Achievements

Yes yes yes, its been a while since I've blogged, but not really had the need to blog for some reason. Life, has improved, in a number of different areas, and this blog was written to get things off my chest - which is nice, you'll have to agree.

Around about 6 years ago, I decided to start playing football, 6aside, nothing fancy dan, just knock around, bit of banter. I admit I was overweight and it was a good way to get a little healthier, but one thing that stood out, was that I was always the slowest person on the pitch and I hated that. I sent myself a goal to get fitter, get faster - and I'd like to think that I've done that. I never confessed to be the best player in the world - and I'd also like to think that I'm also not the worst either - giving the addional "power" of speed gives you additional chances on the pitch too.

Anyhoo, from the 6aside football, came football management, and football coaching. I admit that I went into it a little blinkered, and not knowing one thing about coaching the sport. The club that I'm involved in, enrolled me on the FA Level 1 - and that was er "good". They teach you nice things like, "don't swear at kids", "don't allow kids to eat glass" etc etc. Yeah, they give you some basic drills (of which, you have to demonstrate one - and as long as you don't feed glass to kids, you're more or less passed).

I like improving myself, and I love the challenge of learning more, and bettering myself - so asked the club if they'd put me on the Level 2 course. This is a 6 month course, you spend a week doing the theory and demonstrations, then you're expected to go away and document 12 sessions, come back and demonstrate a final topic, of which you're assessed. I done the first week in feb, and luckily we had decent weather - but it is physically draining - we're talking about losing around about a stone in a week here.

Anyhoo, Saturday was assessment day - it was hot, VERY hot! Luckily, the nice chap from the FA passed me, saying if I wanted to do my Level 3 - I should wait around 12 months before giving it ago. This is fair enough really, I'm heading into my 3rd year of management, and jumped from a Level 0 coach to a Level 2 - taking to Level 3 is a massive gap anyhow.

I've enjoyed it, its been alot of hard work, and the people who've supported me over the 6 months, you know you can trust them.

Hmm, one of them weeks

I knew that when Monday came, it was going to be a manic week, but tried to take it on as any other week, just slowly & taking it steady. I don't know why, but I feel drained - its probably because of someone sawing wood at 23:45 last night, it might be because I've felt meh for the last couple of days.

I've got to hold trials for my new team next season, which you would think its easy enough to stand there shouting directions at kids, there's also a tough side to it too. Its not just about their abilities to play football, its also ensuring that they have the right attitude to play, they have the discipline too. I spent far too long shouting at kids who just didn't want to play football, but were forced there by their parents, and unfortunately, the only people who suffered are those who wanted to play football & win- I want to turn this around. Part of this is for the kids, part of it is for myself, that we're actually doing something good, apart from keeping them off the streets.

Thursday night is worrying me a tad. Its the awards nights for the players from the season just gone, and I have to write a speech, based on achievements and highlights from the season. I know it sounds a bit funny to say, but a 5 minute speech based around the teams achievements is hard enough, but when you've picked up 2 points, conceeded 50 odd goals is going to be even harder. To top it off, Gary McSheffrey (of Brum City and dumping NUFC out of the FA Cup fame) will be attending, making my night even more morky.

I was tidying up my gaff, mainly because I have an old friend staying for the weekend, but came across a photo album that my mother give me for my birthday once. Decided to scan a few in, just for fun, like, and came up with a couple of corkers. There will be more to come, and available on my flickr site, but really got me thinking, should I move back up to Newcastle ? At the moment, not really sure, but its at the back of my mind.

Best toy ever! My own Tardis. Oh, look at my chubby cheeks.

Me, last week

Anyhoooo, As I say, I have a friend staying this weekend, so should be interesting to see what happens. She's a nice lass, although a little insane, but we get on fine enough. I'm a little bit miffed that the scafolding is still kicking around after 3 weeks, and really expected the place to be painted and clear again. I'm hoping that the weather is going to be fantastic at the weekend, for fun, beer, sunbathing, chatting and catching up. Might even get some shopping in during that time too.

All in all, a busy week - and still not seen Pirates OTC 3 - dammit

Plague!

