Half Term Details

Hello everyone, Hope that you are having a good half term break. What a tight game we had on Saturday at Okehampton, been thinking a lot about it since the final kick off. One thing is certain that no matter what happens in the rest of the season, I cannot imagine anything surpassing Sam P’s extraordinary header off the line at the end of the match. It is rare, as the match report said, for there to be universal applause from home and away spectators…even the referee was applauding for the amazing athleticism that Sam showed to put in that match saving clearance! Training on Wednesday as per normal at Isca (6-7) and will focus on 1v1 & 2v2 attacking play…..retaining the ball in attacking play. We have no match on Saturday 1st November but we will be training at KGV. I am trying to organise a friendly match, failing that we will be working on a few things and then have a 5 a side tournament. So if you are able it would be great to see you at KGV 10am – 12noon. Any problems please let me know, Thanks, Mark

Argyle clash ends with honours even!

Simmonds Park provided the setting for Citys’ latest away game visiting Okehampton Argyle,fellow promotees from last season and a much anticipated further test.

There was a distinctly autumnal feel given the chill in the air and the colours of the surroundings,on the banks of the East Okement river (simplified by a pre Grease Olivia Newton John to Ohio).As the teams lined up there appeared a tactical conundrum about to unravel,with City lining up in the 3 4 1 formation the manager had alluded to previously,Okehampton looking to an ambitious 3 1 4 facing downhill.

However as the choice went captain Sams’ way,it was City who looked to start the delayed kick off playing against the gradient and Okehampton reverted to a lesser attack minded structure.

As the teams settled over the opening minutes,City pressed,notably with a Will P shot,but back in defence,Charlie and Sam P had to show body strength to hold off spirited Argyle offensives.

Gradually,over the first 15 minutes,the balance of play was definitely with the visitors,Joe and Alfie W getting plenty of the ball on the right hand side,at one stage forcing the keeper to leave the area,and suddenly a Ewan shot was close and City were taking a fourth corner.

First blood to the away side as Will P swept over a flighted ball and Dan made a clever run to head the ball with power,rippling the net in a move that had practice ground meets inspiration written all over it.A certain top three goal of the season contender,at this early stage anyway.

The rugby pitch was certainly a sapping surface to control and measure a passing game of football so it wasn’t just the residential last week that some of the lads had enjoyed that contibuted to the weariness displayed by both teams as the game went on.

The half ended with City a goal to the good but not one nil.Okehampton had levelled with five minutes to go but Citys’ lead was immediately restored when Alfie W went on a poaching mission to capitalise as the Argyle goalkeeper could not pick the ball up outside of the area.He almost cajoled the ball back to his feet and put it in the net, tumbling as he did so.

Following the break,substutions made saw the introduction of Ryan,Will A(outfield) and Alfie R,with Charlie given more free rein in midfield.

Although the sun had come out,the wind was blowing off the moor and it seemed to negate the perceived advantage of the gradient.Sam R was drop kicking consistently with distance and Josh in the centre of defence was constantly battling the onslaught as it came back.

Ewan continued to run byline to byline,more so defensively in the second half,a tireless display earning the Man of the Match award.Ryan took over corner duties but City just couldn’t press home the advantage when presented and the final score was secured when Sam R was given no chance from the penalty spot.

Those looking for the magic of Dartmoor however only had to wait until near the end of this game.Prior to handing over the captains armband to Dan,Sam P executed a remarkable diving header to divert a certain goalbound ball over the crossbar and maintain the unbeaten away record,the incident provoking spontaneous applause from all around,including the referee.

Now then Sam,with Halloween approaching,was that trick or treat?.A treat to watch from the City followers.       

A meal of two halves!!

News has reached the sports desk of a great night out last night with a strong squad of mums taking on the strong Nandos line up. 

As you can see it was an interesting 3-3 formation with Aggett, Worth and Sloman proving to be a right well drilled unit. Nothing (including any white wine) got away from this strong formation. 

The attacking formation of Scanlon, Tapp and Cuningham showed great awareness and were dynamic in polishing off anything the waiting staff throw at them. 

It was a clear win for Central City and a good time was had by all!! Next weeks training focus will be on nutrition in high performance sport ;-) 

Half term training

Hiya

Sorry I should have said in my last message that we will be training next Wednesday evening. Appreciate it's half term, but if your not going away training will be from 6-7 as normal. 

