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THE SUNDAY LEAGUE TEAM WHO HAVE BEEN |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Friday 30th September 2016 |
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As for new players, the only responses we were getting from the various adverts placed at that time were from people phoning (invariably with an African accent) late afternoon/early evening on a Sunday wanting to join us...after we had to cancel our planned Pre-Season session in the morning from not having a Manager and not having any players interested in attending ! The first thing they then ask is how much do we pay, then they ask when and what time do we play and they are aghast when we say Sunday mornings. They were under the impression that all Sunday Leagues in this country are played in the evenings (as Powerleague is in midweek) and that it is all Semi-Pro where they will get paid to play. They think that we are one of those clubs because it says 'Sunday League Club looking for players' in our adverts. It is probably because the first sort of football they encounter when they arrive in this Country is at Powerleague, and in the Enfield area, a lot of people who play in that on midweek evenings (at Edmonton County School) also play in the KOPA or TCFF Leagues on Sundays where they DO get paid...allegedly. On Sunday 24th July we decided to give Pre-Season Training another go at Enfield Playing Fields due to one or two more new players asking to join and a few more of our remaining 10 players from the end of last season indicating that they would turn up. We made a start with seven including new player Curtis Baalam, while another three turned up eventually, so it was finally a worthwhile session. We still didn't have enough players to be able to arrange any Pre-Season Friendlies though, and it was still rather worrying times for us. We decided to keep the Sunday morning and Wednesday evening Pre-Season sessions at Enfield Playing Fields going though, and for the session on Wednesday 27th July I agreed to pick up Martin Cruickshank half-an-hour late so that he could attend after work, while everybody else was due to arrive at the ground at 6.00.pm. When myself and Martin got to the car park just after 6.30.pm, we realised that the others would have already gone out onto the playing fields to try and find a space to train on amidst some 10-15 other teams doing likewise, so we started walking down the central path to look for them. All we could see though were a number of teams with large groups of players, so we scoured around looking for small groups of four of five, which would have been us. Once we got half-way down the path, we suddenly saw what looked like Cascoe sitting down getting changed ready to train for another team, who had a dead ringer for Jack Bangs joining in with them...then we suddenly realised that WAS Jack, and that all the other 13 players there were new players, most of whom had been brought along by Tony ! (Tony himself had wandered off away from the group warming up as he was putting some cones out). We then recognised Leon taking the session, which also caught us out as we had never seen him doing that before ! When the The only real problem we are having at the moment is getting enough players to attend our planned Wednesday night training sessions at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club. We have been unable to run a session so far because the majority of our players live too far away to travel after work at that time of night and there is simply no central venue we can use that is going to suit everybody. Travelling to Edmonton from the likes of Stevenage, Harlow, Potters Bar, Dagenham & Canning Town on a Sunday morning is not a problem, but it certainly is at most other times, and especially when Spurs are playing at Home at the same time. We could advertise for new players to attend training to make up the numbers, but then we already have a big-enough squad, and although some players have already left of their own accord since Pre-Season, we do not want to lose any others from having to leave them out because they cannot attend training. At least we will have plenty more matches in the Barnet League for players to get a chance to play in though, unlike in the Waltham Sunday League last season. There are 12 teams in our division instead of four, and with the squad we have got now, we should be able to progress in at least one of the three Cups we will be competing for this season. |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Friday 18th November 2016 |
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We have so many players wanting to play for us now that we could probably field a Reserve side, and indeed that has been talked about a lot since my last Chairman's Blog. The last time we tried it (back in the early 2000's) ended in disaster with both teams fielding a bare eleven or less on a number of occasions and finishing bottom of their respective divisions due to injuries, player retirements half-way through the season, and players leaving because we were losing. We have therefore decided not to take that risk again, but to look at the possibility of using Norsemen's Saturday teams to give our fringe players and regular substitutes a full game every week (bearing in mind Norsemen play at the same venue as us). The sticking point at the moment is that Norsemen charge much higher rates for joining and then playing, so we are trying to find some way of funding that ourselves. Unfortunately though, that will not happen until next season now, so players who are not getting a game for us will either have to be patient and wait for their chance or be prepared to pay Norsemen's membership fees out of their own pocket. On Sunday 2nd October we finally played our first Home game of the season at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club. As usual at that venue, cricket takes priority until the end of September, but when the goalposts are finally put up, the pitches there are all in immaculate condition, and with the changing rooms and the rest of the facilities being far better than what we had to put up with for our first three (Away) matches, our new players in particular were 'raring to go' as we took on Highgate Albion's 3rd XI and then convincingly beat them 7-0 to record our biggest win for six years in what was a quality performance where everything we tried came off. We were therefore really looking forward to doing the same again the following week with another Home match against lower to mid-table opposition in Majestic, but just as we were all going out onto the pitch at 10:00 am for our warm-up in preparation for the normal 10:30 Kick-Off, they texted to say they did not have enough players and that they would have to concede the match. Although our players were very frustrated at having to use the pitch for a training session between themselves instead, I couldn't really complain, as we had done exactly the same thing ourselves back in March 2008 when Northmet's players were all out on the pitch warming-up at the Holtwhites Sports & Social Club, which like the Edmonton Sports & Social Club is an expensive private ground where they do not want to be wasting the facilities by just having a kickabout instead of a match. To make matters worse on that occasion back in 2008, it was pouring down with rain and Northmet’s players had just spent an hour forking the pitch to make it playable. The heavy rain of course was another reason why half our team cried off for that match (in addition to the fact that we would have only had 10 men if they had all turned up)...and yes, one of our current players was one of the culprits for 'staying in bed', while two others who are still playing for us dropped out with injuries that they maybe could have played through to ensure that we fielded a team so that we would not lose the points and get heavily fined. At least we still kept going the following week back then though and re-grouped from there. Majestic didn't. They folded a couple of days later (owing a large amount of money to the League because most of their players were apparently refusing to pay their subs), and that left the division down to eleven teams as their brief playing record this season had to be expunged. I feel sorry for Majestic's Club Secretary if it wasn't his fault. I was put in the same predicament back in 2008 and it is a horrible job having to tell the opposing Club Secretary on the morning of the match that you cannot field a team when the opposing players are already there and have got changed. Invariably you have to take a heck of a lot of verbal abuse, especially if you are actually there at the ground when it happens...as I was ! The rest of our players who had turned up went and 'hid' in their cars of course and left me to do the dirty work. The 23rd October saw us play our first London FA Sunday Junior Cup match of the season, where again we used our Home pitch to our advantage by beating a poor Plumstead AFC side 8-0 with Ayo Matthews equalling Shamus McGovern's 22-year-old club record in scoring five in a competitive match. With six wins in a row under our belts, we were already starting to feel super-confident, but we were brought back down to earth a bit on the 30th October when we had to play Away to Brotherhood on their 3G pitch at the New River Stadium in Wood Green, as several of our players had not played on such a surface before and we just didn't move the ball quickly enough on it to create enough chances to win and the game finished in a rather drab 1-1 draw, which was very frustrating for me personally as I was able to film the game from the back of a big main stand which was so much better than standing on a ladder-platform out in the open. Consequently the You Tube highlights of that particular match have only been viewed by half the amount of people who have watched our other matches so far this season. Yes, people want to see goals ! We got back to winning ways the following week though with a 2-1 win at Home to Alexandra Park Vets in the League Junior Cup, and then we produced our best performance of the season so far by beating GTFA 5-1 at Home in our most recent match. That last game has now put us on a run of eleven games unbeaten, which is the best run of form we have had since way back in Season 1979-1980. We are highly unlikely to surpass that season though, as we managed to go 28 games unbeaten back then, while Glenn Pooley scored a club record 49 goals. Although Ayo Matthews currently has 12 goals in 11 matches for us this season, Division Two of the Barnet Sunday League now is a better standard than Division Eight of the Edmonton Sunday League was back then, and Ayo will probably do well to get to 30. Back in 1980 we only really had one team (River Plate) who were capable of giving us a close game, but today in the Barnet League there are six other good sides in our division who are all capable of beating us if we take our foot off the pedal. We have certainly been boosted in recent weeks by Daniel Daley suddenly scoring from headers (with three in three matches) though, while Stephen Roussety has clearly benefitted from Bob Cleary coming on board to do the goalkeeper's coaching and warm-ups. We have also now sorted out some problems we had with players not playing the midfield holding role properly, while the communication between players on the pitch has improved as they get to know each other. Most importantly our players are all fit (in stark contrast to last season) and the work-rate is excellent. Defensively we look really solid with only one goal a game being conceded on average, whereas in recent seasons it was three or four. Most impressively though, for our first three Home matches and up until the 28th minute of our fourth one, we did not allow our opponents a single (legitimate) shot on target. The only goal that was scored against us during that time was a complete fluke direct from