Sometimes some Spurs events are just beyond explanation but I'll have a go................

I have had several heart felt messages this week from friends around the world who genuinely feel for me. After an initial awkward silence the bush telegraph got into full swing and football friends and foes have weighed in with their thoughts on Tottenham's shocking 0-6 reverse against Manchester City.
Now for someone who has followed the side since 1962 big defeats are not unique or no longer unexpected from time to time. Probably my first mind numbing experience of such a defeat occurred at Highbury in September 67' when lost 0-4 to Arsenal. What was so upsetting to this 12 year old was that it was all so unexpected....it was just my first big reverse!

My hero Pat Jennings picking the ball out of the net four times...especially as we were standing right at the front of the North Bank and Pat had to face a penalty right in front of us.
It was in 73' against Derby County before the next big shock came along. In this FA Cup replay we had taken the mid-landers back to WHL after a 1-1 draw up at the old Baseball Ground. Twelve minutes to go and there we were leading 3-1. Then, inexplicably, we allowed a long streak called Roger Davies to score a hat-trick against us in just a few minutes, 52,000 fans walked away failing to comprehend how Spurs could just capitulate.

That same Derby side were no respecters of reputation and within just three seasons had beaten us up at their place 8-2.....little to say here other than the Spurs supporters took the 'football special' train apart on the way home and ended up stranded between villages as the driver refused for a while to take the train any further. As far as I recall Nicholson didn't actually make the disgraced team walk home :)

Just when Spurs fans are at their most optimistic the football gods usually combine to put us in our place. Such was the story in September 78' when laden with our two Argentinian World Cup winners, Ossie and Ricky, we went to Anfield and got smashed 0-7 by the scousers.

History will show that we have such catastrophes at Tottenham occur every few seasons but also sometimes in one season. Thus, being beaten 0-5 at home by Arsenal, with the little wizard Brady being our main chief tormentor,  occurred just a few months later in December 78'. Worse than that, it was a day when me and a mate had tickets for the Arsenal end and had to stand in silence through the whole debacle:(

Manchester United have had the wood on Tottenham for many years. So when you race to a 3-0 home half-time lead you may foolishly slip into a bit of complacency. Forty five minutes later we ended up 3-5 losers shipping five goals in that time. Hard to explain and almost as hard to take. That game was in September 2001.
In more recent times we have gone down 2-5 twice to Arsenal at their Emirates ground, not a good look! What made this worse was that these two results were actually in the same calendar year, February and November 2012.
As I have outlined here, we have indeed been hammered numerous times before. So what was it that brought about Sunday's 0-6 score-line against Manchester City? I think there were several reasons. The first that needs to be acknowledged is the ruthless brilliance of their main forward Aguero. Strong, quick and with a low centre of gravity, one of my friends said he made our centre backs look like over 35's in comparison. On the day he was unplayable. For me a major reason for the defeat was AVB's tendency to over analyse. We had had to endure several non-EPL weeks with the international break which closely followed the 0-1 reverse to Newcastle at home. In his wisdom AVB scanned the World Cup games / results and decided that a few of our blokes had had  a busy / disappointing time. Because of this, he left out Townsend, Vlad, and Dembele. To me all of these had performed well in previous weeks and merited a start. In came Kaboul who was lacking match fitness, Holtby who is not a number ten and Sandro who although a hearty player is unlikely to score for us in the next decade. It didn't help conceding a comical goal in 14 seconds and the own goal we scored was the only time one of ours bothered the score keeper on the day. Unfortunately, working in a school with 1100 students can result in you receiving a similar message once or twice in the same day. Try 50 times! Six nil Sir! What happened there? Manchester City....6-0 Sir!
As it turns out after a short sojourn to the Artic circle on Thursday against Tromso, we have a great opportunity to make amends when we take on the red side of Manchester on Sunday. Hope springs eternal when you support a team. Supporting Tottenham is no exception. We have been put in our place....expectations allowed us to get ahead of ourselves. My old adage of
'Following Spurs involving a lifetime of nearlyness punctuated by the occasional actuality' has some merit.'
I was never very comfortable with us being likened in defensive stinginess to the old 1-0 Arsenal sides. I suppose a 0-6 loss has now put that comparison out of peoples minds for the time being!

Old St St Bernard's pics 1983ish

The Australian Football season is over.....time for a Northern Hemisphere focus ...Come on you Spurs!

Season 2013. Well there it is then. Over. Last Saturday out at Castle Hill,  St Pius X College 1st XI wrapped up the ISA Championship with a 3-1 win against Oakhill College. Already Minor Premiers, SPX finished up with a Grand Final victory being unbeaten in the ISA Competition winning ten games and drawing two. Pleasingly this leaves the side unbeaten in 23 ISA competition games stretching to the first match of 2012 when we went down to St Patrick's.

Well the first thing to say is that 2012 had been a hard act to follow! 

