London ASPA

[ronin]

Who is/was their manager? If the article below is correct he`s gone from a team bottom of the Essex Senior to a club 19th in Ryman North

 

The club tonight confirmed the signings of six more players. The first is Thomas Howell, who is currently playing for his university side at Greenwich. Second is Tamba Ngongou, a midfielder who came through the Queens Park Rangers youth set-up before having spells at Margate and Walton & Hersham; signed from Windsor & Eton, where he made a total of 13 appearances. Jason Reynolds is a forward coming from Tunbridge Wells in the Kent league where he is currently second top scorer with seven league goals. Rashid Kamara, signed from Harrow Borough where he joined in the summer of 2007 from Haringey Borough. Previously with Wycombe Wanderers and Arsenal. Tuborel Stoica follows his manager from London APSA and finally, Ohima Obiji also has experience with Haringey Borough and London APSA.

 

http://www.walthamforest-fc.co.uk/news.php?readmore=8

[Kaiser Jnr]

Fck knows.

 

http://www.londonapsa.co.uk/page.php?iid=22

[Beeswax]

Last Saturday, it was Gerard Searson who came to the club from Haringey Borough

[Kaiser Jnr]

http://www.nonleaguedaily.com/news/index.php?&newsmode=FULL&nid=48163

[ronin]

Strange choice, time will tell if it`s the right one.

[3praise]

not really a strange choice - as he was only at ASPA for 4 weeks. He is known in the game as a very promising up and coming manager and I for one will wish him all the luck in the world at Waltham Forest. At the same time i would like to hope that the new manager at ASPA will be able to steer them off the bottom as they are a nice club with great aspirations.

[GAFFA1]

who's the new manager at apsa then?

[3praise]

I do not know - but whoever it is i wish them all the luck in the world!!

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted By: ronin

Strange choice, time will tell if it`s the right one

Ronin - Why strange, Ged Searson cut his Coaching teeth at PSV Eindhoven with Sir Bobby Robson, see the article below from last weeks Non League paper:

From assisting Sir Bobby Robson at PSV to coaching a Romanian team named after a cement factory, Ged Searson has spent his career on a European adventure. The 32 year old was the first British Coach to watch Steaua Bucharest train and was also given first hand access to Ajax's 1995 Champions League winners. Now he finds himself a World away, plying his trade in the muck and nettles surroundings of Waltham Forest's Wadham Lodge. The Stags are fourth from bottom of the Ryman Division One North and when Searson took the hot seat last wek they were without a win in six games. He lost his first match 2-0 to promotion chasing Ware but the former Haringey Borough boss has alrady recruited ten new players and is keen to flex the muscles he built up alongside former England manager Robson. 'It was an absolutely fantastic education working with Bobby' he said 'He is a true gentleman and is the most knowledgable person about football I have ever met. I wrote to him in 1998 and asked him if I could come over and he said I was more than welcome. At the time most people in England did not know he was there and he felt like he had become football's forgotten man. I was helping out in training and watching games from the bench. He taught me that football is a simple game at heart. You need to do the basics right and make it entertaining and not overcomplicate things for the players. One of the main principles I learnt from him is you need good players and good people, guys you can count on and depend on. That's why I have brought a lot of players in, I am not saying the guys at the Club do not have a chance but we need to have everyone pulling in the same direction. We need to win some games and get away from the bottom of the table. We can progress from there, next year we want to push for a play off spot'. A knee injury forced Searson to stop playing aged just 17 and he soon found himself coaching at Enfield College. But a chance encounter with Ajax's Director of Youth Football Co Adriaanse in 1996 persuaded him to set sail for foreign soils. After taking in the Dutch Club's World famous youth academy and training with Robson at PSV Searson then travelled to Romania in 2000 when a contact arranged for him to link up with Steaua Bucharest for ten days. He was the first Brit to have a look behind the scenes at the 1996 European Cup winners and was given a unique insight into the Eastern Europeans training methods. From there he ended up as first team coach at second division club Cemental Fiene and became such a curiosity to the locals he was invited on Romanian tv's answer to Richard and Judy.
All this before Searson turned thirty and he insists the experience has shown him that English football still has a lot of catching up to do. He added 'The big difference between foreign footballers and English ones is not necessarily technical but tactical. The players in Romania were almost like street footballers, they were playing on gravel with trainers but their technique was flawless. They spent most of training on tactics and that pays off especially when you see they beat England in the last two major tournament in which they've met. The gap is shortening but I think the tactical awareness of young English players coming through is lacking. What I emphasise to all my players, especially the younger ones, is the combination of technique and tactics'. Searson first went alone as a Manager at Haringey Borough in 2006 having been on the Coaching staff at the Club for nearly a decade. Four players he Coached as five year olds at the SSML side, James Allison, Mark Sholinm, Jamie Millberry and Matthew Pinner, have now joined him at Waltham Forest. Despite the Stags shedding for managers already this season Searson is confident his new recruits can do the business. 'They are really good kids' he said, 'I feel like a father figure to them. Technically and tactically they are very good and once they fill out a bit they will become very good players. That was my first experience of being in complete control and I really enjoyed it. We picked up sixteen points in seven games when I took over but we were still relegated from the SSML Premier League'. From there he went to London ASPA and then Azumah Cofie, the Waltham Forest Chairman, signed him up. 'The road is open to anything, I am ambitious, I want to achieve as much as possible here and then we'll see'.

