Team Huddle

Football training tonight was good. It looked as if everyone wanted to be there and we all played well and played what pundits call "good football". Personally, I played well making a few blinding saves and being solid in my basic skills and I was happy with my performance in time for Sunday's big top of the league clash at Harpur.

I was ready to go home in a happy enough spirit after a hard-working, good-quality session, however, that time came round again when the coach .. manager .. gaffer .. decided to have an "inspiring" team talk. This being my Dad, the team-talk was never going to be one that Matt Busby would of been proud of, and I was right. The talk revolved around the attitude of some players and certain players' dads.. The Gaffer, (which is what I shall call him seeing as I'm talking football), spent most of the thing procrastinating on what a hindrance some people's parents were having on games on a Sunday morning. He got a rough response from my team-mates who were saying that he should be the one criticising and to be honest, I couldn't agree more. The Gaffer takes the policy of "we're not kids so we can work out what we're doing wrong for ourselves". Sorry, but if you're going to manage a team you need to point out where we're going wrong. He has picked up on the attitude problem though, which to be honest Stevie Wonder could pick up on, as someone with half an eye could see the swagger our team sometimes plays with on a Sunday morning. My Dad does a good job on the off the field stuff and he puts 100% to the cause, but I reckon his skills lie away from football management. Secretly, I'm hoping he quits next season with me, but this team has sort of turned into his life, (apart from making pies), so the likelihood of him leaving is quite low.

Throughout this "team-talk", I was taking a back seat and leaning against the wire fence as I usually do whilst letting everyone else talk. The Gaffer, (back to football vocab), after spending 10 minutes talking about attitude, moved on to signing on for next season. You see, we had agreed to not tell anyone in the team that I was dropping it next season, and it still stands like that. I honestly thought he was just going to blurt it out though which would mean the end of Mowsbury Athletic for next season. I don't like to big myself up, but if everyone else sees the possibility that my Dad may well end up being the goalkeeper for next season, they will not bother playing. No disrespect to him, but I'm fairly sure Tinky-Winky would do a better job in goal than my Dad, who is still suffering heavily from his Achilles Tendon injury he suffered last year. The only resemblence he has with David Beckham..

I feel a tad guilty about leaving the side at the end of the season. Especially without letting anybody know about it.. I know that some of the other players are thinking of quitting but, (again, I don't want to big myself up), midfielders and strikers can be replaced. There are players literally queueing up to be in this squad, yet I don't think the queue is very long for goalkeepers. In fact, I'm fairly sure that queue consists of no one.. I am the only person who can be in goal long-term, (Mickey stands in on the rare occasion), so if the team doesn't find a replacement, that is literally the end of Mowsbury Athletic. A long and illustrious history ruined thanks to a selfish decision by it's goalkeeper. Ok... 2 years long history.. but it's still a history!

Besides, it hit me the other day that promotion in refereeing, (which is the reason I'm quitting playing), will be much tougher than I first realised. Of course, when I first applied for promotion, I hadn't got this night-shift job. Now I know I will be working nights, finishing work at 6am then going out to referee at 10am is going to be very tough. Especially for someone who doesn't function properly with less than 8 hours sleep. Being assessed while falling asleep in the centre circle isn't going to get me very far.. However, I shall give it my best shot! I may just invest in a coffee machine..

Anyway, the time is 03:20 and I have promised to go and help out at the cricket club at 1 so I suppose I'd better go to bed. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. A bit of helping out, followed by the cricket season's first outdoor net session with a house party in the evening! Tomorrow's going to be a good one. I shall bloggle about it. Definitely.

Ciao x