a corner after it caught on a strong gust of wind. A lot of credit for this vast improvement in our fortunes has to go to our new Manager this season Tony McKay, firstly for bringing in so many good new young players, while getting Assistant Rod Bennett in to help him, and also Leon McKenzie-McKay to take over the coaching, fitness and captaincy. Unlike any of our previous Managers, Tony also has time to watch through the whole match video of every game to look for improvements in our game and weaknesses in our opponents' game, and he also has time to speak to players personally as to why they are not in the starting line-up. Some of the players being left out don't agree with him of course, but that's football management for you, and so far Tony is more than willing to put up with that...unlike two of our other recent Managers who didn't last for long because of certain players being 'disruptive'. For me personally in filming and editing the matches, Tony and Rod have also made my job a lot easier by not swearing their heads off on the touchline, which was the same as our long-serving Manager Trevor Hughes up until he emigrated to Cyprus in 2014. The last two seasons have been a nightmare in trying to edit out various bits of obscene language bellowed out from in front of the camera, as it is not something I can leave in when League and County FA officials probably watch our You Tube highlights. I was actually fortunate that one of the advantages of playing in the Edmonton area is that there are police helicopters frequently flying overhead during our matches, so I therefore grabbed a sound clip of that from one of our games to use in the editing process to drown out all the swearing. Fortunately I haven't had to do that at all so far this season ! Although a lot of players join us (or want to join us) because we film matches professionally and put the highlights on You Tube, historically it has always caused us a problem because we have not had good enough players to win matches in recent seasons in the Waltham League, so opposing teams would therefore turn up with a full-strength side in the knowledge that they were going to 'win on You Tube' or at least have a close game with us. However, the boot is now completely on the other foot. In our recent Junior Cup match against Alexandra Park Vets, their game plan against a younger side like us was not surprisingly to put 9 men behind the ball and just leave a lone striker 'up top'. They apparently anticipated us hardly having a shot while being able to use their experience to nick a goal or two themselves from the lone striker holding the ball up and then either bringing others into play or winning free-kicks from which they would have an obvious advantage. However, that lone striker was completely marked out of the game by Ivan Bass & Tyronne Petrie, our two central defenders on the day, and as that lone striker was also their Player-Manager, he took himself off after 25 minutes (albeit with what looked like a calf injury) and he then immediately started complaining that I was filming the match and putting the highlights on You Tube 'without his permission'. He didn't say a word before the game of course...because he was expecting to have had at least a couple of goals to his name against us, having won their previous five matches in the Vets Divisions. Indeed the rest of his players were all looking forward to watching themselves beat us on You Tube as well when they came out onto the pitch as I was setting the camera up, but instead they had to watch us create 20 clear-cut chances to their one, and they only really escaped with just a narrow 2-1 defeat because the near-gale force wind blew most of our shots off target and Ayo Matthews had an off-day in front of goal for a change. You Tube also undoubtedly helped us to beat Plumstead AFC 8-0 in the London Cup, as two key players evidently didn't fancy travelling all that way to get thrashed after they had seen us beating Highgate Albion 3rds 7-0 in our previous match, while it is a fair bet that a likely severe thrashing on You Tube contributed to Majestic deciding to give our game a miss as well ! In the Waltham League it used to be opposing players prancing about doing silly dances in front of the camera whenever they scored. Now it is our players. And don't ask me what those celebratory dances are all about, as I do not watch rap videos. On the pitch then, things are going really well for us, but what about off the pitch in terms of how we are finding things in the Barnet Sunday League compared to the now-defunct Waltham League ? As I mentioned previously regarding matches regularly kicking-off late from opposing teams turning up only 15-20 minutes before the kick-off and then playing with match balls that are only suitable for a 'kickabout', it certainly does seem a lot more relaxed and 'typical Sunday League'. In one of our recent matches (against Highgate Albion 3rds), we had an opposing left-back wearing a pair of goalkeepers gloves throughout the match which presumably allowed him to get a better grip on the ball while taking throw-ins. We have also had several Referees allowing players to run on and off the pitch 5-a-side-style when making substitutions without even informing them they had made a change. That would have been a definite yellow card in the Waltham League for a start. However, we have been pleasantly surprised with the actual standard of refereeing so far in terms of decision-making and having some sort of authority, as we had been told that the Barnet League had several on their list who were very poor in both aspects. As I have a League Administrator's login to run t The main problem for the League this season though is a number of Club Secretaries not being computer-literate...and also claiming that the rest of their club members are not computer-literate either ! Contrary to popular belief, the League DO want to embrace modern technology in having all clubs logging in to Full-Time to enter their referees' marks, team line-ups and goalscorers. However, at the start of the season when the Full-Time system for them to do that was first set up by myself and other League Officers, the F.A.'s servers couldn't cope with the extra demand from numerous Leagues (such as the Barnet League) who had been forced into using Full-Time due to their previous Football Mitoo-run websites temporarily going out of business during the Summer. For the first two weeks of the season, that meant a number of Club Secretaries found that their 'Team Administrator' logins continually failed to accept the usernames and passwords they had created, greeting them with 'I am not a robot' security messages instead, so they just gave up trying. In a lot of cases though, it was Club Secretaries simply not knowing how to use a keyboard to type out a minimum 8-character password that included a number and an upper-case letter or how to copy & paste using a mouse & keyboard ! They also forgot to memorise/store the password once they had logged in to Full-Time and therefore found that once they had logged out, they couldn't get back in again (because cookies are not automatically enabled to remember passwords using certain browsers/computer systems). They had to keep requesting a new invite from Full-Time to create another username & password until they finally got it right. Consequently those Club Secretaries now think the Full-Time system is ‘useless’ and they only bother to enter their Referees' marks and nothing else, or they have gone back to using the resurrected Football Mitoo website instead, from which I then copy their team details and scorers on to Full-Time myself. The situation at the moment is that something like 70% of teams in the Barnet League do use Full-Time to input their team line-ups and goalscorers after every match while another 10% use Mitoo to do that. The other 20% just cannot be arsed though, and there are several reasons for that. The main one is that all they really want to do is just play or manage the team. It has always been very common in Sunday League football that very few people want to be a Club Secretary and do the admin side of things. The fact is though, that you get fined if you don't, and that is why most clubs eventually fold up. The Barnet League HAVE to fine clubs for not entering a Referee's mark on Full-Time or Mitoo because that is an F.A. rule, but some clubs want to text their mark in or use the hand-written match-day teamsheet/referee's report form to do that instead, all because they are not computer-literate. There is no fine for not entering team line-ups online because they are done on the hand-written teamsheet anyway, and there is no fine for not entering goalscorers. If teams do not want their top goalscorer to be in contention to win a trophy at the end of the season, then that's their fault. That's the way the Barnet League has always looked at it...unlike the Waltham League, who fined clubs for everything that was left off a result card, including Fair Play marks out of 10, which is another thing that some 30% of Barnet League clubs just cannot be bothered with, even though it is very simple to enter that mark on Full-Time. Even if their Secretaries ('Team Administrators') are computer-literate though, a lot of clubs don't want to put their line-ups and goalscorers on Full-Time because... d) With thousands of illegal immigrants living in London at the moment, it stands to reason that some of them will be playing Sunday League football somewhere...and quite possibly in our League. Another bone of contention is that most Home clubs seem to be giving us the match-day teamsheet to fill in first, which is surely wrong, because as the Home team sends the form off afterwards it means registered players for that Home team who are not playing but standing on the touchline can fill in and sign the teamsheet for a ringer to play instead without us knowing. This could well be another reason why teams are not putting their line-ups and goalscorers on Full-Time afterwards. Although the one allowable emergency registration player per match rule is a good one and often used, some teams turn up needing to use more than one on the day. One thing that a lot of clubs would like to do themselves on Full-Time though is register their own players, which is something that quite a few other Sunday Leagues (and the Saturday AFA Leagues) are now allowing. Consequently though, players names are appearing on public display like this...lAURENCE hugheS...or with predictive text not having been corrected. It is not uncommon to see a team's registered players all listed together with some totally in lower case, some totally in upper case and others a complete jumble of upper & lower case and mis-spellings. It will then probably need me to tidy up things for them if that ever happens in our League...which it probably won't anyway as our current Officers are dead against it as far as I know. Finally, one other unusual thing that we recently encountered in this League was a complaint from Alexandra Park Vets that we did not provide post-match hospitality for them in the form of sandwiches and maybe a jug of beer after we played them on the 6th November. Apparently in the two Vets divisions of the Barnet League there is a 'gentleman's agreement' for post-match hospitality to be provided by the Home team because they all play at private grounds which are invariably used by their Saturday teams that play in the AFA Leagues...as the Edmonton Sports & Social Club is for Norsemen in those Saturday Leagues. Although our match against Alexandra Park Vets was in the League Junior Cup and was not a Vets match as such, meaning that 'gentleman's agreement' should not have applied anyway, inviting our opponents (and the Referee) into the clubhouse afterwards for a drink is something we are keen to do, and providing sandwiches and a jug of beer for them will also be something we will consider if we can afford it. The problem at the moment though is that we can't afford it because our players would all have to chip in with us struggling to obtain match/You Tube highlights sponsorship that would pay for it. Unlike the Vets teams, a lot of our players are young and do not have a lot of money. They are playing Sunday League football because it is less expensive than playing in the AFA Leagues on Saturday afternoons where the match fees cover the costs of post-match hospitality. Also, at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club on a Sunday, Norsemen's Eastern Junior Alliance Youth teams have priority for use of the clubhouse for their own post-match hospitality, and that is what happened on the 6th November, with the Arsenal v. Spurs match kicking-off at mid-day obviously not helping. There just wasn't room in there. The subsequent verbal spat we have had with Alexandra Park Vets about that was rather unpleasant and unnecessary as we didn't join the Barnet League with the intention of upsetting people, but we will learn from our mistakes, which includes finding out of our opponents are fine with having their match highlights on You Tube...which I'm sure they all are, win or lose, although we might have to start toning down some of those goal celebrations just a tad !? It didn't half annoy me when other teams did it to us. |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Thursday 5th January 2017 |
