Michael Collins FC

Cup - Collins 2-2 Knights win on penalties

2010-01-26T16:18:00.005+01:00

Alot to talk about on this match, we were 2-0 up at half time, and cruising. It looked to all the world like we were moving to the next round, until Chelsea John in his customary manner decided to shake things up a little bit with some insane refereeing. First sending off Hugo in goal and awarding a penalty even though the player was clearly offside and Terry was also alongside him. This meant Doctor went in goal and we still pushed forward causing them all sorts of problems, but then John decided to ruin the game yet again and sent off Cedric, from which they scored the equaliser on the last kick of the match.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Penalties followed, and we wished to change our keeper to Terry "el Gato", and were promptly told this was illegal in FIFA rules, which was rubbish but meant that John had now been clearly influenced in both major decisions in the match by the opposition and got them both wrong!

3 poor penalties from us and a brawl ended the game for us, and knocked us out of the cup. We´ll meet them again in the second half of the season and im sure the team are looking forward to it as much as i am, just hopefully with a ref this time!

Just to update this now, the team have morphed into Lokomotiv Chill, which are to be found at chill bar barcelona just pop down and we're always after players
Barcelona travel and hotels in Spain

Collins 5-2 Barna City

2010-01-26T16:12:00.002+01:00

Well this one is short and sweet as it was a gift really. Barna City are not the finished article for this league yet, and are the current whipping boys. The 5-2 should, could and would have been 10-2 if not for some woeful finishing on our part. Humbertos 3 goals earned him Man of the match over Fritz who scored the other 2, but bearing in mind that neither of them played as strikers, we really need to improve up front to get to that next level.

8-0 to manchester

2010-01-11T12:19:00.002+01:00

Well this was always going to be tough and secretly i hoped for 2 things, a goal from us, and less than 10 for then. With the incredible Hans Van Damme running midfield and distributing with style it was an uphill battle. After 2 minutes it was 1-0 thanks to a poor offside decision from Paul the ref, who in general had a very good game, and was particularly lenient on us. The goals came not as a flood but rather as a trickle. Every 10 minutes or so, they would knock one in. It was 4-0 by half time, and 3 of the goals were undefendable. Especially the 40 yard free kick from HVD himself that lobbed Hugo on his line. The scoreline suggests that we were playing badly, but that was not the case at all. If we had been playing badly it could easily have been 10 by half time. Midfield in particular played some of the best football ive seen from them, Mickey was his usual snarling aggressive self and Victor Maquina got my vote as MOM. In the end though it was our lack of creativity that let us down, and the inability to keep the ball for any length of time. Poor first touches allowed Manchester to control the game, and we never really got any really clear chances on goal apart from Nicks 25 yard shot that their keeper managed to get away with a great save. All in all you put these down to experience. Barna City next week, and a good showing will get us the 3 points we need.

2-2 vs Pechekali

2009-12-28T17:48:00.002+01:00

Im writing this just before New Years Eve so i cant actually remember much about the match. Needless to say it was a hard fought battle, with the moaning gits of Pechekali always trying to draw fouls and get you carded. Cedric was dismissed by a very poor referee for saying Puta to a Pechekali player who had just kicked him. The Pechekali player got no card. It meant a hard last 30 minutes with 10 men. A large brawl marred the game where the referee turned his back and made to walk off without dealing with it, until the two benches threatened him back into his role. With 11 undoubtedly we would have won, but a point with 10 men against these mugs was not bad result. Another gutsy display against the odds. Bring on 2010.....

Lost 6-1 to Black Horse

2009-12-18T10:23:00.002+01:00

What a nightmare, this score did not reflect the game whatsoever. A couple of howlers left them 2-0 up and then a superb solo effort from MOM Chris gave us a chance at 2-1. The Collins battled well and were actually looking like the more likely team to score when a terrible penalty decision went against us, after all what would a game reffed by Chelsea John be without a dodgy penalty? The 3-1 scoreline came at about 65 minutes and knocked the stuffing out of us. The heads went down and mistakes were made. 3 Header from corners sealed the game for them, which normally wouldnt have gone in. To say that we had the chances would have been an understatement. In the ned fitness and bad decisions went against us, and although worth winners, the Black Horse will be flattered by the scoreline with this one. 3-1 would have been a more realistic representation of the game, maybe we should have stopped at 65 minutes....

Anyway, great xmas party afterwards, and looking forward to the Pechekali game on saturday in the freezing cold. At least we´ll be more used to it than the Catalans. onwards and upwards...........

3·-1 Win vs Sitges in the Cup

2009-12-01T10:20:00.002+01:00

Well beating Sitges twice in 2 weeks is no mean feat for the Michael Collins. Although Sitges are a team that you can never take for granted. We arrived at Montañesa full of confidence, and started very brightly. The first 20 minutes, some wasteful finishing meant we should have been at least 2-0 up, but it seemed only a matter of time before we scored. Sitges are an odd team though, they hold you off and hold you off and grow in confidence, until all of a sudden you are on the back foot. I have to say defensively for 80 minutes they were excellent.

Near the 70 minute mark they popped up with a goal, and we didnt look like scoring one past them. We were looking forward to penalties before the unfortunate event, but they werent to be. Out of nothing came a perfectly weighted corner from Humberto, and Terry popped up at the back post to equalise with 10 to go. It was against the run of play but it served as the catalyst we needed. All of a sudden w were pushing forward again, and wanted another goal. It was a beautiful piece of play between JP and Lluis, even though it was about 5 metres offside, and JP slotted cooly past the Sitges stand in keeper. Five minutes later Lluis ran on to a through ball and took us to 3-1 against the odds. Sitges could feel hard done by as they played very well, and it took Terrys aggressive will to be forced onto the team to kickstart a poor game. Anyway, were through to round 2 of the cup for the first time in years...good stuff!!! MOM Terry a true captains performance.

Collins 4-0 Sitges

2009-11-23T11:11:00.000+01:00

COLLINS improvement continues with away thumping 0-4 of Sitges

After last weeks confident performance, Collins looked to improve turning their fluid play into goals and in turn, victory. Next up was the eagerly awaited grudge match against the hostile Sitges outfit.

Talk before the game was of unsavoury past encounters where blood was shed, and games lost. However knowing the pedigree of the Collins team this season confidence was high we could put previous results against Sitges behind us and win without resorting to violence…. Well that was the plan.

Arriving in high spirits to a sunkissed coastal stadium the stage was set for what proved to be a fantastic day for the Michael Collins team. Sitges to contribute to a fairer game left out their usual trouble maker, which would ensure a greater harmony on the field. The usual referee of Sitges games took charge, if that’s what you could call it. With a history of missing important decisions, and dishing out red cards like sweets for Halloween, we knew we had to be at our best to ride the shocking decisions that we’re bound to come.

A strong side was picked with Micky returning to midfield to partner Umberto. The usual attack of Chris and Lluis we’re hoping to turn their usual gluttony of chances into goals. Width was provided by Craig & Brendon and the assured back 4 of Cedric, James, Terry & Juan. With the managers words ringing in their ears, Collins set about taking the game to Sitges early and the first 20 minutes Collins displayed some beautiful, imaginative football that had Sitges chasing shadows. Half chances we’re being created with Micky & Umberto running midfield with sporadic movement to the wings things we’re looking good for Collins. The deadlock was broken after 20 minutes after Craig was cynically hacked outside the box. Umberto stepped up and curled a delightful Beckhamesque freekick round the wall that the keeper could only push into the top corner. First blood to Collins and surely now the floodgates would open. However things didn’t quite go according to plan, although Collins searched for more a mix of horrendous finishing, brushes with the woodwork and a resolute rear guard of Sitges ensured Collins didn’t build on their impressive opening 20. Juan was at his unpredictable best as he marauded down the left wing and as the half drew to a close it was Collins on top and looking inevitably to build on their opening goal.

