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I could get used to this

anthony — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:27:31 +0000

Naas AFC 0 – Dunboyne AFC 1. Our second win in three weeks. We’d left Dunboyne around 12 with four cars travelling. We barely made it for the kick off at 1 but thankfully the ref was sound and didn’t give us any hassle. Only one problem though, one car was missing with two players. He was at least 15 mins away so I’d only have ten to start with. Shite. I could put one of them straight in when they arrived though. Let’s just hope we don’t concede until we’re back at full strength. A break down the wing, a shot that just dips over their keeper and we’re one nil up. “Is this actually happening?” I thought. Indeed it was. The lost lads arrived and were raring to go. We had chances, Naas had chances but we played well as a team and held on. I punched the air at the final whistle. I really could get used to this.

We could get something from this

anthony — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:51:08 +0000

I’ve set the side out as strong as I can. Away to Castleknock Celtic and we haven’t played them yet this season. The last time we were here it was a close game. The first half has been even enough. They seem to be at our level in terms of ability to play it on the deck.

Crap, we’re gone one nil down ten minutes into the second half. The defense are playing well but we’ve got caught with a quick break down the wing and a low shoot. I’m not too worried though. There’s been chances for both sides, we’ll get an opportunity to get level. The opportunity falls to ‘Mittsy’. The keeper saves it initially, shite the chance is gone, nope he’s caught the rebound well from a tight angle and it’s in. The parents are celebrating but I’m shouting at the lads to concentrate. It’s one thing to get level in a game, it’s another to sustain it, I’ve learned that, especially with this team. They’re listening though.

A one-on-one with our keeper is saved. Christ this is nerve wracking stuff but we’re getting opportunities. A break down the wing, their defender puts it out for a corner. We could get something from this. Jack swings it over, the defender only knocks it on and Adam connects with a volley from 6 yards. I was fucking right. Beautiful. Two one up and three minutes to go……there’s the final whistle. This I’ll remember forever. My first win in two years as a manager.

Numb

anthony — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:08:01 +0000

4-2 up with fifteen minutes to go. We’d been under pressure for a certain amount of the game but took out chances when they came our way. Time’s ticking on and I’m thinking that we may well have our first victory here (well, when I’ve been present on the sideline anyway).

4-3. Shite, we’re getting tired now but we still have a goal cushion. Great saves from the keeper, we may well hang on.

4-4. Oh no, they’re starting to fall back too much and the other team are lobbing balls into the box. A header brings Donard level. Still a draw would be a decent result considering the amount of saves the keeper has made.

4-5. Another deep ball into the box, the keeper makes contact with the ball but it goes into the roof of the net.

Jesus, when will I ever get some luck. They showed heart, commitment and bottle this week after last weeks drubbing. The result will never be important to me in the long run, I know it’s not about that. Today of all days though I wanted a win. Not to be. Onwards.

Ten

anthony — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:24:34 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, I train and manage a football team for Dunboyne AFC. We’re the fourth team at the under 12s age group. To be honest, I’ve never really felt I’m good at it but I’ve stuck with it for the past few years. It’s quite difficult to get a result with the side we have as most of them haven’t come up through years of playing ball. They’re the kids who like the game and are enthusiastic. I suppose that’s why I stick with it.

We had a game this morning out in Knocklyn. We lost 10-0. They were all over us from minute one. I couldn’t believe it, this was supposed to be a side at the same level as us. We’d come out last year and gone away feeling very disappointed having conceeded in the last five minutes and lost one nil. This side was very different from the one we had played. To be honest, I’m convinced at least a few of their players were from the higher teams at that age group. They were just so much better than our own lads. I felt sorry for them since getting a drubbing like that would demoralise anyone. My goalkeeper had tears in his eyes after walking off the pitch.

Ten nil

anthony — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:47:50 +0000

Had our worst defeat as a team last weekend when we lost 10-0 to Rangers CYM. Immensely frustrating to watch. We didn’t pass the ball, defend, hold on to it when we had it and generally just played dismally. We have a home fixture this week which I hope will raise their spirits. We certainly can’t have a repeat performance like that.

Go horsey go

anthony — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:47:47 +0000

Stuck a few euro on the Cheltenham Gold Cup this afternoon and made about €8. Looking forward to the weekend now. The 10C1 game tomorrow had to be called off as almost everyone was busy. Not suprising considering the day that’s in it. Blogging will probably be sparse over the next few days but will do a bumper entry on Monday. Enjoy your Paddy’s Day.

