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THE SUNDAY LEAGUE TEAM WHO HAVE BEEN |
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CLICK HERE FOR LEAGUE TABLES FROM ALL DIVISIONS OF THE BARNET SUNDAY LEAGUE FOR SEASON 2023-2024 |
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SEASON 2023-2024 HIGHLIGHTS COMPILATION |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - January 2024 |
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No doubt due to a di Our only other Pre-Season Friendly was actually played on the first day of the League season on the 3rd September as we had our new Home pitch at Enfield Playing Fields available but no opponents due to North Athletico folding. We therefore played Division Four side Camden Lock instead, but even though the weather was perfect with no wind whatsoever and the pitch was in even better condition than the Edmonton Sports & Social Club pitches that we had been using for the previous 8 years, a large number of our players decided to give this game a miss for some reason. However, that allowed two more prospective new 18-year-old players in Fergus Murray and substitute Josh Gilmore to make their Rovers debuts, while Oliver Hearn-Leer also had another run-out after making his first appearance for the club in our previous Friendly. This was also Josh Wakeford’s first match as our new Player-Manager after we finally decided to copy what we had done when myself, Dave Ashton and my brother Trevor (amongst others) founded the club as 15-17-year-olds back in 1976 where we ran everything ourselves, including picking the team, the formation and tactics without any parents getting involved whatsoever. Josh had bravely volunteered for the Manager’s role, but in the knowledge that we had four other 18-year-olds in Charlie Savage, Harry Dorward, Myreon Keane & Harvey Antoniou who turn up to play in every match, but who also help with things like Pre-Match warm-ups, bringing the kit, putting the nets up and collecting in subs…which was exactly what myself, Dave, Trevor, Gary Cooper and the late Glenn Weaver did as teenagers when we first started the club. Having that sort of responsibility at that age will help Josh and the others enormously in their everyday lives at work or University...which it did for us five 47 years ago. The only difference at the moment is that I am still the Club Secretary doing all the Admin work, but hopefully one of these youngsters can be trained up to take on that role at some stage, while Stuart Dorward is still officially Assistant Manager (when he is not playing Vets football), but only really to supervise substitutions and have an input from the touchline when Josh is out on the pitch and invariably in goal. With everything now sorted in that respect, we then produced another excellent performance to beat Camden Lock 4-0 in a game where we could easily have scored many more, but that result has since been put in perspective as our opponents…who have now changed their name back to just the ‘Camden’ that they were known as the season before…have lost all 13 matches they have played so far this season, including scorelines of 0-7, 3-11, 1-15, 0-18 & 1-14 ! So although we were ‘buzzing’ and super-confident after those two Pre-Season results, maybe we were not quite as good as we thought we were ? Indeed we were very fortunate to win our first competitive match of the season against newly-formed Division Six side London Football School in the First Round of the League’s Roger Jones Challenge Cup the following Sunday as both sides turned up with just a bare eleven because of the ‘unbearable’ 90-degree heat, and it needed two excellent penalty shoot-out saves by Josh to see us through against a team who fielded a number of Step 4 Semi-Pros and have since gone on to top their division by a wide margin and notch up a goal difference of +48 in the process. We then faced another tough game for our first Division Five match of the season at Home to Mill Hill Club De Futbol Seconds on the 17th September as they had signed up a number of new players for this season and had evidently drawn 4-4 in a Pre-Season Friendly against their First Team…who are currently in the Premier Division. However, we played superbly in the First Half and created numerous chances, but Mill Hill’s goalkeeper kept them in the game and we eventually lost 3-2 to a last-minute winner. Although that was a cruel blow, we were well pleased with how we had played overall as it was a game we probably would have lost by a four or five-goal margin last season against a side who have since gone on to remain undefeated in the League. However, any positivity we might have had after those first four matches (including Pre-Season) was put on hold when we had to concede our London FA Sunday Junior Cup match Away to Metropolitan Sunday League side Thames City Blues in Sidcup on the 24th September due to a large number of our players starting their University Freshers week and having to travel ‘up North or wherever’ for that at Sunday lunchtime. If we had been drawn at Home, then we might have still been able to field a side, but we just didn’t have a big enough squad at that time to find enough players willing to travel to ‘Kent’…and not enough people willing to drive there either ! It was very embarrassing for me as the Club Secretary as it was the first time in the club’s history that we had ever conceded a London Cup match and it is not a pleasant job at all when I have to inform our opponents that we cannot field a team. Especially when they are the Home team, they have their pitch booked and they are then left with nobody to play. That is exactly why I then ‘let rip’ at our registered players and insisted that they showed more commitment.
