Southside 2, Dynamo Kebab 7.

Spanked 7-2 by the mighty Dynamo Kebab. What can I say? First of all apologies for my inept performance in goal – 90 minutes of falling over , waving at footballs as they sailed into the back of our net isn’t what I had in mind when I planned for the match. Unfortunately Geoff, Alex H, Junior and Neill R were all unavailable. I think we need a new 5th choice keeper.

It wasn’t all bad……although it was almost all bad.

6 players dropped out at short notice and it was good that we could find 5 replacement players on the day. Everyone did their best and there were some good performances. Dane was excellent all game playing at full back and fully deserved his goal. Scott got on the scoresheet too, reacting quickest when the kebab keeper parried a second half penalty
On another day we could have scored half a dozen goals - in the last 15mins of each half we created bundles of clear cut chances but it just wasn’t our day.
Kebab were everything we weren’t – well organized and patient, they simply waited until we committed too many players forward and lost our shape, and then hit us on the counter attack.
Too often when we had possession, all of our players ran away from the player with the ball instead of making themselves available for an easy pass.
Never mind. It was just a friendly and so long as we learn from our mistakes it’s no problem.
No Dome tonight. Next session is next Tuesday. Next matches are on 5th, 9th and 24th of May.
See you all next week.

Effra 3, Southside 2.

Thanks to everyone for  coming down to play at such short notice last night. It was a bit chaotic to  say the least and we didn't hit top form but still it was a good close game. We  took the lead against the run of play but struggled against the pace of Effra's attack. Promising debut's from Mo, Ade and Junior and good performances from squad players like Reece, James and Dane bode well for the future.
We were really unlucky not to get something out of the game. The Effra winner should have been disallowed and Danny White was unlucky not to grab a second goal when his  brilliant long range strike crashed off the bar with the Effra keeper beaten.
  The Effra lads have bet me that Scott won't score against them next match. Scott, you know what to do.
I'm really looking forward to the match on Monday against Dynamo Kebab. Let's relax and  show them what we can do.

Goal!!!

Here's Scott's ninth Goal in 4 games. Captured on film by Danny White in the 5-2 victory over Effra Effra Academicals

Southside 5, Effra 2

Great result Lads! Just got a text from Danny White  at Full time. Sorry i couldn't be there.
Goal Scorers; Scott 2, Fabio 1, Paul 1, Tariq 1.
Big thanks to  Danny and Fab for taking over in my absence tonight. Congratulations  to everyone - sounds like a really good performance.

Apparently there's some video footage so i'll try to get that up on the blog next week.

Anyone want to write a match report?

Summer football

Palace  are re-seeding the Stadium pitch  from Mid May - mid June.  The stadium pitch will  also be out of action in late July/early Aug for the Athletics Grand Prix.

Palace have confirmed that we can play on the Stadium pitch on Mon 9th May, Mon 20th June and Mon 11th July.
We'll probably also play two or three games at Dulwich College on the Astro - possibly May 24th and a fixture in early August.
From Mid/late August we'll go back to regular fixtures on the grass pitch.

From Mid May  we'll  we'll train on  Tuesdays on Clapham Common instead of in the Dome  and then return to our weekly Dome sessions in September.

I'm lining up a match against Metropolitan Housing Partnership, probably for May or June - If you know of any  other teams who'd like to play us, let me know now before i book teams in for the summer fixtures.

Dome, 29th March

Well attended, nice relaxed session - 18 people  so 9 a side.
Looking forward to the match v Effra on Thursday.

Dome, 22nd April.

Top marks to Big Paul and Geoff who attended training the day after the big game. It was a good session with 5 of Geoff's workers coming down to  make up the numbers.
I'll pick the team for next Thurs after training at the Dome on Tues.

Southside V Grafton Film

I filmed a couple of mins of the game on Monday - got 3 goals  - Can't believe i switched the camera off before Malek scored his  goal.  I don't think the Grafton Keeper and defenders would enjoy watching this clip.

Southside 8, Grafton 3.

Hard to believe that we went into the break 2-3 down. At half time everyone agreed that we needed to work harder and keep things simple but we were all confident that we would win. Our confidence was not misplaced. Within 20 mins of the restart Grafton were out for the count , 6-3 down , before briefly rallying. A fantastic point blank double save from Geoff  snuffed out the Grafton fight-back  and the Mighty Reds cruised  to their biggest ever victory. Excellent debuts from Billy and Alex P, a good shift up front from  Bilal and a dominant performance in Midfield from Big Paul were highlights of an exciting evening - Goal of the night went to Malek  with a beautiful second half strike  but  surely man of the match was the irrepressible Scott  whose four goals were no more than he deserved. Scott went home with the match ball - fair enough, it is his ball!  All great stuff  but we'll need to  improve our defending as a team and become more compact if we want to win against Effra next Thursday. Well done everyone, see you tomorrow.

Team. Geoff, Dan K,Chet, Billy, Alex Howard, Luis S, Alex P,Malek,Tariq, Big Paul, Perre, Bilal, Scott.

15thMarch Dome session

A record number of people attended this session. Great stuff. Really good to see lots of people arriving early. We hit the maximum number - 27- and then had to turn latecomers away. Just as well we had an extra set of shirts. We split into three teams - Red Team, Green team and White Team.  Everyone played each other twice. I think the Greens shaded it but  i wasn't really keeping score. Can anyone remember the score?
I'm picking a squad of 14  for the match v Grafton next Mon. I've booked the Dome next Tues as well so that everyone can get plenty of football next week.
Remember to text or e-mail confirmation in advance and bring your cash to guarantee a place at each Dome session

Southside 4, TPS 2.