Thanks

Mark 

Great training .....but we missed the Isca boys!

Evening all,

What a delight it was at training this evening, everyone working really hard and with focus.  We missed the Isca boys but hope they are having a great time.

So Saturdays game is away against Okehampton.  Just a reminder that kick off is at 11:30am so if we can meet at their ground at 11:00am for warm up and match preparation that would be grand.

We know that Okehampton are a strong team and will offer us a tough physical test. 

The starting team will be:

Goal Keeper – Sam R

Defence – Charlie, Josh & Sam P

Midfield – Ewan, Dan, Will P and Joe

Striker – Alfie W

Starting Subs: Will A, Ryan, Alfie R & Oscar

Rested & Unavailable: Tom & Cameron

Sam P will be the captain for the day.

See you on Saturday, should be a great game.

Thanks,

Mark

PS – Wishing the mums a good night out tomorrow!!  Send in pics for the blog!! :-) 

Midweek fun!!

Hi everyone

 

Hope that you have had a good weekend, Saturday seemed weird without football!

The draw for the quarter finals of the Cup has been made and we have a home draw against Division 2 team West Exe Youth.  A team we know well from last season.  The game has been scheduled for Saturday 22^ndNovember at 10:30am at KGV. 

 

I will update the fixture list when I can but wanted to give you advanced notice.

 

Midweek training will be without the Isca boys who are in Bude on a residential trip. 

 

The focus will build on last weeks excellent session. Specifically receiving the ball at pace, both on the ground and off the ground and trapping the ball.

 

We will also be thinking about Saturday’s match away at Okehampton.  Just to remind you that the kick off has been put back until11:30am.

 

Best wishes to you

 

Mark

Go on.....have a lie in!!!!

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to wish you a lovely weekend and hope you enjoy the rest. 

Brilliant....no outstanding training session last Wednesday, thank you for putting so much into the session. Moment of the night has to be watching Alfie R's great skill in rising a good foot in the air and showing great control to bring the ball down. 

So see you all on Wednesday. We will be without the Isca boys who will be in Bude for a cheeky residential. Have a great time boys. 

Hope you all have a great weekend

Mark 

Mark's Musings!

Hi everyone, 

 Well I am sure, like me, you have been thinking a lot about the match against Bideford Blues. 

 I really enjoyed the match, the spirit it was played in and felt so proud of all the players who really gave everything. We often talk a lot about learning from games like that and I would encourage you all to think about what you learnt and took from the game. 

 For me I think I realised that we should have started with a 3-4-1 formation. Starting with 4 at the back was a good idea but it gave Bideford too much space in midfield and that in turn meant that we always found it hard to push forward. 

 I thought that they were an outstanding team, but a very fair team and it was great to see players from both sides playing with such sportsmanship. Just a couple bits of business from me….. 

Training this week as normal will be 6pm – 7pm at Isca. 

 The focus of the session will be linking up play and dynamic passing within match situations…..in other words ‘one – two’s!!’  

 We then have a rest at the weekend as we have no matches on Saturday 18th October. 

 I think we all deserve a Saturday off so propose no training either on that day. 

This will also give the boys that go to Isca time to pack for their week long residential trip which departs on the Sunday. 

 Speaking of which I have asked that the match the follo9iwng week away against Okehampton (25th October) is put back to 11:30am kick off to give those boys an extra hour in bed. 

 There will be NO training during the half term week (Wednesday 29th October) either. 

 Think that’s about it, hope all the mums have a great night out on the 23rd October…..I hear the planning for the dads weekend away to Prague is progressing nicely!! 

Thanks everyone Mark

Message for the Mum's!!

Calling all mums!!

Planned social event is all sorted!! Strictly ladies only! 

Meeting at Nandos in the city centre at 7pm on Thursday 23rd October. 

A well deserved night out!! 

The story of the blues!

As Pete Wylie sang with the Mighty Wah,this is fast becoming the familiar story of the blues.

Our fellow promotion rivals from last season,and the division champions to boot,show no signs of diminishing their strength and depth of quality squad,and provide a decent standard test for any team in this age group.

Once again,it is such a reflection of the City side that an individual Man of the Match could not be chosen,such was the Herculean effort that is required just to compete at this level.With light rain clearing and a wet,quick surface,Bideford Blues kicked off and quickly settled into a rapid passing game,fast to the ball and with excellent ball control at pace.