Second half had the wings changed as Craig & Brendon made way for JP & Nick. The changes paid dividends as within 10 minutes of the restart Chris played a beautiful low through ball up the wing which JP raced onto unchallenged, sprinting away from challengers he cut inside and played a simple cross for Lluis to convert and finally put some daylight between Collins and Sitges. Chance after chance came Collins’ way but the poor finishing continued and the woodwork count kept rising as Collins failed to put the game out of sight. The score was far more flattering for Sitges than it should have been. As Chris fluffed chance number 7 the frustrated manager pondered changing the front line until AT LAST the centre forward converted the simplist of chances to put Collins 3-0. Further changes saw Chris, Lluis & Umberto leave the field for Walter, Victor and the Finnish wonder player Ky. With supreme confidence now flowing and added to by the introduction of Ky, Collins went in search of their fourth goal. JP was having that half of his life, causing constant problems on the right and skilfully skinning Sitges players at will. It was another mazy run from JP which yielded the 4th goal. A snap shot which again hit the woodwork but cannoned off to the predator like Ky who lashed in an unstoppable 3 yard screamer which could be a contender for goal of the season……. 4-0 job done, an assured quality display. Other teams must be starting to look over their shoulders as Collins continued improvement is soon going to come together and we’ll give one team an absolute hiding. Next up is Sitges again in the cup, but away from their home surroundings it promises to be a very different game.

After match drinks in a Sitges Chiringuito was just the tonic as Collins celebrated their latest 3 points, and discussions of the Christmas party ensued……

MOM Micky Stubbs

COLLINS mejora continúa con golpes de distancia 0-4 de Sitges

Después de las últimas semanas el rendimiento seguro, Collins tratado de mejorar su juego fluido de inflexión en los objetivos y, a su vez, la victoria. A continuación fue el esperado ajuste de cuentas contra el equipo Sitges hostil.

Discusión antes de que el juego fue de desagradables encuentros pasados, donde la sangre fue derramada, y los juegos perdidos. Sin embargo, conocer el árbol genealógico del equipo de Collins esta temporada fue la confianza de que nos podría poner los resultados anteriores en contra de Sitges detrás de nosotros y ganar sin tener que recurrir a la violencia .... Bueno, eso era el plan.

Al llegar con la moral alta a un sol besó estadio costeras del escenario estaba listo para lo que resultó ser un día fantástico para el equipo de Michael Collins. Sitges para contribuir a un juego más justo omitido su alborotador habitual, lo que garantizará una mayor armonía en el campo.El árbitro habitual de los juegos de Sitges se hizo cargo, si eso es lo que podríamos llamar. Con una historia de falta decisiones importantes, y repartió tarjetas rojas, como los dulces para Víspera de Todos los Santos, sabíamos que teníamos que estar en nuestro mejor momento para montar las decisiones chocante que estamos obligados a venir.

Un equipo fuerte fue elegido con Micky regresar al centro del campo a la pareja Umberto. El ataque habitual de Chris y Lluis estamos con la esperanza de convertir su gula habitual de oportunidades en goles. Ancho fue proporcionada por Craig & Brendon y el seguro de volver 4 de Cedric, James, Terry y Juan. Con las palabras los administradores en sus oídos, Collins se dedicó a tomar el juego a principios de Sitges y los primeros 20 minutos Collins se mostró algo hermoso, el fútbol imaginativo que había Sitges persiguiendo sombras. La mitad de las posibilidades que estamos creando con Micky y Umberto centro del campo corriendo con el movimiento de esporádicas a las cosas que estamos buscando las alas bueno para Collins. El estancamiento se rompió después de 20 minutos después de que Craig era cínicamente hackeado fuera de la caja. Umberto intensificado y rizado un delicioso tiro libre Beckhamesque ronda de la muralla que el portero sólo podían penetrar en la esquina superior. Primera sangre a Collins y seguramente ahora las puertas se abrirían. Sin embargo las cosas no van muy de acuerdo al plan, aunque Collins buscado más bien una mezcla de horrendos acabado, roces con la carpintería de madera y una retaguardia firme de Sitges garantizar Collins no se base en la apertura de sus impresionantes 20. Juan estaba en su mejor impredecible como merodeaban por la banda izquierda y como el medio llegaba a su fin era Collins en la parte superior y mirando inevitablemente a construir en su objetivo de apertura.

Segunda mitad de las alas había cambiado como Craig & Brendon dio paso a JP & Nick. Los cambios en los dividendos pagados a los 10 minutos de la reanudación Chris desempeñado un bello pase bajo el ala, que corrió en JP indiscutible, corriendo lejos de rivales cortó y jugó en el interior una sencilla cruz de Lluis convertir y, finalmente, poner un poco de luz entre Collins y Sitges. Posibilidad oportunidad llegó después de manera Collins, pero los pobres de acabado continuo y el recuento de madera seguía subiendo, mientras Collins no poner el juego fuera de la vista. El marcador fue mucho más halagador para Sitges de lo que debería haber sido. Ya que Chris oportunidad desperdiciada número 7, el administrador de frustrado ponderó cambiar la línea del frente hasta que por fin el delantero centro convertido el simplista de oportunidades para poner Collins 3-0. Otros cambios vio Chris, Lluis y Umberto dejar el campo de Walter, Víctor y el futbolista finlandés incredible Ky. Con suprema confianza ahora que fluye y se añade a la introducción de Ky, Collins fue en busca de su cuarto gol. JP tenía que la mitad de su vida, causando constantes problemas en el derecho y la habilidad pelado jugadores Sitges a voluntad. Fue otra carrera laberinto de JP que produjo la meta 4. Una instantánea que a su vez golpeó la madera, pero rebotó frente al depredador como el Ky que arremetió en un golazo imparable 3 yardas que podría ser un contendiente para el gol de la temporada ... .... Trabajo 4-0 hecho, una pantalla de calidad garantizada. Otros equipos deben estar empezando a mirar por encima de sus hombros, como la mejora continua Collins pronto va a venir juntos y vamos a dar un equipo un escondite absoluta. El siguiente es Sitges de nuevo en la taza, pero lejos de su entorno familiar que promete ser un juego muy diferentes.

Después de bebidas partido en un chiringuito de Sitges fue sólo la tónica como Collins celebró sus últimas 3 puntos, y los debates de la fiesta de Navidad se produjo ... ...

MOM Micky Stubbs

West Ham 2-0 Collins

2009-11-16T10:07:00.002+01:00

Match report by Chris

So, on the back of a convincing 3-0 friendly victory against a capable but somewhat ineffective Independiente, the stage was set for the intrepid warriors of Michael Collins to take on their toughest test of the season so far against the high flying choir boys of West Ham. The rigours of recent weeks had left the MC slightly depleted with midfield dynamo’s Lee and Stubsy both sidelined, one through a suspected cracked rib, and one suspected to be cracking one off over the ribs of some seedy internet porn hussy. This, along with Victor Guapo’s long term absence, Humberto’s broken watch, and a depth of squad which would have Sir Alex himself dribbling into his porridge, meant that the MC midfield contained a new face. The brusque, bristly Craig ‘ass like a Latina ho’ Coupe was plucked at late notice from the reserves and plunged straight into the murky depths of midfield where he faced the unenviable task of running off his hangover.

So it was, that with stirring team talks and immaculately co-ordinated warm ups complete, the MC set out in compact and committed fashion with the collective goal of keeping things extremely tight in our own half of the pitch whilst looking for pace and a slice of luck or 2 to allow us to snatch something on the counter attack. As the early stages progressed it became apparent that the MC were by no means going to be out classed by this shady bunch of wannabe southerners, and it was in fact the MC who despite giving up a lot of possession looked most likely.

Busy, battling, and composed performances from Juan, Victor ‘Maquina’, and our Terry showed MC’s intent and this was backed up by some good work on the left by JP, the usual assured play of Cedric on the right, and of course the aggressive combative play of the midfield debutant. And so it continued past the half hour mark with a distinct pattern emerging: West Ham frustrated, despite having a lot of the ball, by stern, committed defending from the MC.

Unfortunately, writing this in hindsight, my memories of major incidents during this period are slightly hazy, except, of course, for one.. As the game was heading towards half time still goalless, the MC were to forge what would turn out to be their bet chance of the game. A fine mazy run up the right from the rapid Lluis and a kind deflection lead to the ball rolling through to Chris 5 yards out with just the keeper to beat, the normally trusty striker, however, was foiled, some say, through a combination of the notoriously bobbly Montanesa pitch, the sight of the rather ‘cuddly’ West Ham keeper bearing down on him, and the shiny ball shimmering in the floodlights, and he spooned the ball high and wide when any lesser player would have just scored. Half time 0-0 and the MC were encouraged and even slightly disappointed not to be ahead.

