Saturday 27 March 2010

First of two part blog:Spizz picks the teams on Friday night

Punk star Spizz, who has promised me a sensational half-hour set supporting The Glitter Band on April 9th at London King Cross venue Scala, picked the teams last night. Unfortunately, his team floundered to a 5-2 defeat. The game was memorable for an uncontested penalty (the ball clearly hit Tone in the D) while Spizz's team was hit by an uncharacteristic poor performance
from young Sam for them.

Our team just gelled from the off with the two holding
players of Tone and Stevo. Our attackers Joe, Ross and Will began running in great positions confident that Tone would pick them out with some great passes. Stevo swept
up everthing in defence while I swore that Lardy Ian was actually playing box-to-box for us. Tone got the first goal for us with possibly a speculative shot, which was deflected (Big Dave?). Spizz's team did not get on the score sheet for ages and the match might have had a different outcome if the Spizz shot, which beat me all ends up
(not difficult) and hit the post, had actually gone in.
Alan Morg. got in a rare right-footed goal while Big Dave slotted the penalty for them. I think but can't remember that Tone got another goal while Stevo marked one on
the score sheet. The goal that broke their hearts came at the 4-2 stage, which was taken really well by Ross.

Advanced tickets for the gig are £11.50 and are available at sites such as ticketweb.com and flagpromotions.com while the other support acts are Angie Bowie and Tracie Hunter Band.

Spizzenergi are not mentioned on the electronic flyer on the ticketweb site but they are on the physical, laminated flyer in front of me.
The Flagpromotions.com site has Spizzenergi on the e-flyer.

Two part blog and Spizz promises blistering set!!

This is going to be a two part blog and Spizz has promised me a blistering half-hour set
in the Spizzenergi support act for the Glitter Band on April 9th at London's Scala venue in Kings Cross. I am going despite being on a Friday night and missing my beloved footie. After the recent candid blog about classifications, which may be misconstrued as a polite way of saying to a guy, "you can't cut the mustard playing
football". Some of the boys have got their own back by suggesting that I move upstairs to being manager. Not even transitioning to being a "player manager", straight to
manager. I am staring at retirement in the face!!

Tickets for the gig, headliners the Glitter band, other support acts Angie Bowie and
tracie hunter band are available at sites such as ticketweb.co.uk at the advance price of £11.50. Spizzenergi are not mentioned on the electronic flyer on this site but are on the physical, laminated flyer in front of me.
Flagpromotions.com has the up-to-date e-flyer on its site.

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Stop press:I am not being rotated this Friday!!

Yesterday, I pushed the boat out and Gashead Simon received some fine wining and dining in south Hertfordshire. The upshot is that I am not being rotated this Friday!!
OK, the Bristol Rovers fan just had a beer and fish & chips. On the previous blog I should have put myself down as B/C as I am quite good at zonal defence while Spizz is A/B because he often scores some very good goals.

Monday 22 March 2010

Gashead's team cruise to 5-1 victory on Friday!! Classification of players!!

Despite my illness and the sorry state of the railway service I made it to watch the game on Friday night. When I eventually arrived after the start it was a close 1-1 draw but then it turned into a rout with Gashead's team cruising to a 5-1 victory. Gashead picked all the players he liked for his team such as Tone, Yev, Big Sam and Alan Morg, who are quite quick and good passers of the ball and then stuffed the opposition team with all the players he does not like such as Simon Ink., Geoff and perhaps the great man himself Spizz . These players don't like passing or can't pass. The opposition also had Alex, who is the best player on the field skillwise but again can't pass. It was Alex and Big Dave, who kept the opposition in it for so long.

There was one opportunity when Simon Ink. just had to backheel a freekick to Big Dave, who is famous for his powerhouse shots but Ink. lamely passed it to someone else, who was already marked. Ink. was oblivious to Dave's screams for the ball, possibly his ears were still affected by his recent trip to the Himalayas.

A few times Spizz was in so much room on the left it was embarrassing but he did he get the ball, well of course not. I would suggest a more mathematical or equation based
formula to selecting the teams. Players would be graded A, B and C and then we would have Venn diagram-based selection for the two teams. The A category players would be
Alex, Big Dave, his brother Stevo, Tone, Big Sam, Alan Morg. Mick K., Yev and Ross.
These are players, who can make things happen, who can produce.

Then, the B category are good players, who can pass the simple ball such as Gashead Simon, Doha Danny, Joe and Gooner Simon. Spizz and Henry are good players and are very useful attack-wise but let themselves down by not running back and by not passing.
Big Ian has more lard than you can imagine but he still has a turn of space from representing his school at county level in running. West Bromwich Ian has a good all-round game, quite good in goal but often shoots from too far out where his conversion rate of shots to goals is normally zero.

