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The Theatre of Dreams gets a fence lift, how good/bad is the EOS and the golden boy returns early.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 Late. After dropping Gemma at Trinity Rugby Club this morning I nicked along to check out progress at the Academy. I didn’t actually go in but had a look from the car park. There are lights and fences up (don’t get Ainslie Park mixed up with the Theatre that is City Park), the roof on the main complex looks completed and the field turf area looks ready for the field turf. I hope it’s not coming via Poland.Anyway the Theatre that is City Park is once again enclosed with 6 foot boarding where the holes in our defences were. I didn’t stop to have a look at the pitch but I’m sure it will be cut lined and looking in good shape for Saturday. Talking of Saturday I’d much rather have played Nitten on the back of a 7-0 win over Bonnyrigg as opposed to a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Jennifer Arinson. Louis will have them well would up.
I’ve been reading comments from junior contributors in our favourite Forum on the back of the RR saga. Seemingly the EOS is crap compared with the Juniors and the Highland League. I also had a pint with Terry Christie, Tam Hendrie, Eamonn etc last night and TC was telling me he’s signed hundreds of juniors but never anyone form the East. Maybe that’s why you’re no longer in football Terry - only joking.
Well times have changed boys and the top half dozen teams in the EOS can hold their heads up against any non league sides in Scotland. I’ve seen a gradual improvement in the standard at the top over the last 16 years and a team finishing only 3rd in our league yet losing 3 players to the SFL proves my point. Oh! and in games against teams from other non leagues, the two EOS teams I’ve managed have won considerably more than they’ve lost.
I got this text today which put a smile on my face - “Hi Mike just got back this morning, training as usual at p’mill tomorrow?” Struan is back home and assures me he’s in one piece. And he says he’s got a tan this year. He won’t start on Saturday but he will on Tuesday and has a good chance of playing against Coldstream.
I watched S’land tonight until they took CG off then turned to Rangers on the BBC live text. I don’t know why everyone is getting excited - they didn’t concede a home goal. Don’t people remember last season.
Finally congratulations to RW for making the management committee. I’m sure he’ll lap it up.
A 3 and a 5 looks like a 3 and a 3 as we’re short up top.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 Early. I don’t work on a Wednesday so when I wake up I don’t jump out of bed and head for work, I think about things I can during on the day ahead. I spoke to Bobby Ford yesterday about tennis or golf but the weather today might put a damper on that. A haircut is another favourite on a Wednesday as is doing something with the boys.Today the boys have “summer” camp at Gracemount Leisure Centre with football for Murr and games for Robbie Rotten in the morning and swimming for them both in the afternoon. I’ll make an appearance both am and pm but I’ve also to ferry Gemma down to Trinity Rugby Club where she’s rehearsing for Jekyll and Hyde in the Festival.
It looks like a haircut is out and just as well. Before heading downstairs, Saturday’s game against Nitten and next Tuesday’s game against the Seconds were running through my head.
When I get a haircut I usually just get my head shaved to keep it tidy. Normally I get a 3 and a 5 or 7. That’s a closer shave at the sides and back with it left a little longer on top. In the heat of summer or just before I head for Santa Pee I get a 3 and a 3 - just a 3 all over leaving it short on top.
Lying in bed this morning I realised it’s be a 3 and 3 for us against Nitten on Saturday. We are going to be short on top as Nicky Walker is our only recognised striker available. Bob and Cloudie are out long term, Struan arrives back late on Saturday, Nani will be heading for the Pans with his fireman gear on and our new front hope Daryl is heading to Ibiza. That’s 5 strikers down for Saturday. 5 strikes and we’re out.
Struan and Nani (maybe) should be available for Tuesday but it looks like I’ll have to shuffle the pack at City Park. I could bring someone in from the Seconds or the 19’s but as everyone in the First Team pool needs match practice I’ll go with the guys at my disposal.
I wonder what the score was at Ferguson Park last night?
Sam back on the tools as Eartha’s team rules.
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 Late. With Dapper, Tim, Joachim Irving working on his tan and Eric recovering from bird flu Eartha took the warm up tonight and Sam most of the training. It was just like old times. Sam was enjoying it so much the keepers came down on time but had to stand about for 15 minutes as old Aragonads went through his repertoire.It was a warm evening and the guys must have worked hard because their legs looked gone at the crossing and finishing and even more so in the finishing game.
Sam you never lose it.