The second half saw the introduction of Humberto in place of JP, which saw him take his place in central midfield and the thus far impressive Craig move out to the left to try and catch his breath. The MC started where they had left off in the first half, proving miserly in defence and starting to exert a little more pressure at the other end. A succession of free kicks and corners highlighted the MC’s best spell of the match and whilst creating a few half chances, that killer touch was continuing to elude them. The ‘lofty’ Terry dispelling the myth that white men can’t jump by rising superbly at the back post to force a fine double save from their tubby stopper, the gutsy ‘Maquina’ and James busting a gut to impose themselves, and the man of the match Craig further dazzling on the left when showing the turning circle of one of his employers cruise ships to get away down the wing. But it was to prove not to be enough, as the thus far frustrated West Ham finally put together a move of real quality to release their man down the right who in turn smashed an annoyingly accurate shot straight into the top corner.

This was a true hammer blow to the valiant MC troops who continued to plug away and although they started to enjoy some better play up front with Lluis and Craig finding some space, they also conceded a few chances with Hugo saving smartly on a few occasions. West Ham then put the game beyond doubt with another fine goal this time smashed into the top corner from the left. This saw MC make a few changes with youth system graduates Caitsu and Doctor coming on for the last 10. Giggs like squad member Mike Roberts was then given the chance to enter the fray when the exhausted Craig collapsed in a rather girly fashion complaining about cramp, or a limp wrist, or something, Roberts, however, refused the opportunity as he was not allowed to step onto the green baize of Montanesa with a lit ciggy in his hand.

And so it ended 2-0. A bitterly disappointing defeat for the MC, yet a hugely encouraging performance in which all players played their part. Many positives can now be taken forward to their eagerly awaited clash with the amiable folk from Sitges next week.

MASSIVE 11-1 win vs Redstars, Match report courtesy of Terry

2009-11-02T17:05:00.000+01:00

El 31 de octubre fue sin duda un día de fantasmas y demonios para Lluis, quien a pesar de su gol al final del partido, falló suficientes oportunidades para ponerse por encima de todos en la carrera de ser el Pichichi del Michael Collins 2009-2010… si los fantasmas y duendes no le mantienen despierto toda la noche, seguro que va a despertarse chillando y sudando gracias a las pesadillas, soñando en todas las oportunidades que falló en este partido.

Sin embargo y sin hacer caso a la generosidad de Lluis, este fue un partido despiadado de los verdiblancos, aunque durante los primeros 10-15 minutos todo parecía indicar lo contrario…

El 11 inicial del Mister fue más el resultado de algunas extrañas circunstancias que un cambio de tácticas. Por ejemplo, Micky Stubbs, a pesar de vivir casi un año en Barcelona sigue sin saber la diferencia entre Sant Andreu y Montañesa… supongo que es un error que todos podríamos cometer una vez sin problema... pero dos veces!! Vamos Stubbsy!! Entonces Big Rich puso a Brendan en el medio campo, Víctor Máquina a lado de James en la zaga, Lluis y Chris siguieron como delanteros, con Humberto y Walter por las bandas. Este último tuvo la responsabilidad de darle al equipo un poquito de anchura, y no hablo sólo de su cintura cuando digo eso…

El partido arrancó de manera muy parecida a un partido de niños jugando durante su descanso en el colé. En un momento había 10 jugadores en el círculo en el medio del campo y nosotros, desesperados por alguien con un poquito de control, calidad y tranquilidad que pudiera jugar un poquito de fútbol…

Pese a esta falta de juego, llegó el primer tanto para dar un poquito de orden al partido; Lee mandó el balón en dirección a Humberto quien con un toque muy suave lo desvió a Chris y este lo puso fuera del alcance del portero, para poner el marcador 1-0 y confirmar su posición como el nuevo Pichichi del equipo.

Breves momentos después, marcamos el segundo gracias a Walter Romario quien ya comenzaba a mostrar su calidad en el juego. Humberto centró después de una falta y el esférico llegó a Walter al primer palo y en sus propias palabras: “cerré mis ojos y deje el balón rebotar en mi frente…” Pese a su falta de técnica con la cabeza, el balón voló directamente a la portería con la guardameta sin poder hacer nada. Un golazo con mucho merito para un jugador que ha mostrado mucho compromiso con el club.

El tercer gol no tardo mucho tiempo en llegar. Después de un truco por la banda derecha, Lluis dio el balón a Humberto y su fallo en contactar al balón lo regaló a Brendan. Este también fracasó en su contacto con la pelota para enviarlo a la meta… menos mal que no hizo el contacto que quería o aun estaríamos buscando el balón el Hallowe’en que viene. De todos modos, 3-0

Por su segundo tanto Chris anotó un penalti y puso el equipo 4 goles adelante y sólo fue una cuestión de cuantos goles íbamos a marcar y cuantas oportunidades Lluis iba a fallar… sólo la ausencia de espacio en la única hoja de papel que tenía me previno describir todos sus fracasos en este reportaje.

Otro buen ejemplo en la calidad de juego de Walter, permitió a Chris desviar del portero de los rojos antes de centrar el balón a Humberto, quien demostró un momento de mágica negra quitando el esférico de los pies del lateral Red Star logrando con estilo su primer gol de la temporada. El gol fue un homenaje a su rendimiento en el partido, que le ganó un muy meritado Man of the Match (a pesar de Nick votando por si mismo e intentando “comprar” votos de su compañeros en el bar después del partido…)

Llego el descanso y algunos cambios… nadie jugaba mal en el primer tiempo salvo por los primeros 10 minutos. Pero tenemos muchos buenos jugadores y había mucha calidad y energía entre los suplentes: Lee fue sustituido por Stubbsy, quien al fin ha llegado al campo, Nick entró en lugar de Walter, Juan empezó la segunda parte como lateral izquierdo por el Doctor y Chris y Craig cambiaron la camiseta 20 y la plaza en el campo. Por supuesto ni el Mister ni el resto del equipo técnico querían permitir una hincha del Manchester lograr un hat-trick con El Collins…

Unos minutos después Humberto cedía su hueco en el campo a nuestro nuevo Samba Sensación (Joao Paolo ó JP). Su primera contribución por la banda derecha le permitió centrar el balón al área para Lluis. Esta vez en lugar de mandarlo fuera de la portería eligió a dárselo a Níck quien lo metió para conseguir su primer (y ojala su último) gol de la temporada.

Micky Stubbs controlaba el partido en el centro del campo sin sudar, entrando a propósito al área de los reds mientras Brendan vigilaba el medio. Después de sufrir una falta, Stubbsy se levantó y sacó nuestro séptimo gol con un penalti.

A continuación JP (quien podría ser un fichaje de oro para El Collins) mostró más eficacia por la banda derecha y su centro permitió a Brendan conseguir su segunda diana del encuentro. Y no tardamos mucho en marcar el noveno gracias al Pichichi, Balon D’or y Premio Noble del año pasado; Sr James Imber. Un cabezazo después de un saque desde el medio campo de Víctor Máquina. En realidad fue un intento muy flojo del portero de los rojos pero eso no fue la culpa de James…

…aunque el próximo gol sí fue su culpa, sin duda ninguna!!!!

… Una entrada desesperada, feísima y totalmente innecesaria al delantero de Red Star, quien no parecía saber que hacer con el balón, dejando al árbitro sin otro remedio que pitar un penalti y James con toda la suerte del mundo… sólo recibió una tarjeta amarilla cuando merecía una roja. Hugo, quien casi no había tenido ocasión de manchar los guantes casi paró el penalti, pero no lo alcanzó a pesar de su buen intento.

Pues, se ha rotó la tranquilidad del equipo y necesitamos reponer orden al campo. Por fin Lluis decidió que no quería seguir desaprovechando de la generosidad de la defensa Red Star y se cansó de meter el balón fuera de la meta desde 3 metros. Después de controlar bien un balón largo de Craig se lo metió con autoridad a la meta roja. 10-1 para El Collins y conseguimos ser historia

Momentos más tarde cerrábamos una victoria contundente, cuando JP logró un gol muy justo después de su actuación en los últimos 35 minutos del partido. No fue nada bello, un rebote después de un centro de Craig, pero con esto quedaba con dos goles en tres partidos, nada malo.

Entonces, 3 puntos más, una diferencia positiva de goles y estamos a punto de ponernos muy nerviosos….. Sin embargo, debemos mantener un poquito la perspectiva. Fue un buen resultado, pero contra un equipo muy, muy flojo y hay muchas partes de nuestro juego que debemos mejorar. Muchas veces evitamos jugar sencillamente, prefiriendo sacar balones largos sin precisión ni calidad. Los buenos equipos de nuestro grupo nos aniquilarán si jugamos de esta manera. Hay que aprender a tocar el balón sólo dos ó tres veces antes de pasarlo rápido, en corto y con más precisión, no despejarlo 35 metros sin saber a quien lo estamos pasando.