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With us on a run of eleven matches in a row without defeat and the club's 36-year-old record of 28 matches unbeaten being under threat at the time of my last Chairman's Blog though, I thought I would go down the 'nostalgia' route for this first blog of the New Year in order to keep our ex-players interested this time ! That current eleven-match unbeaten record had stretched to 14 matches by the time we took to the field for our London FA Sunday Junior Cup match at Home to in-form South-West London-based side London Ravens on the 11th December and we were getting more and more confident that our current squad could go on and do 'the impossible'. However, skipper Leon McKenzie-McKay and key midfield holding player Daniel Cascoe both decided to go out to a party the night before for that match and consequently neither of them woke up in time for their names to be entered on the teamsheet that had to be handed in 15 minutes before the kick-off. They both had to be left out and we ended up losing a very tight match on a penalty shoot-out where a number of our attempts to score from the spot were quite appalling, which was extremely disappointing when we had beaten Churchbury in a penalty shoot-out in a League Cup match only a couple of weeks earlier. Although we then went and beat London Turkish Masters in our last match before Christmas to remain in two Cups going into the New Year, losing our unbeaten record the week before was very frustrating because our current team desperately wanted to prove themselves when the inevitable comparisons were starting to be made with our three successful teams of the past (from 1979-1980, 1987-1988 & 2002-2003). Of course we could easily say that we didn't actually lose that London Ravens match because penalty shoot-outs 'don't count'...in other words we drew the match, but lost on penalties. Also, whe Dave Ashton was our Player-Manager that season, with Demitrius Nurse then taking over after we moved into the Waltham Sunday League, but they both had the same 'on-pitch aggression' mentality. Unfortunately that didn't work once we got into the Waltham League though, as our opponents were all good footballing sides and were more intelligent. Trevor Hughes then took charge for the start of the 1991-1992 Season and changed our way of thinking totally. Gone was the 'get stuck in and get rid of it/aggressive intimidatory' style of playing that had suited us well in the Haringey League, and in came a skilful quick counter-attacking passing game where a number of young 16-21 year-old players were all gradually brought in and coached to play the way he wanted, namely a 4-1-4-1 system with a sweeper and a midfield holding player and very much looking to hit teams on the break in passing our way out of defence, with the sweeper making runs from the back instead of the full-backs. Zonal marking from corners was also brought in with great success, much to the disgust of traditionalists Dave Ashton and Demitrius Nurse, although they had both left the club by the time everybody else had agreed that Trevor was right ! It was a totally radical way of playing which no other team in our division(s) were doing, and we gained a number of promotions up the divisions as a result. The benchmark for what our current team should aspire to now was most definitely set in the 2002-2003 Season when under Trevor's guidance we finished third in the Waltham Sunday League Premier Division, level on points with second-placed Brimsdown Rovers and only five points behind eventual Champions Percival. In fact we were the only team to beat Percival that season, while we also gained four points from our two matches against Brimsdown (with a 2-1 win and a 0-0 draw), and we also had two memorable 3-0 victories against Enfield Rangers, who were another top side in that division. We even had six first-choice players missing in one of those two Enfield Rangers matches, which certainly showed just how strong a squad we had at the time ! Our most common starting line-up that season was Darryl Johnson in goal (although Shaun O'Neill & Stavros Elia also played quite a few games each), Robin Pryke at right-back, Steve Beasley at left-back, Stuart Dorward as sweeper, Paul Woolston at centre-back, Paul Ellerker in the holding role with Marco Ellerker and Chris 'Nugget' Beeden ahead of him, Derek Dorward & John Beasley in the wide midfield positions and Steve Cokell on his own up front. Conor McGovern actually started off the season in that lone striker's role, but then Steve took over from him, while other quality players such as Peter Sutton, Eric & Chidi Ibekwem, Tony Speller, George Bromfield and a very young Lexton Harrison also played in a large number of matches as we coped with injuries and Saturday Semi-Pro call-ups admirably. Our current players only need to look at some of the unbelievable goals that some of our players from this era scored to realise just what a good side we had back then. There are a number of Goal Of The Decade contenders from these players showing on our website via You Tube. Indeed if we are picking an 'All-Time Best Rovers Eleven' from our 40-year history, then Shaun O'Neill (GK), Robin Pryke (RB), Stuart Dorward (SW), Paul Woolston (CB), Marco Ellerker (CM), John Beasley (L/RM) and Conor McGovern (CF) would all most definitely be included for sustained brilliance (and Player Of The Year/Top Goalscorer awards) during that period, while several others from that 2002-2003 team would certainly be in a squad of 16. Likewise Kieran McGregor (CM), Glenn Pooley (LM), Julien Nurse (CM), Francesco Apicella (SW) & John Dyer (LB) from our other two successful sides. We have had other good players play for us during the past 10 years of course, with Terry Moore and Alan Barnard both certainly being options for the left-back and central defender/sweeper positions in that 'All-Time' team, but then it is hard to justify that when they have never been part of a successful side for us. We also cannot really include players who only played for us briefly because of injuries or from signing contracts to play semi-professionally, these being the likes of Steve 'Willie' Platt, Glen Southam, Neil Tilley & Peter Sutton, even though those four could all have gone on to prove to be the best of the lot had they stayed a bit longer. So, are any of our current players already as good as that ? It is a question that Manager Tony McKay asked me recently, and the answer is no. Not yet. Even if we win Division Two this season and beat the 28-match unbeaten League/League Cup/Friendlies record. We really cannot make any comparisons yet until they prove themselves, and to do that, we need to be competing at the top of the Premier Division, as that is where the club's benchmark was set in that 2002-2003 Season for sheer quality as we competed at the top of a League which still had seven divisions at the time and was rightly regarded as the strongest Sunday League in the South-East of England. We are not playing at that level yet, but in two years time hopefully we will be, and with the same core group of good young players. |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Saturday 11th March 2017 |
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In Division Two though, we are now way ahead of the rest of the field on points and on goal difference, and it is almost certain that we will win our first trophy for 29 years within the next two to three weeks as we only need another four points from our final five matches, with two of those games being against the bottom two teams in the division. Even then, our nearest rivals have some tough matches left from which they will do well to secure maximum points or score the necessary amount of goals required, so even if we lost four of our last five matches, we will still probably win the title. We are that far ahead ! Our first game back after Christmas saw us record a 7-1 win at Home to our old Waltham Sunday League rivals from the late-90's, Northaw, who were actually top of the table at the time. However, their goalkeeper suffered an injury the week before and they turned up with a bare eleven and with their best outfield player in goal, so they were no match for us as we fielded a full squad of 16. That 16 included new signing Johan Ahipeaud, a tall forward with a good pedigree in Youth football with professional clubs both at home and abroad, while last season's top scorer Jack Bangs was also amongst our substitutes having missed most of the season up until Christmas due to other commitments. With Jack having shed virtually all of the excess weight he had put on over the last two seasons to get back to how he was when we first signed him nearly five years ago, the addition of him and Johan at this stage of the season has given a massive boost to our attacking options with Ayo Matthews, Daniel Daley & Leon McKenzie-McKay all having scored plenty of goals for us so far this season as well. We then produced an even more impressive performance the following week when we made the short journey to our old Home ground at Hazelwood to beat an in-form Calcio side 7-0 on an absolute mud-bath of a pitch. Admittedly Calcio did have some bad luck with two of their better outfield players and their goalkeeper all going off injured, but even so, we played some excellent football despite the conditions...and despite a number of our new players this season turning up late after thinking 'our old ground' was Enfield Playing Fields just because we play our Pre-Se Although that Calcio match could easily have been called off because of a waterlogged pitch, we did actually suffer our first weather-related postponement of the season on Sunday 22nd January when our Home game against Roving Reporters Reserves had to be called off due to a frozen pitch. We also had another one three weeks later when Highgate Albion 3rds' ground was waterlogged, but compared to the last four seasons when we have had five or more weather-related postponements before the end of February in each of them, we have been really lucky with the weather this time (and our groundsmen at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club having better drainage equipment this season), and that has certainly contributed to our players having a higher level of motivation and commitment. There is no question that when players have to put up with postponements week after week, they will choose to start working or doing other things on Sundays instead, and that affected us badly during our later years in the Waltham Sunday League. We did manage to play