Since the age of 17 and up until last week, I've had 2 days off on the sick - that includes the time when I broke ny ankle last summer. I don't like being ill, in fact I hate it, but I'd rather be busy, than sitting around doing nothing. I had to have 2 days off on the sick lastnight because of this *thing* I have sitting on my chest - not pretty & certainly not clever. I skipped friday night's mini happy friday meal, because I just wasn't up to it - perhaps I'm getting old and sensible.

I need to get rid of it by the weekend as I'm off to Merthyr to play in a fan's football compo and missed it last year because of said broken ankle. Looking really forward to it, although played football once in the last month - going to be tricky.

Day 2 - Denmark

Before I get onto the main story of the day, lets talk about Denmark a little and how they actually work. Due to the fact that I'm working on a massive account, with some problems, they have what is called a WAR room - where all the coordinators and subject matter experts (that's me) sit, so if there are any questions, they can ask, without moving more or less. The culture in Denmark is, start early, finish early - which is fair play to them really - however, this did mean, getting up at a god unearthly hour (5.30 UK time) to get showered, ready and get breakfast.

Some of you may know, I'm not the best at getting up early, and I do like my sleep, so this kind of knackered me up slightly. Anyhoo, I slightly go on a tangent, we get to this WAR room, where they've already got jugs of tea, coffee, milk, water, everything you could ask for - so by the 10am - I'm a little full. A great thing about Denmark, lunch is from 11am til 1pm - so by 10am UK time - I was having my second meal of the day - crazy. This WAR room also have salads, sweets, cakes everything - damn the Danish Pastry. Anyhoo, by 3.30pm Danish time, we were finished - and it felt good, but strange.

Anyhoo, to the story. I missed the Brakes game last night against Market Drayton - my 2nd missed game of all season - all comps - not bad hey ?! Leamington FC lost 2-1 to the Drayton - bad, but apart from a semi cup final, the season is more or less over. One of the chaps at work, who has been very good for ferrying me around the place, offered to take me to see some Danish Football - which seems fair enough. With temps dipping to around 10 oC and only having a small hooded top we reached the stadium. The story behind the Danish "premiership" goes something like this, Brondby (the team we went to see) were massive for many years - a club for the fans. Then popped along FC Copenhagen, which from what I can tell is more or less a franchise club, who attracted fans from all over the country and it concentrated on selling things etc etc - a little like the Chelsea's and Man U's of the world. Brondby and FC Copenhagen are the closest rivals, so it tends to kick off - but in a quiet Danish way.

The ground can hold around 20K fans, but tonight only had just over 10K - which for a cold Wednesday night, fair play to them. The opposition for the night were relegation fodder Viborg FF and as soon as we got into the ground (just making kick off) you can tell the fans are mentalists and follow the team with pride and passion. What was quite interesting, was that most of the songs were English football songs, sang in English too. The first song I heard, I recognised straight away - a Newcastle song, but obviously changed the words slightly. The curse of Warburton kicked in, as Viborg FF went ahead due to the keeper completely misjudging a freekick. Half time came and thankfully, a warm drink and a hot dog later, we moved upstairs to get some seating action (around lovely pretty women - mmm). Brondby must have had a good kick up the arse from the managers team talk and came back, scoring 1, then 2 and with a couple of minutes left, scoring a 3rd.

After the game, I asked if there was a club shop that I could get a shirt from, and the chap showed me, admitting that he needed to keep a low profile, as he was a Randers FC fan, but would help me out. I asked Rich if he wanted a shirt (after he offered to get me one from Germany when he was out there) and got a text back saying "yes, get the away shirt, the home one (which is yellow) would make me look like busby".

My conclusion on Danish football, fun & exciting. It needs to take off a little more, and they need to change their tactics a little more. Its slower than the premiership and English football in general, and they'd rather pass the ball within 50cms, rather than punt it over to the wide man, who has been stood there for 20mins, more or less taking up a new hobby. Thoroughly enjoyed tonight's football tho, an experience that I completely enjoyed, however, missed watching the Brakes play.

Relativity...

