The game should have been well a truly wrapped up with 15 minutes to go when a lapse back pass presented Sharpy with a guilt edge scoring chance, only for the keeper to fell him. The keeper was rightly sent off, and Sharpy once again added weight to the claim that the closer he is to the goal, the less likely he is score; first seeing his penalty saved from 12 yards, and then almost demolishing the chimney of the house behind the goal from 6 yards. Perhaps Stevie Akinbiyi should have been given the chance to make it four in three.
Hopefully nothing too exciting happened in the last five minutes; the score line definitely didn’t change, and we should all give ourselves a slap on the back for such a great team display, and for starting the season with a win.
Eye – Ball
Next Match – Sun 27th September v Castle Rangers (Essex Cup) @ Blackshots
Goal Scoring Chart
Pre-season had been a short affair for The Oaks, with only two matches for Milesy to have a look at the squad at his disposal for the new season. He will be pleased that the squad from last year has remain more or less completely in tack, and that the few players that have been added will add real quality. The one disappointment is that Gollum’s continuing back problems show no sign of abating, and although we know he will be available if required, his involvement is likely to be limited this season.
With 14 players to choose from for this game Milesy went for the following starting eleven:
ppppppppppppppTyrone (GK)
ppDeano (RB) Milly (CB) Rob (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)
pNathan (RM) Jordan (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)
pppppppppppJamie (CF) Sharpy (CF)
Subs: Jimmy, Bill, Parker
The line-up included two brothers making their league debut for The Oaks; Tyrone is a seasoned campaigner who has played in the Premier division of the Sunday league. Less is known of the younger Jordan, but impressive pre-seasoned displays rightly earned him a place in the starting eleven.
The Oaks had been guilty of being slow out of the blocks in the two pre-season friendlies, but perhaps were a bit too keen to get stuck into the opposition with too many silly fouls being conceded around our penalty area in the early exchanges. This really set the tone for the match, with the sound of the referee’s whistle being heard on far too many occasions. We spend a lot of time lamenting about referee’s, and the conclusion is always the same; the team who are prepared to accept the decisions and hold their tongue more often than not come out on top, with this match being no exception.
A less than perfect start got even worse for The Oaks, as two influential players left the field injured in quick succession within the first fifteen minutes. You know when Rob stays down following a collision that things are bad, and the blood spewing from just above his eye confirmed our worst fears. With Rob heading off to A&E a quick re-shuffle saw Stu moving to centre back, Aaron replacing him in central midfield, and Bill coming into left midfield. The only people happy to see Jamie limp off with a groin injury would have been the Young Knights defenders, who had been finding his obvious quality difficult to deal with. However, they probably hadn’t banked on The Oaks having yet another prolific goal scoring machine waiting in the wings.
Given these disruptions, it was something of a surprise when The Oaks took the lead. The source of the goal was all too familiar, as a long throw in from Nathan went through the hands of the opposing keeper. The goal stood because the keeper had fondled the ball on its way into the net. I’m sure Nathan will argue that he should be awarded the goal, but because a goal can not be scored directly from a throw in the keeper has to take the credit.
1-0 soon became 1-1 when a good passing move from the Young Knights saw them cut through the heart of the Oaks defence and finish smartly pass Tyrone.
The lead was regained mid way through the first half when Sharpy bagged his first goal of the season with a curling free kick from just outside the penalty area that left the keeper rooted to the spot. Sharpy’s 21 goals from last season will take some beating, but if he gets anywhere near that total it will surely be a good year.
Surely no player can claim to be more loyal to The Oaks cause than Michael Parker. In over ten years at the club he has probably played in more positions than most, including being the regular goalkeeper for a number of seasons. However, his request to no longer be the No. 1 has lead in recent years to prolonged periods spent either warming the bench or treading a well worn path up and down the touch line with flag in hand. How someone with such a prolific goal scoring record (two games starting upfront, and two goals) has been overlooked for a regular striker’s berth beggars belief. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the man in action, just imagine the love child of Steve Claridge and Ade Akinbiyi, and you won’t be far off. We all know the lad can play, and natural ability combined with energy and enthusiasm meant Parker had quite an impact when he replaced the injured Jamie. His impressive work rate was rewarded when he arrived in the box to volley home a low cross with the outside of the boot – it was a quite superb finish, and gave The Oaks a two goal cushion which was to prove the catalyst for the self destruction of the opposition.
