Alternative season review
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Hello there, and welcome to my alternative review of the 2013-2014 season for the boys in Yellow. It really was a roller-coaster exciting season for Staines Town Football Club.
The journey for me started away at Ashford Town when the Swans played in a pre-season cup game. This was a game that the Swans lost thanks to a absolute screamer but for me I will always remember the first time I got to interview Staines manager and former Brentford player and hero of mine, Marcus Gayle. This for me was a moment I was really nervous about! I remember watching Marcus in his second spell at Griffin Park. That was a squad filled with well-known names including current Norwich City centre half Michael Turner and of course, Staines Town's very own Callum Willock. I remember Marcus being really welcoming to me and of course shared some banter with me and then helping me out by talking a lot in the interview. At this point I feel its appropriate to thank Marcus for being so co-operative with what I am trying to do and indeed to Matthew Boon and the board for supporting me with what I want to do in the media environment here at Staines Town. Also, a special mention to Clive Stevens. Clive is the other guy you see sticking a microphone in the faces of players and management. I have learnt a lot from Clive this year and I am really thankful for that.
What I want to do here is to put things in place so that we can offer supporters the best possible coverage of everything that goes on at Wheatsheaf Park. Watch this space for more developments in regards to club media coverage. Also at this point I would like to give a shout out to the guys at Radio Wey. I have been fortunate enough to co-commentate and to be a guest pundit during their live match commentaries so thank you to the guys there! If you want to listen to Staines matches or indeed other local teams matches then visit www.radiowey.co.uk to find out more.
Anyway enough about me for now, back to the football! The season started with 1-0 home win at home with a penalty from Louie Theophanous and then came the first away game in Skrill South away at Sutton United. This game ended in a 4-1 defeat which started a run of 13 league away games without a win! This was an issue that troubled Marcus and the team, so much so that Marcus brought in a psychologist to the side. When talking to members of the squad, I don't think they know what caused this and when the side eventually did win a league away game, Marcus credited it to a change in the players diet, in this case changing to "Go Cat" cat food...think of that what you will!
Our first away win of the season just so happened to be in the FA Cup away at Aylesbury. I think its fair to say that cup matches where big part of are season...we shall start our look back with the Football Association Challenge Cup. We started our campaign with a 3-0 win away at Aylesbury United (goals from Louie T X2 and Louie R-B). In the 3rd qualifying round the Swans took advantage of weaker opponents Sittingbourne, Louie T, Stephan Ngamvoulou and Olu Akinsaya. The fourth qualifier saw the Swans play Poole Town at Wheatsheaf Park but neither team could poole away and it finished 0-0. In the replay, everything seemed to happen. There where cards a plenty and the Swans where reduced to 9 men but a goal from Louie Theophanous was enough to send the Swans down the road to Griffin Park to play local rivals, Brentford FC in the first round proper.
When I interviewed club chairman Matthew Boon at the end of the season, he talked about Brentford ticking every box. This interview can be found via this link http://yourlisten.com/matt.albright.121/matthew-boon-interview-19th-of-april-2014. I must admit that when the draw was made I could not contain my excitement! I tweeted something along the lines of "@StainesTownFC to draw @BrentfordFC. #ABoyCanDream right?" and then it happend! I am a life-long Brentford supporter so I was the first one on the phone to Swans secretary Steve Parsons to sort out a press pass for the match and I was also in the awkward situation where I had to take the day off work to go to work...this is because I am a match day steward at Brentford FC but I could not miss out on sitting in the press-box at Griffin Park which really was a once in a life time opportunity!
So the day had arrived for the Bees to meet the Swans at Griffin Park. I arrived within plenty of time to see the Staines players arrive at the ground. There was a fair few fans outside the main gate at Griffin Park with the majority looking for an autograph from or photo with Marcus Gayle. The players themselves looked totally comfortable when walking the strange route down the back of the Braemar Road stand into the very small players tunnel. This tunnel is about 10 metres long so its easy to walk past the dressing room and walk straight on to the pitch. The Swans boys where quick to walk out on the pitch and take in the surroundings, following this the lads where eager to get out there, get warmed up then it was game on! Sadly for the Staines boys the match was to finish 5-0 but I think that the boys who played that day can be proud of their performance in that match and in the cup run. Brentford showed their class and why they are now a Championship side.