Claudio v St Patricks

Following on from a record breaking side, in a record setting year, is invariably difficult. Our 2013 St Pius X 1^st XI Football team were faced with exactly this challenge and may I say from the outset they made a wonderful attempt at doing just this.

We played ten trials in all before the end of Term one. Beating club sides Northbridge 5-3 and Lindfield 1-0,

St Augustine's 3-1 and downing GPS hotshots Riverview 2-1. Further wins came against Forest Killarney 11-0 and men's All age team Homenetmen, 3-1. Two tough games against Knox Grammar and the SPX Old Boys both ended in a draw.

SPX 1st XI v SPX Old Boys 2013 5-5 Draw!

In our pre-season we took on all comers ranging from local State school Asquith to the expansive fields of The Kings School out at North Parramatta on their historic ‘Wanderers Oval’ which was the acknowledged site of the first ever football match played in Sydney in 1880. We played and won at all these places.

 

Measuring ourselves against GPS and CAS opponents is always a good test.

Our only defeat in Term 1 was a surprise 0-2 reverse to St Aloysius on a quagmire pitch at Tyneside. Here we went behind early then lost someone to a red card, a blow we could not recover from. In truth we learnt more about ourselves in this defeat than in any other game up to that point.

As in previous years we participated in the two day St Andrew’s Cup competition down at Oakhill College emerging from 5 matches as Plate winners with a 1-0 win over Barker College. 

The 16 trial matches played by SPX 1^st XI set us up well for the ISA season. Regular competition wins were recorded against Redlands 3-0; Chevalier 3-0;  St Andrew’s 4-1; Redlands again 5-0, Chevalier again 3-0 only being punctuated by a hard fought draw 1-1 at home to St Patrick’s College. Before the end of Term two we also managed a 5-0 victory against Hills Grammar in the CIS Cup Competition  where we were 2012 holders.

As we came to the half-way point of the year we headed off up to Brisbane to participate in the annual Southern Skies Tournament. Here we

played sides from Sydney Brisbane, Country Queensland and for the first time opponents from French Caledonia. Over the week away

we downed Sydney Grammar 2-0; Shore 2-0; Barker College 1-0; Scots College 2-0; and previous year’s winners St Peter Claver 5-0 with our single loss coming against the French Caledonians by 1-0.

St Pius X and New Caledonia. Queensland Tour

This was a great match allowing our players to experience a style of opponent who was quick, skilled and tricky. As things emerged later, these South Pacific boys won the whole thing with their energetic play that won the hearts of everyone who saw them. Unfortunately for us, progress was not to extend beyond the semi-final stage because although we had comprehensively accounted for them earlier on, we were thwarted by Scots College in the semi-final, the game finishing 0-0. In the ensuing penalty shootout we were beaten missing out on a chance to play a final against the French Caledonians. We finished 3^rd overall beating CAS based Barker 4-2.

In spite of our disappointment at falling over at the penultimate stage we returned to Sydney ready and prepared for the second half of the ISA season.

Once again we produced some fine performances. Wins over Oakhill 3-1; St Andrew’s 10-0 and Oakhill 2-1 were again punctuated by a 2-2 away draw with St Patrick’s College.

In cup football St Pius 1^st XI were again thwarted in a penalty shoot-out when drawing 2-2 with Knox Grammar. Oh what might have been! We led here until virtually the last minute and a good opportunity to retain the CIS Cup was gone.

As is the way in football we were soon made to refocus because we were also in the semi-finals of the ISA Competition. Oxford Falls the venue and a comprehensive 3-0 victory over St Andrew’s saw us reach the ISA final for third year in a row.

As are the vagaries of Finals football as ISA Minor Premiers we were actually required to play our ISA Final against Oakhill out at their facility! This had indeed been the situation in 2012 when we won the Premiership the previous season.

ISA Final action 2013

 

                                  All over

ISA victory against Oakhill
On a warm afternoon the Grand Final was played at the unusual time of 3.00 O’clock in the afternoon. Several hundred supporters were on hand to witness a tense affair.  After twenty minutes of tight chanceless football striker Claudio Rosano announced his entry into the match with a cracking strike from his first touch of the ball! Just when St Pius X looked likely to add to this score Oakhill pounced on a hesitant defence to equalise just before the half time break.

Captain Nick Morabito with ISA Shield

In a stop start second half tension seemed to be influencing the flow of the game until Rosano snuck in with a deft touch to put St Pius X back in front, 2-1. Oakhill were now down a man and were wilting on the big pitch. Vice-captain Luke Capra soon put the game beyond doubt with an unstoppable drive from 20 yards, 3-1. Now at last St Pius X were beginning to play their confident possession based game and could have extended their lead but for some brave keeping from the Oakhill custodian.

St Pius X College Unbeaten ISA Champions 2013

 

Relief was the most tangible emotion for everyone at the end of the ISA Grand Final. In a season that had involved 38 matches we had secured a major trophy, the ISA Shield was ours for the second successive season, the first time we had achieved this.