When half time eventually arrived the score was 3-1 to the Oaks, but everyone knew there was still a lot to do to secure victory.
The events of the second half reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons, where Lisa conducts an experiment to see if Bart is dumber than a hamster. Electrodes are attached to a cup cake, and the hamster soon associates touching the cup cake with a painful electric shock, and so stops trying to eat the cup cake. Bart on the other hand can’t see the link between the pain and his attempts to eat the cake, and so continues regardless. It would be unfair of me to compare the entire Young Knights side to Bart Simpson, but a few of their players definitely made Bart look like a young Albert Einstein.
Their failure to accept the referee’s decisions (regardless of whether they were correct) and the frustration they subsequently felt compelled to expel caused them to completely loose their discipline, and with it any hope of winning the match. Up to this point they had looked a threat going forward, and only a fine acrobatic save by Tyrone following a corner prevented them from closing the deficit. However, when they had a man sent off for what I can only assume to be foul and abusive behaviour towards the referee that was it, and they were soon 4-1 down.
Eye-ball was encouraged to sneak in unmarked at the back post for a corner, from which he was expertly picked out by Nathan. Credit must be given to Sharpy who acknowledged the call from Eye-ball and allowed him to head the ball back into the danger area where Deano was on hand to guide the ball into the net: 4-1.
No Oaks match would be complete without a paragraph dedicated to The Oaks keeper, and this time Tyrone gets his first taste of the spot light. Ty is different, in a lot of ways, to the keepers we have had in recent years, and it was clear that The Oaks defence took a while to acclimatise to the strange hollering emanating from somewhere near the goal behind them. Ty attempts to do all the things a good keeper should; he commands his penalty area, gives clear, decisive calls; marshals his defensive troops; and knows when to come for a ball and when to stay. He is clearly going to make a big difference to the side, and will hopefully enjoy himself in the process. Unfortunately, following this match, he does now have one thing in common with all the keepers I have played with at the Oaks: being caught off his line and lobbed by a speculative effort from 40 yards: 4-2. Oh well…..
The game should have been well a truly wrapped up with 15 minutes to go when a lapse back pass presented Sharpy with a guilt edge scoring chance, only for the keeper to fell him. The keeper was rightly sent off, and Sharpy once again added weight to the claim that the closer he is to the goal, the less likely he is score; first seeing his penalty saved from 12 yards, and then almost demolishing the chimney of the house behind the goal from 6 yards. Perhaps Stevie Akinbiyi should have been given the chance to make it four in three.
Hopefully nothing too exciting happened in the last five minutes; the score line definitely didn’t change, and we should all give ourselves a slap on the back for such a great team display, and for starting the season with a win.
Eye – Ball
Next Match – Sun 27th September v Castle Rangers (Essex Cup) @ Blackshots
Goal Scoring Chart
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
End of Season Summary
I think everyone will agree that our achievements in the 2008/09 season far outweighed expectations. When you consider we had finished near the bottom of the third division the previous year, and had only been promoted due to the large number of new teams to finish fifth in division 2B was quite an achievement.
The Oaks found the net a grand total of 63 times in the league last season (the second highest total in the league), and a further 7 goals being scored in cup competitions by Oaks players. One of our greatest strengths was that players from all positions contributed to the scoring; 38 goals came from our three main strikers, 15 from regular midfielders, and 12 from the defenders. The only outfield players not to score were Milly, Eye-Ball, Jimmy and Parker (who has already removed himself from this list in the new season). Approximately 1/3 of our goals were scored by Sharpy, who really found his shooting boots this season. Some say he was inspired by a burning desire to stay top of the goal scoring chart, and if that's the case let's hope he keeps the desire the retain his crown.
The Oaks capped a great year with an end of season awards night where Al picked up the Players Player award, and Sharpy and Rob deservedly picked up Milesy's manager player award, with Milly and Eye-Ball picking up second and third place respectively.
Let's hope the new season is as much fun, and even more successful than the last.
Eye-Ball
Oaks Athletic 1 - 3 Greyhound
Thanks to the league deciding we should wait four weeks for the last game of the season, this game was a bit of an anti-climax, with The Oaks only able to field ten players.
