Summer 2013 General Discussion Thread

Lovely Bloke

Was great to see so many bodies at our first game, as as I said after the match, that's why we were able to push on in the second half and get 7 goals. Fresh legs.

For those who didn't start, don't worry about that - everyone's contribution is counted equally, whether you played from the start, or were on the pitch at the end - it's a squad effort more than anything.

Just a heads up, there ARE various people already not going to be here for 2 or 3 week stretches, so opportunities will present themselves as the weeks go on, do not get disheartened - if you take the place of a person and do well, that person won't walk back into the team ahead of you - no-one is entitled to play from the start, no-one is entitled to play the full match.

We are all in it together.

With +6 GD already, we should be sitting at the top of the league (results from 2 games not in yet), so there are 17 games left - 51 points to play for, we've already got 3 of a possible 54 points. Let's stay at the top, if we all push together we can remain there.

League Table
This is probably the best squad we've had in a couple of years, so with the numbers and talent we have, we'll have a good tilt at it.

Name|Goals
Wes|2
Dave|1
Ciaran|1
Derek Mc|1
Damo|1
Gar|1

Yeah as I was saying to a few of the lads half the battle in these leagues is fitness. They gave us a game the first half but because of how well we played and our overall fitness it became a rout.

Everyone did well, great to see so many leaders in a team helping out the new lads. For me at left back Derek letting me know what was around me helped me a lot which others were doing throughout the squad too. That approach wins games and if we approach every game with that same attitude of helping and encouraging everyone else we have a very good shout at winning the league and getting a good run in the cup.

All I'd say is if we find ourselves in a tough game we need to be clinical with our chances because other teams will punish us.

Lovely Bloke

League Table


Name|Goals
Wes|3
Derek Mc|3
Dave|2
Ciaran|1
Damo|1
Gar|1

Other results from tonight

123.ie 0-2 FB Monks
Cork Exiles 1-1 Drakesville
Grant Thornton 1-1 BallAlley Angles
TheGaryAbletts ?-? Roys Rovers

The Ballalley -v- Grant Thornton is significant because they both won last week.

Also, Cork drew again, and now Drakesville have a loss and a draw.

The other result is not posted yet, but I'd expect Roys to have won that game, simply because they've been playing together for a while. The result won't affect us at the top, as both lost last week.

Our GD is now +9, which is +6 better than second place - they haven't conceded a goal yet though.

Anyway, we are top by virtue of scoring goals, mostly in second halfs, due to our large squad.

Let's keep it that way.

Lovely Bloke

League Table


Name|Goals
Wes|3
Derek Mc|3
Dave|2
Jules|2
Ciaran|1
Damo|1
Gar|1
Total|13

Other results from Week 3

A.B Cycle Factors F.C 4-1 The Gary Abletts
Boards.ie 2-1 drakesville united
Cork Exiles FC 6-2 123.ie.
Grant Thornton 1-1 Fabulous Benedictine Monks
Roys Rovers 0-3 BallAlley Angels

So, we've opened up a 2 point gap, which is nice, and again, two teams that I expect to be up there challenging have drawn, which is good news for us.

We've won our points, but a word of warning, we've beaten three teams who are in the bottom 5, and play a team with 0 points next week.

Fair enough Drakesville were a step above the previous 2 teams, but there are 4 other teams who'd I'd consider to be a step up again, based on what I've seen of them.

We need to be clinical next week against 123.ie.

It's shaping up to be a good season, but draws will kill teams, we need to keep the head together, and keep our strong numbers coming out to games, it will be the difference in August.

helimachoptor

spot on, we had a test last night but we will face tougher through the season and we've got a stretch of playing the teams chasing us coming up over the next few weeks.

Lovely Bloke

League Table


Name|Goals
Wes|3
Derek Mc|3
Dave|2
Jules|2
Ciaran|1
Damo|1
Gar|1
Total|13

Results from week 4

A.B Cycle Factors F.C 3 1 drakesville united
BallAlley Angels 1 3 The Gary Abletts
Boards.ie 0 1 123.ie.
Grant Thornton 1 1 1 Cork Exiles FC
Roys Rovers 4 4 Fabulous Benedictine Monks

Look at those results, we stay top by a point.

But Ball Alley getting beat by Gary Abletts, and us losing to 123, shows that there aren't really any easy games in this division.

We are pretty lucky to be still top after that performance last night, so we need to take a lesson from that.

Lovely Bloke

League Table


Name|Goals
Wes|3
Derek Mc|3
Dave|2
Jules|2
Ciaran|1
Damo|1
Gar|1
Total|13

Results from week 5

A.B Cycle Factors F.C 1 - 1 123.ie.
BallAlley Angels 0 -0 Fabulous Benedictine Monks
Boards.ie 0 - 0 Grant Thornton 1
drakesville united 3 - 1 The Gary Abletts
Roys Rovers 1 - 2 Cork Exiles FC

We are top of the league, still by a point, by virtue of having won 3 of 5 games, others have won 2.