Knocklyn United 0 – Dunboyne AFC 0

anthony — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:45:57 +0000

Forgot to write up a report for the game last Saturday so only getting to it now. A tight game for us by all accounts. Had a full turn out of 11 players and we arrived at their pitch early so we went through a light warm up. The pitch they played on had a slight downhill angle on it and we played that way in the first half. Chances for us were few and far between unfortunately and I knew we’d have a hard time coping with their pace and passing. Knocklyn had a few chances here and there but we kept them at bay without too many scares. The second half would be tougher though and we must have weathered maybe 3/4 goal mouth scrambles most of which our goalie did extremely well to smoother. He’s really coming into his own and deserves a lot of credit for keeping a clean sheet against, what turned out to be, the league leaders. A progression from our last game and the first points of the season. Hopefully it’s a home game this week so we can rally some additional support.

Mount Merrion 2 – Dunboyne AFC 1

anthony — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:53:12 +0000

Disappointing result this morning. I’m not too sure how much I’ve explained about the coaching I’ve been doing over the past few months but here’s a brief outline. Around mid-September I started to coach an under 10s team from Dunboyne AFC. Some readers (if there are any ) may remember I used to coach a 13s side from the same club. Since September we’ve been playing games and training pretty regularly. They are the third team of their age group at the club so most of them aren’t natural footballers but they give it their all. The weather over the Christmas period and most of January has been quite bad so we haven’t had a game in almost 7 weeks. That brings us to this morning….

All we knew of Mount Merrion was that they are the team above us in the league so we knew it’d be a tight game. There are a few teams in the league who get hockey scores every game. They’re the type of football clubs who can fill 2/3 teams with quality players at any age group. They probably train harder and take it more seriously so fair play to them. The game with Merrion was, as we thought, a balanced affair but unfortunately we gave away two sloppy goals in the first half. They don’t have the best positional awareness at this age so we left players free for the goals. We can work on that though. The start of the second half was much better and we pushed on. Rob got a break of a ball from one of their defenders and did really well to hit a left foot shot past their keeper into the top corner. The rest of the half was very scrappy and we couldn’t find an equaliser. A positive point from the game was the fact that the lads (and girls) didn’t stop running and after a lengthy lay-off that’s an achievement. The first victory is coming.

So I says to Mable, I says….

anthony — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:48:41 +0000

Bit of a blogging hiatus so a few bits to update on and what better way than to do that than a bulleted list:

The pic above was taken with my new Sony Ericsson k800i cameraphone. The camera on it is 3.2 megapixel so it’s a bit of a step up from the k750i which was 2. So far I’m very happy with it and I’ll be doing a full post on it in the near future.
I’ve taken on a new team out at Dunboyne AFC. They’re an under 10 group and we had a training session on Thursday before the first game today. They’re not a bad side and I reckon they’ll do quite well with a bit of coaching. They lost 2-0 today but played with lots of heart against the second team in the league.
Got free tickets to see Borat next Tuesday in UCI. Hat tip to Damien Mulley for linking to it.
I saw Sandi Thom on Tuesday at the Village. Very good gig and I stuck up some photos. Come to think of it, I’ve uploaded a good few photos today plus more stuff to YouTube for the coming days.

and finally a video from footie last night…..

Fecking rain

anthony — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:14:09 +0000

Today was officially one of the worst this year weatherwise(according to my painting of how my commute went). When I left work it was pretty windy but when I got to the bus stop it just started plunging down and my clothes were ringing went by the time I got on the bus. Then the journey took 2 hours instead of the usual 1 hour at rush hour. Bugger.

Anyhow, had to cancel the planned training session for tonight. It wasn’t worth bringing the lads out in weather like that, especially since the pitches have been closed so much over the past while. We’ve played one game this season which was a 0-6 loss to Swords but myself and Jimmy have a new trainer in with them who really knows his stuff. Hopefully they’ll be in better shape when it comes to the next game.

Was delighted with yesterdays result in the Man United (1) vs Chelsea (0) game. True that Fletcher probably didn’t intend to put it in the back of the net but they all count. I can’t believe Jose Mourinho saying that Chelsea were the better team. Then how come they lost Jose? The man’s a muppet.