Thankfully though, Stuart Dorward’s Whitewebbs Vets team didn’t have a match the following week as we faced Division Two side Real Menza in the Second Round of the Roger Jones Challenge Cup, so that meant the experienced Ritchie Redgrave was able to play in goal and two others from the Vets (including Stuart) were able to name themselves as subs in case of injuries. Stuart also took over as Manager for the day with Josh having to leave half-way through the match to travel to his University. We were not exactly at full-strength for this match, but at least we fielded a squad of 16 and gave our opponents a decent game, only losing 4-1 in the end after Menza brought on a quality player as a sub in the Second Half who was far too good for us. Indeed Menza have since gone on to remain unbeaten so far this season apart from a narrow defeat in a County Cup match and it looks highly likely that they will win the Division Two title this season, so it was no disgrace losing to them. Our next match on the 8th October Away to Colney Hatch Athletic was an afternoon kick-off at Highlands School in Grange Park, which is quite local for most of our players, and unlike most teams who would probably struggle to get a team out for an afternoon kick-off when they normally play in the mornings, we seem to be the opposite and we were able to field a very strong squad of 15 for this one including another new 18-year-old signing in forward Kieran Ellis, who came off the bench to score a late winner for us in a 3-2 victory. That was despite Colney Hatch fielding a stronger side than normal themselves, and it was becoming clear now that the problems we had in the two previous seasons of opposing teams turning up with full strength sides against us so they could get free filming and win on You Tube was no longer having as much of an effect as we were becoming good enough to overcome all of that. Unfortunately though, for our next match at Home to Camden Lock Seconds, a team who had beaten us convincingly in a Cup game the previous season when they were known as Camden Town Athletic, we were faced with a similar situation as we had for our London Cup match on the 24th September where something like 75% of our 18-year-olds all made themselves unavailable at the same time for one reason or another. This caused a huge panic as I knew full well that a second ‘non-fulfilment of fixture’ in the space of a month could end up with us being thrown out of the League and forced to fold. It therefore meant we were forced to field a team with an average age of 30+ and an average weight of about 20 stone as we hurriedly signed up various relatives of Harvey Antoniou’s including 46-year-old midfielder Marc McAuley and 45-yr-old central defender Louis Bennett, while 40-year-old Leon McKenzie-McKay and 43-year-old Lexton Harrison also both had to come out of retirement to help us out. With Camden Lock Seconds having only lost one game so far this season…and that only being due to a double sending-off…we therefore knew we were likely to lose this match with so many players playing their first games for years and half the team not knowing each other. We also had to field wing-back Christian Ellis in goal due to an injury that prevented him from playing outfield, while Myreon Keane had to battle through illness to make up the numbers. Not surprisingly we crashed to a 7-3 defeat with Camden Lock’s 23-year-old top scorer Jonas Borges having a field day in scoring five of their goals as he toyed with our ageing ‘old school’ players who did their best to try and kick him and Camden Lock’s other skilful Powerleague ‘ballers’ off the park but couldn’t really get near them. We did manage to have ten of our 18-year-olds available to start in our next match Away to Radlett Town…another former Division 6 team who had beaten us convincingly in a Cup match last season, while 22-year-old Kai McAuley volunteered to play in goal for his first full game since signing as a 17-year-old a few seasons ago, and new signings Eddie Cox (a 20-year-old who played one game for us last season) & Ben Willmott, another 22-year-old, were the only two players on the bench with no over-40’s being used for this one. The problem we had for this fixture though was Manager Josh Wakeford and Assistant Stuart Dorward both being absent at the same time and certain older players, parents and supporters being opposed to my decision to allow 18-year-old Captain Charlie Savage and Stuart’s son Harry to be joint-Player Managers for the day instead of having any of our 60+ year-old Committee members and/or supporters who come along and watch/help out for every match officially taking over as Caretaker Managers on the touchline instead. Problem was…those supporters still ‘took over’ unofficially anyway with their angry shouting at our players whenever they made a mistake. That was especially so on the final whistle after we had fallen to an embarrassing 4-3 defeat with Radlett scoring a late winner when they only had nine men on the pitch after a double sending-off. This game was also marred by one of Radlett’s players (who has been sent off several times this season) and some of their supporters on the far touchline winding up our players and the parents on our touchline with it all ‘kicking off’ on the final whistle with people from both sides coming on the pitch to angrily confront each other. This game and the one before it made me particularly incensed. I do not like our club being dragged back to the dark days of the 1980’s when our ethos back then was to be as physical as possible on the pitch and to be angry and confrontational off it. But more on that later… Thankfully Josh and Stuart were both back for the following Sunday’s match at Home to bottom team New Barnet where they managed to calm everybody down, and although we still had numerous players missing, we managed a 4-2 victory and then went on to also win our next three matches with the only older player used (in two of those games) being goalkeeper Ritchie Redgrave. Our line-ups in all four matches included more new and/or returning 18-year-old signings and our whole team of youngsters also started showing The 26th November again saw both Josh & Stuart missing at the same time despite us assuring those who