The City side held their nerve though and despite Bideford pressure and several attempts on goal including a great effort skewed over the bar,it was over 15 minutes of play that had passed before the City boys fell a goal behind.

The advantage was seized and the away side further pushed home their fortune by adding two further goals to their tally by half time.

With such a squad and making full use of the allowance to use regular,fresh substitutions,there just always seemed to be an extra yellow shirt in midfield for Central to contend with.

Perhaps this contributed to the confusion:As George Jones sings in the Country and Western standard,”blue must be the colour of the blues”....so the blues play in yellow!

Second half,City’s half.Subs,Ewan on,Charlie off due to injury,later to return to once again resiliently ride some elbows and fierce tackles.

Joe on to run the left back time and time again,replacing Tom,who ran the right back first half,time and time again.Bideford score another three but City get two,important,not just confidence boosting goals but deserved reward for tireless running in midfield,shape in the back four and,lets be honest,Will A saving three times as many prospective goals than actually went in.

Joe is alert to a rare Bideford defensive lapse and Dan gets a welcome opportunity.Alfie W runs the blues and this time nets.So 2-6,final score.Pizza Hut replace the prawn sandwiches and we reflect with warmth,just why we will bother to turn up for training on the cold Wednesday evenings that lie ahead.

Jasmine & Andrew 

Two words......Bideford Blues!!

Hello, 

A great session again last night, thank you boys for training really well, good concentration and despite the rain hope you all found it enjoyable and useful. 

As you know John and I always give great thought to team selection, trying to get the right balance of players and positions. Bideford Blues will be our toughest challenge this season so far and with a squad of 15 boys this has been a tough one. 

The starting team for Saturday’s match will be: 

Goal Keeper – Will A 

Defence – Sam P, Josh, Cameron and Charlie 

Midfield – Will P, Dan and Tom 

Striker – Alfie 

Subs – Ewan, Joe and Sam R 

Resting - Oscar, Alfie R and Ryan 

I hope you all agree that the standard of football has been significantly higher this season and as such the formation and shape of the team is really important.

As is our use of substitutes which we will do to ensure we have fresh legs, different angles of attack and cover for injuries. 

We will start this match in a 4-3-1 formation. A strong defence will hopefully allow us to absorb Bideford pressure, we will then look to switch to a 3-4-1 formation for the second half but this will depend on how we are getting on….the half time team talk will be really important. 

Parking will once again be tight at KGV, could we ask all players to be ready to start the warm up and match preparations at 10am please. 

Also a hand putting the goals up will, as ever, be grateful. We will be playing on the same pitch as last week. The weather is looking a bit dodgy but come wind, rain or shine I hope that we all have a great game and really enjoying this beautiful game!! 

Any problems please let me know, if not see you on Saturday. 

Oh yeah sorry forgot, Pizza Hut after the game, have booked table for 12:30pm but am sure we could arrive a bit earlier. Bideford are not going to join us as they have to get back which is a shame but understandable. 

Cheers everyone 

Mark

The start of a big week!!

Hi everyone, 

 Reading Jasmine and Andrew’s match reports is rapidly becoming a highlight of my week, many thanks again. 

 Also a massive thank you to everyone who helped out this week on the Snack bar. I have just heard from Nigel and Tim that we made £102 for the club which is a great achievement so thank you. The money raised from the snack bar goes directly back into the club funds which is in turn invested in the boys football. 

 I really enjoyed the match on Saturday, yes it was a comfortable win for us but we played some nice football and looked every inch the Division One team that we are. 

Well done once again to Oscar for being the player of the match and also to Will Pye who despite being ill during the week had an outstanding game and a hatrick to boot! 

 Well done also to Will A for being a great captain, and whilst you didn’t have a lot to do in the game, what you did do you did well!! 

 And so……… 

Saturday’s match against Bideford Blue will be our biggest test of the season thus far. 

They are an outstanding team and we will need to be at our very best to try and match them in all areas of the pitch. I believe playing the type of football that we are currently that we can give them a really good run for their money. We will be picking the starting team on Thursday as per normal. 

We will be resting three boys, taking three subs in addition to the starting 9.

No matter what the outcome, win, lose or draw it is important that we all really enjoy the game and the occasion. 

I have suggested a post-match social lunch at Pizza Hut (Digby) (12:30) which has been welcomed by many people, if you haven’t let me know if you would like to be included in the numbers I would be grateful.