Southside completely dominated  75 minutes of an exciting match last night. Well taken goals from Tariq and Danny White and brace from Scott were no more than we deserved. The 4-2 soreline did not flatter us - we could have won by an even bigger margin.
That said , for the first 15 minutes we were a shambles. When we took the lead on 10 minutes it was completely against the run of play. Geoff was out celebrating his wife's birthday and so it fell to Alex Hill to keep goal for the night.We offered Alex no protection and  he did well to keep the score down in the opening minutes. Two quick goals from TPS turned the match on it's head. The less said about both goals the better. The  most important thing is that everyone stayed positive and everyone kept working hard.
Soon the air shots and long balls gave way to simple, crisp, short passing. The team regained  a bit of shape  and soon we wrestled control of the game from TPS. From this point the match was joy to watch. 2-2 at half time, but we were all confident that we would prevail in the second half. It's impossible to pick a man of the match. Perre was unplayable on the wing, Daniel Knowles was a revelation at right back,Owen and Cet were rocks in defence  and Paul and James  both made assured debuts. Scott capped the evening with a great  strike from open play and then put the game to bed with a coolly taken penalty after Marcel was brought down in the box. It was a night when everyone played their part, on and off the pitch. The best thing for me was that all of the subs  cheered and supported their teammates all night - Kelvin, quiet as a mouse on the pitch, roared like a lion off it. Great stuff.
Back to the dome for the next 2 Tuesdays , then we've got 2 games in 10 days towards the end of the month.

Effra 3, Southside2

The Effra captain said he thought they were lucky to nick a win against Southside on Thursday.Congratulations to the squad of 12 who came close to getting a result against well organised opposition.
Big thanks to Yusuf and Danny White who took charge in my absence.
I wish I had been there to see Scott and Marcel put us 2-1 up. With a bigger squad we might have been able to hold onto our lead but it was not to be.
Our next game is on Feb 28th.We'll name the squad after training on Tuesday

Dome 8th Feb

Great session last night - loads of good passing and some excellent goals. Looking good for the match next week.

Dome 1st Feb

Well attended session this week - 20 people - the game was a bit disjointed with people drifting in from 6.30 to 7.15 , but still lots of fun. Next week  we'll get things a bit more organised and focus on teamwork.

Team news

The success of Southside FC  means that we have 20+ players wanting to play in each match. The feedback I've had so far suggests that the majority of people want to stick to 1 squad, and want to limit  match day squad sizes to a manageable number of about 15.  This  means, for the first time, that I won't be able to offer a place in the match day squad to everyone who trains at the Dome.
It's likely that we'll offer everyone the choice of being either a casual club member or a full club member.
To join as a full club member, all you need to do is buy yourself a club shirt - (Cost £12-£20)- then you'll get a squad number. (The Southside Chief Exec has bought 15 shirts for Southside staff and customers , so these 15  full club  member  spots will be available to Southside Staff and Customers ) If you don't join as a full member, you'll be welcome at the Dome every Tuesday,  but will only be eligible for match day squads if fewer than 15 full club members are available.
At the moment this is just a proposal.We can discuss this on Tuesday.

Get well soon Yusuf

A sad end to a great performance on the pitch last night for Yusuf, who left for hospital with a dislocated shoulder.Yus was injured in the second half of a pulsating encounter between Southside FC and Crown Agents.
Big thanks to the lads from Crown Agents who helped Yus until the ambulance arrived.
Most of our subs left early and so the team battled on with 10 men while I went to call an ambulance and look for a spare shirt so that Daniel knowles could get on the pitch to replace Yus.
Loads of great play on show - the last 20mins was probably some of the best football Southside have played  - solid at the back, and creating chances for fun up front.
Loads of positives as ever, but last night was a bit of a watershed and we'll need to restructure the club , of which more later.
Thanks to everyone for your efforts.Get well soon Yus.

Dome Session - 18th Jan

Great Session. Very well attended  with loads of good football on show.
I hope everyone's looking forward to the  11 a side match on Monday.

Best Fans in the world

Check out the Southside fans( subs) roaring the team on to glorious defeat from the main stand at the Palace Stadium on Monday. I only  filmed 30 seconds of the first half and 1 min near the end of the second half - My hands were too numb to operate the camera.
 Southside fans outnumbered Ewell fans 10-1: that's actual numbers, not a ratio! Great to See Scott's Dad and Yusuf's family  on the touchline too. Big thanks to everyone who braved the cold and wet to represent Southside on Monday.

Southside 0, MRC Ewell 2.

Southside crashed out of the Millenium Invitation Cup last night despite a valiant effort from the whole squad. Despite the scoreline, the match was actually very even. MRC Ewell went ahead in the first half after a Ewell forward crunched Geoff in goal with a crude challenge to make Geoff spill the ball. Southside battled on and were still in the game until late in the second half. Southside looked solid in defense until Ewell made the game safe with a flukey second.
  So we lost, but the team spirit on show was a vast improvement on last week. Everyone  worked really hard, exemplified by Chet who continued after being  pulled from the mud in the second half following a  big collision. We are nowhere  near reaching our potential yet.When we do we'll start scoring a hatful of goals.
Keep the faith. See you all next Tuesday.

Spain

We might have a chance to play in a friendlly 8 a side tournament in Southern Spain later this year. I've just heard that it's likely to be in October rather than April so we've got time to save up. Let me know if you're interested