Southside 4, Inter Sutton 2.

It was great to kick off the season with a well earned win against a Sutton team who never give up.
We held a narrow 1-0 lead courtesy of Scott , when floodlight failure brought the game to a temporary halt.
When the Palace staff finally managed to turn the lights back on the game resumed and the goals started to flow. Fabio  squeezed home a shot through a crowded penalty area and Perre  scored the first of two to make the scoreline seem comfortable. Sutton fought back  with two goals, and also hit the bar as they battled to bring the scores level. Perre notched his second to  take the game away from Sutton.
The best 'goal' of the game came as Reece ghosted in at the far post to connect with a great cross from Perre. Inexplicably though, the ref chalked the goal off.
We were rusty last night after the summer break,  but there was lots of effort and we played well in patches.
Dome starts again next Tuesday.

Goals: Scott1, Fabio 1, Perre 2.

Saturday Fixture

We've been challenged to an 11 a side match on Saturday 10th September - on Clapham Common. It's against Brixton FC - they're a good team who play football the right way so it should be an interesting challenge for us.
text to confirm availability.

5 a side league?

Southside FC could enter a team into a 5 or 7 a side league. This would be an opportunity for some of the more competitive players in the squad to get together and try to win a competition.
We'd need a volunteer to run this - and the games are relatively expensive  - usually £7ish per player per game.
There's a really good 7 a side league in Balham on Sunday evenings that's got a waiting list and a 5 a side  league on Thursdays at GOALS in Beckenham with spaces available now.
If we entered a Southiside team into a league it would be in addition to the usual Tuesday Dome sessions and the Monday/Tuesday 11 a side games.
Over to you - the club can provide an initial cash float to get things started but after that it would  need to run independent of the rest of the club.
Just an idea - let me know if anyone fancies taking a lead on this.

Park Life

Really good session last night. Honourable draw against a team of Rugby players.
Next week we'll meet behind the Windmill pub as usual but we'll probably play a bit further into the common where there's a better playing surface and more space.
I'll bring  the last of the new stock off yellow tops and some bibs.
See you all next week.

New kit

I should have the new kit by the end of the week. Red tops for Milky, Mark B, Cet, Billy, Reece plus 1 spare XL shirt. Also 12 new yellow shirts available for £6 each on a first come first served basis. Bibs £1 each.
Hope to see everyone on Tues

Football on the Common

Over the summer break, some of the squad plan to  keep playing every Tuesday, 6.30-8pm(ish).
Meet near the Windmill Hotel (see map) on Clapham Common Southside.  Everyone welcome & it's free.

Summer Break

Southside FC's summer break starts now. We'll return to action on Mon 22nd August on grass at the Athletics stadium. Dome sessions will resume late Aug/early Sept.

FC Inter 2, Southside FC 3.

Congratulations to everyone for Finding the venue in deepest Surrey. We started very well, racing to a 3-0 lead. Really we should have made a  cricket score but instead we lost focus and ultimately we were lucky not to throw our lead away. Two goals from Reece and one from Scott  were just enough to  nick a win against a physical and direct  FC Inter  side. Despite having lots of ability all over the pitch we got drawn into reacting to FC Inter's  style of play rather than sticking to our own short passing game. We did create bundles of chances - Kevin was unlucky to have an excellent goal chalked off wrongly for offside but Inter created a few good chances too  as we committed too many players in attack.
I've got mixed feelings about this game - Suffice to say that i'm really looking forward to a few weeks off  before we return to action on August 22nd.

Next Mon - Away Fixture

Next Monday's games is an away fixture against FC Inter in Sutton . The pitch is at Nonsuch High School, Ewell Road, Cheam, Surrey, SM38AB.
The pitch is 3G Astro -  You need to wear astro trainers as boots with studs are not allowed at the ground.
See map. Please text to let me know your availability for the match.

Dome Back in Action

We're back in the Dome tomorrow from 6.30-8pm as usual.
My phone has crashed so  i can't send texts to remind people - please spread the word.

A couple of weeks ago we had to play on the outside pitch next to the Dome. Here's a few seconds of, frankly, not very exciting footage.

All the goals

Turns out Bilal's film contains all 12 goals. 11 of ours plus Effra's consolation goal.
All of the first half goals are on this clip.
In  order of appearance look out for goals from ; Martin1st, Martin 2nd, Scott 1st &Tariq:

I'll post the second clip containing the second half goals  in a bit (Second Half- Scott 2nd, Martin 3rd, Scott 3rd, Effra Goal, Yus, Billy, James, Martin 4th.)

If anyone wants a DVD copy just let me know.

Stat Attack

Left peg sharp shooter Scott has scored 20 goals in just 10 games  over the past 4 months.                                                                      

Southside 7, Grafton 0.

Another really good team performance. Well done lads. For the first half hour we controlled the game and never looked like conceding.It's not often i can say that!
Initially players on both teams struggled to  get used to the wet conditions. We created, and missed, a host of chances before  Scott and Reece put us comfortably ahead before the break. 2-0 at Half time.
In the second half  we stepped up a gear and took the game beyond Grafton's reach.Scott added two goals to complete his hatrick. Reece scored a second to cap an excellent performance. Tariq notched another good goal and Bilal rolled back the years with a great goal from a spectacular overhead bicycle kick. Grafton never gave up and created several good chances of their own but we held on to keep a second clean sheet in 3 games.
Four late arrivals and 2 late pull outs  created the opportunity for some new players to make their debuts. Aurelio, David and Younes all made their mark in a game where all 18 players worked really together.
The game was played in  an excellent spirit and Grafton, despite a heavy defeat, are really keen to set up a re- match.

Team: Phil, Yusuf, Mark D, Billy, Aurelio, Reece, Oz, Oguz, James, Younes, Dane, Bilal, Malek, Tariq, David, Scott, Sam D, Fabio.

First Goal

Here's the first goal from the 11-1  victory v Effra - the first of Martin's four.

There are two more that i still haven't uploaded, both from the first half. in the end, i"ve found 11 of the 12 match goals on bilal's tape - just Tariq's strike missing I think.

Once i work out how to put Hi res films on the blog, and find some spare time, i'll put them all up on the blog together in one highlights package.

More goals

Here's Yus's goal along with goals from Billy , James and the best of four from Martin. Also check out  Yusuf's near miss lob.

There are still a couple of goal's to go. Watch this space

Judge For Yourself

Bilal watched the footage of this goal 4 times and thought the ball had hit the bar. I watched it and though the same. Then I slowed the film down and to my amazement i could clearly see the ball bounce back off the inside of the net. And to think Bilal says we're not up to Sky Sports standards yet.

It's not so clear on this compressed file, but for  anyone who still has doubts , just watch it on DVD and you'll be converted. Great goal Yus!

I'll upload more goals tomorrow if i get time.

Yusuf's Goal against Effra

Hi Bilal,
Thank you for updating the Blog with the videos :) Goals looking good. Shame my smacker wasn't recorded :(
I'll just have to score another one like that for the camera :)
See you Monday.
Yusuf

Editorial balance

For the sake of editorial balance, here's the Effra goal

goal3

Here's another one of Scott's - I think we've got the other one on tape too.