Following our run in the FA Cup was then followed by a another cup run in the FA Trophy, this run was to take us to Kenilworth Road to play Luton Town. We got through to the first round of the trophy after we saw off Farnborough via a replay, we then played a young looking Hatters side at Wheatsheaf Park and that game finished 0-0. We then packed up and headed down to Luton just 3 days later and lost 2-0 but again, I feel that we can be proud of our performance there as Luton went on to win the Skrill Premier! 2 "major" cup runs, 2 defeats away at sides who gained promotion/won their respective divisions. Luton in fact won their division by 19 points!
Back to more recent events, its time to talk about youth football. We have heard in the last few weeks about the possible introduction of a "B" league in England. This new division will sit below the Championship and clubs cannot be promoted into that division. This scheme has been proposed by the FA Commission with the view of growing home grown talent. There are a few other rules in place to make sure that English players are at the very front of this but will it really work in the long run?
As someone who has watched both football league (league's 1 and 2) and non-league football (Skrill premier + South, Ryman Premier and Ryman South), I have differing views on this proposal. On one hand I am fully supportive of having a division where young players are allowed to home their talents amongst the best of them but we already have to the Professional Development League so how do we know that a new "B" league will be competitive enough? I am looking forward to talking to Swans manager Marcus Gayle about his views on the proposed league structure. This because according so Staines Town FC chairman, Matthew Boon, Marcus was brought into develop young talent.
In my interview with Matthew, I talked about the number of youth team’s we have at the club and the emergence of young talent that has come into the club, Matthew replied “that’s why Marcus is here because he has that vision of bringing youth through and that was his brief. We don’t have the finances that other clubs have but the brief was to bring kids through to make us compete without having the finances that other clubs do and he’s done that and we are doing that. Long may it continue” “we have longer plans when it comes to the youth academy and hopefully he will be part of that”. FULL INTERVIEW AVAILABLE HERE: http://yourlisten.com/matt.albright.121/matthew-boon-interview-19th-of-april-2014.
Next up we talk about 2 young men with shared goals. I am of course talking about Jack Turner & Kyle Merson. Obviously there can only be 1 goal keeper in a team so someone is going to have to miss out. After the the 2-1 home win against Bromley, I asked Jack his views on the battle for that number 1 spot "I generally don't feel pressure, I'm 21 and have a long time left in my career, I am enjoying being back in. Mers (Kyle Merson) is a great keeper and it’s good to have that competition". I think its clear from this interview that the 2 keepers are united in their aims to want to help the side do well. The issue of who to start with in my view is a luxury and I think the competitiveness of the 2 players will help the team in the long run.
To round things off I spoke to Marcus Gayle on the hallowed turf of Wheatsheaf Park after the last game of the season versus Basingstoke Town. After the match that finished a 5-4 defeat for Staines, Marcus was quick to get on to next season “Some tough decisions to made now, there will be a few shocks and surprises. That’s what the club are paying me to do is to put the best side together with the trust they have in me. A few players didn’t do themselves any favours in that first half and the first part of the second half, was a great effort in the last 20 minutes or so” “overall the season has been a good one, a rewarding one. Finished top 10 and that’s what I wanted” “I’ve looked on to day and I know what is needed for the squad next year, I will be getting straight on to what I need to do” “we have equalled the highest place of the team despite a d defeat today” (vs. Basingstoke, 8th place finish).
“Hopefully the two teams that we played and got promoted (Brentford and Luton) will rub a bit of that gold dust on us and inspire us to push even further for a club of this size”
All things considered, I would say that again that is has been a good year for the Swans. Yes, there where a few things that where eventually telling as to why we didn’t finish a little bit higher (away form being one of those) but the team matched expectations set by Marcus and Matthew Boon. I fully believe that changes will be made and you can expect even better things for the boys in yellow next season!
Matt Albright
@MattAlbright95
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Alternative season review by Matt Albright10/5/2014 13:49Sat May 10 13:49:34 2014 2 peopleview thread