So, the BTH Raiders are back with a bang in 2011 with their first friendly match of the season, and a first win. We took on the Harbord AL5's on a cold, windy, rainy Sunday evening, and beat them 4-2.
I was AMAZED when I turned up to find we had 15 players for the game, that's twice as many as our average for the league games last season. Nice one boys, hopefully this season will be more fun than last season. If we can get the team from Sunday on the pitch regularly then I think we'll have a good shout of winning this year.
Adam played in goals for us, and did a great job. Only one small error where he palmed a shot into his own goal. We can't blame him for that though, he had spent a full season watching Rury last year, so he was bound to be a little confused.
We played a 3-4-3 formation, which worked well going forward, but maybe not so well at the back, so some shuffling around maybe required for the next friendly match.
The team was from the following:
Defenders: Mick, Craig, Dean, Javs
Midfielders: Dave, Brian, Robbie, Tony, Nico, Alain
Strikers: Butch, Ben, Tucks, Alan
In the future, I hope to get some photos from the games to make the blog more interesting.
I am hoping to organise another friendly match in the next few weeks to give us a bit of match practice before the start of the season, I will let you all know as soon as I know anything.
Alan
P.S. In true football team fashion, we will be doing a 'dick of the day' award each week. This week it goes to Ben for using the word Scrimage to describe a friendly match. Brian was a close second for backing him up on this point, but just got away with it.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Thursday, 13 January 2011
From the archives
The year was 2005, the sun was shining, and the team was, well, above average for the division we were in. It was my first experience with Belrose Terrey Hills Raiders and what a year it was.
To cut a long story short, we won the minor premiership (league to all normal football fans) on the last day of the season on goal difference. We then went on to the semi final, where we played a team with a pretty solid defensive record. We went 1-0 down early in the game, and with about 5 minutes left we made what everyone must have thought a crazy substitution, McIvor off, Johno Whitehead on. As it transpires, it was a substitution of extraordinary genius by Super Coach Javs. Johno meandered onto the park and without breaking stride bundled the ball home for the equalising goal! Extra time golden goal followed, and we duly marched on to the final courtesy of a fine finish by paper legs Goddard, aka Mr Burns. He went on to celebrate his goal by running about 500 meters away swinging his shirt around his head. We celebrated with him when he returned.
The final was a fantastic day out, and we won the game 3-1 before going out and tearing Manly up that evening. A fantastic team and a fantastic season.
Some of the players from that year are still playing, some have moved on. Six years later, the class of 2011 are looking to recreate some of the magic of that team. For my money, we won that season because of our team spirit and willingness to fight for each other on the park. Hopefully we can bring some of that spirit back this year.
Here are some photos from the class of 2005.
To cut a long story short, we won the minor premiership (league to all normal football fans) on the last day of the season on goal difference. We then went on to the semi final, where we played a team with a pretty solid defensive record. We went 1-0 down early in the game, and with about 5 minutes left we made what everyone must have thought a crazy substitution, McIvor off, Johno Whitehead on. As it transpires, it was a substitution of extraordinary genius by Super Coach Javs. Johno meandered onto the park and without breaking stride bundled the ball home for the equalising goal! Extra time golden goal followed, and we duly marched on to the final courtesy of a fine finish by paper legs Goddard, aka Mr Burns. He went on to celebrate his goal by running about 500 meters away swinging his shirt around his head. We celebrated with him when he returned.
The final was a fantastic day out, and we won the game 3-1 before going out and tearing Manly up that evening. A fantastic team and a fantastic season.
Some of the players from that year are still playing, some have moved on. Six years later, the class of 2011 are looking to recreate some of the magic of that team. For my money, we won that season because of our team spirit and willingness to fight for each other on the park. Hopefully we can bring some of that spirit back this year.
Here are some photos from the class of 2005.
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