Mark Quinn's Blog, Night of Champions PPV Special

Friday Night

I’m going to start this week’s blog slightly differently. My very own Millers Appeal season reached its peak on Friday when we reached the Super cup final. Before I get into details I’d like to apologize to my team mates for my severely poor performance on a night I needed to be at my best. Going into the final I was quite looking forward to it but once it was underway I just didn’t perform, I have no idea what happened but I played within myself, nothing I did came off and I just didn’t get going, I would say this was my worst performance in as long as I can remember and definitely my worst for Millers.
Cov legion had a very strong team and were only missing Raff. This was a very good cup final for the spectators as it had loads of stunning goals and talking points. Amraj really stepped up in this game and although he missed a penalty he got the rebound after I missed it. From this point onwards he played very well and scored some good goals. Aggie was also playing well and scored a very good long ranger, Cov Legion themselves were very physical and hard to handle, they had great goals in their locker too and this game was so varied in possession. In the first half I would say we were the better team and went in at half time 3-2 up. Now for me this was the turning point and I’m not blaming anyone but we conceded right from kick off, it was a long ranger from one of the Legion boys in their own half and it crept into the corner of our net leveling the game at 3-3. In my opinion this changed the game and gave Legion some real belief right from the off. Again it was an open half until the last 5 mins, we had another penalty saved from Waqquas and Amraj and Waqquas both hit the bar 2 seconds apart in the latter stages which could have changed the game. It was level at 4-4 and I came off at this point, we still looked to be pressing Legion and were definitely not sitting back, the whole team who were still playing seemed to be coping well… unfortunately in the last 5 mins of the game Legion got through our defense and found themselves 1 on 1 with Arfan 3 times. They pretty much killed us off at this point and the energy was sapped right out of us. Legion won the game 7-4 and in the end were the better team, they deserved their win. The sad thing is some members of our team didn’t deserve to be a loser on the day and the guilt I feel for having a bad game is still with me…
Later on we had the Wonderers on a league game on the small pitch, I was pretty fired up for this match. Maybe because I was so bad in the cup final I don’t know. There was no way I wanted to lose this game too. We were short on numbers because Aggie had to go so Carl Pickup played in goal for us. These are the sort of games which prove he should stick to doing what he does best and that is being a goalkeeper, yes he is a decent outfield player but between the sticks is his calling. We never really looked in any danger of losing this, everyone was playing well. I got frustrated at times because it seemed some players wanted to just shoot or hog the ball but it was probably just me being over sensitive. In the end we won 7-3 and this cemented a 5^th place finish for us. Not a bad season by all accounts but the cup final defeat is still a bitter pill to swallow.
I had actually decided after the cup final I was going to go on an enforced break from Friday night football for a period, I’m not happy with my performances over the last 4-6 weeks and I’m arriving at football on a Friday either in a bad mood or stressed out because of other things in my personal life. Fridays have become a hassle for me currently and I seem to be taking grievances into my Friday football and am no longer enjoying it. So basically I’m looking to miss Friday season 01 and get some priorities in order and most importantly regain my hunger for football as currently there isn’t much on a Friday. I don’t need anyone to criticize me as I am my own worst critic and over analyze my game. Hopefully with this break I can learn to relax and enjoy football once again.