Nuestro próximo partido en la liga… West Ham. ¿Nos llegará un momento de claridad y realidad? Lo veremos…

Man of the Match - Humberto

31st October 2009 turned out to be a personal Hallowe’en for Lluis; who despite his late goal missed enough chances to put himself way out of sight in the race for the Michael Collins Golden Boot 2009-2010…. If the ghosts and goblins don’t keep him awake all night, then he is sure to wake up screaming when he has nightmares about the amount of chances that he missed in this game

Anyway, Lluis’ very non-Catalan generosity aside, it was a relatively ruthless Collins display although with 10 minutes on the clock it certainly never looked like it was going to be so “easy”….

The gaffer sent out a starting 11 based on the fact that despite living in Barcelona for nearly a year, Micky Stubbs still hasn’t worked out the difference between Sant Andreu and Montañesa. It’s a mistake that anyone could make once, but twice…. Come on Stubbsy!!! So, Big Rich drafted Brendan into central midfield, Victor Máquina continued in defence alongside James and Lluis and Chris continued their partnership up front. Hugo was back in goal to give the team the solid foundation that was maybe missing last week and Walter and Humberto were our wide players…. And I’m not making reference to Walter’s waistline when I say that.

The game started in what can only be described as schoolyard kick and rush style… at one stage there were around 10 players from both sides in the centre circle alone; the game was crying out for a bit of width, composure, and above someone to play a little bit of football. However, the first goal soon came along to settle things down; Lee played the ball through to Humberto, who flicked it on into Chris’ path and he coolly slotted home to confirm his position as the team’s new target man.

Not long later some good play down the left, where Walter Romario was beginning to show some excellent touches, lead to a Collins free kick. Humberto drilled in an excellent cross where Walter “closed his eyes and let the ball hit his head” (his words, not mine!!) and the ball rammed into the top corner with the Red Star keeper rooted to the spot… A great goal and well deserved for a player always very committed to the Michael Collins cause.

The third goal didn’t take too long to arrive as it was now becoming fairly one way traffic. Good work from Lluis out on the right allowed Humberto to mis-kick the ball into Brendan’s path, who equally mis-kicked the ball beyond the despairing dive of the keeper. If he had made the type of contact that he was hoping for, we’d probably still be looking for the ball next Hallowe’en… but 3-0 up and looking good for 3 points.

A cool penalty down to the bottom left hand corner from Chris brought up the 4-0 score line and at this point it was only a matter of how many goals we were going to score, or how many chances Lluis was going to miss. Luckily for him, with only one piece of paper to write on, and the number of goals that we were scoring I didn’t have space to make a note of them all.

Further great play down the left from Walter led to Chris rounding the keeper, playing the ball across goal to Humberto, who worked a beautiful drag back to take the opposition left back completely out of the game, before he superbly slotted the ball home for a much deserved goal that reflected his excellent man-of-match performance (despite Nick trying to “buy” votes off people and also voting for himself in the bar afterwards…)

Half-time, and time for changes…. Nobody had played badly (first 10 minutes aside) but we’ve got a great squad these days and there was plenty of quality and energy on the bench; Lee was replaced by Stubbsy, who by this stage had finally worked out where Montañesa was, Walter gave way for Nick, Juan replaced El Doctor at left back and Chris came on for Craig up front as the gaffer and his advisors decided that we didn’t want a Man Utd fan scoring a hat-trick for us….

Soon after, Humberto had done enough to win his MOM award and was replaced by our exciting new Samba sensation Joao Paolo (or JP to his friends). His first contribution down the right wing led to him crossing the ball in to Lluis, who instead of hitting it wide from 5 metres as he did on various other occasions during the game, fed the ball on to Nick, who calmly slotted it past the replacement goal keeper for his first (and hopefully last) goal of the season.

Micky Stubbs was controlling the game in the centre of the field without even breaking sweat and was getting forward at will, while Brendan held the centre of the park together well, and after being clattered on the edge of the box whilst chasing thought Lluis ball around the hour mark, Stubbsy picked himself up, dusted himself down, and stroked the ball into the net to bring up a 7-0 score line.

More good work down the right from JP, who is proving to be an excellent addition to the club, got Chris into space, and he centred the ball to Brendan who put away his second of the game. The ninth goal wasn’t too far behind, and last season’s top scorer, player of the year, and all round good guy, decided it was time for him to get in on the act. Step forward Mr James Imber, and he certainly did, nutting in a great free kick taken by Víctor Máquina from near the half way line. The keeper could have done better, but that’s not James’s fault.

Although the next goal certainly was……

…..a reckless, senseless and utterly desperate challenge on the Red Star centre forward, who was harmlessly wandering towards the corner flag gave the referee no option but to point to the penalty spot and a certain Mr Imber was extremely lucky to escape a thoroughly deserved red card and automatic suspension. The resulting penalty was almost saved by Hugo, who did well to get so close considering that he’d hardly had anything to do all game up to that point.

So, the comeback was on. Or so it seemed, until Lluis finally decided that it was time to stop putting the ball wide from 3 metres and after controlling a long ball from Craig, he rammed the ball past the now devastated Red Stars keeper. 10-1; double figures for the Collins, and history was in the making…

The victory was soon rounded off by JP, who collected the goal that his excellent 35 minute cameo deserved when he got himself on the end of Craig’s cross to put the ball into the keeper’s bottom left hand corner, with a little help of a deflection off an opposition player.

So, 3 points in the bag and a positive goal difference after 3 games played… it really is nose bleed time for the Collins now. However, a note of caution; although it was a good result against a very, very weak side, we still need to improve in many basic areas of our play. Simple passes are being overlooked and we still play far too many long, aimless balls, good teams will beat us easily if we continue to play like that and we need to learn to control the football and play easy, simple, short, quick balls to our teammates instead of hitting the ball 35 metres into space…. Next up in the league; West Ham, and time to see if we really are any good after all

Man of the match – Humberto

New season starts with a narrow draw to Mallorca

2009-10-20T18:14:00.004+02:00

Well after the pre season disappointment the week before, MCs were desperate to get something out of the game against tough opposition. The watchword was stability, we needed to get grip on positioning, and working with each other, keep it simple stupid!!!!
Hugo was in goal again, Cedric RB, James and Doctor CB, and Terry LB more for his gob than ability. Midfield was Victor Guapo, Lee and Mickey were reunited in the centre, and Lluis on the left. After Brendans late showing with a cold, we had to rejig the forward line and have JP partner Chris up front.
The start was a little shaky, with both wingers drifting inside and the centre of the park was very cluttered. It meant that their wingers were running at us with impunity, and defensively we looked rattled. Hugo pulled off a series of good saves with a couple of 1 on 1 stops with the Mallorca striker. It wasnt long though before our nervousness let us down and one of their strikers nipped through and scored a cracker. 1-0 Mallorca.
We didnt let the heads go down though and after swapping Lluis and JP, we looked a little more balanced, and had some width which allowed the central midfielders to start controlling the game. It wasnt long before Victor Guapo pulled up injured and had to be helped off the pitch. On came Caj to explosively change the game. Hard running and general awkwardness and the Mallorca left suddenly looked shaky. All match we had been over elaborate up front, when simple balls through to our speedy strike force would cause all sorts of problems. The ball came to Caj, one defense splitting pass later, 1-1 (Chris if i remember correctly).

The second half started brightly again and some hard running again earned us a few chances but Mallorca were slowing down and had lost midfield completely. Terrys decision to stop playing offside and man mark the forwards was paying dividends and the mistakes were few and far between. Caj on the right, overlapping with Cedric was causing problems, and we had several set pieces. One dropped on chris who looked to have lost out, but a very tenacious JP behind him scuffed and booted it over the line. A deserved 2-1 collins. At this point, we needed fresh legs, Mickey who had been booked earlier on for an outrageous "welcome to Sunderland" tackle was replaced for his own benefit with Victor Maquina, and an exhausted JP made way for Walther. The game progressed for a while with nothing much happening, apart from Pizarro´s Man Utd like timekeeping (im sure we played 60 minutes in the 2nd half). Juan came on for Chris to harry and annoy the defenders for a bit, and it looked like a good 3 points for MCs, then in the final minute, a picture perfect goal in the top corner from their striker, an uncleared cross, badly dealt with and tired legs. It was a shame, but at 2-2 we can hold our heads high, good game against good opposition, and a bloody improvement on last week.
Man of the match......Hugo, some fantastic saves!!!!