Roving Reporters Reserves both at Home and Away during late-January & February though, but although they were second from bottom in the table, they fielded strong sides in both matches due to their First Team not having a League game, so we were never really going to boost our goal difference too much in those games. Indeed in the second of those two matches (at Home), we needed two memorable goals in the last minute from substitutes Johan Ahipeaud and Jack Bangs to win the game 3-1. The first game against Roving Reporters Reserves that resulted in a 3-0 win for us at their ground in Barnet on the 29th January saw the return of forward John Scouller after a three-season absence due to him living and working up in Derby. Although still living up there, he had asked to sign up again having improved his fitness (slightly) and because he is often back down in Edmonton at weekends to visit relatives. For this match, he actually travelled down from Derby in the morning and was the first of our players to arrive at the ground. Indeed he has also done likewise since then. It shows how keen players can be when we have a successful side of course. With John also able to play in a midfield holding/playmaker role, his return has been another useful addition to the squad, particularly bearing in mind that due to a lack of game time, injuries and other commitments, Tem Adil, Danny Hagan, Martin Cruickshank and Chris Akinrele have all now more-or-less left the club as regards the rest of this season and possibly beyond, so a freshening-up of numbers half-way through the season was needed to some extent to ensure that we can continue to name squads of 16 for each match. Of course Tem, Danny & Martin have been long-serving players for us and it was sad to see them go when they have all suffered from playing in a losing team for so many years through no fault of their own, and that we are now turning the corner without them. Our final match of February saw us gain a ridiculously easy 8-0 win against lowly Arnos Rangers, who actually wanted to call the game off until the League told them they would be heavily fined and lose the points if they didn't play. Manager Tony McKay therefore decided to give other players a start, including Jack Bangs who responded with a hat-trick, and with Churchbury beating Arnos 10-1 the following week, we really should have had double figures ourselves and we could even have threatened the 37-year-old club record win of 15-1 if we had put a bit more effort in. The problem with having such an easy game was that the following week's League Junior Cup Quarter-Final Away to Brotherhood on their 3G Stadium pitch was never going to be as easy and we ended up just not being mentally prepared for it enough, subsequently losing on penalties after a really flat performance in normal time. We now have another Cup Quarter-Final for our next match though (against Premier Division side AC Medz in the League Senior Cup), so hopefully we can bounce back in that. As a Division Two side we will be the underdogs for a change, so hopefully that might help us. Meanwhile, off the pitch at this time of year, all Leagues ask for any proposed rule changes for the following season to be submitted by the 31st March as per Football Association rules & regulations. With myself and our Goalkeeping Coach/Club Linesman Bob Cleary both being ex-Waltham Sunday League Officers, we both know that there are a vast number of rules that the Barnet Sunday League could do with modernising in order to make things easier for Club Secretaries and to stop so many teams from folding, which then subsequently threatens the future of the League. The Waltham League ended up folding because the Senior Officer(s) in charge...which were certainly not Bob & myself !... had an attitude that fining clubs was necessary in order to bring revenue into the League first and foremost, then when those clubs complained about the £35,000 the League had in the bank as a result of all those fines, they were just fobbed off with lame excuses and decided to leave and join the East Herts Corinthian Sunday League instead. As far as myself, Bob, and indeed the rest of our Club Management Committee are concerned, the Barnet Sunday League are heading in the same direction, and it is all down to the current match-day teamsheet they are using. As I mentioned in a previous Chairman's Blog, the process at the moment is that there is one teamsheet for each match which is brought along by the Home Team, who are supposed to fill in their players names, registration numbers The other main complaint from our club Committee is the League's acceptance of staggered kick-off times on grass pitches when there is no reason why those matches cannot all kick-off at 10.30.am, as is the case in other Leagues. It doesn't bother me personally as I do not have a 'Sunday Roast with the family' to go home to at a set time, but that is certainly the case with at least one of our Committee members, who also argues that kicking-off at 12.00 mid-day (as some teams do) gives them an unfair advantage when they already know the results of the 10.30 am Kick-Offs in their divisions. He certainly has a point there, but I very much doubt that will be a rule that will get changed, particularly as the League Fixture Secretary's team is one of the culprits ! Staggered kick-off times for adult mens' Sunday football will become the norm within the next 10 years anyway whether our club Committee like it or not. The F.A. still have the opinion that Sunday League footballers play just for fun and are not bothered about missing matches because of staggered kick-off times which clash with other commitments earlier or later in the day. They will encourage teams to have larger squads to cope with that, but there will be no teamwork whatsoever because they will have to field a different starting eleven each week. The F.A. don't realise there are Sunday League clubs out there like us who are as well-run as a Step 5-7 Saturday Semi-Pro club and that we prepare for our matches accordingly. It will be very much like what goes on in the KOPA League at the moment where most of their matches are played on 3G pitches one after the other at 10.00 am, 12.00 pm & 2.00 pm. With the increasing development of 3G Hubs across the country within the next few years to replace Council grass pitches, there will also be 4.00 pm, 6.00.p.m. & 8.00 pm Kick-Offs as well on a Sunday (using floodlights during the winter months). I think that eventually, money will come down from the Premier League's riches to support all this and make it affordable for Sunday League players to use these facilities. Sunday League football will not be as we know it now, that's for sure. |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Sunday 25th June 2017 |
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Having clinched that League title, our aim in our remaining three matches Away to Northaw, at Home to Grange Park and Away to Highgate Albion 3rds was to remain undefeated in the League all season, which was a feat we had never achieved before in our 41-year history. Manager Tony McKay quite rightly decided to make sure that everybody got a decent runout in at least one of those matches, but that nearly backfired on us in the first of them against Northaw as our opponents showed great discipline to curb their attacking instincts and defend in numbers all match, while relying on a rare goalkeeping mistake from Grant Baker to take a 1-0 lead in the 83rd minute which they kept right up until the first minute of 'Added On Time' when Daniel Daley grabbed a last-ditch equaliser for us from Anees Ikramullah's quality through ball to earn us a point. We actually played really well in that match though, as we did the following week in beating an in-form Grange Park side 3-1 in our last Home match of the season. Tony sensibly fielded a full-strength side for that one, and with Grange Park going on to win the League Junior Cup a few weeks later and also scoring 24 goals in their final three League matches, it was certainly the right decision, especially as our last match against a very poor Highgate Albion 3rds was always going to be another easy win for us in which other players could be given a start. A 5-0 victory in that match therefore saw us become the first-ever Rovers 'invincibles', with a number of our players and management celebrating that achievement with a 'club night out' meal in the local Kervan restaurant a few days later, while myself and skipper Leon McKenzie-McKay represented the club at the League Presentation Dinner at the Cyprus Garden restaurant in Chingford on the 19th May to pick up the trophy itself and the players medals. Those will all be given out at our own AGM/Presentation Night, which we hope will be our best-attended and most memorable yet, especially as we were in such a sorry state at the end of the previous season that we didn't even have an AGM and had more-or-less temporarily folded ! The evening before our AGM sees the Barnet Sunday League holding their own AGM on the 29th June at which I will be attending both as our Club Secretary and as the League's Website Secretary. As that Website Secretary's position involves the setting up and updating of the F.A.'s Full-Time system for the League, I already have some involvement in helping out with the Fixtures, Player Registrations and Referee Appointments in terms of advising those Officers how to use the system and correcting any errors, but the coming season may well see me more involved as a 'sort-of' Assistant Secretary for all of those jobs due to health problems for one Officer and work/family/holiday commitments for the others which see them absent from League meetings a lot of the time. The League have been trying to find new Officers and to get Club Representatives to come on board as Management Committee members and help out with these things (and more), but other commitments or an apparent unwillingness to take any flak from clubs that have been penalised has so far put them all off. Our own Club Linesman & Goalkeeping Coach Bob Cleary is of course a perfect candidate to join the Committee having been an Officer with the Waltham Sunday League, but unfortunately he has too much work on his plate for the time being. For Bob and other like-minded individuals to come on board at some stage in the future though, as I have said many times before in these Blogs, the League really do need to make more use of modern technology, specifically Full-Time and the F.A.'s other I.T. tool for grassroots football, the Whole Game System (WGS). Unfortunately the League's hierarchy are still suspicious of these two systems, branding them 'not fit for purpose' because of the frequent crashes and 'downtime' that occurred during the first part of last season when the F.A.'s servers at St. George's Park couldn't cope with the demand from people all logging in at the same time on Sunday afternoons & evenings and/or the following day, not to mention the staff at the London F.A. (in particular) being unable to work out how to use Full-Time & WGS properly themselves. Thankfully those members of staff have now been replaced and the communications we as a club have been receiving from the London F.A. in recent months have been much improved, as has the Whole Game System. In my opinion the League has to start recognising that and putting more trust in what the London FA are now trying to do. Apart from a number of match abandonments for violence and/or referee intimidation in the Veterans divisions (which are of no great concern for us as a club but will be dealt with at the League AGM), the biggest problem the League had last season was undoubtedly the numerous cases being brought up before the Committee of teams allegedly playing ringers, and the subsequent accusations from the clubs being penalised that too much guesswork and a lack of evidence was being used in 'proving' them guilty. Similarly the number of complaints from clubs