complained after the Radlett Town Away match that it wouldn’t happen again. In fact Harry Dorward was away for this match as well, leaving Captain Charlie Savage as Caretaker-Manager on his own with the usual Committee members in their 60’s including myself there to help out if and when needed. As we were playing Away to Division Three side AC Finchley in the Barnet Sunday League’s John Motson Challenge Cup though…a competition we were unlikely to progress very far in with Division One sides also involved in it…we were not too bothered this time and saw it as a chance to test ourselves against very good opponents without any pressure on us. Indeed AC Finchley fielded seven players who had played for them regularly in the Premier Division only four years ago, so we were always going to be up against it with numerous players unavailable and we did well to only lose 4-1 in a match that was very similar to our defeat to Real Menza by the same scoreline. With everyone back and raring to go the following Sunday for our Away League match against Mill Hill Club De Futbol Seconds in which we would have gone second in the table with a victory, it was then really frustrating when the Home team informed us on the morning of the match that their groundsman had called the game off due to a frozen pitch…which looked rather suspicious when every other pitch in the League had thawed out in time with all other games (apart from Mill Hill CDF’s First Team match on the next pitch) going ahead. We of course had been guilty of that ourselves when we played at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club during the previous eight seasons though, as there were many times when the groundsman there over-protected the pitches and unknowingly did us a favour by calling games off when we would have been fielding a seriously depleted side. Our Home match against Division Five leaders London Orient on the 10th December would have seen us go top of the table with a victory had we played and beaten Mill Hill Club De Futbol Seconds the week before, so whether that postponement deflated some of our players and made them decide to do other things instead of playing in this match I don’t know, but we only managed to field two substitutes including another 18-year-old in forward Jordan Amusan, while London Orient of course turned up with a squad of 16. We were fielding a decent starting line-up though and found ourselves 4-1 up by the 61st minute with an excellent performance, but then defender Daniel Schwartz-Gee limping off injured at Half-Time started having an effect as we had no defenders on the bench, leaving London Orient’s five substitutes to come on and easily claw back the deficit to beat us 5-4 in the end. It then got even worse the following Sunday in our last match before the Christmas break as we lost 1-0 at Home to second from bottom Atletico Grammar, a team we had beaten 8-1 only a month earlier. It was a result which left us stuck in mid-table for Christmas with a 5-0-5 Win/Draw/Loss record, therefore putting paid to any chances we might have had of competing for the Division Five title when everything had looked so promising after those four League wins in a row. As in the London Orient match, we were only able to name two substitutes after several players dropped out on the morning of the match, while both of those substitutes didn’t turn up until after the kick-off. We also had players having to frequently come on and off due to injuries and illnesses, while the gale-force wind, long grass and badly churned-up pitch meant it was impossible for us to play our normal passing game as almost every final ball was sliced off for a goal kick and all three shots we managed on target just trickled along the ground. That was no excuse as far as some of our regular supporters and Management Committee members on the touchline were concerned though, as they were all brought up in an era (back in the 1970’s & 1980’s) where pitch and weather conditions were never to blame because Sunday League football was all about getting stuck in, being physical and giving your team-mates a good ‘bollocking’ if they made a mistake so that they wouldn’t do it again. In their eyes, being angry breeds winners and it was the players who actually turned up and played who were to blame for ‘not trying hard enough’. Those two costly League defeats in a row resulted in a heated debate in the club’s WhatsApp Group where it became clear that most of our 18-year-old players of course want to win, but they want to enjoy their football and play with smiles on their faces first and foremost, whereas most of our older players, particularly those who played in the 7-3 defeat to Camden Lock Seconds and also the afore-mentioned supporters and Management Committee members, want us to be an angry aggressive fired-up physical team and to bring in more older players to help us play that way. What most of those angry-advocating club members don’t realise though is that when my younger brother Trevor became Manager in 1991 (and I started filming our matches for players to improve their games after studying their performances on video), we completely scrapped the culture of ranting and raving at the team as a whole (and at individual players whenever they made a mistake). It wasn’t getting us anywhere. We had just finished bottom of Division 4 in the Waltham Sunday League because the players were all anxious and uptight from being constantly shouted at and torn to pieces whenever they did anything ‘wrong’. They had been told to win games by being physical and aggressive, but it didn’t work because our opponents were all far more relaxed, confident, fitter, skilful and encouraged each other as a team. We therefore brought in a large group of 16-19 year-olds over the course of the next three seasons (which included Stuart Dorward) and completely changed the culture, introducing a skilful passing game, zonal marking from corners, cutting out all the diving into challenges and aggressive tactics, and teaching our players how to stay on their feet, stand up and defend properly, and most importantly of all, actually encouraging everybody to laugh at each other’s mistakes by watching ‘Out-Takes’ videos together instead of ranting and raving at each