It didn't matter too much as fifth position was already secure, and at least Aaron got to add one more to his goal tally and bring him level with Deano for the season.
Eye-Ball
It didn't matter too much as fifth position was already secure, and at least Aaron got to add one more to his goal tally and bring him level with Deano for the season.
Eye-Ball
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Oaks Athletic 2 - 2 Greyhound
If you believe the numbers Greyhound would have been overwhelming favourites to win this game; before this game they had only lost 3 times and still had an outside chance of winning the league. Compare this to The Oaks who had lost 7 times, and could only finish 4th at best if they won the last two games. You might then expect that not only would Greyhound be hungrier for the win, but that The Oaks may have been resided to defeat before the whistle had even been blown. However, this isn’t a mindset that exists amongst The Oaks faithful, who are playing with a desire and belief that belie the stats. This was evident today through the mixed feelings of satisfaction and disappointment at the end of this game; satisfaction for an excellent performance, but disappointment at not gaining the additional two points we felt we deserved.
With Captain Stu still on the injury list Nathan once again took the arm-band, and after being exhausted by an extra length in the warm-up an unchanged side from the previous week took to the field:
ppppppppppppppParker (GK)
With Captain Stu still on the injury list Nathan once again took the arm-band, and after being exhausted by an extra length in the warm-up an unchanged side from the previous week took to the field:
ppppppppppppppParker (GK)
ppDeano (RB) Milly (CB) Rob (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)
pNathan (RM) Al (CM) Gollum (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)
pppppppppppJamie (CF) Sharpy (CF)
Subs: Jimmy, Bill
We were assigned the same ref as last week, and fortunately he turned up this time and the game kicked off on time. Greyhound are obviously a good footballing side, but it was also clear that they try to use their physical presence to intimidate and disrupt the opposition. This may work against some of the teams in this league, but is not a tactic that is going to work against The Oaks; we more than matched them when competing for the ball and didn’t give them any time to settle. Although, having said this, Sharpy possible could have picked on someone else rather than the biggest player on the pitch – he does love a challenge.
If Greyhound hadn’t expected such a hard fought match, they definitely didn’t expect to go behind, which they duly did half way through the first half. We can all remember what it’s like to be the young newbie in the team (OK some of us remember), when you want to show you can hold your own with the big guys, but you invariably learn some valuable lessons. Greyhound’s young winger definitely learnt a lesson today (although I doubt he’ll heed it): that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. He’s just lucky that Milly only communicated this message verbally, although I suspect this was all that was needed and the next time we play he won’t show such petulance if Milly beats him to the ball. A similar incident when the youngster was beaten to the ball by Eye-Ball gave The Oaks the free-kick that lead to The Oaks first goal. Aaron whipped in an outswinging cross that eluded the defence and was met by Sharpy at the back post to tuck away. Sharpy has admitted that he may have inadvertently controlled the ball with his hand, but then what the ref doesn’t see doesn’t count: 1-0.
This goal gave us an extra impetus, and we were unfortunate not to go two up when the keeper called to collect a trademark Nathan long throw, but completely misjudged the flight to allow Rob to rise well and head home at the back post. However, this time the ref saw something none of the rest of us did and awarded a free kick.
We were then hit a hammer blow when Jamie paid the price for not joining in the pre-match warm up and pulled his groin. This meant a quick re-shuffle with Al moving upfront and Jimmy coming on to partner Gollum in the middle. Although we took a little time to settle again we were able to weather a mini storm, with Parker coming quickly off his line on more than one occasion to clear the danger and making a good save at the feet of the striker.
Before half time The Oaks gained further reward for their efforts when Nathan speared a throw to the near post that was not dealt with by Greyhound and was poked in by one of their own players under pressure from Sharpy. If only he’d known Sharpy can’t score from one yard. 2:0.
We went out for the second half knowing that Greyhound would commit extra men forward, but that they would also try to wind us up in the hope that we would make life easier for them. We continued to cope pretty well with their attacking threat, and even created some really good chances to finish off the game.
Unfortunately Greyhound were handed a life line when the ball fell to one of their players following a long throw, who managed to thread the ball through the crowded box and into the net. 2-1.