insisting that their opponents had played ringers, but the League Committee then deciding there was not enough evidence when the appealing club insisted there was. The worrying thing for me about most of these cases is that they result in points deductions...even when the offending team has lost the match, and also 'Void' matches where neither team gets a point because they both played ringers ! That therefore leaves the Final League Tables looking a mess, giving the impression to potential new teams that the League has a lot of badly-run clubs. Indeed only four new clubs have so far applied to join the League for next season whereas a number of other Sunday Leagues in the Greater London area have had somewhere between 10 & 15 ! That could well be because other Sunday Leagues do not generally deduct points for playing ringers. They just write off the result (including appearances & goalscorers) and award the match to the opposing team as a 'Home Win' or 'Away Win', the same as if it was a non-fulfilment of fixture. That way there are no asterisks in the League Tables for 'Table Adjustments' and casual viewers from outside the League (such as potential new clubs) only find out if they delve into each team's results. After a recent Management Committee meeting (which I did not attend), a decision for the coming season appeared in the minutes as follows...'Next season...the League M.C. will only pursue allegations that opposing teams played ineligible players if the match form signing had been witnessed, or a photo of the alleged ringer playing in the actual game is supplied (by the appealing club)'. I therefore wouldn't be at all surprised if some clubs start questioning this at the forthcoming League AGM because most of them actually want the League to bring in an ID Card system as soon as possible...which it has always refused to do because they prefer the checking of player signatures on a teamsheet. After all, what good is a photo of an alleged ringer taking part in a game when there is no registered photo with the League (as an 'ID Card') to compare it with ? As I have mentioned before in these Blogs, an ID Card system is now much easier to do than it was a few years ago. Most importantly, instead of having expensive-to-produce printed cards that are brought along to matches, it is now costless as it can be done with selfies uploaded to the Whole Game System, with clubs then being able to access their opponents' photos online on their smartphones using the League website or (if the F.A.'s Data Protection does not allow that), by asking the League Registration Secretary...who will have access...to compare the photos. However, no League is ever going to stop the playing of ringers when clubs either deliberately or unknowingly register sine-die banned players under a false name, address and/or date of birth...which is something that has been going on in Sunday football for years. What happens then is that a player suddenly recognises an ex-team-mate or opponent, invariably from 'Semi-Pro' Saturday football, playing against his team and then sees a different name for that player on the teamsheet or on Full-Time afterwards. His team then appeal to the League if they have failed to win the game, but the selfie photo supplied to Whole Game and the League is of course of that 'false' player, so it's then a case of them trying to prove that he is not who he is registered as...which is almost impossible. Unfortunately there is no easy answer to stop the playing of ringers completely, but the use of selfie uploads as ID cards will be a better deterrent than nothing at all. I know that the League will not want to bring that in wholesale for the coming season as it is 'too big a change of procedure'. That is fair enough, but I think a selection of volunteer clubs (which will obviously include ourselves) should be allowed to experiment with it during the coming season, then if it works well, it can be brought in for the whole League for Season 2018-2019. There have also been a few other problems cropping up since my last Chairman's Blog regarding rules and regulations, namely teams deliberately conceding matches instead of playing and 'getting thrashed', confusion in Cup matches as to whether Extra-Time is played or not, and the constant tinkering of the offside laws by FIFA causing utter confusion at Sunday League level. As for the scrapping of Extra-Time in Cup matches, this is a rule that has crept in over the past couple of seasons in Sunday football, both in League Cups and in County Cup competitions, and I think it is fair to say that had all three of our Cup matches this season that we were knocked out of on penalties gone to Extra-Time at the end of 90 minutes, we would have won them all during those extra 30 minutes as we had five very good substitutes on each occasion whereas our opponents did not, so the extra fitness and ability from that would have been a telling factor. One of the biggest problems with these new directives of going straight to penalties though is the confusion as to whether the competition is actually using that rule or not and whether Extra-Time is being played in Semi-Finals and Finals only, as is the case in our League Cups and in the London F.A. Sunday Cup competitions. In one of the London F.A. Sunday Junior Cup Semi-Finals this season, our local rivals from the Edmonton Sunday League, Beehive (formerly Enfield Rangers & others from our Waltham League days), won their Semi-Final Away to Greenhouse Sports on penalties, but neither they, their opponents or the Referee and his Assistants realised that Extra-Time was supposed to be played first. When the London F.A. found out, they ordered Beehive to go all the way back to Rotherhithe to replay the game a couple of weeks later...which of course they then went and lost 3-0, allowing Greenhouse Sports to go on and win the Final. For me, the scrapping of Extra-Time is a ridiculous rule. It penalises well-run clubs who turn up with a full squad and it gives a helping hand to badly-run clubs who turn up with a bare eleven who then put everyone back behind the ball in the Second Half of matches to hold out for penalties. I can only think that the F.A.'s idea to bring in the rule/directive is because of the increase in 3G pitches, thereby allowing those pitches to be booked in two-hour slots all day and being able to fit more matches in on them. They can't do that if there are one or two games scheduled that 'might go' to Extra-Time. After reading David Elleray's recent proposals though, I can certainly see a situation in the near future where all adult Sunday Leagues will be instructed to play 60-minute matches 'whatever' because unlike in professional football and the higher levels of Semi-Professional football, they will not have time-keepers to 'stop the clock' in ensuring the ball is in play for that length of time. The F.A.'s/FIFA's thinking will be ...'All matches at every level must be 60 minutes, as saying it is still 90 minutes at amateur level might result in it going to 120 minutes if the Referee (or somebody else) is actually prepared to (or remembers to) stop the clock'. They will also probably think 'Let's make all matches 60 minutes because at Sunday League level they can then fit in more games on a 3G in one day and we can then get rid of more Council grass pitches'. When that happens of course, the 3G pitch operators will sneakily raise the hire prices at the same time so that clubs end up paying the same for a one-hour hire as they did for a 90-minute hire. So...remember where you read this first !!! Finally, the confusing offside laws at Sunday League level. In virtually all of our matches this season we had incidents where 99% of the time, Referees blew for offside when a player ran onto the ball from an onside position to gain possession of the ball because another player in an offside position went towards the ball as well, albeit without touching it or stopping an opposing defender from making a challenge. Indeed after our season had finished I then went and filmed a Saturday afternoon parks League Cup Final back in May where I got an excellent view from the gantry at Dagenham & Redbridge's ground to capture the perfect example. Our own Club Linesman Bob Cleary also goes by this rule as well, and he gave the League's Registration Secretary Bobby Bernini a right ear-bashing in our match Away to GTFA earlier this season when he became the 1% that allowed the play to continue because an offside player didn't touch the ball, didn't interfere with an opposing defender and left it for an onside player to run onto. Bobby then explained to us afterwards that he went to a Middlesex FA seminar at the start of the season where they went through the rule and told Sunday League referees to apply it. Presumably the rest of the Referees we have had this season either didn't go to that seminar then (because they are affiliated with other Counties) or it was too complex for them to understand. We then had Arsenal's first goal in the FA Cup Final being allowed to stand when 99% of Referees in our League would have disallowed it, so cue more arguments next season where players have seen that on TV and then get booked and sent off for dissent when our League Referees 'inexplicably' give them or a team-mate offside when they are 'not' under the current FIFA guidelines. It is all FIFA and the FA's fault really for expecting amateurs to be professionals. Both players and officials. All amateur players and officials would surely prefer the rule to be 'If you FIRST go towards the ball, you are offside'. Just keep it simple. Somehow I don't think it ever will be though, and the bookings and sending-offs will continue. |
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CHAIRMAN’S BLOG - Thursday 13th July 2017 |
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We also announced a new kit sponsorship deal for the coming season courtesy of Chartered Accountants Anthonisz Neville LLP, and throughout the evening there were several conversations regarding previous kit sponsorships, previous AGM's, and the various pubs we used to drink in after matches. We have since continued discussing those memories in the club's Facebook Group, so I have therefore decided to do a bit more research about those subjects for this particular Chairman's Blog. It is a Football Association regulation that all clubs at every level of the game must have an Annual General Meeting, but of course most adult 'one-man-band' non-Charter Standard Sunday League pub sides who only run one team rarely do. Most of those teams do give out end-of-season awards though, albeit just down the pub after the last match of the season in most cases. Although there have been two occasions in the last eight years where we had to cancel our AGM/Presentation Night due to a lack of interest, in general we have always arranged an AGM and carried out the correct procedures in terms of the Agenda, while also making sure we presented awards to our players during the meetings. Our very first club meeting (when we were founded) was in August 1976 when we squeezed 13 players and Committee members into my front room in Edmonton, and incredibly we held two more AGM's in that same room in 1989 and 1990, the latter of which we managed to fit 19 in ! With all the junk in that room now, the most we would manage if we tried to have another AGM in there would only be three people. However, that wasn't the only front room we had club AGM's in. We had a seven-year spell of players taking it in turns to host the event at around that time in the mid to late-1980's and the early 90's, with David Ashton (in Ware), Adam Bramley (in Walthamstow), Chris Draper (Tramway Avenue, Edmonton), and two different houses that Demitrius Nurse lived at in Chingford all being used. The most memorable of those was at one of Demi's houses in 1988 after we had won the Division Two title that season in the Tottenham & Haringey Sunday League. Manager David Ashton had