Mark Quinn's Blog

Well this week saw us have 2 late games, One against Dizzy Tooters and one against the ever impressive Something Else. I arrived quite early and as it turned out Mean Machine were playing and were very short of players for their game against Charterhouse Old Boys. I said I would play for them and so did the Iceman. Iceman and I were the attacking force in the team whilst the other 2 defended. It’s always difficult learning to play a certain way for different teams but we did alright. The big fella for COB had a great game against me and I rarely got the better of him, I guess this was a quiet game for me. I scored one though and defended well enough. The Iceman scored 2 very important goals in this game too and played ok. The result was 4-2 in the end to Mean Machine and it’s nice to have helped them in their quest for the league title.
I also managed to watch a bit of Excelsior tonight. They had 2 games against Wonderers and FC Your Mum. As good as Excelsior are I was surprised at how well their opposing teams played against them. Excelsior struggled to beat these two very determined teams but they did. It was a case of perseverance and togetherness which saw them win these games. A lot of people are saying its over for Excelsior now but they are still in the hunt for trophies and mathematically still in the title race. Even though there was a slight bust amongst their selves it was nothing major and certainly nothing to write home about! Could we be seeing the Excelsior team now pulling in the right direction again?
Our first game was against the Dizzy Tooters, there were a few players I hadn’t seen before so wasn’t really sure what to expect from them. We were short this week, no Ian, Gaz or Tweddle. We had a new defender helping us out. Dizzy Tooters stunned us from kick off and went 2-0 up fairly quickly. It was looking like it may be one of those games we tend to have where we don’t play to our potential. Well that didn’t last long and we started scoring easily. It’s been a long time since we really scored well against teams and we needed this game to go the way it did for our own confidence alone. We won 10-4 in the end with Amraj scoring some real good goals in which he got 4 in total. Waggas scored 2 and looked a real livewire. I managed to get 2 and I think Aggie got 2. Overall it was a team performance and there was no one wanting to look the star of the team. I truly believe we have the right spirit and tactical awareness to push on a little more and hopefully claim that 4^th spot. Dizzy themselves did look dangerous at times and are nice blokes, I hope they can strengthen and stay in these leagues as it would be a shame if they stopped playing. They don’t need too much, just some regular players.
Next up were S.Else whom we had just seen systematically take apart Dizzy Tooters, they had more chances than the scoreline suggests but messed around scoring as they fully knew they had won this game. They won 15-2 and the omens for us were looking bad. Then again both of our teams were going into this match fairly confident after our last matches. Personally I think we were in control of this match from the kick off, S.Else struggled to use the power and pace they had. Maybe that’s a testament to us I don’t know. The first goal of the game was scored by me and although I did mean to shoot it was a complete fluke how it came off my boot, swerved, dipped very strangely and went in the top corner. A goal is a goal and I’m not complaining! Throughout the game S.Else always looked like doing damage but some sturdy defending and fantastic goalkeeping by Arfan kept them out. I think we went in at half time 3-1 up. The S.Else boys said we were celebrating already and seemed quite annoyed. I hadn’t seen nor heard anyone in our camp even come close to thinking the game was over. S.Else were more dangerous and determined this half but we managed to score a further 2 goals to give us a nice lead. Danny Thompson hit a further 2 for S.Else which made the game 5-3 and it was on a knife edge. I was playing at the back at this point and just wanted to stop them scoring, at one point I got the ball of Arfan, sidestepped Dave Jones and hit the ball at goal. It went in much to our delight and I think S.Else sensed that was it. The whistle went shortly after and we had recorded an important win. Arfan with another 3 goals, 1 from our new fella and 2 from me was our goal tally. It now looks like the title will be Boys r Backs unless they have some really bizarre results.

Sunday
Two games tonight too for City Rejects, first up was our 2^nd leg game against Pudlians. We were only just leading 6-4 from the first leg so all was to play for. Moggi was back for us this week in place of Jase who was missing so we still only just about scraped 5 players. I was playing in defense again but wasn’t totally comfortable their tonight for some reason. The Pudlians were much hungrier than us and were much more up for the game than us. They stunned us with a quick goal and went on to score another shortly afterwards which leveled the tie. Everything we threw at them seemed to work in their favor, we were not testing their keeper and were creating nothing. It was a bizarre game for us as chances were few. That’s a testament to Pudlians really as they performed really well against us. In the second half as penalties were starting to loom Rob broke free and slotted in a goal. Danny scored for us shortly afterwards and really there was no way back for the Pudlians. The game ended 2-2 and we went through to the final. It was unlucky for the Pudlians as this was one of the better performances I have seen from them this season.

Secondly we had Excelsior who were only missing James. This was our 2^nd game in a row and we were pretty exerted after the first game in all honesty. Excelsior were much the better team in this game and pretty much dominated us. I was exploited in defense a few times. I can play defense but today was not my best performance there and I struggled up against the pace and power of the Excelsior attack. At the other end Rob and Moggi struggled to get through the opposition defense and we were limited to just the one goal in this. It seems looking back at the match we never really thought we could win this match, maybe that’s not the case but it just appeared that after the first game a lot had been taken out of us. In the end we lost 7-1 which is a bad scoreline to be on the losing side of but if we had our whole squad and maybe a little break before this match we may have fared better but then again who knows? Fair play to Excelsior in this match, they were just that much better. It’s a funny one as I have said all along that I don’t think Sunday teams can compete with Friday teams. Personally I feel the pace and raw power which is played on Fridays will always beat the passing and technical style of Sunday players. I have watched many Friday vs. Sunday teams and the Friday teams do seem to fare better, as the International matches showed us. They resulted in a 5 wins to 1 loss for the Friday boys. With that said you do get some better performances from Sunday teams but I feel the Sunday teams have to add a bit more grit and physical presence against Friday teams.
The other semi final was played tonight and it was either Indoor Milan vs. The Playerz who we would face in the final. This was a fantastic game to watch and when you watch the Playerz you are always going to be treated to some showboating. There were many skills on offer and some great moments. To be honest though the Playerz really need to shoot at times when they are one on one and stop trying to score goals which involve trickery when it’s not needed. After the way Excelsior had taken us apart in the last game I was kind of hoping the Playerz would win as I think we may stand a better chance against these. Then again they are a supreme team. It looked for a long time that Playerz were going to lose this as they were not as composed as normal and Indoor Milan pressed and attacked with aggression. Eventually the slow and steady approach to the game worked for the Playerz and they went on to win 6-4. So it appears that is who we will face in the final.

The Grapevine

·Excelsior now look to be staying together next season but some rebuilding will need to take place as they look set to lose Curtis and Danny Bell who want to set up their own Friday team.

·Cov Rangers are looking a definite return to our leagues next season with Carl Pickup stating he has his team in place and is rumored to have some good players. I can confirm myself I AM NOT leaving Millers Appeal so the rumors can stop. I’m at Millers for as long as they want me.

·GSH are rumored to be after Nick Janda to boost their assault on the premiership should they get there via the play off. They have a big squad currently so it seems some players may be disillusioned at not getting much playing time.

·Nick Frost’s speculative return to Motley Barnets as their new manager has been met with some very “Frosty” views from current players. Some have stated that should Nick take over they will be moving on.