The equaliser came with about 15 minutes to go when some scrappy play around the area led to Parker having to push out a looping ball at the back post under pressure, only for it to fall straight onto the head of a Greyhound player. At this point we were starting to tire, and were probably the most likely to concede the third goal. However, we were denied a great opportunity when it seemed everyone – Oaks, Greyhound and Ref! – were in agreement that Sharpy had been illegally felled in the area, only for the Ref to wave play on. Apparently he was hoping to re-align his karma having realised Sharpy’s first goal should have been disallowed. This didn’t help us much, and in the end we had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
This was a great performance, and it was fantastic to see the commitment and desire from all in the squad despite it being the penultimate game of a long and tough season. Well played everyone and let’s finish off in style.
Eye-Ball
Next Match – v Greyhound away @ Blackshots– Date to be confirmed.
Goal Scoring Chart
Subs: Jimmy, Bill
We were assigned the same ref as last week, and fortunately he turned up this time and the game kicked off on time. Greyhound are obviously a good footballing side, but it was also clear that they try to use their physical presence to intimidate and disrupt the opposition. This may work against some of the teams in this league, but is not a tactic that is going to work against The Oaks; we more than matched them when competing for the ball and didn’t give them any time to settle. Although, having said this, Sharpy possible could have picked on someone else rather than the biggest player on the pitch – he does love a challenge.
If Greyhound hadn’t expected such a hard fought match, they definitely didn’t expect to go behind, which they duly did half way through the first half. We can all remember what it’s like to be the young newbie in the team (OK some of us remember), when you want to show you can hold your own with the big guys, but you invariably learn some valuable lessons. Greyhound’s young winger definitely learnt a lesson today (although I doubt he’ll heed it): that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. He’s just lucky that Milly only communicated this message verbally, although I suspect this was all that was needed and the next time we play he won’t show such petulance if Milly beats him to the ball. A similar incident when the youngster was beaten to the ball by Eye-Ball gave The Oaks the free-kick that lead to The Oaks first goal. Aaron whipped in an outswinging cross that eluded the defence and was met by Sharpy at the back post to tuck away. Sharpy has admitted that he may have inadvertently controlled the ball with his hand, but then what the ref doesn’t see doesn’t count: 1-0.
This goal gave us an extra impetus, and we were unfortunate not to go two up when the keeper called to collect a trademark Nathan long throw, but completely misjudged the flight to allow Rob to rise well and head home at the back post. However, this time the ref saw something none of the rest of us did and awarded a free kick.
We were then hit a hammer blow when Jamie paid the price for not joining in the pre-match warm up and pulled his groin. This meant a quick re-shuffle with Al moving upfront and Jimmy coming on to partner Gollum in the middle. Although we took a little time to settle again we were able to weather a mini storm, with Parker coming quickly off his line on more than one occasion to clear the danger and making a good save at the feet of the striker.
Before half time The Oaks gained further reward for their efforts when Nathan speared a throw to the near post that was not dealt with by Greyhound and was poked in by one of their own players under pressure from Sharpy. If only he’d known Sharpy can’t score from one yard. 2:0.
We went out for the second half knowing that Greyhound would commit extra men forward, but that they would also try to wind us up in the hope that we would make life easier for them. We continued to cope pretty well with their attacking threat, and even created some really good chances to finish off the game.
Unfortunately Greyhound were handed a life line when the ball fell to one of their players following a long throw, who managed to thread the ball through the crowded box and into the net. 2-1.
The equaliser came with about 15 minutes to go when some scrappy play around the area led to Parker having to push out a looping ball at the back post under pressure, only for it to fall straight onto the head of a Greyhound player. At this point we were starting to tire, and were probably the most likely to concede the third goal. However, we were denied a great opportunity when it seemed everyone – Oaks, Greyhound and Ref! – were in agreement that Sharpy had been illegally felled in the area, only for the Ref to wave play on. Apparently he was hoping to re-align his karma having realised Sharpy’s first goal should have been disallowed. This didn’t help us much, and in the end we had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
This was a great performance, and it was fantastic to see the commitment and desire from all in the squad despite it being the penultimate game of a long and tough season. Well played everyone and let’s finish off in style.
Eye-Ball
Next Match – v Greyhound away @ Blackshots– Date to be confirmed.
Goal Scoring Chart
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