Northern Leagues

Now that the end of the season is in sight.......my predictions for the points of the top five at the end of the season are

Birkenhead            42

ECB                       40

Hamilton                30

Central                   29

TKU                        27

What happened at 3 Kings?? Heard a rumour and ECB coach was assaulted by a player after the end of the game. Anyone there?

This video says it all in the title... lol

You've got Rewa next week right? You definitely need that one to give yourselves at least a sniff

In case anyone's interested, put some extended thoughts up here: http://fromthecarpark.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/ngaruawahia-notes-suburbs-sunk-in.html, from the Narra game this weekend.

Div One is shaping up to be a humdinger, Melville, Narra and NSU going at it for that last spot.

Anyone at Sports yesterday? Story is that BT resigned on the spot upstairs. Something to do with one of the club members getting into a massive screaming match and abuse at the ref?

What the hell is going on this weekend??? Seems to be a couple of rumours. Any of this true?

There was no abuse during the game, nothing unusual anyway, ref made a couple of interesting calls that would warrant abuse! I wasn't about afterwards. Thought sports deserved their win took their chances and could have had a few more. Central were very average didn't create to many clear chances generally poor in the final third. goal was direct from a corner.  

I dont think that the ECB Coach was as I am from that club and asked a few people and they didnt know much about it.

Huge game this weekend Bays  need to win.. To force Birko into playing v bay Olympic next week.

East Coast Bays got the win! Birko now need to beat Bay Olympic next week to win the league.

Here's my blog post on the game... http://in-the-back-of-the.net/2013/08/24/banana-skins-and-koru-lounges/

I would have said a fair result was a draw, But all I can say is CMON BAY OLYMPIC

And I can add... now that Waitakerie have slipped below Ellerslie, next weekend's game, given their history, Waitak v Central should be one to watch.

Haha! Coupla weeks ago you wouldn't have been caught saying that for fifty$! Funny old game, football.

Painfully close to the title yesterday. Have to go to Olympic and get all 3 pts now. Won't be easy.

Big day today. COME ON BIRKO!!!

ECB are champs, Waitakere stay up

ah well - we were not good enough - looking forward to a good season next year in Div 1 - hopefully we can bounce back.

watched TKU today how on earth did they finish 3rd, although they won they were rubbish! sports weren't any better. 

Potentially you can. You have some talent there but some drift wood as well. Michael Ritchie is not your answer at CB and you could probably do with a stronger midfield general that is a bit more 'boss'. Scott Wallace and Tommy are not scaring anyone anytime soon

Went and watch part of the Birko game today before the wife wanted to go 'shopping'.

Chad Coombes was lucky 3 secs into the game not getting a yellow for basically lining up JHM and smashing him and I didn't see who did the retaliation tackle 2 mins later, but he was lucky too. 2 all and really Birko had the title in their hands and tossed it away. Inexperience I guess. Can they do it next year? BO were just pants this year for the players they signed. Some issues there for sure!

Here's my write-up and photos. I forgot to mention all the yellow cards. A tough game for the refs.

http://in-the-back-of-the.net/2013/08/31/bugger/

So that's what you took from that? You can come back up and your team has talent but you focus on him? As I have said earlier, you do have a nice young team but lack a midfielder at that level and have said that most of the year.

Unfortunately, your team got relegated. That's a fact. You got relegated because you were not good enough. Generally speaking, you are not good enough because the other teams play better than you or you played poorly - of which a contributing factor is that you have players that are not good enough for that level. Would he start at CB for any other team in the league? Don't think so. I have nothing against him at all. He'd be fine in northern 1 but he is not a northern prem footballer, a fact testified that your team has pieces that contributed to your relegation.

Stop taking everything so personally. As I said, you have some talent but pieces that need swapping out.

To spin this back on you, what would you have changed to have stayed in the league? You've really only got 2 options in players or coaching.... 

I suspect you won't answer this because you are going to have to call your own players or coach out. 

Ok so if you accepted that reason for relegation then why defend players that are not good enough without actually defending him? I did not say 'all your players are crap'. I said you had some talent and yet you focus on the negative and I'm defensive? The reality is, like I said, don't take it personally. It's a football forum, you manage a team that plays football. If you can't handle opinions (and you never answered my question about whether he was good enough to be in a different side) then you shouldn't post or read here. Yes it's a free country but if you feel the need to defend players that are not good enough, then you do need to be told exactly why your team got relegated. It was exactly the same with the Phoenix when Ricki defended players that were not good enough and people came on here and expressed an opinion about that.

You always get defensive and even more so on the pile if crap northern league forum. Read the question for what it is. It's a conversation around your team, not a point to prove or a slanging match. So as manager, discuss your team... You haven't exactly said why you feel Michael is good enough. Yes he is a good header but other than 50 yard long balls and hoofs into touch, there is not much else to him. To answer your other question, 3.5 games (I think)

Defensively (stats-wise at least) they weren't that bad actually.  They conceded 26 goals, the 3= best defensive record in the comp and the same as Birko's by the way!  Surely we should be looking at their offensive efforts - only 18 goals scored (second worst in comp) - they just didn't create and/or score enough.

This is the line i choose to focus on - i have no problem explaining myself, but i question how you can inform me exactly why we were relegated - that's pure arrogance on your part.

All i asked is why the two times you have analysed Ellerslie you have focused on Mike from our defence both times - that's all i asked mate - i don't know where all this other rubbish is coming from.. is that me focusing on the negatives?  if you say so mate.

Oh for fucks sake, if you don't want to have a conversation about your team you consider fucking off. It was not a bait, it was a conversation starter with which I thought you would have the intelligence to come back with informed thoughts/opinion on the team you were involved with like 'yeah we could have tried that' or 'actually I think this'..... Jesus H Christ on a fucking popsicle stick