prepared a carefully-worded speech but had a lot of trouble reading it on the night. Whether that was stage-fright or he just couldn't read his own handwriting I don't know, but when Gareth John suddenly interrupted the speech in order to describe it as 'Janet & John', it took several minutes for the laughter to die down and for Dave to compose himself and eventually finish what he was trying to say. Of course I have been reading out speeches at AGM's ever since I co-founded the club with Ashton as a 17-year-old and it has never fazed me, but for others it can be quite nerve-wracking. Our current Manager Tony McKay was making his first speech at an AGM this summer and I lost count of the number of pints of Guinness that Kieran, Demi and some of our current players 'had to' buy him before and even during that speech...and another later in the evening when he was presenting his Manager's Player Of The Year awards ! After that initial meeting back in 1976 when we founded the club, our first actual AGM (in 1977) was held in the Charity Hall opposite Lion Road in Church Street, Edmonton N9. We then didn't have an AGM in 1978 because we were very badly-run at the time as I was only 19 and the majority of our players were only 17. We were getting thrashed in almost every match and we really needed some older heads to steady the ship in those first few years. However, we then had two AGM's at the Firs Hall Banqueting Suite in Winchmore Hill in 1979 and 1980 as we finally pulled ourselves together and won some trophies while playing in Division 8 of the Edmonton Sunday League. Firs Hall was demolished long ago for housing, but back in those days it was a high-class venue and we were fortunate to be able to use it thanks to a number of our players working there as chefs at the time. We even had a sit-down meal on both occasions, which is something we have not had at an AGM since...probably because our Firs Hall players' told us while we were eating that they had 'gobbed' into the food while they were cooking it for us ! That saw us start to use pub function rooms as a base for our AGM's for a few seasons thereafter, with a buffet replacing a proper meal. This was due to Trevor Hughes starting work as a Clerk/Trainee Solicitor at Tottenham Magistrates Court in Lordship Lane (N17) where his main job was licensing for pubs & clubs. He therefore got to know the landlords and we were invariably 1999 saw us hold an AGM at our current home, the Edmonton Sports & Social Club for the first time. We also used it again the following year, but in 2001 we had an AGM at one of the most bizarre venues I can remember, namely the Indoor Bowls arena at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Enfield. This was because two of our players (Dave Bagnall & Anuj Bhardwaj) worked there at the time, so there must have been some sort of perks on offer. However, the room was absolutely cavernous with a massively high ceiling, while there were no tables and very few chairs available and we basically sat cross-legged on the floor ! We did have 19 club members turn up though. 2002 saw the first of five AGM's held at Trevor Hughes's Snooker Room in Whetstone. This was at the bottom of his garden, and for the first one it rained heavily non-stop all evening, ruining the plans to have a barbecue as part of the AGM for the first time. For the following year (2003), as we had a really good season in finishing third in the Waltham Sunday League Premier Division, we invited WAGS along as it was being held on a Saturday instead of a Friday. However, our players (and their WAGS) thought it would be a good idea to spend the day having a pub crawl first before travelling to Whetstone, thereby resulting in the speeches, especially mine, being constantly heckled...by the WAGS ! Of course we couldn't use the D.J.ing console in the Snooker Room because the snooker table itself was taking up the space where a dancefloor would have been, but being unable to drown out the noise from the WAGS with a microphone from a sound system wasn't the reason for our move to the Edmonton Fire Station for the 2004 AGM. It was because the Snooker Room had burnt down...due to an electrical fault, and thankfully not a dropped fag from one of our players. Although Edmonton Fire Station personnel probably helped to put the fire out, their function room was only used the following year (and the year after) because Reserve Team Manager Mark Howley knew somebody who worked there, rather than it being a 'thank you' gesture. Insurance paid for the Snooker Room to be rebuilt and back in action for three more AGM's during the late-2000's anyway, but that was when having AGM's on Saturdays started taking its toll with low turnouts caused by Weddings and other social commitments, as most of our players were by then in their late-20's and early-30's and either getting married themselves or knowing somebody who was. Whetstone being an awkward place to get to from the Enfield area was also now being cited as a problem, so we therefore had a couple of AGM's at the Beehive pub in Little Bury Street, N9 before settling on the Edmonton Sports & Social Club again, which is where we have held our last five AGM's and where we will obviously now have them all the time now that we actually play at that venue. The poor turnouts and cancellations we have had over the past six years up until the most recent AGM was purely because we were in a mess on the pitch in losing most of our matches, and every season we had players leaving the club before the AGM was held and players not joining until after the AGM and once Pre-Season Training had started. We did have an amazing turnout of 23 players at one of those Beehive AGM's in 2011 though, with hardly any excuses for absence whatsoever. That appeared to be because it was only the second AGM in the club's history that we had held on a Friday night and also because we had it in early June instead of the usual late July. Unfortunately though, Stuart Dorward (and other players who used the Beehive as their local) didn't realise it was the annual Enfield Council 'Moon Walk' that evening where hundreds of women wearing pink bras walk the streets raising money for cancer research while their husbands sit in the Beehive and have a few beers while waiting for them to return. The place was absolutely rammed and we had to hold the AGM in a tiny space wedged between the toilets and the pool table with the speeches and presentations being constantly being disrupted by the toilet door opening and closing and pool cues being inadvertently shoved up our players backsides. From all these different venues we have used over the past 41 years, I think we can safely say that the Edmonton Sports & Social Club is by far the most suitable. It is not only our home ground now, but the acoustics in the main room are perfect for speaking without a microphone, it is easy to plug into the wall-mounted TV screen to show our videos, and most importantly, we have the room to ourselves. In addition to the venues we have used for our AGM's, there have also been several different pubs we have used on a regular basis after matches and training sessions. When we first started the club back in 1976 we were all under-age and therefore went straight home after matches. From what I can remember, that appeared to be generally the case right throughout our time in the Edmonton Sunday League, probably because a number of teams in that League were based at local pubs which were notorious for fights, football hooliganism and racism, so we didn't dare go back to those places after a match. When we did go to a pub after matches, it was invariably either the Rising Sun at the bottom of Winchester Road & Bury Street or the Stag & Hounds in Bury Street West, both of which were near the Bush Hill Park/Winchmore Hill border of Edmonton and in a nicer area than the rougher pubs of Edmonton Green or the N18 postcode. When we joined the Haringey League back in 1984 and started playing at Hazelwood Sports Ground in Palmers Green though, we had a long period drinking at the nearby Fox pub in Green Lanes after our Home games before going back to the Stag & Hounds in the early-90's when the afore-mentioned large group of younger players joined us, as that was their 'local' at the time. The Stag & Hounds was then used on a regular basis for most of the 90's until they changed landlords and turned it into a posh restaurant. They certainly didn't want riff-raff like us in there on a Sunday lunchtime all covered in mud. That was when we then went to the Queens Head As for the various different kits we have worn over the years and the sponsorship that came with them, we started off in 1976 with green shirts, white shorts & green socks, but the green shirts faded in the wash and only lasted that first season. Our change strip of a sickly-looking yellow was also dum In the meantime, we are also trying to secure a sponsorship for some rain jackets, namely 16 numbered jackets for the squad on the day of a match plus four initialled ones for our non-playing Management Team, which is Manager Tony McKay, Assistant Manager Roderick Bennett, Goalkeeping Coach Bob Cleary and of course myself. However, our players have been having a heated debate about that in our WhatsApp Group as some of them think each registered player and Committee member should add their own money to the sponsorship so that everybody has their own initialled rain jacket that they bring to matches but can also wear casually when out and about during the week, thereby giving the sponsor even more publicity from having their name printed on the back. Other players think that we should forget about having a sponsor for the rain jackets and just encourage (or even force !) each player to pay £25 each, including new players when signing up for the club, whereby they will then be given an initialled rain jacket to keep and wear 'forever' because it will not have a sponsor's name on the back. The obvious problem with that idea is that some players (and Committee members) cannot afford that sort of money, therefore resulting in the same problem we have had ever since we were founded where we have everybody all wearing different rain jackets and other clothing while warming-up and/or standing on the touchline. Ideally we want to look like a team with everybody wearing the same, as that undoubtedly breeds confidence. Of course it is really ironic that players now actually want to wear rain jackets with 'Edmonton Rovers F.C.' printed on the back while they are out and about. That is what winning a League Title does for you. It would certainly never have happened when we were losing every week in the Waltham Sunday League, as players left the club in their droves because of the embarrassment at people finding out (invariably from You Tube) that they played for us. There is no way that our players would have wanted to advertise the club's name on their backs in those days for sure ! CLICK HERE to view a PDF of team photos featuring all the different kits we have worn since our formation in 1976. |
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At the time of my last Chairman's Blog on the 19th June, we were without a Manager and we only had ten players left with Terry Moore, Alan Barnard, Gavin Mardell, Lexton Harrison, Eric Ibekwem and our end-of-season goalkeeper Simon Jackson all having announced their retirement because of old age, injuries or family commitments. With no response from various adverts we had placed for a new manager, coach and some players, we then had to cancel our AGM on the 8th July for only the second time in the club's history and we ended up not having one at all. Since playing our last match in the Waltham Sunday League on the 13th March and with us not entering the Southgate Hockey Centre's Summer 7-a-side Football League like we normally do, the club had more-or-less temporarily folded, even though we had been accepted into the Barnet Sunday League for the coming 2016-2017 Season. What made things worse in late-June and early July was England's abysmal showing in the Euros, embarrassingly losing to Iceland and therefore not exactly encouraging people to suddenly take up playing grassroots football for clubs like ourselves. Indeed England's performances at major Championships could well be a major factor in the demise of many Sunday Leagues since they last did 'well' at the World Cup back in 1990. Invariably, 'parks level' players want to start playing football themselves in March & April (which is frustratingly 