Shit Bollocks Crap 4-0 loss to Torpedo

2009-05-25T17:44:00.002+02:00

Lat game of the season and a shite turnout meant Rich had to do 90 minutes in Goal, James and Doctor were CBs and the FBs ended up as tourists visiting Cedric. Still at half time we were only 1-0 down, and probably should have scored.

Second half we were Shit.

The end!

4-4 vs Brent FC

2009-05-18T10:43:00.001+02:00

A nice warm day was ideal for this end of season friendly game against our guests from north London. A strong squad shows the commitment we now have within the club, and the competition for places has now intensified with both Hugo and Simon making a welcome return to the squad after both being out for almost a year. Great to see both back wearing the green and white hoops; two very good players who will only improve the team and offer us something different.

And so it seemed…. Richard sent out a strong starting 11 with Magog in goal, Terry, El Doctor, James and Hugo across the back, Cedric continuing in his new right wing role, Walther coming in instead of Micky to join La Maquina in central midfield with Brendan starting out wide left and Simon and El Guapito up front together… if not the most talented front two in the league, certainly the best looking!!! On the bench were Mike, Richard, Dan & Caj, with Nick, Humberto, Samu, Mickey & Juan all away and a freak injury to Fritz in the warm up not good news either. Hopefully he’ll be back from his broken toe nail in no time at all….

The game kicked off with the WAGs up in the stands enjoying the glorious sunshine, and we soon settled in to the passing game that we’ve begun to develop in recent weeks. The ball was soon moving from side to side as we looked to create space to allow some of our more talented players to play in. We were looking dangerous down both wings and through the middle and it looked like it could be a nice day to be a Michael Collins player. And so it started to seem…. Good play between Cedric and Terry down the right led to the first goal with Cedric putting an excellent shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner of the net for a great opener. His delight quickly turned to disappointment as he ran to celebrate in front of Thays, who was too busy discussing the latest in fashion trends with the other girls and hadn’t even noticed that he’d scored !!!! Shame really because it was a lovely goal, and the young Frenchman deserved a better response than that....

However, his goal was soon eclipsed by an absolute beauty crafted from the feet of La Maquina!!! A controversial free kick awarded out on the right meant that the big men made their traditional journey from the back to await the cross, but they needn’t have bothered as up stepped Victor to lash a stunning shot from 30 metres in off the underside of crossbar to make it 2-0. A great shot, it has to be said, but against a keeper taller than 1 metre 50 it probably wouldn’t have been a goal… But credit where it’s due, and there can hardly be a more deserving goal scorer after all his commitment and unselfish running for the Michael Collins cause throughout the season.

The opposition were beginning to become more and more frustrated with what they felt were some soft refereeing decisions going against them, and their humour couldn’t have been helped as a third goal was added from the penalty spot after Victor Guapo had tumbled Cristiano Ronaldo-like as the opposition centre half breathed too heavily on him in the penalty area when chasing a long through ball. A shameless dive, and more worthy of an Oscar than a penalty, but the referee bought it and it was soon 3-0.

Multiple changes to the team allowed our visitors to slowly establish themselves in the game and their hard work was soon rewarded; Magog became the first keeper in history to ask for a wall for a freekick on the halfway line, and the confusion this caused dragged Brendan out of position and allowed the opposition to play an intelligent set piece through the static Collins defence to score a very nice goal.

However, the 3 goal gap was soon re-established as Simon slotted home with his left foot following a melee in the opposition penalty area, to notch a goal that his good play to that point had surely merited. An excellent return from the Scotsman, who really does bring something “different” to the team when he plays…. “Different” not necessarily being “good” however!!!

Halftime soon came and some welcome refreshment for the boys…

We started the second half as we’d ended the first, creating some good opportunities but not able to convert any of them and slowly but surely we began to allow the visitors back into the game. Some woeful defending by Terry, taking 20 touches to try to control a headed knock down from James gifted the ball to the opposition left winger who calmly chipped Magog from 25 metres for an excellent finish, and we didn’t seem to learn our lesson as we soon gifted another goal to the visiting 11.

Only 4-3 up and suddenly starting to look not as easy as we’d thought it was going to be. And we were soon punished for our lack of ruthlessness when a good ball over the top was collected by the opposition centre forward who stepped inside a clearly hungover James to slot past Magog from the edge of the area. Hardly what we deserved for the way we’d played for most of the game, but a harsh lesson to all that we must finish teams off while we can, and to concentrate more at the back.

One last chance from Walther that drew a fantastic save from the opposition keeper, denied what would have been a deserved victory, but it wasn’t to be and the game came to an end with a very Liverpool-esque final scoreline of 4-4.

After a disappointing couple of results against some of the other title chasing teams we’ve started to come back to a bit of form lately, although unfortunately too late to be able to challenge for the title this season. However, looking at the squad of players that we now have things can certainly be interesting for the Verdiblancos in 2009-10, although it looks like its going to be difficult for “El Mister” to keep around 20 players happy, and some people may not get too many opportunities next season.

However, before we talk too much about next season there’s still the small matter of our final league game against Torpedo and the end of season sevens torneo at Muntañesa to think about….

Vamos Collins!!!!

Collins 3-0 Storesnay

2009-05-11T09:49:00.002+02:00

Match report by Terry:

Even before kick off the game had that end-of-season feel about it…. Glorious weather and far too many smiles and jokes among the players warming up for it to be anything other than a kick about in the sunshine. The manager obviously thought so too, deciding to make one or two fairly radical “tactical” changes to the starting 11, including playing himself up front as a loan striker. Without the in-form Caj to call upon, it was obviously a desperate measure in a desperate moment….

Magog started between the posts, a new look back four found El Doctor slotting in beside James in the centre, with Dan and Mike in the full back roles. Cedric wide right, Humberto wide left, Micky Stubbs and La Maquina in the centre, Richard up front, with Walter just behind in “the hole”.

The first 15-20 minutes were far from entertaining, with El Collins struggling to play with any great fluency as the players settled in to the new formation, although Cedric continued to look good in his new role and looked our one real threat for much of the first half. The game was at best scrappy and very little for the fans in the stand to get excited about. However, slowly but surely things began to fall into place, we stopped hitting long, hopeful balls, began playing more controlled football and started using the wings. Humberto began to impose himself on the left, and Micky and Victor totally dominated the centre of the pitch. Things were looking good.

And so it proved when our domination of the ball was translated into a goal for Walther.

The second goal came courtesy of some good build up play, and was neatly turned home by Humberto.

2-0 to the verdiblancos at the break, and time for a reality check for our new star centre forward, who promptly found himself replaced Brendan. Not as easy at it looks playing up front for The Collins I suppose. Mike came off to be replaced by Terry at left back.

The second half began as the first had finished with El Collins looking to get the ball down and play football whenever we could. The sun was starting to take its toll with the game slowing down and space becoming more readily available. The football improved and rarely did the defence have too much to deal with, although Magog did produce a couple of good blocks, in between shouting “Terry tiene dos” about fifty times at the top of his voice!!

Richard came back on to the field in place of the exhausted Walter, and one or two half chances went begging as we looked to turn our possession into further golas. However, just as the game seemed to be petering out, Humberto sprung to life out on the left following some good pressuring of the opposition, and following a Lio Messi-esque mazy run into the penalty area, with a trail of sweating Storesnay players breathlessly panting in his wake, he managed to keep a cool head to back heel the ball to Brendan, who coolly slotted past the keeper before Richard could get to it to blaze it over the bar from 8 yards…. 3-0 to The Collins had a better and truer look about it, and was a fair reflection of how we’d been able to control most of the game.

Next up the touring side from North London, and one last league game before we pack our little red Speedos and head off to the coast for the summer. Let’s try to finish the season on a high, and build up towards next season which will hopefully bring bigger and better things

Vamos Collins!!!

Game against Dragon 3-3

2009-04-29T11:41:00.001+02:00

Well, it was a nice Saturday @ montanesa, when the Collins faced the chinese, who had not lost in their five last games.

So, knowing this we decided not to take them for granted, and it kind of paid off, kind of.