 

Captain Nicholas Morabito was our man of the match, while Claudio Rosano was named the ‘Shahab  Kargarian’ most valuable player in the game by the match officials.

                             SPX 1st XI Season 2013

P 38 W 29 D 6 L3 F 113 A 36

 

So as it ends again, it all begins. My boys Spurs have made a steady start to the new EPL Season. Two 1-0 victories both where new boy Soldado scored form the penalty spot. On Sunday (early Monday morning here in oz) we play the Arsenal. It will be an interesting tussle for Tottenham have invested massively in new players while the hero formerly known as Gareth Bale will probably have left the building by then.

I'm optimistic for Spurs....hope springs eternal....Soldado, Erikson, Lamela, Capoue and Paulino will make the side very competitive. Yes, football is truly an all  year around, twenty four hour pre-occupation for many of  us around the world. This was my fiftieth year of playing just finished and thirtieth year of coaching. It's great being fully involved in what is truly the world game!

 

 

 

 

Selling Gareth Bale gets us a lot for our money :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New EPL season......Hope springs eternal!

Here we go again. The EPL, global phenomenon that it is, kicks off again tonight for the 2013-14 season. We've had the phony war for over month in the form of the accursed transfer window. This supporter hates it. Most of the fans probably also hate it because it allows cashed up (or not) big clubs to bully the rest until some time early in September. Go figure when FIFA / UEFA claim to be leveling things up with the Financial fair play rules http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/protectingthegame/financialfairplay/index.html

Oh good luck with that :)

Bale or no Bale, I'm looking forward to my fine but flawed club Tottenham, making a better impression. It is a bit sad that 4th in the EPL has actually become almost an end in itself with the Champions League qualification it affords. My Gooner friends will be quick to remind me that I'm tied down on Thursday nights with UEFA Cup competition. When did a place in Europe become so undesirable?

As we have all been reminded, the top three of United, City and Chelsea have all changed their managers / coaches since last season. AVB avoided the temptation to go elsewhere but it is Wenger who must be laughing quietly to himself. At times last season he was being hung out to dry but champion survivor that he is, he got the Arsenal in to fourth spot and is still there.

Even as we kick off today, the league is poised like a line of dominoes to ignite some mega transfers, or not.

Ronaldo to United....Bale to Real....Rooney to Chelsea, it seems that money is washing around the game. That is until we realise that most transfers nowadays are funded with debt. My club Spurs are yet to receive a significant part of the Modric fee from Real Madrid from last year! Real would like to pay for Bale over six years:) 

Eventually an EPL game will be played on every day of the week. I am sure of it. The pay TV people will demand it. Many will see no problem with such a situation but old timers will feel slightly put out pining for past times when everyone kicked off at 3 O' Clock on Saturday afternoon....my team don't have a Saturday game in the first three fixtures and this will lead me to sit up at 3.00am in the early hours each Monday morning before work. Still that's been my life in oz for the past 20 years or so!

So what will happen this season? I think United may regret going for David Moyes instead of Roberto Martinez. I think he will struggle and the fans won't like it. United are traditionally about flowing, incisive football. Moyes may struggle to inspire.

What about the two 'cash on steroids' Chelsea and City? To me, the job for Manuel Pellegrini and The Special One will be keeping their squad players happy. Both clubs have a recent history of 'warehousing' players, giving them no game time but preventing them playing elsewhere. Again  Financial fair play rules should be doing something about this one.

What about the aspiring sides...Spurs Liverpool Everton? I feel that my club will have the edge here. Wengers lack of spending so far, might suggest that the Arsenal may struggle to hold off this trio in the race for Champions League spots. United, City and Chelsea are unbackable all at 1.10 while 

at this time the odds on the others are: Arsenal 1.60 Spurs 2.80 Liverpool 3.00 Everton 21.00

At the other end I'll pick Sunderland Palace and Norwich to go down.

Barclays Premier League

Scores & Schedule

1. Week 1
2. Week 2
3. Week 3
4. Week 4
5. Week 5
6. Week 6
7. Week 7
8. Week 8
9. Week 9
10. Week 10
11. Week 11
12. Week 12
13. Week 13
14. Week 14
15. Week 15
16. Week 16
17. Week 17
18. Week 18
19. Week 19

Saturday, 17 August
Liverpool 9:45 pm Stoke City
Sunday, 18 August
West Ham 12:00 am Cardiff City	Sunderland 12:00 am Fulham
Norwich City 12:00 am Everton	West Brom 12:00 am Southampton
Arsenal 12:00 am Aston Villa	Swansea City 2:30 am Man United
Crystal Palace 10:30 pm Tottenham
Monday, 19 August
Chelsea 1:00 am Hull City Tigers
Tuesday, 20 August
Man City 5:00 am Newcastle