Great turn out again on Wednesday night, thanks to all those who played.
A new method for selecting teams was used and it was quite successfull, we had three evenly matched teams who were involved in very close matches. No balls were punted over the fence during match play.

In other news, the player of the season will now be decided by an online poll near the end of the season. There was never really a decent system in place to take the votes after every match.

There is a possibility of a walking football tournament being held close to us. We are looking for a volunteer from our current crop of players to grab the bull by the horns, stand up and be counted, grab the reins etc etc, and organise a team (or teams) to take part. I don’t have any details yet, but they will be published as soon as I get them.

John Cruickshanks saving a Dave Milne thunderbolt

A nice cool breeze fooled a few a people into thinking they’d need extra layers, but they were soon peeling them off as it was quite a muggy night.
It was decided to go with two teams of 8, this meant no rolling subs and the going was hard at times. The first half was a fairly even affair, Bob Miller was having a great night in goals, but for his stops, the final winning score could well have doubled. Billy Chambers made a guest appearance for tonight’s game, and after a being pulled up a few times for running, he went on to have a great game. He finished a great night with a cracking (and well deserved) goal. Ray Parker continues his journey back to fitness and looked like he’d never been away at all.
Frustration got the better of a couple of our top players, the players shall remain nameless. Just remember chaps, you’re allowed a bad game every now and then.
For long spells, the ball was being passed about quickly by both teams, negating the need for anyone to even contemplate running. A lot of these quick passing moves ended with a goal, and that can only bode well for any friendly matches that we may play in.
Big shout out to Dunc the ref for keeping the game flowing and not being afraid to blow the whistle.

Thanks again to everyone who turned up.

Jim McNairn after receiving the match ball for his hat trick

With the late call off of our referee we saw injury prone Bob fill in for Gus without the use of a whistle. This didnt cause too many issues but back up plans are now in place to prevent this problem arising again. Jim McNairn had a well earned night off after his burn out of playing week in and week out chasing the ball when he kicked it over the fence. As you can imagine there was much more ball in play time without him.

Three teams once again graced the great venue of Condor on this sun kissed evening. Some great individual play from some players matched the venue and weather. Sye Webster once again sported his Jack of all trades badge (master of none) by showing his skills out field and in particular in goals thwarting a few great efforts from attacking players before being beaten cheaply by the on fire Mike Bell. Leon Gibson (son of Colin) came along to witness and partake in the game and quickly embarrassed his Dad  by intercepting his pass and blasting into the far corner of the net. Goals were flying in with Dave Milne finding his scoring boots again and Hatchett and Steve Cargill also scoring multiple times. Pass and play of the evening went to Mike Muir – a defence splitting pass from one side of the pitch to the other allowed Mike Bell to ghost in at the far side and coolly slot home for one of his trio of goals.

A few reckless challenges, in the absence of Chopper Wallace, left a couple of guys flattened and goal scoring opportunities cruelly thwarted. We should seriously consider the sin bin for such challenges to prevent players making these challenges, preventing the possibility of injuries. We will discuss this with the referees – you have been warned. We always seem to start late every week causing issues at the end squeezing in the last game. I would ask that players aim to be at Condor no later than 18:45 (but aim to be there at 18:35) to allow admin and the setting up of the pitch, warm ups and picking teams.

Another good night with lots of banter, again from the sidelines. Thanks again to Bob for slotting into the referee slot.

Mike

This weeks game saw the much anticipated return of Mike Muir. Mike’s been away in International duty and Hatchett was delighted to see him back with him being his first pick. 3 teams were picked and Dunc got the action stated with a great “Freep” of his whistle. With Brian Wallace tripping in warm up it wasn’t long before others were catching their feet on the immaculate surface. Unfortunately, one of these mishaps ended in Bob Miller hurting his housemaids knee again rendering him probably on the sidelines for another few weeks. Jim McNairn inevitably put the ball over the fenceand in the net with a rasping drive from a free kick lay off and Dave Milne had an off night by his extremely high standards.

Mike Muir eventually found his rhythm and scored 4 goals in total on the night. The game was marred with some running incidents with newly returned Colin Gibson tearing up the pitch and leaving scorch marks, Steve “the cat” Muir pulled off some incredible saves before being beaten cheaply at one post and then from a sublime curl to the far post from his brother. The old man of the Muir trio was always in space holding up play laying off pass after pass to his team mates.

Where’s Darin some people asked (well actually nobody did) – but he was on thickest wallet duty being invited out to pay for everyones dinner at (probably) the cheapest place in town. Special mention to Dave Spalding who seemed to be involved in everything. Men of the match went to Mike Muir (warranted), Dave Beattie and Usain Gibson. A good night all in all with some great banter from the sideline