other during and straight after matches if we had conceded a goal or lost a match. That then created a happy atmosphere and a great team spirit with players starting to socialise with each other on Saturday nights (down the Polo Club in Tottenham) but still turn up to play the following morning…no matter how much they had been drinking or how late they got home…all because of that team spirit. Subsequently our results on the pitch started to improve and from their third season together in 1993-1994 we were winning far more games than we lost, all because players were relaxed on the pitch and enjoying their football without any pressure being put on them. Then we gradually went up the Divisions with that group of players as our main core and we ended up being the joint second-best team in the Waltham Sunday League’s Premier Division in the 2002-2003 Season and one of the best Sunday teams in London. All because there was NEVER any angry shouting at pla This culture is exactly what myself, Stuart & Trevor are trying to re-create with our current group of young players. That was the plan when we started bringing them in as 16-year-olds in the Summer of 2021 and we are NOT going to abandon it now. However, we have other Committee members and a number of parents/supporters/older players on our touchline at matches who don’t agree with that philosophy because they have never played for or been involved with teams before who have been run in that fashion and they simply can’t get their heads round it. Do other teams we play against rant and rave with each other when they make a mistake though ? Not any more they don’t. Adults Sunday League football in our area has changed considerably over the past few seasons. A lot of that is because we are playing in a very multi-cultural League and campaigns such as Kick It Out encourage more unity amongst players and less aggression, both physically and especially verbally. Call it woke if you like, but times have changed…and for the better in my opinion. We were one of the leaders of that philosophy way back in 1991 and there is no way I want us to go back to what we were doing back in the 1980’s in the Haringey League where we were one of the main culprits for aggressive shouting from the touchline which led to numerous punch-ups, sending-offs, abandonments and even our own players almost coming to blows. The argument for bringing in older players to improve our results doesn’t add up either. Apart from the two Cup matches where we lost 4-1 to two quality teams from higher divisions but played really well in both, the only match we have lost so far this season by more than one goal was the Camden Lock Seconds League match (3-7) where we had to fill in with numerous older players. In all our wins so far this season (and in all of those narrow one-goal defeats) we have fielded a whole squad of 17-19-year-olds apart from 20-year-old forward Eddie Cox and sometimes Ritchie Redgrave in goal. Last season and the season before, we were regularly getting battered with massive defeats of five-goal margins or more, and that was with Leon McKenzie-McKay (39-year-old), Tre Maxwell (28-year-old) and Nana Obeng (23-year-old)…all very good players…playing in most of those matches. We have had no defeats like that whatsoever so far this season when we have fielded a whole team of 18-year-olds (as an average age). As already mentioned, Nana is now a regular for Highgate Albion’s First XI in the Premier Division, which shows how good the standard is in Division 5 that he can easily step up to that level. There are players in our Division who are playing on Saturdays at Step 5 level or above and for AFA First XI teams. Players deliberately come down to play in Division Five from the top three divisions in our League so that they can get an ‘easy’ game. We don’t have any players who have played at Step 5 Semi-Pro level yet and our 18-year-olds are doing brilliantly to compete on level terms with those players when they turn up to play against us. Our youngsters have still clearly improved massively so far this season despite us being in mid-table as a result of those narrow one-goal defeats. When we resume after the Christmas break, I am expecting that there will still be these disagreements between those of us who want us to play for fun and those who want us to ‘win at all costs’, but if our youngsters show a bit more commitment and stop dropping out on the morning of matches and/or stop turning up late, we will get back to winning ways anyway and there is no reason why we cannot finish in the top four and at least reach a Cup Semi-Final…as we did in two separate Cup competitions in 1993-1994, which would be a good achievement and real progress in my opinion. Then I’m sure everybody will be happy. So STOP PANICKING ! |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - May 2024 |
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The two-week Christma The following Sunday saw us return to League action in Division Five where we were stuck in mid-table with seemingly nothing much to play for. It was an Away match to title contenders Mill Hill Club De Futbol Seconds at the Old Camdenians ground, which was a long journey for our players and also a 12.30 pm Kick-Off, which meant several regulars were unavailable due to family & social commitments. Mill Hill were trying everything they could to win the match by having their First Team play on the pitch first and then stay behind to create an intimidating atmosphere with seemingly 100 supporters on their touchline on the far side. We had to start the match with just a bare eleven with forward Jordan Amusan turning up late when we had planned to start him, but although we were really up against it, our team of teenagers were not fazed at all and we produced a superb performance to go 3-0 up by Half-Time and then hang on to that lead during a stormy Second Half which Mill Hill spent most of berating the teenage Referee after he had already sent one of their players off after just 24 minutes when we were 2-0 up. With Mill Hill fielding a full-strength side and bringing on five good substitutes early in the Second Half when we only had one available ourselves, having only 10 men (and even only 9 for a 10-minute period due