 I have also invited Ross and the Bideford players which should be fun, although they are not sure if they will be able to make it. 

Training on Wednesday will focus on attacking and defending from corners, so if we could start at 6pm promptly that would be great. 

Weather!! Just to say that we seem to be heading into a spell of inclement weather. We would only call off training if it was dangerous (eg lightening or flooding), similarly matches are only called off if the pitch is unplayable (as it was for a lot of last season!!) or due to lightening. Of course if anything is called off I would be sure to let you know. 

Hope your weeks have all started well, 

Mark

Nine up for the Cup

City ran out 9-0 winners against Division3 Ottery St Mary for a facile,club record win at KGV on Saturday.

A hat trick for Will P plus a brace each for Alfie W,Ryan and Tom was achieved again with a numerically depleted side available for selection so with just one substitute,a good team effort was still required.

The mornings heavy rain was just about petering out as OSM kicked off in good pitch conditions on closely mown grass and clear markings which suited City’s play and allowed some deft touches,backheels and searching long range accurate passes.

As the air temperature took a decidedly downward direction,Will A was probably wondering how best to keep warm between the sticks and it was a full 15 minutes before he had to be alert for a good save.

Still,it did provide the luxury to run the captains’ eyes over next weeks opposition Bideford who were playing Central United in the game behind his second half goal.

And talking of keepers,the OSM glovesman had a great game despite the scoreline because Statto was needed to count the number of City corners in the match which was well into double figures and beyond.

He was more than entitled to follow a 2nd half great save with a Peter Crouch style robotic dance shimmy.

The City style had pulled in a big KGV crowd and probaby an excess of Bideford spies,as it’s hard to believe they were all there practising for driving on the M25 (check out the car parks) or to watch other games that may have been going on.

This was confirmed by the Fortnum and Mason catering staff of the day,aka the mums,who sold out of most of the Central stall produce and provided a neat shimmy of their own as necessitated by the kettle to hot flask relay and milk run.

Man of the Match went to Oscar for never stopping running and for embodying the Central City spirit once again.

Now then boys,to the matter of next week.

A repeat will do just nicely!

Jasmine & Andrew 

An international signing!?

Hi everyone, 

Just a quick update. I have been approached by a new parent who is really keen for his son to play for a team in the league. 

Piers has just moved back to the UK after living in Spain (where he trained with Barcelona FC) and United States (where he was Chicago-Midwest skills champion!!) so sounds like a top quality player. 

 I have discussed this at length with John and also with his Dad. 

We have invited him to come and train with the squad on a Wednesday evening in the first instance. 

In our discussions we have talked about the balance of ensuring all players get fairness and parity in game time throughout the season, however as with this weekend, we need to be mindful of players not being available and injuries etc.

Piers and his dad, Peter, hope to come along and watch the match tomorrow, it will be nice to meet them and I know that they will be made to feel welcome. 

See you all tomorrow, good luck with the parking!! 

 Mark

City for the Cup!!!

Hi everyone 

Another good (and hopefully fun) training session last night. 

Looking ahead to our Cup match on Saturday against Ottery St Mary it looks like we might be quite light on numbers, with Dan, Ewan and Sam R all unable to play, Charlie has also been rested due to having a nasty head injury playing rugby midweek at school. 

We wish you a speedy recovery Charlie. 

So the starting team will be: 

Goal Keeper - Will A 

Defence – Alfie R, Josh and Sam P 

Midfield – Ryan, Will P, Tom and Oscar

Striker – Alfie W 

Starting Sub – Joe 

Rested or unavailable: Dan, Ewan, Cameron, Sam R and Charlie I have also heard from Andrew Pye overnight that Will P is also poorly so we could be down to 9 come match day!! 

So would ask that you all keep yourself injury and illness free, big breakfasts and I am sure we will be okay!! 

Reverting back to our normal 3-4-1 formation for this game, it should be a good game. 

Just to remind everyone about the chaos that is sure to ensue with the parking this Saturday, so I would encourage you all to try and get their nice and early. 

For those able to assist with the snack bar I will be trying to get to KGV with a key for about 9:15am so can unlock and get kettles etc on the go. 

We will be playing on the first intermediate pitch which will enable those running the snack bar to also watch the game. 

Thanks everyone, Come on City!!! 

Mark