hough, I suddenly received a phone call from one of our few remaining players, Daniel Cascoe, telling me to phone somebody he knew called 'Tony' who was interested in becoming our new Manager. I then phoned Tony the following day and had a long chat (without realising who he was), then just before I put the phone down after arranging with him to attend Pre-Season Training the following Sunday, I suddenly remembered to ask him for his surname and he said 'McKay'. I said 'What ?!!! Leon's Dad ?' Yes ! Why on earth Cascoe didn't tell me I have no idea, and I don't know why Tony didn't mention it when he first answered the phone either, but I had met him before some 13 years ago when Leon (McKenzie-McKay) first started playing for us as an 18-year-old and Tony had a couple of long chats back then with myself and our then-Manager Trevor Hughes where it was clear he knew what he was talking about. All it needed was for Cascoe to tell me it was him and I wouldn't even needed to have phoned. Just 'bring him on down' ! With one or two suitable new players having finally answered the adverts by then, we decided to arrange a Pre-Season Training session at Enfield Playing Fields (Donkey Lane end) for 10.00.am. on Sunday 17th July with Tony's agreement, but only four players turned up along with myself. From what I can remember, that was Scott Jenkins (amazingly !), Danny Hagan (typically when nobody else is there !), and new players Tom Croake and Paul Coldwell, both of whom had asked to join without knowing anybody. We waited until nearly 11.00 am but there was no sign of our new Manager ! He did finally arrive though, along with Leon, Cascoe and Tyronne Petrie, and he had to immediately apologise for Leon's Mum deciding to throw a surprise all-night birthday party for Leon that was the cause of them all oversleeping. We then just had a chat about things in the car park and went home without training, while deciding to give it another go the following Wednesday evening at 6.00.pm. Once again though, only four players turned up, including Hagan, Tom and Paul again, and although Tony was there on time himself, we waited and waited and just gave up in the end, going straight home without training again. At that point, the club very nearly folded up completely, and it was probably the nearest we had been to doing so since way back in 1977.
players started doing some ballwork later on and I could see they were all young (mainly 18-23 year-olds), fit and had good ability, I suddenly realised we had hit the jackpot ! This was exactly what we had been looking for for the past 10 seasons ! The players there included two sets of identical twins (Connor & Aiden Kavanagh and Chris & Andreas Kriticos) and four or five others in addition to Tom Croake, Paul Coldwell and Curtis Baalam, who had all attended training previously. Quite a few of these players were also taller than anybody who played for us on a regular basis last season, so that was very handy, and there was even a good split of black, white, mixed race, Greek & Turkish players amongst them as well, therefore keeping up our tradition of being a multi-racial side representing the area the club is based in. After a couple more training sessions with decent turnouts (and a good Management Committee meeting down the pub after one of them where myself, Tony, Leon & Danny Hagan decided on our roles), we finally played our first Pre-Season Friendly on Sunday 7th August Away to Asian team AC Milano at the Low Hall Sports Ground in Walthamstow. We fielded a squad of 17 for this one which included eleven players making their debuts (or a comeback appearance in Khaheem McKenzie's case after a brief spell with us two seasons ago). Unfortunately though, the absence of both Grant Baker and Stephen Roussety meant outfield player Zac Troullous had to go in goal, and with AC Milano being a very good side who will be playing in the London FA's top Sunday Cup this season, we ended up losing 3-0. The following Sunday we then lost by even more, going down 6-2 to Broxbourne Rangers Old Boys in another Pre-Season Friendly, this time on our usual Pre-Season 'Home' pitch at Enfield Playing Fields, but once again that was due to us not having a proper goalkeeper again more than anything else. However, we fielded a squad of 14 and it was good 'game time' for our new players. For our third Pre-Season Friendly on Sunday 21st August, we played Highgate Albion's Second XI and finally managed what was only our second win in 17 matches and our first win since December last year ! That was due to both Grant Baker and Stephen Roussety finally making themselves available to play half a match each in goal, while new players Harold Ofori and Ayo Matthews (both of whom Grant had brought along) also made a difference. In addition to that, Lexton Harrison had now been able to abandon his retirement due to his son's team's Sunday morning League folding, meaning that Lexton no longer had to take him to matches while our games were taking place. With Danny Hagan also having recovered from injury after missing almost the whole of last season, it was like signing two more quality new players. Our final Pre-Season Friendly on the 28th August saw us gain a creditable 1-1 draw with last season's Waltham Sunday League Division Two Champions Edmonton Blades in a game where we once again fielded a squad of 17 despite having seven players unavailable, so we were finally now all set up perfectly for our first-ever Barnet Sunday League match the following week.
he F.A.'s Full-Time website for the League, I am able to see the marks out of 100 that clubs have been giving to Referees, and interestingly the majority of them are between 80-100 with quite a few 100 out of 100's being given. However, there are several clubs who have given referees marks of 60 or less so far this season, which means they have to do a written report as to the reasons why. In most cases it is all because a Referee has sent one of their players off, invariably for dissent, or failed to give them a 'blatant penalty'...even if the Referee has actually had a very good match for the other 89 minutes ! One team gave a Referee a mark of 0 out of 100 recently, which is ridiculous, but they were adamant that that particular Referee deserved it. I would like to think that when our Management Committee award marks for Referees (as we do by a general consensus of opinion on our Management WhatsApp Group after the game) that we always show a bit more common sense. We have not had to award a Referee a mark of 60 or below so far this season, and long may that continue.
n that 1979-1980 team created that 28-match unbeaten record, we were not entering London FA Cup competitions back then because the Edmonton Sunday League (which they were playing in at the time) was a 'pirate' (non-FA affiliated) League. That team's record is therefore League, League Cup & Friendly matches only, so consequently we are still on course to beat the record if you look at it that way. There is certainly a valid argument that had that 1979-1980 team been competing in the London FA Sunday Junior Cup back then, there is no way they would have won that competition or even progressed very far, as they were in the bottom division of the Edmonton Sunday League (Division Eight) at the time and the teams they would have faced from other Leagues would have been in much higher divisions. Indeed the two League Cup competitions for our 1979-1980 team were also much easier for them than what our current side have to face, as the Edmonton Sunday League never had a Challenge Cup for all teams in all eight divisions. They had a Junior Challenge Cup, which was for teams in Divisions 7 & 8 only, and a Divisional Cup, which was for Division Eight only...and the one that we ourselves won to do the League & Cup Double. We lost to the same opponents, River Plate, in the League Junior Challenge Cup Final, but we never played any teams from higher than Division Seven until we were promoted to Division Five the following season and then a couple of years later when we went up to Division Three and started playing Division One (the top division) teams in Cup competitions. Those two promotions were when we got found out and suffered several heavy defeats, albeit after some of our better players from the 1979-1980 Season had left or had suffered injuries. Although the standard of opposition in Division Eight of the Edmonton Sunday League back on 1979-1980 was shockingly bad (apart from our main rivals 
River Plate and third-placed Enfield Nalgo), we do need to bear in mind that the average age of our squad that year was only 19, but that the main reason we went on such a long unbeaten run was because they all turned up and played every week. Yes, they were all good players individually and they could certainly all make a challenge and put their bodies on the line for the team, but compared to how we play today, flowing passing moves were pretty much non-existent. It was all about sheer individual ability whenever goals were scored and winning the ball in the first place from defenders and our central midfielders just 'getting stuck in'. Like the various championship-winning teams from the Premier League over the past few years though, we can certainly name a regular first-choice starting line-up and indeed formation from that season. Back in those days every team played 4-4-2 and so did we, although we did actually tweak that slightly because of the way certain players played. That was probably because we didn't actually have a Manager as such ! I was Club Secretary and Jerome Burnikell was Captain, but the same eleven players started every match if they were available, so the team picked itself every week. On the rare occasions that players were not available, then either John Howard or Steve Mitchell would come in and replace them. It is worth remembering that in those days, only one substitute was allowed to be named, and there was no 'roll-on, roll-off' rule. They were invariably only used if somebody got injured or we were winning easily with 15 minutes to go. As for the players who starred in that team, for most of our matches we had 'Big Steve' Howard in goal, Chris Draper at right-back, Tony Tombling at left-back, Demitrius Nurse as the archetypal big uncompromising central defender (which everybody had in those days) and Jerome as a 'sweeper' behind him. We then had Dave 'Animal' Thomas and Robert McMahon as two immensely strong tough-tackling central midfielders with Les Needham and Kieran McGregor as flair players either side of them, while Bobby Lake and Glenn Pooley were both prolific forwards, with Pooley an undoubted quality player capable of scoring some outrageous goals. Indeed he still holds the club record of 49 goals in a season from that 1979-1980 campaign. With Lake & Pooley both being left-footed, the right-footed Les Needham would get forward from midfield on the right to make it more of a 4-3-3 at times with Pooley drifting over to the left and McGregor tucking infield to join Thomas & McMahon in the centre, while at the back, Draper & Tombling would both tuck in from full-back to help Nurse mark the opposing front two, with Burnikell sweeping up behind all three. At the start of the season we had Mike Singh in goal and the club's founder Dave Ashton in the centre of midfield, but they had both been replaced by Steve Howard and Dave Thomas respectively by the time we had reached November. 