What that says is that this is a very tough league with very evenly matched teams, and we hit teams cold. Our two friendlies stood to us, which is good.

We do need to kick on though and get another win under our belt next week.

helimachoptor

Yeah we have 4 incredibly tough games coming up.
We need to rediscover our form for the first 3 weeks.

cork and ballalley play each other next week and the Monks could have a tough game too so a win may see us open up some a few points at the top.

Lovely Bloke

i'll miss them - I've another job lined up, was trying to keep it quiet, but the guy I'm replacing just couldn't shut up about leaving.

helimachoptor

We play the Monks next week who are a very good team.

we are 3rd (2 points behind the leaders) who play BallAlley.
With a win, we could be top but it will be a tough game.

helimachoptor

So at the midway point
League Table

We are in 3rd place, 5 points behind the leaders who play the Exiles next week which will be a tough game for them.
The Monks in second have a potential banana skin against Drakesville who knocked 4 past BallAlley tonight.

We play the Gary Abletts, this is a game we 100% must win. The week after with play the league leaders.

Mousewar

It's a strange league. We beat AB Cycle factors quite handily but they haven't lost since, are top of the league, and won last night against the team that beat us the previous week.

Gary Abletts have improved as well - they beat Grant Thornton last night who we only drew with. So I doubt our match against them next week will be quite like the 7-1 we beat them on the opening day of the season. Will be tougher for sure.

helimachoptor

Yeah, its very much a league where anyone can and will be anyone else on a day

Mousewar

Mousewar wrote: »

It's a strange league. We beat AB Cycle factors quite handily but they haven't lost since, are top of the league, and won last night against the team that beat us the previous week.

Gary Abletts have improved as well - they beat Grant Thornton last night who we only drew with. So I doubt our match against them next week will be quite like the 7-1 we beat them on the opening day of the season. Will be tougher for sure.

Yep

Complacency is a disease of any team so we need to take every match as serious as the next. If we go out with the right attitude & giving 100% commitment as Jules said in the remaining games this season we have a good chance of winning this league. It's all about hard work at the end of the day. We have the players and squad to do it so lets keep it going from here.

Mousewar

So are there cup matches this season?

helimachoptor

Mousewar wrote: »

So are there cup matches this season?

Yep, Fridays, would imagine it'll be a few weeks before they kick off

Lovely Bloke

Last year it kicked off in July

helimachoptor

The Monks play before us while the Exiles play the league leaders at the same time.
An ideal result would be a draw there which coupled with a win for us would see us 3 points behind the leaders who we play next week.

helimachoptor

helimachoptor wrote: »

The Monks play before us while the Exiles play the league leaders at the same time.
An ideal result would be a draw there which coupled with a win for us would see us 3 points behind the leaders who we play next week.

Good stuff

Once we just concentrate every week on the job at hand without any complaceny we can beat anyone. I think the most important thing from what I've noticed that the calmer we start the better we get on, meaning if we get the ball knocked around early without any real pressure we normally push on quite well.

When we've been put under pressure early we seem to struggle big time.

Lovely Bloke

Quiet thread this year, so I'll just stick in some facts and figures.

Firstly, the final league table


Fixture Details



Results



League Position Week to Week



Player Appearances



Goalscoring Chart



Line-ups

Great goal tally Derek, 15 in 16 is good going!

helimachoptor

Jesus Des thats a fierce amount of work to track all that stuff!

sReq | uTeK

**** me Des, you have no life.

Would have won the league if I.......................................... :P

I'll be back for cup games, BOO YA.

Lovely Bloke

not much work - takes 5 mins to update the spreadsheet on a Wednesday morning.

The worst stat there, for me, is the fact that we used 28 players this season. That's worrying, and is a big factor in why we were so inconsistent. When we got a settled 13/14 lads for the last few games we were pretty good.

I think we/I made a mistake in starting with so many people, but by about halfway through the season we started to struggle for numbers on a weekly basis.

Now, we had unprecedented injuries. Jules, Ciaran, Gar, Darren, Wes, Damo were all missing large portions of the time and most, if not all, of them lads would be looking to make the XI each week, so we were pretty unlucky there I think.

Some positives, we scored in all but 2 games. We took at least a point off each team - apart from 123.ie, in both games against them we were absolutely woeful.

helimachoptor

The summer in general is always worse as people have holidays but added into that injuries to so many players we were decimated.

A big thanks to Luke and Ste who were both immense

Mall10357

helimachoptor wrote: »

The summer in general is always worse as people have holidays but added into that injuries to so many players we were decimated.

A big thanks to Luke and Ste who were both immense

And me

Lovely Bloke

Ha ha, yes, and you!

mrDerek

was not expecting stats to be posted nice surprise