We started with Victor(guapo) and Fritz upfront, Humberto and Victor(not so guapo) as center midfielders, and Michael on the right wing, and Walter on the left. Defending were Rich and James in the center, Cedric on the right, and Mike on the left side.

We started fine, having some opportunities right away, and then we got a penalty, after a Chinese defender defended with his right hand(I think this was the case), nad we scored by a beautiful clean penalty given by Victor G.

Soon dragon also scored, and then soon made a couple more, and we went to halftime 3 to 1 loosing.

Halftime came, and we made some changes, Nick came on for Walter.

So we started the second half with great hunger to get back in the game.

Soon Michael got injured, and the Doctor came on for him, five minutes later, Fritz was changed for me, yours truly, Caitsu, who almost immediately scored a whopper(his first league goal!!) from a wonderful pass and play from Cedric, so we were down only one goal, now we really got fired up, and 5 mins before the end James forced a header in the Chinese net, and we were 3-3.

So, 3-3 the game ended, we could have won, but I have to say that the Chinese have really improved their game, hmm, maybe they train?

Short match report, but if I write more it will only be about my GOAL and I think you already have heard about it.

Vamos Collins, we still have two games, lets enjoy them and have fun on the pitch!!

Forza Collins!!

caitsu

4-1 loss Pechekali

2009-04-22T10:30:00.003+02:00

Well what to say, a game of 2 halves again. First half with James Mike, Rich and Cedric in defense and Richard manmarking their top scorer, we looked good. Michael got an early goal which soothed the nerves, and it took them 30 minutes to score an equaliser, which was a cracker from 30 yards out. All even at the break!

4 changes for the second half meant that everyone had a good runout. Terry for Rich, Dan for Mike, Humberto for Fritz, and Doctor for Nick. It seemed like a strong team, but soon showed that we didnt have the structure anymore. The 4-4-2 formation dissolved into childrens football where everyone ran after the ball. Our wings stopped working, and got sucked into midfield, and the players stopped tracking their midfielders.

A silly penalty by Terry gave them the advantage, and their top scorer his first goal. Ten minutes later, no tracking back from Midfield, and a back post overlap and they had their third. 10 minutes after that and very poor marking in the box lead to his hatrick and 4-1. They deserved it, we can do so much better.

4-2 loss to Flahertys

2009-04-06T11:36:00.002+02:00

Well it was a must win game to keep our season on track, and we lost!

The endeavor was there, the final piece of the puzzle is missing though. When we play with confidence, we are more than a match for BIFL teams, without it, we crumble and look like there is no direction. The fact that at 2-2 with a brace from James playing in Midfield, we should have pushed on means nothing now. The final 20 minutes in my opinion, we were slow, lethargic and uncreative. The majority of the rest of the second half, we were half a yard off the pace, and less aggressive than Flahertys. As Terry summed it up, they just wanted it much more than us!!.

Caj thinks that we are scared of making mistakes, and therefore we dont have the confidence to create what we can. Well now we have nothing to play for, so lets go out and play for fun, enjoy ourselves, try something different, and stop playing the blame game.

We lost to a Flahertys team with heart, and a strong core, with the central midfield strong and fluid. They also back each other 100%, lets get back to basics and enjoy our football a bit.

1-0 loss to Sitges

2009-03-31T16:22:00.002+02:00

The less said the better, so ill keep this short. We battered them, and they were so under the kosh that one of their players resorted to punching Victor in the face for nothing. The ensuing fraces ended in him and Samuel getting sent off (our only out and out striker). After that we lost our heads a little, and got affected by the constant Sitges incitement, provocation and gamesmanship. We had about 30 chances to their two, but they scored in the 93rd minute to win it. We should have been about 5-0 up at half time, but we werent, we should have ignored their harrassment, but we didnt, they should have had at east one other player sent off, but they didnt. Its the way the game is and weŕe up against it now in the title race. Concentration, tough battling and an eye for goal will get us through vs Flahertys on saturday, and we are desperately in need of the 3 points now. We are our own worst enemies, and it will take some maturity to get us through.

1-0 win vs Terrassa

2009-03-16T10:43:00.002+01:00

What a great day out. The sun was shining, summer in the air, and we had an excess of players for once. Taking such a strong squad meant that we could mix up the team, and have a strong bench which seems to be the winning formula for Terrassa. The pitch was as dry, uneven, and dusty as ever, and the longball tactics that Terrassa employed meant that the defence had a few confused moments in the first 5 minutes, but soon settled into their rhythm, with Mike, James, Terry and Cedric controlling the poor Terrassa front line easily. Our midfield of Michael and Victor totally dominated and it soon became clear that barring mistakes, and better subs, we were going to be on the front foot for most of the game. Walther on the right wing was having a great game, and as he often does, was embarrassing their defenders regularly with his trickery. Mid way through the first half, he dropped a shoulder in the penalty area, dribbled past 2 defenders, and put a delightful chip over the outstretched hand of their keeper for James to nod in at the back post almost apologetically. This goal brought him to 4 for the season so far, and the fact that our strikers have only 5 each shows where the problem has been so far. The incidents for the rest of the game centred around dodgy tackles from their keeper trying to injure Juan, and Nick. Juans bravery playing on with what looked like a broken thumb, the Doctor almost being chopped in half by the bars on the side of the pitch, and a few poor misses up front. The fact that we were only 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go meant the guaranteed comeback would be a little nailbiting. The defence held them off pretty comfortably though, and apart from a couple of crosses that missed everyone, a draw for Terrassa would have been a disgraceful score. Either way, another 3 points and thats 4 wins in a row for the Collins. Bring on Sitges, and Jordi Cruyff, and a day out in the sun again. Man of the Match, James for his clean sheet and goal, a colossus in the back 4, although there were a few strong performances on the day, notably Walther, Juan, Michael, and Cedric.

28.2 3-0 Win vs Mu Gung Hwa

2009-03-03T10:14:00.002+01:00

Well without actually playing we managed 3 wins in a row this week as the Koreans didnt pay their league fees. It was a double edged sword though as we would have liked the opportunity to improve the goal difference but knowing us we would have made a hash of it anyway. It leaves us 2nd in the league only half a point off the top. Flahertys lost in Sitges which is good for our position (but only if we win there). Next weekend is the game against Fritzs austrian team which should be a good training session for the terrasa game the following week which will be a tough test to see if we are worthy of this lofty position.

6-1 Win vs Redstars

2009-02-23T10:45:00.001+01:00

Match report by Mike Roberts:

Febrero 21, 2009, siempre va a ser una fecha para recordar, con la histórica victoria del Espanyol en el campo del FCB. Pochettino se ha santificado, el mismo honor que podríamos otorgar a varios miembros de la plantilla del Michael Collins tras el fulminante 6-1 endosado al Red Stars, la segunda victoria consecutiva para los verdiblancos.

Como ya viene siendo habitual, creo que es la tercera vez consecutiva que sucede, los Red Stars optaron por facilitarnos las cosas y empezaron el partido con sólo diez. Y pocos minutos tras la llegada del undécimo jugador rojiblanco, el veterano Sean Gribben se retiró lesionado y volvimos a disfrutar de una superioridad numérica que aprovechamos al máximo.

Sólo habían pasado unos veinte minutos y ya íbamos 4-0. El primero fue quizás el peor gol que jamás se ha visto en un campo de fútbol. James falló una oportunidad de esas que podría haber marcado tu abuela, pero de alguna forma imposible de entender, la bola rebotó entre culos y postes, y volvió a los pies del calvo, que está vez no falló. Un gol vergonzoso, pero le perdonaremos, ya que pocos minutos después subió con la elegancia de una gacela para conectar con un balón lanzado desde un corner, y su cabezazo de marca acabó en el fondo de la red.

El Collins estaba jugando a placer, burlándose de los Red Stars, y poco después llegaron dos goles más sin que nadie realmente supiera como, y parecía que íbamos a presenciar una goleada de escándalo. Uno de estos goles casi lo podemos calificar como bueno, él que marcó Fritz. Hablando del austriaco, fijados en él en el próximo partido. La cantidad de agua que bebe este chico durante un partido es una auténtica barbaridad. El otro gol no lo recuerdo, pero entre los gritos de Magog desde la portería y de Terry desde la banda, no es de sorprender que a veces resulte difícil enterarse de lo que está pasando.