to a sin-bin offence) actually became less of a factor for them and they were the better side going forward after the break, but we defended heroically to keep a clean sheet with Josh saving a penalty and making a couple of other ‘Worldie’ saves in what was undoubtedly our young team’s best performance so far in terms of battling qualities, team spirit and sensibly keeping our heads when our opponents lost theirs. That memorable victory Away to Mill Hill gave us the confidence to go back to Oakhill Park again on the 21st January for an official Away match against New Barnet this time instead of it being a case of switching our Home game there. Had it been our Home game though, our pitch at Enfield Playing Fields would have been called off again due to yet more rain, but although the grass slope down to the pitch at Oakhill Park was absolutely treacherous as we tried to navigate it from where our cars were parked at the top of Church Hill Road, the actual pitch itself was surprisingly playable. We fielded a strong squad of 14 for this one, but New Barnet turned up late and with an under-strength side which resulted in us cruising to a 7-0 victory with Christian Ellis scoring a hat-trick and Josh Wakeford keeping his third clean sheet in a row. This was a clear example of where having our matches filmed, edited & produced properly for You Tube works in our favour when we start winning matches from having a good enough side to do so. It makes other teams’ players not want to turn up and face us for fear of being embarrassed on You Tube when they know they are likely to lose. Normally for us during the past 15 years since we started putting our highlights on there (apart from Season 2016-2017 when we won Division Two in our first season in the Barnet Sunday League), it has been the other way round where opposing teams turn up with a full-strength side because they know they are going to win and score a few goals which they can then watch back again and again, all free of charge. Those two League wins in a row actually lifted us into third place in the Division Five table and with our next match on the 28th January being Away to League leaders London Orient, it was a game we were really looking forward to. However, their Home pitch at Bethune Park in Whetstone was perfectly suited to a team with an average age of 33 as it had the touchlines marked out only a yard away from the edge of the penalty areas, therefore meaning less running for them and a greater opportunity to hurl long throws into the 6-yard box where they could then out-muscle our much smaller players. With four of our intended starters in Christian Ellis, Rashawn Bennett-Dyer, Jordan Amusan & Omari Vermont all turning up just a couple of minutes before the scheduled 10.30 am Kick-Off and therefore having to be named on the bench due to League rules which dictate that a confirmed starting line-up has to be handed to the Referee and the opponents 10 minutes beforehand, we had to start with a number of players who were not 100% fit and that resulted in us finding ourselves 2-0 down at Half-Time and being totally ineffective in attack for the first 45 minutes. Josh then decided to bring on all four of the latecomers for the start of the Second Half, and with us kicking downhill there was still a chance of us getting back into the match. We had Josh himself to thank for keeping us in the game in the 72nd minute though when he saved a penalty that would have made it 3-0 and killed us off, but once Frankie George pulled a goal back for us four minutes later with an excellent header from a Charlie Savage cross, we dominated the last 15 minutes (including added-on time) and put the Orient defence under all sorts of pressure with our Half-Time substitutes having the legs on Orient’s tiring veteran defenders. That eventually led to Jordan Amusan racing onto a Chris Jordanou through ball to nick it past the oncoming keeper in the first minute of added-on-time to earn us a 2-2 draw and keep our uneaten run going as Orient’s players held a major inquest on the final whistle as to how they could throw away a 2-0 lead against a team of 18-year-olds. As it turned out a couple of months later though, we actually would have ended up winning the title ourselves had we won this match and had London Orient dropped just one more point in their subsequent remaining matches, and there was no doubt whatsoever that if Rashawn had not over-slept…which caused the others to be late as they were all getting a lift to the ground in the same car…and those four players had then all started the game, we would have been strong enough to come away with all three points. In hindsight, maybe we should have waited for them to turn up and then paid the £10.00+ fine that we would have incurred from the League for causing a late kick-off and failing to hand in the teamsheet on time ? As we moved into February, we suddenly realised that we had a good chance of finishing Runners-Up at least if we could win our three remaining League matches, the first of which was at Home to Colney Hatch Athletic, who were level on points with us and also had an identical record to us of three wins and a draw from their previous four matches. However, we produced another excellent performance to win 4-0 despite a gale-force wind and our Home pitch at Enfield Playing Fields getting increasingly churned-up thanks to incessant rain all winter. It was also Josh’s fourth clean sheet of the season so far, putting him temporarily joint-top for the League’s top goalkeeper award at the end of the season. We then followed that up with a 7-5 win at Home to Enfield Albion the following Sunday where we were 4-0 up after 35 minutes, but despite fielding a quality back three of Sam Pritchett, Chris Jordanou and skipper Charlie Savage in this match, we found ourselves drawing 5-5 by the 59th minute with Albion’s new signing, forward Gabriel Kolnikaj, scoring all five of their goals and running those three defenders ragged, although it didn’t help that our forwards and midfielders had thought the game was already won and were making little effort to stop long through balls being played. Thankfully though, late goals from Tairique Harrison and Rashawn Bennett-Dyer earned us the three points in the end.
