Making the headlines again..

[Rob_the_Saint]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-1359045,00.html

[AFF]

That gives me a blank sheet, Rob.

 

Does your PC have a 'snip and glue' facility?

[Iron Webbo]

Nice to see Eamsie getting a bit of coverage.

[Rob_the_Saint]

Just for you, AFF....

 

Managers feeling the heat

By Walter Gammie

 

 

 

STEVE JOHNSON had the better of a duel of new managers with Stuart Cash on Saturday as his Weymouth side saw off St Albans City 3-0 at Clarence Park. That a third of the way through the season the managerial merry-go-round is sending good men spinning out of their jobs is no surprise. But undoubtedly the advent of the new Conference regional divisions has made the pace dizzier.

The end to the Steve Claridge adventure at Weymouth was, as he now admits, almost certainly inevitable in the wake of the departure of Ian Ridley, the chairman who appointed him player-manager, and the takeover of the club by Martyn Harrison, a local hotelier. In hindsight, Claridge has said, he should have left when Ridley stepped down at the start of September.

 

 

 

The plain fact is that where Weymouth were big fish in the Dr Martens League, in which they lost out to Crawley Town last season, the Conference South is a tougher proposition.

 

Even so, when Claridge was dismissed, 15 months into a five-year contract, at the end of last month, he was entitled to point out that Weymouth were only seven points away from the fifth place that will gain entry into the play-offs.

 

The appointment of Johnson came as a surprise. His managerial experience was limited to spells at Chertsey Town, Lewes, where he was assistant, and Arundel. He was better known as the younger brother of Gary Johnson, the Yeovil Town manager, whom he had assisted when his brother was in charge of Latvia by running the under-18 team. His first move was to fill the gap in the Weymouth attack left by Claridge’s dismissal by acquiring Kirk Jackson, who was available after the financial crisis at Hornchurch and made his debut on Saturday.

 

The resignation from St Albans of Steve Castle, the former Leyton Orient winger, a fortnight ago was less surprising as the club had collected only 12 points from their opening 16 matches. Castle’s legacy was the place in the Conference South into which the club scrambled by winning the Isthmian League play-off final 5-4 away to Bedford Town.

 

Off the field St Albans were ready. No longer was an oak tree on the terraces an impediment. A preservation order had meant the oak could not be cut down but the Conference would not accept St Albans while it stood. In 1998 the tree was found have a disease. It was felled and now survives as a football sculpture and bench in the park over the fence from where it stood.

 

On the field it was a different matter. Steve Eames, the club secretary, said: “We signed a few players in the summer but we have struggled. There is no doubt that the Hornchurch effect, of having the league topped by a full-time club on high wages, had made players look for more money. The table doesn’t lie, does it? We’d looked fine when we had the ball but had been ripped apart when we didn’t.”

 

Despite their travails in the league, St Albans had enjoyed a 2-1 win away to Eastleigh in the FA Trophy the previous Saturday. “They are well placed in the Isthmian League but we beat them fairly comfortably even though we played most of the second half with ten men,” Eames said.

 

“They said afterwards how it illustrated the gulf with the Conference. And without any doubt it is a higher level. It is a good set-up, professional in terms of its administration, back-up and sponsorship packages. Now we are there, we want to stay there.”

 

That task was entrusted to Cash, the former Nottingham Forest and Wycombe Wanderers full back, who had for eight years been a popular assistant to first George Borg and then Terry Brown in the rise of Aldershot Town. He swiftly made his No 2 Colin Lippiatt, the former Woking and Yeovil manager.

 

 

Someone tell Eamsie to stop chatting to reporters and get out there and change the fixture boards!

[AFF]

For the love of Jesus, where do these people get this stuff?

 

"Off the field, St Albans were ready." Read by Lawrence Olivier. Pause for the first few bars of Beethoven's 5th symphony. Da-da-da-daah.

 

"Castles legacy was the place in the Conference South". Da-da-da-daaaaaah.

 

Garbage.

 

Oh, one more thing.

 

"Ripped apart"? "RIPPED APART"?

 

A trifle negative old chap. That is the sort of reporting that could put even 50 people off coming [sic] to games and costs this football club £12,000 a year. Disgraceful. No reference to the pulsating goalmouth action. End to end flowing football what the sponsor's love to see. He's probably a closet EFM member.

 

Disgraceful.

[Woody]

I liked the bit the bit about the administration and professionalism of the Conference. It's a pity we didn't match it on that fateful day prior to the Heybridge F.A.Cup tie. What was our potential loss as a result of that debacle. I can just visualise it now - Chelsea will play...................Slough or Yeading.

[YB941 5thD EFM ~soul~]

I thought the same thing - Yeading have hardly had the trickiest route to the third round, should they beat Slough.

 

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

[Woody]

Didn't you just know it was going to happen. OK, not Chelsea but Newcastle is nearly as good as you could get. Looks like the match is probably going to be moved either to Brentford or St. James' Park. How much are Yeading going to make out of this, especially if it goes on Sky or BBC? 250K? 500K?

 

That was one very costly c0ck-up on that Friday early in October.

 

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

[Webbo MFI]

tres tres

[AFF]

Perrrlease. Tell me it's a nightmare.

 

Yeading didn't really draw Newcastle at home, did they?

[Laz]

That's what happens when you don't get kicked out!

[Iron Webbo]

St. Albans v Newcastle

 

There but for the grace of God ...