El árbitro del encuentro fue Paul Gregson, y con él es inevitable que en algún momento va a pitar un penalti a o bien a favor o bien en contra nuestro. Está vez nos tocó a nosotros cuando un defensa de Red Stars impidió un gol con la mano. Seguro que en un partido normal esa acción le hubiera costado la roja, pero dada la evidente superioridad del Collins, y para no dejar a los Red Stars con nueve, se salvó con la amarilla. Humberto lo tiró, pero lo paró Zahir, el arquero carismático del Red Stars, pero no llegó a hacerse con el control de la bola, que rebotó para terminar en una de esas posiciones desde la que no se puede fallar. Humberto falló. La pelota todavía está en órbita sobre el barrio de San Andreu.

Sin embargo, llegó otro gol antes del descanso, y con un 5-0 a nuestro favor, pareció que todo estaba decidido. Sin embargo, Mike recordó un partido contra el mismo equipo hace unos seis años que íbamos ganado 5-1 en el descanso, y que terminamos perdiendo 6-5. Todavía quedaban por delate 45 minutos. Y durante el intermedio, llegó otro del Red Stars. La segunda parte iba a ser de once contra once, y sobre todo durante el primer cuatro de hora, el mejor equipo no fue precisamente nosotros. Una parada excepcional de Magog en un uno contra uno impidió que los Red Stars abriesen su cuenta, pero poco después, tras un despiste en defensa, los Red Stars consiguieron lo que al final sólo iba a ser un golito de honor.

De hecho, hubo otro momento cuando Magog tuvo que sacar la pelota de la portería, tras uno de los mejores disparos que hemos visto esta temporada. Lo extraño, sin embargo, es que este chute fue la inexplicable obra de Richard. Afortunadamente para él, su impresionante autogol no valió ya que el colegiado ya había parado el juego por una infracción anterior.

Luego un gol para el recuerdo. Desde la defensa, Mike mandó un balón en profundidad de tanta clase que no se lo creía ni él, encontró a Caj, que también conjuró una jugada de las que nadie sabía que el finlandés es capaz, y lo remató Samu. Mike, por si alguien pensase que su pase había sido casualidad, repitió la misma jugada unos minutos más tarde, pero esta vez, por poco, no terminó en gol.

Globalmente, un partido muy satisfactorio, aunque también cabe destacar que esperábamos más de un Red Stars bastante pobre que jugó la primera mitad con sólo diez. Pero una jornada redonda, que culminada con la histórica conquista Espanyolista del fuedo del Barça, ha hecho que incluso un jugador perico del Michael Collins puede, a veces, tener algo para celebrar.

And an attempt at translation by Rich.....

Feb 21st 2009 will always be a date to remember, with the historic victory for Espanyol at the Camp Nou. Pochettino was sainted, and the same honour could be given to various members of the Michael Collins team after beating Red Stars 6-1, the second victory in a row for the green and whites.

It feels like Red stars always try to help matters, I think its the third time in a row that they started the game with 10 men. A few minutes later, the veteran red and white player Sean Gribben retired injured and allowed the Collins superior numbers once again.

In only 20 minutes it was 4-0 . The first was one of the worst goals seen on a football pitch. James missed an opportunity that your gran could have scored, but some how the ball returned to baldys feet and he didnt miss the second time. An ugly goal but well forgive him as a few minutes later he rose with the elegance of a Gazelle to score with his head.

The Collins were playing beautifully, and taking the P$%s out of Redstars, and not much later we scored two more goals that no-one really knows how, and it seems that we also managed a scandalous goal to cap it all. Now one of these goals, we can accept as good, the one scored by Fritz. Watch him in the next game, the amount of water this kid drinks is barbaric. The other goal, I don't remember, but between the shouting of Magog from the goal and Terry from the bench, its not surprising that sometimes its difficult to understand whats going on.

Paul Gregson was the ref for the match, and with him its inevitable that at some point he'll blow for a penalty. This time it went for us, as a defender from Redstars handled the ball in the penalty area. In a normal game, this would have resulted in a red card, but due to the evident superiority of the Collins, and so as not to leave Redstars with 9, he only gave a yellow. Humberto took it, but it was saved by Zuhir the charismatic goalie from Redstars, but he didn't control the ball, and Humberto was in one of those positions that is impossible to miss from, Humberto missed! The ball is still in orbit somewhere over San Andreu.

We still scored another goal before the break to make it 5-0, and it seemed like it was all decided. However, Mike remembered a game against the same team about 6 years ago where we were winning 5-1 at the break and lost the game 6-5. There was still another 45 minutes left and at the break more players arrived to give them a full team, and throughout the first 15 minutes it wasn't as easy as before the break, with the teams evenly matched. A marvelous save from Magog one on one with the striker stopped Redstars opening their account, but a little before, after a disaster in defense, the Redstars managed to score a face saving goal.

Once again Magog had to remove the ball from the goal, after one of the best shots seen this season. The problem however was that this shot inexplicably was by Richard. Fortunately for him, his impressive own goal wasn't counted as the whistle was blown for an earlier infringement.

After that followed a goal to remember. From the defense, Mike sent a long ball with such class and accuracy that even he couldn't believe it. It arrived to Caj who also conjured a piece of play that nobody thought the fin capable of, and Samuel scored. Mike just in case anyone thought the original pass was luck, repeated the feat a few minutes later, although unfortunately the forwards missed this time.

Globally, a very satisfying game, although slightly disappointing was the lack of players for Redstars. Overall a good day that culminated in the historic conquest by Espanyol of Barca, and gave a Michael Collins player and Espanyol fan finally something to celebrate. MOM Samuel

2-1 Win vs Independent

2009-02-16T21:21:00.003+01:00

Finally some points back on the board for the Collins and a good start to the second half of the season.. Almost a full team were available for the game just Caj and Terry really lacking and Victor Guapo injured but raring to get on anyway.

The game was really all about missed opportunities and the Collins should have been (does this sound familiar?) 1 or 2 up by half time, but in fact it was 0-0 with MC's struggling to get the width, and Juan struggling hard to get sent off. Luckily for us, the ref was feeling generous and we went into the break none the worse for wear. As we had subs for once, it was all change at half time, with Mike Roberts swapping for Fritz, Doctor moving over for Humberto, Walther coming on for Juan, with Nick supporting Samuel up front.

The change took effect quickly and we looked more sprightly and certainly kept the ball much better. The wings were working well, and if it hadn't been for Nick and Samuel's almost telepathic ability to miss a barn door from 3 yards we would have been away and uncatchable within 20 minutes. It took a characteristic long ranger from Nick to break the deadlock, but soon afterwards the smallest man on the pitch rose between James and Richards combined 13 foot to head home for the equaliser.

At this point we were dominating though, and many a wasted opportunity meant that we were in danger of losing it. The goal did come though in the end, and Victors' appearance for 10 minutes came with it. He gamely hobbled about for the remaining time and (although i can't remember who scored the 2nd goal) it was a deserved victory even if we were rubbish for long periods. Thats the great thing about the 2nd division, everyone else is rubbish too!

MOM Michael, our geordie midfield dynamo scuffed both knees and put in a tireless 90 minutes.

5-3 loss to Flahertys

2009-02-09T11:51:00.002+01:00

It was a bit of a mishmash before the game as lack of fit or unsuspended players meant a frantic friday trying to get bodies in for the Michael Collins. After the last friendly vs Flahertys where we were winning comfortably until the last 20 minutes and their 5 subs made the difference, we were determined to have replacements for the game. This meant finding Michael from the BIFL website, calling Glendon who hadn´t played for us for a while, and pressganging Nick into his first game for 6 months. Sami came in too for his league debut, and Hector made up the numbers.

Terry came in as goalie which allowed Mike to get on the field in his favoured left back role. James and Rich as centre backs, and Fritz started as RB. The midfield and forwards were interchangeable in a 4-1-4-1 lineup with Nick, Victor, Samuel, Glendon, Caj, and Doctor.

I have to say, Flahertys have improved dramatically and have a very strong will to win. They battle for everything, complain about everything, shout at everyone, and expect a high standard from their players. Their Midfield is especially strong. From the start, they were putting us under pressure and it wasn´t long before they beat the offside trap to slot home 1-0. Our midfield was struggling to cope with their fluidity with the unusual formation, at 2-0 we decided to revert to 4-4-2 as the midfielders didn´t know where they were supposed to be. It immediately changed things and we came back into the game. Terry was pulling off a series of good stops, and only a poor penalty beat him after losing control of the ball and handling outside the box. 3-0 at half time, changes needed.