We then had to play Enfield Albion again the following week, but this time in the Quarter-Final of the League’s BSFL Shield, which was a knockout Cup competition for teams in Division Five & Six only. It was a great chance for us to reach the Final with us having beaten our opponents in four of our last five meetings and with the awaiting Semi-Finalists No Ball Games being second-from-bottom in Division Six. However, the first two attempts to play this fixture resulted in postponements due to waterlogged pitches when we would have been fielding more-or-less a full-strength side on both occasions with our players in great form and very confident with us having won five and drawn one of our last six matches. With Enfield Albion already having other commitments for the following week, we then had to play two other matches before we played the re-arranged game. The first of those (on the 3rd March) was Away to a Northumberland Park Rangers side who were bottom of Division Three, but had improved as the season had gone on and were having close games every week while fielding full squads of 16. This was in the First Round of the League’s Richard Martin Memorial Cup, which was another competition that we could have gone far in with it being a Cup that did not involve teams from the top two divisions and only a handful from Divisions One to Three. We were also in a favourable half of the draw where we would have been playing teams we had never lost to before, but with the incessant rain continuing all week, the majority of our players just assumed there would be another postponement and consequently arranged to do other things instead, leaving us with just 10 men for the first 15 minutes of the game until Veterans Stuart Dorward and Keith Savage came along to join their 18-year-old sons on the pitch and make up the numbers. With Northumberland Park Rangers having already taken the lead after just 57 seconds and turning up with a full-strength and fired-up squad (because they were in a higher division and expected to win for You Tube ?), we were always playing catch-up. But we were never likely to catch up when the only fresh legs we had on the bench were that of a 50-year-old whereas N.P.R.’s five substitutes included several young ‘speed merchants’, one of whom scored just seconds after coming on. We therefore ended up losing 4-2, which was frustrating but not a disaster considering the circumstances. We certainly had a far more important match the following Sunday when we travelled to the same venue at Clowes Sports Ground again, this time for a crucial Division Five match against fellow title challengers Camden Lock where a win for either side would give them a very good chance of finishing Runners-Up depending on other results. We were on what appeared to be a better pitch this time with the grass not quite as long and with heavy rain falling during the game speeding up the surface, which suited the players we had available…which was only a bare eleven because of injuries and social commitments ruling out Rashawn Bennett-Dyer, Frankie George and others, while Charlie Savage & Harry Dorward both decided that using their tickets to go and WATCH Aston Villa v Spurs that afternoon was more preferable to PLAYING football themselves and possibly picking up a Runners-Up medal. Thankfully though, we actually managed to field a decent bare eleven with Fergus Murray, Omari Vermont, Michael Menzies and Jordan Amusan all available at the same time for a change and we produced another memorable performance to win 3-2 after being 3-0 up and then defending courageously in the last 10 minutes after Camden Lock brought on all five of their substitutes and pulled two goals back. It was a real end-to-end match because our attacking players just didn’t want to defend, but it was great entertainment as they were continually tearing our opponents defence apart. Our former Manager from our successful 1990’s & 2000’s period Trevor Hughes was visiting from his home in Cyprus and came along to watch this match and it was quite amusing to see him going ballistic on our touchline in telling Tairique Harrison in particular to get back and defend when Tai’s father Lexton served the club with such distinction as both a forward and a defender and would always follow Trevor’s instructions. However, at least we got the win we needed and everybody was in a great mood afterwards, and especially when the Runners-Up spot was confirmed a week later after other results went our way. Of course following Charlie & Harry’s decision to miss this match, there was much debate amongst our club members before and after the game regarding whether playing football themselves was more important than going to watch the Premier League club they support when fixtures clash on a Sunday as they increasingly do nowadays…which is a big reason why so many Sunday Leagues have folded in recent years. For me, I would NEVER miss a Rovers match to go and watch Spurs. That’s whether I was playing OR watching/filming our matches. But my brother Trevor would always go and watch Arsenal on his season ticket if they were at Home or playing in a Wembley Final on the same day as a Rovers match…even though he was our Manager ! If too many players have that attitude though, that is when teams fold. It is