The C category include myself due to age, ailments and lack of fitness. Simon Ink. is a good dribbler, good in goal but is not a great passer, more head-down. Then there is Geoff, who is often late arriving for the game and is very inconsistent. He can either score a hat trick but nornally he can take absolutely ages in distributing the ball. Historically, Geoff never passes to me except during the last game I played in January when I fell over in shock. On the plus side he also one of the best goalkeepers with Big Dave and Gashead Simon.

Sheffield Andy's best position is also in goal or in central defence as a blocker because he has long limbs and is quite big. However, he often insists on hugging the touchline upfront, which is probably the wrong strategy in seven-a-side football.

The four best players are Big Dave, Mick K., Alex and Tone. Big Dave is also very proficient in Italian-style defending. Tone leads the vets (over 50s), which include
me, the oldest, Spizz and Simon. Alex Morg. is very good but only has one foot while
Ross is exceptional dribbling and shooting but is not one to track back. Yev has a killer instinct in front of goal, is very pacey but you could die of boredom, if you are waiting for a simple pass from him.

So last Friday's game was seven a side and Gashead Simon picked four A category players and three Bs for his side. Then, there were two As, three Bs and two Cs for the opposition, so no wonder they were eventually slaughtered. I was available for selection before a bout of chemo but apparently I am being rotated. It would have been a far tighter game if Big Sam had swapped over for Geoff or Simon Ink.

On a more sentimental note Simon Ink's girlfriend was still waiting for him even after his two month plus sabbatical in the Far East and Australia, which was quite romantic in this day and age. This contrasts with my position at the moment where the missus is giving me the ache.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Spizz goes down in 2-0 defeat!!

Punk star Spizz went down in a two nil defeat last time. Apparently, he did not have his passing boots on according to jaundiced team mates. It was a case of the codgers versus the youngsters, which is always a recipe for disaster. There was not much time on the ball with eight a side.

I thought about going to watch or maybe being a referee. However, I would probably opt to play in goal, which would not do much for my fragile confidence. This is especially when I will get the inevitable brickbats after picking the ball out of the net.

On the wider footballing front I was saddened by Phil Brown going on gardening leave. I knew it would go pear shaped when he hinted at wider managerial ambitions in a television interview (hubris?) when Hull had that great start and were beating Arsenal at the Emirates. He did not realise he was just lucky enough to manage a Premier League team. Look at the number of managers, who have got the experience to handle the Premier League and are not doing so such as Hughes, Strachan, Curbs, Coppell and Megson.

Thursday 11 March 2010

Sorry to register a lack of match reports!!

Dear Reader, I am sorry to register a lack of match reports. Nobody seems to want to send them or perhaps the games are too boring to share with you. Anyway, Spizz is
supporting the Glitter Band in April and he has been assured that Gary won't be there. I have to admit that Spizz was excellent when we saw him perform in the 100 Club last year, so there is life in the old dog yet.
As for today I am surprised that it has not been declared a national day of celebration following the elimination of Real Madrid by Lyon from the Champions League last night. My team Man Utd put AC Milan to the sword; well, Wayne did. Even the Gooners cruised through to the next round. I was having recurring nightmares that Ronaldo would line up for his third consecutive European Cup Final at the home ground of Santiago Bernabeu and thankfully this will not happen.
Years ago I was lucky enough to watch Nottingham Forest's rearguard action against Hamburg with Shilton and Burns absolutely amazing. Poor old Kevin Keegan trudged off defeated. That took place in Santiago Bernabeu.

Monday 1 March 2010

Sorry to be behind on the match reports!!

This is the report for the previous Friday from SteveA.

The initial selection favoured a Simon win so the sides were changed at 2-0 down. Big Davie swapped with Simon Redhead to join the Bibs composed of Spizz, Henry, SteveA, Ian Geary, Andrew and Joe. With the sides more balanced it was the Bibs against Simon and we crawled back to finally losing 4-3. On the whole, the Bibs were wayward in their shooting and only created chances when there was a patient build up of passing and movement off the ball.
www.spizzenergi.com
I will leave the rest to your imagination!
The Guv'nor comments:
In fairness to Simon Gashead, it is difficult to pick balanced sides. There are the vagaries of form and it is rare for a team to come back from 2-0 down. Rather than
knuckle down and try to mount a fight back, it is easier to make a slight
change.