We need to add to our pool before the season starts. Don’t get me wrong, we can call on talented players from the Seconds and Under 19’s but it’s better to work with the players you have at your disposal every possible night at training. We had several missing tonight and when you have a small pool of players it is difficult to plan training and the atmosphere suffers also.
Planning for the SFL then losing three players to the SFL caused us problems. Kevin retiring and Bob and Cloudie being injured added to that. Had all things gone to plan we would have assembled the best squad the EOS has ever seen. Of that I have no doubt.
The best laid schemes of Michael Mouse and men sometime go down the swanny however and for us it has recently. There has been an internal debate on the go about certain matters and although people are looking at our postion from different angles I know that everybody has the best interest of the club at heart.
We need to work together to get the first team squad in the right shape and the right size before the season starts a week on Saturday. I’m sure we will do that.
My lot lost 2-1 tonight in a shortened game due to Sam’s enthusiasm to train the boys. I’m slipping behind in the Jack and Victor league but I’m sure I’ll come good when we move to the field turf at the new Academy.
Talking of field turf, the number one astro at Peffer has been pulled up and is about to be replaced. The rain was pouring down as I was about to leave this evening so I nicked upstairs for a Magners ’til it went off. Arthur was telling me the old astro is being shipped to Poland to be relaid.
And I thought everything was heading the other way.
CG saves pen while Dar’ scores four - but ours aint Bent.
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 Early. Some keepers are good at saving penalties and some aren’t so good. Kevin Brown was somewhere down the middle. He won us the Qualifying Cup once and on other occasions pulled off the odd save from the spot. He let a good few in but saved his share.People say big keepers fill the goal but smaller keepers tend to be more agile and get down and across quicker. Yours truly had a great record while playing in goal Secondary Juvenile with 10 out of 11 saved one season my record haul.
My favourite keeper just now is big CG at Sunderland. He’s crap at pens yet he saved one in Ireland last night. I’m not sure if I like him because he’s the Scotland keeper, an ex Jambo, a Scottish ex Jambo keeper playing in England or because he gave the English National team a bit of stick on Soccer AM once. I think it was the latter.
The only thing worse than a keeper who is hopeless from the spot is a keeper who is hopeless from the spot but saves penalties in pre-season friendlies when it doesn’t matter. Mind you I was flicking channels with the Spurs game and Sunderland might have swapped keepers when I wasn’t looking.
No, it was Craig - I saw him later giving the pen away.
Talking of the Spurs game I think Darren Bent scored four last night. Does that make him as good as our Daryl. I grant you Norwich are probably a bit better than Tynecastle but it could be said Mr Bent has better players round about him supplying quality chances.
I wonder if Darren is swanning off for two weeks holiday this weekend?
Finally for now - Ral’s rumour via Yogi must just be the same one going round Edinburgh.
Playing Nitten, moral high ground and Gar’s birthday as the bell rings.
Monday, July 28th, 2008 Late. A lot to say and not a lot of time to say it in.First - we are playing Newtongrange in a pre-season friendly this Saturday (2nd August) at City Park with a 2.00 Kick Off. They have a better park but I’d like the new guys to get a “home” game under their belts before the season starts. The earlier KO is to help captain courageous.
Secondly the Robbie Ross story won’t disappear and this time I back City and the EOS all the way. City are meant to be denying the lad a chance to step up - eh!!! More money doesn’t mean more class. Senior to Junior could never ever be classed as stepping up. Going to a better team is a different matter but that’s a different matter.
City are seemingly denying him the chance to move by pricing him out the market thus giving them the moral low ground. I wonder if City were approached before the player? I doubt it. The same manager tapped my striker on three occasions since last season ended only to be told no thanks. Was anyone at our club approached? What do you think.
Don’t get me wrong all managers talk to players from other clubs. I do so no moral high ground for me. I say “if you fancy a move once you’re out of contract I’d be delighted if you’d like to come and play for me” That’s it - no more phone-calls, no pressure. I just wait and let it develop.
I’m not saying City are whiter than white either. We could have held out for a lot more for Naomi but it’s not our style.
What about Man U and moral high ground. Explain to me the difference between the Ronaldo and Berbatov situation.
Thirdly and on a lighter note how many Garfield’s do you know?
Like me it’s probably two. Sir Garfield Sobers and Garfield the cat.
Did you know that Sir Garfield Sobers was born on this day in 1936 and Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield the cat was born on this day in 1945. It’s a strange world.