something that may have to be looked at when we sign new players up. Are they season-ticket holders at professional clubs or not ? Although Charlie, Harry and Frankie George all returned for our re-arranged BSFL Shield Quarter-Final against Enfield Albion on the 17th March, it was really disappointing that four of the ‘stars’ of that Runners-Up-clinching performance against Camden Lock made themselves unavailable for this one, as it left us with too many players starting the game who had not been playing regularly enough in recent weeks, and it also didn’t help that a number of them turned up just before the kick-off and had to start the game without a warm-up. That saw us go 3-0 down after just 19 minutes and we then had to throw men forward and leave ourselves open at the back after that. However, our finishing was atrocious at the other end with most of our efforts at goal either being sliced well wide or trickling along the ground in the mud/ridiculously long grass straight at Albion’s giant stand-in keeper. We finally managed to pull a goal back in the 73rd minute when Frankie George’s scuffed right-footed effort trickled in off the far post, but Albion killed the game off with a fourth goal just two minutes later and our players heads then went down badly after that with no attacking substitutes available and we conceded another four goals in the space of just nine minutes to go on and lose the match 8-1, which was the same scoreline that we beat Atletico Grammar by earlier in the season where we fielded a very strong side, our players were full of confidence and everything we tried came off. It was exactly the same in this match but the boot was on the other foot with Albion fielding more quality new signings and scoring a number of incredible goals where somehow the ball ran true for them on the diabolically bad pitch whereas nothing went right for us whatsoever. That left us with only one more competitive match to play as we faced mid-table Division 6 side Nissi Seconds the following week in the North London Challenge Cup, which was being played in Group stages initially…except the other two teams in our group had dropped out, leaving this as a ‘winner-takes-all’ game for progression through to the knockout stages. Most other teams in the League still had one more Sunday in March and the whole of April and May to go before finishing their seasons though, such was our appalling record in Cup competitions this season and our amazing luck in only having three games called off for bad weather all season when it had been the wettest Winter for about 100 years ! Because of that weather, Enfield Council had seemingly now given up bothering to call games off for waterlogged pitches and were letting teams play on what were basically swamps because it had been too wet to cut the grass in October as they would normally do…which would have then left the pitches playable for the rest of the season in terms of being able to pass the ball properly on shorter grass, but it would have meant a lot more massive puddles, which would have been too much for forking or sweeping away. The pitches therefore just got more and more churned up underneath the long grass and our Home pitch (at E On Sunday 19th May, some two months after we played that very disappointing last competitive match against Nissi Seconds, we managed to play a Friendly against a New Salamis Under-19’s team that was managed by the father of one of our defenders Michael Menzies. Michael played for New Salamis in this match as he had been mainly playing for them during the season in Youth football, but we had three new players playing who had been brought along by Josh Wakeford and that helped us to a 2-0 win in a game which was much more relaxed than our two previous matches where some of our supporters on the touchline got a bit too angry for some people’s liking. I won’t dwell on that in this Blog though and we’ll now move on to next season and continue progressing ON the pitch. |
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sappointing end to last season’s campaign, there was a fair bit of apathy towards Pre-Season Training during the Summer with several sessions having to be cancelled due to a lack of numbers and with nobody available apart from myself to organise the sessions anyway. However, when we decided to move our traditional first Friendly of the Summer against regular opponents 
ashawn Bennett-Dyer & Tairique Harrison all scoring two goals each in a 6-2 victory.
a lot more determination to win the ball, defend well, communicate & organise well and be a bit more physical all round following the criticism they had received after that defeat to 9-man Radlett Town and the two previous games this season when they had made themselves unavailable en-masse. This run of four victories in a row included an 8-1 win against 
yers whatsoever whenever anybody made a mistake. Players knew when they had made a mistake. They would hold their hands up and apologise and the rest of the players (and any supporters on the touchline) would shout out ‘Unlucky. Head Up’. Every time ! If it was a tactical mistake, Trevor would mention it at Half-Time or at training during the week and it would be discussed and put right for the next match without any ranting & raving whatsoever.