Sunday Night

Another night and another cup Final! To say I wasn’t feeling pressure would be a lie as I was. Having lost one final on Friday I didn’t want to suffer another loss on the same weekend, yes it is great to get to a final but the emotion of winning one is fantastic. Once my fellow Rejects arrived I was told we had no Rob this week and Moggi was still injured, definitely not the news you need going into a cup final. So we had the same team with the addition of Danny which only just lost to the playerz 2-1 a few weeks ago. We started the game with Danny and Gaz at the back and Jase and Carl in attack. We seemed very comfortable all round in this game and we took a 1 goal lead with a fantastic curling top corner shot from Carl. Just the start we needed really. Unfortunately Playerz had been probing for a while and in the end drew level with a powerful shot. I was put on shortly after and just wanted to stop the Playerz playing. Jase was having a fantastic game and was running the opposition ragged, he scored his first goal and we had some hope. We kept pressing and a shot went in at the Playerz keeper which he spilled out of his area, I followed it in and slotted it from a tight angle, 3-1 Rejects! I think this was the half time score and to be honest Playerz seemed quite disjointed and not really ‘up’ for this Cup Final. The second half was a bit of a blur in all honesty, I remember Jase scoring another fantastic goal but also remember the Playerz scoring 2 goals from sloppy defensive mistakes. The game was ticking down when Danny found himself high upfield and hit a shot which took a slight deflection on the way to goal. Jecko was scrambling across goal but couldn’t quite get there and we took a 5-2 lead. We really believed we had this won and Terry wanted to get on for the last 2 minutes to play a part, unfortunately within 15 seconds of being on Danny suffered a nasty injury. He was in the corner facing the wall trying to protect the ball when Muzo barged him into the wall. Now I’m not sure what intent was there but it was a very silly challenge and certainly looked horrific from where I stood, Danny went head first into the wall and ended up sat on the floor, from the bench we could see his eyes were glazed so ran over. As soon as we all got there it was clear Danny was bleeding and the amount of blood was shocking, he was covered! Muzo realized what he had done and seemed to be shocked at himself, he sat down to take it all in whilst Danny was seen to. There was only 10 seconds left of this cup final so Mark ended the game and Danny and ourselves headed off to the changing rooms so he could get cleaned up. An ambulance crew arrived and did a superb job looking after Danny and in the end all was well. It was a shame the game ended this way as no-one really took in that we had won a cup as we were just concerned with the Injury. The Playerz in fairness to them stayed with us and made sure everything was ok whilst apologizing. Overall it was a fantastic win and a giant step in the future of City Rejects. Ultimately it also proved the squad has the depth to cope even when players can’t make it!

Keeper watch - Reds cup final

There had been some smack talking regarding the goalkeepers in the lead up to this final so it was an interesting take on the game. Because of the style of play of both teams this was never going to be a sizzling game of skills and goals galore but it was a good fair contest. FC heat had so many more shots than GSH but Chinny in goals for GSH was having what can only be described as a perfect game. Everything which went at him was saved and he was solid. At the other end Luke Maslin was playing well too but didn’t have too much to do until Hayden used a bit of skill to make space and unleashed a shot which flew in the bottom corner. I think Heat underestimated Hayden because of his size and they seemed to concentrate on the bigger guys in the GSH team which was a mistake as shortly after Hayden scored again to give GSH a 2-0 lead. It stayed like this till the 2^nd half and Chinny started well in goal again and was keeping out every shot put at him. Now because he was having such a good game it was clear he had to make a mistake and he duly did by letting a shot squeeze through his arms and into his goal. A bit later on he made a save which bounced out to one of the FC heat boys who duly slotted it home to make the game 2-2. It remained the score and onto penalties we went… I won’t go into too many details but Chin made up for his earlier errors with 2 good penalty saves which gave GSH their cup win. I’m not sure who were the better team in this game but it was good to see a fairly played final with no major bad talking points. Congrats GSH

Barnets vs. the Bashers

What a complete mismatch this was on the night. Mean Machine were far too strong for Barnets and never looked like they were in trouble, their only bad point was letting Nick Janda score a long ranger. Daz and Dec scored some really nice goals in the game and “Ali G” again seemed to be the playmaker with some great skill and excellent passing which set up may attacks for Mean Machine. The final score was 6-1 and was completely one sided. The barnets had never lost to these boys… what a way to suffer their first defeat!

The grapevine

· Millers Appeal have confirmed the signing of Lil Dan. The former Excelsior man is looking forward to linking up his friend Amraj. Millers look to have signed one of the brightest prospects in the league.

· Steve Reece is rumored to have left S.Else and has signed for Mozzies Army, there were many raised eyebrows when this rumor circulated but Mozzies are his friends from school so it is understandable.

· Cov Rangers are still in the hunt for one or two players as Carl looks to finalize his squad, if any “big names” are interested in a fresh challenge then don’t hesitate to get in touch with Mr. Pickup.

· City Seagulls have made an audacious approach for the Iceman. Some 5starsports agents say this is a done deal but the Iceman has reportedly said there is “no chance” he will be becoming a Gull.