Finally my daughter Gemma has been asked to fly down to London on Thursday for a Disney workshop to decide who’s getting the new parts in “As The Bell Rings”. That’s a thousand down to around half a dozen and considering she’s into song ad dance rather than acting the girl done good.
You can guess I’m proud of her.
Problems absentees’ bring and delving into Devlin.
Monday, July 28th, 2008 Early. The season will soon be upon us and thankfully (or should I say hopeful) we won’t have the problems we had last season. I hint at hopefully because there’s always a chance someone may take me aside at training this week and say “Gaffer, I meant to tell you I’m away for two months to canoe up the Amazon for charity”. Believe me with our lot it could happen.Last season we had a strong pool on paper but we didn’t really get our act together until around Christmas. Smiler and Jono missed the whole of pre-season thru coaching in the States and tending to the needy in Sri Laka. Add to that’s Dan getting the “yellow” jersey as King of the “real” Mountain when we were playing important games and you see why a lack of continuity showed around Challenge and Scottish Cup time.
Fit players are fit and missing pre-season or big junks of the season isn’t going to change that. If however, someone could help explain the difference between fitness and match fitness to a coach or manager so they can explain it to the public, they would be forever grateful. Jono and Smiler didn’t come back unfit but you can’t miss 20 pre-season sessions and not miss the benefits.
While I’m on, the size and nature of our defeat at Prestonfield still riles with me but Jono and Smiler were short of match fitness, Dan was half-way up a mountain - oh! and Donal was injured. I’ll leave it at that.
Why am I raising all this?
Daryl scored four goals for us in 15 minutes on Saturday. I can’t remember the last time a Spartans player ever did that. With Cloudie out for a while it was a great lift to everyone, especially with the season just round the corner. That’s of course if you didn’t know Mr Devlin is away on holiday for a fortnight this weekend and misses the start of the season.
On Daryl, we discussed what we thought was his best position a couple of weeks ago. “Coming in off the left or central midfield” he told me. “Rubbish, he’s a striker” Sam told me when he came back from the Mother country. 1-0 to Sam.
On the brighter side the problems we had last season with un-injured players missing for long periods won’t happen this time round. Struan is back this weekend, Daryl only misses a week of the season and as far as I know only Wee Eck is away (from 5/9 for two weeks) during the early season.
A week on Saturday can’t come quick enough, whoever we have available.
Playing the game and Postman Pat at the Palace.
Sunday, July 27th, 2008 Late. My first time on the Blog today as I was up and headed south at 5 o’clock this morning. More of that later.Firstly, all of our boys didn’t get a game on Saturday which is disappointing. Injury Bob and Cloudie were at our game and swapped hospital stories which is disappointing enough in itself but they are resigned to being out for a while.
Struan didn’t get a game and wouldn’t be bothered one little bit in the Greek sun. Nani would have been too busy saving cats from tall trees to even think about football while Dan and Donal were doing what ex-uni boys seem to do for the rest of their lives - going away for the weekend to get p***** for some noble cause or other.
Because his dad picks the team Naomi got 90 minutes and even or “old” boy Tommo got a run about. Smiler and Electric couldn’t have spent a great afternoon. Hopefully Jono had a stethoscope round his neck which leaves Kevin watching his team go down 1-0 at home to Albion Rovers which couldn’t have been a pleasant experience.
Every player takes a chance going senior and I only hope Jono and Kevin are given theirs. It’s a long hard season and hopefully they’ll soon join Ross in a jersey with 2 to 11 on it. Maybe if Tam Motion or Dave “Gepeto” Seeley go into SFL management they will.
Finally for now on players, one guy stepping up this season was Cookie from the Uni and there’s a good photo of him in the SOS of keeping the ball away from Carlos Cuellar. I wonder if his dad helps John out at Raith?
I drove over 450 miles today doing what all good dad’s do - running about after my eldest child. Seemingly 1000 cv’s from kids in drama or dance schools/colleges were sent to Disney and after 50 were selected auditions were held in Manchester and London this weekend for two Kid’s presenter and four parts in a show called “As the bell rings” (not that I’ve heard of it). We were at the Palace Hotel in Oxford Street Manchester late this morning.
Gemma will hear tomorrow if she’s to head to London for a workshop on Thursday before they decide on the lucky ones.
