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Mid-Season
Report
TBC
FOOTBALL TEAM 1996/7 SEASON
The story so
far:
After a
disappointing season last year, which saw us stay in the top division of
the Solent Church Football League only by the skin of our teeth, Clive
Chance thought it was time to hang up his managerial sheepskin jacket!
(Besides which, there was a similar job going at Brighton & Hove Albion...)
This left us with a huge dilemma. Who could we choose to replace the man
who had taken us from a mediocre team to league and cup double winners
in less time than it takes Michael Shumacher's engine to blow up? Well,
various names were mentioned in the tabloid papers with regard to the job.
Chief among them was Kenny Dalglish, but he was rumoured to have been put
off by the stress-related pressure of the position, and the expectation
of success for the team.
Eventually
a committee of four brave souls got together and decided to sort things
out once and for all. After much deliberation, the committee decided to
pick managerial new-boy Paul
Slater to take command of the side, with Rob
Oag as his assistant. Chris
Hutchings was elected club treasurer (and the following day went out
and bought a 7-Series BMW). Roger
Frapwell was made club captain and administrator. Rob
was chosen to fill the role of John-Motson-reporter-type-thingy for the
church newsletter. Whilst Chris
was asked to fill the most important role within the team...supplying the
oranges at half-time. Chris
now goes under the name, "The Man from Del Monte".
Before
the season began, we decided to arrange a couple of friendly games to assess
our new-look Testwood Team. (We'd lost several players due to university/retirements/work
committments/other teams and jail sentences (or is that Arsenal?!?)
Our first
friendly went well: we beat New Forest Community Church 5-0. Frapwell
scored 3, Tom
Weir scored another and Russell
Angel scored his first goal for the club. Our final game before the
season started was against Landsdowne Baptist Church, who were considered
to be a much better team than us. We ended up narrowly losing 4-3. Frapwell
, John
Dennis , and Weir
were the scorers.
Our first
league game was against Sholing United, where a depleted team lost 6-1.
Dennis
scored the only goal. Slater
was voted Man-of-the-Match for his heroic(!) goalkeeping. Our next match
was against last year's league champions, Kings Church. We lost this one
6-1 too. Our goal came from a Hutchings
penalty. Chris
received Man-of-the-Match for this one.
After this
match disaster struck ('Did you say after the match?!?'-Ed) our
short-suffering manager Paul
Slater , had to move back to Norfolk, so a replacement had to be found.
Chris
Hutchings and Rob
Oag decided to share the responsibility, with Chris
having the senior role, as well as keeping hold of the treasurer's job,
the oranges, -and promptly upgraded his car to a Porshe!!
The footballing
world was abuzz. Would this new, untested management team work? Could they
possibly turn round Testwood's terrible start to the season? And, finally,
would they spend some money on some not-quite-so-tight shorts for their
team? A couple of new players were brought in and the team was given a
bit of a shake up.
The first
game under the new management team was the first round of the cup. A victory
here would give us a place in the quarter-finals. We played Sholing Baptist
Church from division 2. We beat them 7-4. Richard
Hemming scored 4, Frapwell
2 and Rob
Oag scored the other. Hemming got the Man-of-the-Match award. Team
spirit went through the roof. We had done the impossible, we had won a
game!!
Our next
game turned out to be the cup quarter final against Above Bar Church. We
won again 3-1. Rob
Oag , Frapwell
and Richard
Hemming got the goals. Jof
Billows was voted Man-of-the-Match this time. We were through to the
semi-finals!
Next came
another league game. Could our impressive cup form spill over into the
league and give us our fist points of the season?...Well, much to our surprise..,
yes, it could. We beat the league leaders Augustine Centre 5-2. Hemming
scored 3, Hutchings
and Kevin
Sheath scored the others. Man-of-the-Match went to Damian
Broderick for a sturdy defensive display.
On a more
serious note, the team would like to take this opportunity to say a few
thank yous;
Firstly
to Mark Bowen and Geoff Friend, for giving up their own time to referee
our home games, and going a darned fine job too! (Especially when we win!!)
Secondly
to Clive
Chance , for running the team for the last 4 years. And for his list
of 9 handy hints on how to run a football team.
And finally
to all our supporters (well, maybe that should be "to all 3 of our supporters"!)
Brian, Crystal and Richard, who regularly cheer us on, even when things
aren't going too well on the pitch, whatever the weather.
The squad,
so far, has been;
Grant
Angel , Russell
Angel , Matt
Armstrong , Jof
Billows , Damian
Broderick , Dan
Brunt , John
Dennis , Roger
Frapwell , Nick
Gregory , Richard
Hemming , Adam
Houghton , Dave
Houghton , Chris
Hutchings , Rich
Oag , Rob
Oag , Ian
Pack , Stuart
Robson , Kevin
Sheath , Ally
Stuart , Dave
Tribble , Terry
Walton , Tom
Weir , Simon ????.
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