[Rhodes]

From another's Forum, I thought I would beat Football Man to the punch:

 

Thursday 28th February

Essex Senior League

London APSA 1, Clapton 0

Admission £5

Programme £1 (Which was an A4 colour copied cover, 12 pages altogether, stapled together, very little reading matter, plenty of aderts, the most informative bit was a direct copy of the most recent Essex Senior League bulletin)

 

The standing area at the Terence MacMillan Stadium has now been demolished, and is fenced off. Another hopper there said that a new one will be built, with a ball court behind it. No turnstiles, just a plastic table, and chair inside the entrance, not even proper turnstile! But the two blokes on the jump were friendly enough.

 

There was no standing area at all, merely a rope along either side of the touchlines, which you could stand behind, inside the running track. Shame not to have seen the old stand, I'd syggest anyone who has to tick this place waits until the new one is built. Unless they are planning to move in the near future...

 

There's a small tea bar, which is part of a small office & toilet block, on your right as you walk in. Along the far side is a grass bank, a bit of way from the action but the only current higher vantage point in the ground.

 

APSA are bottom of the table, Clapton comfortably mid-table, and it showed. Not the best of games, but with Clapton trying to play the better football. It got a little niggly, 'thanks' to the referee failing to impose himself, and there was lots of verbals, and handbags. APSA got a winner with a few minutes to go.

 

The crowd was around the 50 mark, though I don't know how many paid, and how many were club officials.

 

This is truly a god awful place to watch football at the moment. I really didn't think there could be a worse ground at this level than Greenwich Borough!

 

But, as I say, the locals were friendly enough.

 

Easy to get to. Jubilee Line to Canning Town, change onto the Docklands Light Railway to Prince Regent, three stops. Turn left as you exit the platforms, and down the road straight ahead, Prince Regent Lane. Walk along for about ten minutes, and you'll come to a very busy main crossroads. The ground is across this on the right.

 

This was only the seventh out of the 17 current Essex Senior League grounds I have now been to.

 

[TB&G]

Rhodes, you wouldn't want to watch a match from the old stand I can assure you. In latter times only one end (the sports centre one) was available and you needed binoculars to get a good look at the game as walking over the track to the pitch side was banned.

 

Our last game there a few weeks ago allowed us to stand alongside (well almost) the pitch behind the market stalls which double up as team benches.

 

For this reason a little bit of atmosphere crept in which will no doubt totally evaporate once fans have to use the (new) stand/s when it/they are ready.

 

The TMS really is the antithesis of what non league football is all about as is Mile End Stadium too.

 

Quite frankly I'd rather have a 10 team ESL with a 9x4 game season or something similar than have to watch matches at places like these.

 

Having said that, the APSA people are typical salt of non league earth and one cannot criticise them for their commitment and enthusiasm.

 

 

[Rhodes]

Trueblueandgold - Can I just say that I wasn't actually at the game myself, I just posted the report from another's Forum incase anyone was interested. I have to ask the question though why anybody would support London ASPA, what's the point and I note that Ged Searson jumped ship as quickly as he arrived when he saw what he had to work with.

[Football Man]

TBAG - I found the atmosphere much better standing on the touchline than it used to be in the old stand. Pity the football on offer wasn't any better! In fairness, it was marginally better than the last game I saw there against Basildon United in the Thames-side Trophy!

 

PS - I love the way old clip Rods (it's a long story!) states that he's beating me to the punch, then pastes an article in which I am directly quoted!

[Jeff Hamnett TSF]

cant you bunch of tarts leave each other alone and let people live?

 

 

[Football Man]

That's no way to talk about the good folk of the Essex Senior League!