ason Friendlies there !
and signatures first, then give it to the Away Team in good time before the kick-off for them to do likewise 
was the following match that confirmed we were the Division Two champions though, giving us our first trophy for 29 years. It was a strange situation because our opponents were bottom team St. John's Deaf, who we were always going to beat no matter what side they put out, so we knew we had won the title already before we even stepped onto the pitch. We also had a far superior goal difference to all our rivals which none of them were ever going to catch, so we were pretty much already Champions on that basis anyway. That goal difference was made even more emphatic with an almost predictable 12-0 win as a result of our whole squad all turning up wanting to play, so we were as strong as we could possibly be with four players even having to be left out of the 16 because we had too many there ! Those four omitted players showed great team spirit though by staying all match to cheer on their team-mates and then 'share the bubbly' as we sort-of 'half-sung' 'Championees' on the final whistle. Yes, 'half-sung' because none of our players had ever won anything before, so we almost didn't know what to do ! Indeed most of our players had not even been born the last time we won anything way back in 1988. The most satisfying thing for me personally though was that most other Sunday League clubs would have given up and folded long ago after going for only three or four years without winning a trophy, let alone 29 ! I had never given up though, and had made sure I kept the club running because I knew this day would come eventually. There were a number of factors in that decision to keep going and with our success this season which I am saving for my speech at our forthcoming AGM on the 30th June and for the next Chairman's Blog which will review that AGM and preview the future.
We had our Annual General Meeting and Presentation Night for the 2016-2017 Season at the Edmonton Sports & Social Club on Friday 30th June, and as expected after such a successful season, we had the second-best turnout in the club's history and the best attendance ever when we have only been running one team. The number was 28 in total, and that included four of our 
given free (or very cheap) use of function rooms in return. That saw the 1981 AGM held at the 
in Station Road Winchmore Hill for a couple of seasons before ending up using the much 'trendier' 
ped by our 'Kit Manager' of the time, Gary Cooper...who was last seen using one of those shirts to wash his car with. Cooper then bought a 
Those grey shirts were worn with
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NAME |
APPEARANCES |
GOALS |
NAME |
APPEARANCES |
GOALS |
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Tem ADIL |
11 |
1 |
Anees IKRAMULLAH |
4 |
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Johan AHIPEAUD |
8 |
5 |
Scott JENKINS |
1 |
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Chris AKINRELE |
2 |
2 |
Aiden KAVANAGH |
29 |
15 |
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Peter AKOM |
5 |
1 |
Connor KAVANAGH |
21 |
4 |
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Ben ANKRAH |
2 |
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Andreas KRITICOS |
23 |
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Stefan ANTONIOU |
2 |
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Chris KRITICOS |
8 |
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Curtis BAALAM |
23 |
1 |
Chris LUE |
5 |
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Grant BAKER (GK) |
10 |
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Ayo MATTHEWS |
27 |
28 |
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Jack BANGS |
11 |
6 |
Marley McKAY |
4 |
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Ivan BASS |
26 |
3 |
Rhys McKAY |
2 |
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Daniel CASCOE |
14 |
1 |
Khaheem McKENZIE |
24 |
4 |
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Daniel COLDWELL |
2 |
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Leon McKENZIE-McKAY |
25 |
12 |
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Tom CROAKE |
13 |
2 |
Harold OFORI |
28 |
3 |
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Martin CRUICKSHANK |
1 |
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Hal OZKAN |
13 |
3 |
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Daniel DALEY |
23 |
12 |
Tyronne PETRIE |
21 |
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Ryan DOBSON |
1 |
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Benji RICKETTS |
2 |
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Cihan ESEN |
1 |
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Stephen ROUSSETY (GK) |
19 |
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Joshua GUSTAVE |
1 |
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John SCOULLER |
4 |
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Danny HAGAN |
2 |
1 |
Zac TROULLOUS |
9 |
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Lexton HARRISON |
24 |
1 |
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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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Sunday 7th August |
Away |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Lost 0-3 |
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Sunday 14th August |
Home |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Lost 2-6 |
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Sunday 21st August |
Home |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Won 2-1 |
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Sunday 28th August |
Home |
Pre-Season Friendly |
Drew 1-1 |
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Sunday 4th September |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 1-0 (Abandoned) |
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Sunday 11th September |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 2-1 |
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Sunday 18th September |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-2 |
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Sunday 25th September |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 2-0 |
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Sunday 2nd October |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 7-0 |
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Sunday 9th October |
MAJESTIC |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
NON-FULFILMENT BY OPPONENTS |
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Sunday 16th October |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 4-2 |
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Sunday 23rd October |
Home |
London FA Sunday Junior Cup, Second Round |
Won 8-0 |
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Sunday 30th October |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Drew 1-1 |
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Sunday 6th November |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Junior Cup, First Round |
Won 2-1 |
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Sunday 13th November |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 5-1 |
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Sunday 20th November |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Senior Cup, Second Round |
Drew 0-0 (Won 4-3 Pens.) |
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Sunday 27th November |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-1 |
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Sunday 4th December |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-2 |
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Sunday 11th December |
Home |
London FA Sunday Junior Cup, Third Round |
Drew 1-1 (Lost 4-5 Pens.) |
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Sunday 18th December |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Junior Cup, Second Round |
Won 5-4 |
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Sunday 25th December |
NO MATCH ARRANGED (Xmas Day) |
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Sunday 1st January |
NO MATCH ARRANGED (New Year’s Day) |
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Sunday 8th January |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 7-1 |
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Sunday 15th January |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 7-0 |
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Sunday 22nd January |
ROVING REPORTERS RESERVES |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
POSTPONED (Frozen Pitch) |
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Sunday 29th January |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-0 |
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Sunday 5th February |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 5-1 |
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Sunday 12th February |
HIGHGATE ALBION 3rds |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
POSTPONED (Waterlogged Pitch) |
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Sunday 19th February |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-1 |
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Sunday 26th February |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 8-0 |
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Sunday 5th March |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Junior Cup, Quarter-Final |
Drew 1-1 (Lost 3-5 Pens.) |
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Sunday 12th March |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Senior Cup, Quarter-Final |
Drew 1-1 (Lost 3-5 Pens.) |
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Sunday 19th March |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 2-0 |
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Sunday 26th March |
HIGHGATE ALBION 3rds |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
POSTPONED (Non-Fulfilment by Opponents) |
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Sunday 2nd April |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 12-0 |
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Sunday 9th April |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Drew 1-1 |
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Sunday 16th April |
Home |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 3-1 |
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Sunday 23rd April |
Away |
Barnet Sunday League Division Two |
Won 5-0 |
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TEAM PHOTO |
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Back Row (L-R): Curtis Baalam, Ayo Matthews, Harold Ofori, Lexton Harrison, Grant Baker (GK), Leon McKenzie-McKay, Aiden Kavanagh, Tyronne Petrie, Connor Kavanagh, Andreas Kriticos Front Row (L-R): Jack Bangs, Daniel Daley, Tony McKay (Manager), Roderick Bennett (Assistant Manager), Hal Ozkan, Ivan Bass, Tom Croake |
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SQUAD PHOTO |
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Back Row (L-R): Tyronne Petrie, Aiden Kavanagh, Johan Ahipeaud, Ivan Bass, Roderick Bennett (Assistant Manager), Peter Akom, Curtis Baalam, John Scouller, Laurence Hughes (Chairman & Secretary...standing on platform), Khaheem McKenzie, Daniel Cascoe, Harold Ofori, Ayo Matthews, Andreas Kriticos, Connor Kavanagh, Bob Cleary (Goalkeeping Coach) Front Row (L-R): Jack Bangs, Hal Ozkan, Tom Croake, Stephen Roussety (GK), Tony McKay (Manager), Daniel Daley, Leon McKenzie-McKay, Lexton Harrison |
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SEASON 2016-2017 HIGHLIGHTS COMPILATION |
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