I was pretty pleased with myself lastnight. I decided to get off my arse and play 5aside football, with most of the students and a couple of IBMers - its a game I don't really enjoy playing, because its full of, well fast footballers. This means, when and if you get the ball (very rare) you have to pass it on, or run with the ball as soon as you recieve it. Its also a mechanism to find people's weak spots, and basically, for crap people like myself, to have the piss taken out of me. I felt lastnight I couldnt do anything right, and thats not me being negative, its the trust god damn it. I had my back on goal, had a ball passed to me, knew someone was free on my right, so passed it perfectly, only for him to miss, but - but - people shouted at me that I should have shot. Minutes later, I took a curling in shot from the left wing - and people say I should pass - meh - football for you.

Pete and Vince had invited me to play the slightly later game (8 til 9) so by the time I got home (7.15) I decided that enough was enough, and I wanted to take things into my own hands and I was going to play a 2nd game in 3 hours.

I do like playing this slot (although its a little late in the day for me) mainly because you do get the space, you do get the time on the ball (time & space = more confidence = more time and space .... etc etc ....). Its been a while since I turned up for this slot, but was met by loads of handshakes, welcomes and asking how "Geordie" has been and where I've been. So, we play, I megsy an old bloke, giving me more confidence, had a couple shots on target, and probably had the better game there, even tho I'd ran around for an hour already.

Anyhow, heres where the relativity thing comes in. When I got back, I had a call from a mate of mine, Een. I tend to only ever get calls from him, if his lass is up the spout (hi Sarah), Headley has managed to get himself into even more debt or Big Brother is about to start. Thats not to say we don't keep in touch, its to say, he reads my blog often and doesnt need to call me to find out whats going on.

Anyhoooo, turns out, he was at Gatwick Airport, about to take a flight. Where ? The Sahara Desert to run in a race.

The Sahara Race is a self-supported footrace across 150 miles (250 kilometers)
of the Sahara Desert in Egypt. The race consists of six stages, lasting 7 days,
with distances ranging from 10 to 50 miles (20 - 80 kilometers) per stage. There
will be checkpoints conveniently positioned along the course every 7 or 8 miles
(10 - 12 kilometers). Competitors are required to be fully self-supported
throughout the event and must carry all their own food, gear and clothing, which they will need to complete the 150 mile (250 kilometer) course. Water (including hot water) and a place in a tent will be provided daily. Generous cutoff times will be established daily so that anyone walking the course can complete it. A
limited number of three-person teams and individuals will be accepted.

Excuse me ? Isn't that just mental ? He's a 31 year old man, with two kids, lovely lass of a wife - and he's running 150 mile in the desert. Anyhow, after feeling good about myself, I felt a little deflated, that I've probably done like 0.03% of what he's going to do, in a better climate.

Good Luck Een!

New Year, New Rules

We have MC joining a gym, John going off jogging & Debbie being generally healthy, so I thought I'd get on this bandwagon and sort myself out. Slowly at first of course, after all, I did get back from Newcastle full of cold thanks to my mum's storage heaters, that appear to have sucked every ounce of water out of me. First of all, I started shopping at Sainsbury's, to reduce my weekly shopping (see, bit of CIS too), and also get a wider range of healthier stuff. Yes, I bought some Haribo too, but you have to treat yourself once in a while. I dont know what it is, but of late, I've really got myself into peppers, so appear to be having them with anything that doesn't move. The Haribo thing is Philippa's fault - after the last visit, she had this massive tub of starmix, of which I had to eat the majority, still not making a dint in the mass pile - magic you see. Luckily, I cant find the tubs down here, but prefer SuperMix, less problems with my fillings - anyhow I digress, once again.

So yes, I've been eating a little more healthier, with salad, fruit and veg, and less ready meals and deep fried mars bars (that bit isnt true, snickers maybe). On top of that, having forked out for a nice fancy dan running jacket, I decided to take it for an airing on Monday. It was a little damp, a little rainy and windy, and was worried incase I fell into the canal, but you know, if you dont go out, you wont do it - so I did. The jacket is fantastic, and houses my nice nano pretty well, and to top that, I managed to do from our bridge to the goose bridge without stopping. Being full of cold that I am, I was gasping for air at the other end, with bits coming out of my mouth, which wasnt very nice (sorry if you're eating and reading this).