s break for Season 2023-2024 came at a good time for us after three defeats in a row had resulted in arguments between those (like myself) who wanted our young players to manage & coach themselves while enjoying their football and others who thought it needed older people in charge who would rant & rave and get our players to be more angry and aggressive. Our players therefore had a point to prove in our first match of the New Year on the 7th January as we took on bottom side 
nfield Playing Fields) was in its worst condition of the season for this game. Like the Cup Quarter-Final against Enfield Albion the week before, it hindered us massively and we lost the game 3-1 despite fielding a reasonably strong side. The weather finally dried up (temporarily) enough for the grass to be cut in early April at Enfield Playing Fields though…using a new machine that seems to roll and flatten the pitches at the same time ?...and frustratingly for us they then looked like bowling greens for the rest of the season when we had no matches left to play on them !|
CLICK ON THE OPPONENTS' NAME TO VIEW A MATCH REPORT & THE YOU TUBE LINK TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS |
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Date of Match |
Opponents |
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Competition |
Result |
You Tube |
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Friday 18th August |
Away |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Won 6-2 |
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Sunday 3rd September |
Home |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Won 4-0 |
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Sunday 10th September |
Home |
Roger Jones Senior Challenge Cup, First Round |
Drew 3-3 (Won 4-3 Pens.) |
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Sunday 17th September |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Lost 2-3 |
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Sunday 24th September |
THAMES CITY BLUES |
Away |
London FA Sunday Junior Cup, First Round |
MATCH CONCEDED (Due To Uni Enrolments) |
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Sunday 1st October |
Home |
Roger Jones Senior Challenge Cup, Second Round |
Lost 1-4 |
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Sunday 8th October |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 3-2 |
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Sunday 15th October |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Lost 3-7 |
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Sunday 22nd October |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Lost 3-4 |
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Sunday 29th October |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 4-2 |
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Sunday 5th November |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 8-1 |
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Sunday 12th November |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 4-0 |
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Sunday 19th November |
Home * |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 5-2 |
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Sunday 26th November |
Away |
John Motson Junior Challenge Cup, First Round |
Lost 1-4 |
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Sunday 3rd December |
MILL HILL CLUB DE FUTBOL SECONDS |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
POSTPONED (‘Frozen Pitch’) |
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Sunday 10th December |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Lost 4-5 |
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Sunday 17th December |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Lost 0-1 |
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Sunday 24th December |
NO MATCH ARRANGED (Xmas Break) |
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Sunday 31st December |
NO MATCH ARRANGED (Xmas Break) |
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Sunday 7th January |
Home ** |
BSFL Shield, Second Round |
Won 3-0 |
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Sunday 14th January |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 3-0 |
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Sunday 21st January |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 7-0 |
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Sunday 28th January |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Drew 2-2 |
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Sunday 4th February |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 4-0 |
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Sunday 11th February |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 7-5 |
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Sunday 18th February |
ENFIELD ALBION |
Home |
BSFL Shield, Quarter-Final |
POSTPONED (Waterlogged Pitch) |
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Sunday 25th February |
ENFIELD ALBION |
Home |
BSFL Shield, Quarter-Final |
POSTPONED (Waterlogged Pitch) |
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Sunday 3rd March |
Away |
Richard Martin Memorial Cup, First Round |
Lost 2-4 |
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Sunday 10th March |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division 5 |
Won 3-2 |
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Sunday 17th March |
Home |
BSFL Shield, Quarter-Final |
Lost 1-8 |
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Sunday 24th March |
Home |
North London Challenge Cup, Group E |
Lost 1-3 |
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Sunday 19th May |
Away |
Friendly Match |
Won 2-0 |
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* Home fixture played at Clowes Sports Ground. ** Home fixture played at Oakhill Park. |
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NAME |
APPEARANCES |
GOALS |
NAME |
APPEARANCES |
GOALS |
|
Dapo ALAOYE |
2 |
|
Myreon KEANE |
24 |
16 |
|
Jordan AMUSAN |
8 |
1 |
Archie MADDEN-BRINE |
2 |
1 |
|
Harvey ANTONIOU |
21 |
4 |
Kai McAULEY (GK) |
4 |
|
|
Joe ATTIPA |
2 |
|
Marc McAULEY |
1 |
|
|
Paddy BAYNES |
10 |
|
Leon McKENZIE-McKAY |
1 |
|
|
Louis BENNETT |
1 |
|
Max MELANDRI |
1 |
|
|
Rashawn BENNETT-DYER |
16 |
14 |
Michael MENZIES |
8 |
|
|
Tobi CHARLES |
18 |
4 |
Renaldo MICHAEL |
1 |
|
|
Eddie COX |
8 |
3 |
Fergus MURRAY |
12 |
|
|
Gianni DIPO |
3 |
|
Leo PANAYIOTOU |
1 |
|
|
Harry DORWARD |
22 |
4 |
Natan PAWLACZYK |
3 |
|
|
Stuart DORWARD |
1 |
|
Sam PRITCHETT |
6 |
|
|
Christian ELLIS |
24 |
12 |
Richard REDGRAVE (GK) |
3 |
|
|
Kieran ELLIS |
1 |
1 |
Charlie SAVAGE |
24 |
2 |
|
Max FRANCIS |
9 |
|
Keith SAVAGE |
1 |
|
|
Frankie GEORGE |
10 |
2 |
Daniel SCHWARTZ-GEE |
15 |
|
|
Josh GILMORE |
4 |
|
Jack VANVYNCK |
9 |
|
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Lexton HARRISON |
2 |
|
Gio VASSEL-JACKSON |
1 |
|
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Tairique HARRISON |
16 |
13 |
Omari VERMONT |
4 |
|
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Oliver HEARN-LEER |
3 |
1 |
Josh WAKEFORD |
24 |
|
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Chris JORDANOU |
25 |
|
Ben WILLMOTT |
1 |
|
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FINAL BARNET SUNDAY LEAGUE DIVISION FIVE TABLE |