Anyway there was tea and coffee laid on for the hingers-on so Sean (Gemma’s boyfriend) and I had a couple of cups of coffee as well as a few biscuits. Most of the kids had been sent home and we were waiting on Gemma when this flunky came in to tidy up. It was Postman Pat - I kid you not. He didn’t have the uniform or the hat on but he was a dead ringer. I should know as I’m going through a Postman Pat collection of books with the boys at the moment - “Postman Pat and the Job Well Done” I read to them tonight.
He had the nose and the walk and Sean nearly wet himself when I started humming the theme tune. As he pushed his trolley out the door I could swear Pat was humming along with me.
A good day at the office.
Saturday, July 26th, 2008 20.30 It turned out hot at Fernieside today which made it very hard work on one of the biggest, if not the biggest park in East of Scotland football. Fresh from a good result against Lothian Tynecastle were up for it. They started much better than we did and deservedly took the lead in 7 minutes. Before we got our act together Tynecastle should have gone two up but after 24 minutes we scored and took off from there.Daryl Devlin scored a quick fire hat-trick then got another for good measure just before half-time. AK and Omar both hit the post in the second half before Nicky scored, at last, to put the game beyond Tynie. Near the death Tynecastle number 15 scored a great back post header to make the final score 5-2.
For the record our team was Flockhart, O’Donnell, Burns, Archibald, Fowlie, Manson, King, Kader, Walker, Devlin and Young. Hoskins came on for Burns after 45 mins, Robertson (Keiran for the Under 19’s) went on for Devlin after 70 mins and Burns (back on) and a mystery trialest went on for Kader and Fowlie with 15 minutes left. With under 5 to go Manson was told by the referee to walk so Kader went back on for the final whistle.
After a slow start to his Spartan’s career it was an explosive display by Daryl so has he arrived? Well if he hadn’t been going on holiday for a fortnight next weekend he might have. Talking of holidays Struan sent an Email from Greece today so he’s still alive and comparatively sober.
Despite only drawing the second half there were a lot of positives from the display today. I hope our new park at the Academy is as big as the one we played on at Fernieside as we now have Spartan’s players with genuine pace and one especially in Nicky Walker, who knows how to play on the last defender.
From Galloway to Galloway - from Annan to George.
Saturday, July 26th, 2008 10.00. Last week we took part in the Annan tournament against SFL 2nd Division and top English Non League opposition. Today we play an EOS First Division side.This morning my mind has gone from Galloway the place to Galloway the outspoken Respect MP. We have five new players in our squad this season and a couple of the U19’s are helping us out today. I haven’t as yet gone over the footballing principles we adhere to at Spartans.
Our players could be excused for thinking things might be a bit easier this week than last but I’m not so sure. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that a team up for it against a team a little over confident is a recipe for disaster.
Today’s result doesn’t matter but we start our league campaign in two weeks time against a team we took 6 from at their ground last season. It’s the start of a new season and each and every team will be up for it.
What am I saying? There are banana skins all over the place in any level of the game. The last time Peebles were in the Premier Division they only won one league game in the season. Yes, you guessed it. That game was at City Park.
Respect is a big word in football. A very big word.
the sun’ll come out tomorrow….or is it a hard knock life.
Friday, July 25th, 2008 Late. It was hot today. It’s after 11.00 and I’ve just been sitting out the back with Jimbo, talking football and drinking red wine. He had a dram of course and the obligatory pipe. The BBC weather for Edinburgh isn’t taking any chances for tomorrow. There’s yellow rays of sun half surrounding a black cloud with one fairly large drop of rain. The three day forecast starts with light showers so Irene might not bring the boys up to Fernieside.David McLeod won’t be there either as he’s made the semi final of the Musselburgh Open. I bet he has a slow smooth swing. Talking of not making tomorrow Eric has chickenpox and won’t be there either. I thought it would be shingles at his age but maybe if you’ve never had chickenpox as a kid you can get it as a middle aged coach. Sam said he was covered in calamine lotion when he picked the balls up from him yesterday. Eric that is. Covered in lotion that is.
What’s my title about tonight? I’m sure the theatre lovers among you will know. They’re songs from Annie and I was at the Playhouse earlier watching my eldest daughter in the show. She’s too old to be Annie so her role this time out was “Star to be”.
On Sunday I drive her down to Manchester. She’s been invited to attend an interview by the Disney Channel as part of their Talent Seach 2008. I think she’s a star just now but you never know, to a wider audience a star she might soon well be.
Life isn’t all hard knocks.
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