I'd already signed up to 5aside football on Thursday (which has now been cancelled) and the usual slot on Wednesday night and came back with a tight hamstring - so going to take it easy til Friday and hope I can stretch it out. I havent played football for around a month or so now, so was nice getting a couple of goals, even though I could have easily had a hatrick, if I wasnt looking at the ground while running at the same time - oh well.

Ribcage!

Sunday was a fun day .. well actually, no it wasnt. After being woken by my mobile (cell phone to the yanks) at 09:20 and being asked to collect rainjackets for the kids at 10:45 ready for the afternoon, actually getting soaked while collecting the rainjackets and being told "shame none of them fit you, oh, dont you look wet". I got home, managed to get a shower (of all things) and then dry, myself and head coach Pete headed over to Coventry, having our usual team line up discussion in the car, we get to this nice little pokey village where its starting to slowly rain.

Under one tree was the "home" players, under another a group of "away" parents and under a safe umbrella, 16 kids huddling to keep warm - in the distance, a pylon and a railway track. Needless to say, 2 minutes later, thunder and lightening kicks off and no one really knows where to move too - I took the option and stood in the middle of the pitch. I was in a real twat of a mood and decided to only give those kids who didnt have a jacket, a rain jacket - with every intention of giving the rest out after the game. The rain got heavier so got our lads out training, trying to get that pyschological edge over the "home" team who were cowering and praying to someone that they wouldnt end up in Coventry's worse electrical storm. To conclude, the game got called off, I got soaked for a 2nd time.

With not running around like a headless chicken telling 10 year olds to "wake up", "get a grip" and "sort your sham out" I decided to play 5aside football with Captain Pete - it was about time I got some football playing into me - so on the 3rd attempt, I got drenched to the skin, and to make matters even worse - got a swift elbow to the ribs by an opposition player, and felt my rib go inwards. Very strange feeling and completely knocked me for 6 - not only in the mind, but also in speed. We ended up loosing 12-9 or something, but still managed to get a goal - scrappy though it was - decided if ribs are better by Wednesday, I'll play my old stomping ground of 6pm KO as the kids now train on Friday - huzzar!

U11 Colts - Match Day #1

You may or may not be aware that I've taken up the management of Leamington Brakes U11 Colts. This is the first season that I've done any type of football management, and also the first time the lads have played 11aside. An interesting combination.

The Colts were the only team playing away from home today against Coundon Cockerels with a 1.30 kick off. This is the first season that the U11 Colts have played 11 aside, and indeed the first time myself, Pete and JJ have been involved in training and coaching kids.

Following the destruction of the one and only friendly that the colts were involved with (9-1 against emscott colts) we played a 5-3-2 formation, with Dan Dyson, David Fairbairn and Matthew Robertson in the centre of defence. Left and Right back were the twins (Gabriel and Isaac Saxton-Knight). Running midfield were Rory Barber (Cpt), Harry Gane and Aidan Bradbury, while Charlie Smith and Wilf Dove played up front and supported by the midfield. Richard "the stopper" Cure was ever present between the sticks.

Playing for the first time on a full sized pitch didnt phase the lads as the back 5 kept strong throughout the first half, with the Brakes going into the first half with a commanding effort with around 3 close chances and the opposition hardly getting a sniff on target. Making subs in the 2nd half (including Julian Loscombe, Nilun Dubay, Zack Wilkins and Thomas Henderson) the Brakes were playing into the sun, however after a number of counter attacks, the lads broke through the Cockerels defence, and Bradbury taking in a strong shot on target and the keeping making a hash of it.

The remaining of the game was 50-50 with it looking like the Brakes were about to get a good away 3 points. However, disaster struck with 2 minutes left and the Cockerels itching through our defence and putting it inches wide of Richard who had a blinding game. Refreshing to see a referee (who was their assistant) having a good game - and being awarded full marks by Leamington Brakes FC.

Final Score :-
Coundon Cockerels 1 - Brakes U11 (Colts) 1 (0-0 HT)

MOM :-
Rory Barber

Summary :-
60 minutes of 120% commitment from the lads and more importantly, playing as a Team.