Caj came off and Victor came on ignoring his injury and made an immediate impact, scoring and giving us some width. Central mid was not helping to contain the powerful running of the flahertys players so we needed a change, step up Michael into his debut. Not knowing what to expect, it was a last throw of the dice, and in hindsight it should have been done earlier. Michael came in like a dynamo, snapping at heels, winning ball, and turning the tide in the centre. All of a sudden we were going forward again, Samuel scored soon after. It took a postage stamp shot from 25 yards from Nick to end the scoring but i was very pleased with the second half display and attitude. Thats the first half of the league over and we´re in the 2nd division, but now the real work starts, we need 3 points against Independent on saturday and lets try to make a challenge for this league.

6-1 loss to Metropolitan

2009-01-15T16:13:00.002+01:00

Well it wasn´t a very happy new year for the MC FC as we all turned up fat, slow and off the pace after xmas. The full team were available too which adds to the disgrace.

Things were certainly not helped by Cedric´s sending off after 5 minutes for slapping one of their players after being pushed, all handbags really but we were screwed thereafter.

I won´t go into the goals in detail as it was pretty much one way traffic after the sending off. Our fullbacks didn´t get into their strides at all and were constantly out of position meaning that their attackers were in and behind us all the time. Samuel, then Brendan tried gamely to lead from the front as lone attackers, but they saw so little of the ball it was a waste of time. The few times that we created anything was through long balls to the forward.

One thing to take from this was that we need stability, positional sense is so important, and we lost it completely. 2 weeks off before the next match, we badly need training and friendlies to get back up to speed.

Giving the Dragons a 6-1 arse kicking!

2008-12-29T15:43:00.002+01:00

It looked like we would have about 7 subs pre match then the curse of the Collins struck, and 5 people pulled out within 1 hour of kickoff. Mikes moaning at Dom convinced him to come and play with a hangover and Humberto, Victor and Simon came injured, but couldn´t run, so Mike Williams was there for a return cameo, and Caj and Dom graced the bench.

Its been a while since this game and i´ve been accused of mismanaging the timing and scorers of previous games so i´ll just keep this one short. James and I were in defence due to injuries and unavailability of Kris and Terry, Walther and La Machina were in CM, and Mike W and Samuel up front. Fritz and Brendan on the right and cedric and Juan on the left. Mike was in goal. We controlled the game from start to finish, scoring freely and easily. Dom got one, la machina 2, samuel 2, and Brendan 1 (if i remember correctly). Their goal was down to Mikes complete lack of work throughout 70minues of football and he just froze to death on an easy catch allowing it to nutmeg him into the goal. Caj came on for 45 minutes and played well down the left getting an assist, and Dom came on for Mike W causing lots of problems up front and scoring.

All in all a good days work, unless your chinese who got all their kit robbed whilst playing. Merry xmas to them indeed.

It means we have 8 points, 1 point off the top half of the table with Metropolitan, flahertys, and west ham still to play. I´m hoping for at least 6 points from those 3 games so lets try to stay less than fat over xmas and see you all in the new year.

Knocked out of the cup AGAIN by the Black horse

2008-12-01T17:15:00.002+01:00

Well it was always going to be a tough one playing the unbeaten league leaders, but we were determined to make them fight for it. The game started with us playing strongly and nobody apart from me panicking on the ball. It was pretty obvious that they had 3 or 4 extraordinary players in midfield and up front, but the speed on the left flank was getting the better of Rich pretty regularly. The pitch was very wet after the storm and us heavier people struggled to turn at anything approaching tractor speed. The Black horse scored relatively early on, at about 15-20 minutes in. It was a bit of a shock because there was nothing on for them. Defensively we were doing reasonably well. We were having good posession and keeping the ball for long periods when one of their left wing breaks produced a moment of magic, and a 35 yard peach of a goal that lobbed Magog. Impossible to stop, 1-0.

Did that deter us, it did not, onwards we went and apart from frustratingly playing long ball football up to James to often, we were contending with them. A victor lopez dribble to the touch line, a beautiful cut back, and fritz hammered in his second in 2 weeks. Back in the game!!

Their second came shortly afterwards though. I can´t remember the order, but one of them was a poorly marked header (my fault), and the other was a 4 hit deflection past a stunned Magog. 3-1 and not taking advantage of our possession. We were squandering chances as is our way, and we needed to change things at half time. Richard came off, Fritz dropped back to defence to deal with the speedy winger. Lluis went to right wing and Walther left. Samuel came on for Victor up front. Immediately the changes made a difference. They were not threatening as often, and we were piling forward. The difference was that they expected to win, so the Collins just started to enjoy the football, and it was a joy to behold, a nice through ball, James controlled it, and buried it 3-2.

Their 4th i can´t remember, although i think it was another long range effort that caught us unawares, but we pushed on. Lluis and Samuel were frightening the horses with their pace and fitness, and Cedric was marauding up and down the left wing. The 3rd goal came soon after for the Collins, with cedric, Samuel, and Lluis combining for Lluis to bury goal on his season debut. The Collins then pushed on and on, an only the keeper saved the black horse, 2-3 times. The Doctor came on for Fritz, and then the defining moment happened. A por second yellow card for Humberto who had played so well with Victor in the middle resulted in us being dropped to 10 men. Caj came on up front and James dropped into CB for an injured Terry, but no changes could help then. 2 more quick goals for the Horse sealed it. Closer than they thought, closer than the scoreline suggests. The Collins can hold their heads up high. It was nice to see the WAGS out on the town afterwards too. Man of the Match Cedric, tireless as ever!

Vs Terrassa 5-2 Loss

2008-11-25T19:13:00.002+01:00

Guest match report by Mike Roberts

With Richard down south with the sound of the Beach Boys in his ears, in the absence of their mentor, the Collins were left to fend for themselves in his absence. Things didn’t start well, as the squad assembled outside the pub wondering where the kit was and waiting for it to appear out of thin air, while out in Terrassa the day’s opposition had already started their warm-up routine. With matters finally sorted out, it was off to Terrassa, with Mike Roberts muttering away to himself about a decade and a half of calamitous journeys to Terrassa in which we have managed to maintain a proud tradition of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. Today was to be no exception.

The first half was a joy to behold. Gerard Vilanova of Terrassa’s version of events sent to the official BIFL website speaks of “the Michael Collins scoring two first half goals on the counter attack.” Just what game he was watching is hard to imagine, for by definition, for a team to start a counter attack, the opposition first has to form an attack to counter, and those were conspicuous only by their absence in Terrassa’s first half. We were all over them. Absolutely running rings around them. Solid in defence, with more pace and ideas in midfield, and for the first time in three games, actually making that possession count. Either Victor López scored first and Fritz after, or Fritz first and Victor after, I can’t remember, but whatever, we were 2-0 up within about twenty minutes, and Terrassa had barely managed to string together more than a couple of passes. They did manage to create a few problems as the half wore on, but by half time it was so far so good, and oozing with confidence, the only thoughts the Collins had were of grabbing an early second half goal to settle things, and then to turn their attention to their plans for the evening.

But there were two major factors that had not been taken into account. The first was the sun. It was another matter entirely playing with squinting eyes as the great ball in the sky glared down in your face, and winning high balls was suddenly not the simple affair it had been before the break. The second concern was the Terrassa bench. They had five subs, and good ones at that, while we only had Caj and an injured Simon.

Still, we soldiered on, knowing that on the strength of our first half supremacy, not even those minor concerns were likely to deny us the three points. But then disaster. Just what the Doctor was doing, we cannot be sure, but a lunging tackle to bring down a rival striker who really wasn’t doing any harm whatsoever resulted in the ref having little option but to point at the (non-existent) penalty spot. Following a minute or two deciding where said penalty spot should have really been, Terrassa were off the mark. 2-1.

The goal knocked some of the confidence out of the Collins boys, and at the same time served to buoy up the home side, and the course of the entire game had changed. A high but reasonably saveable strike from outside the area was flunked by goalkeeper Mike Roberts, who muttered some lame excuse about the sun being in his eyes, and it was 2-2, and although he managed to redeem himself with two or three cracking saves (if I can say so myself), the last half hour or so saw the ball almost constantly in the Collins’ half of the pitch, and with the midfield having collapsed, and the defence making all the simple errors they had so brilliantly failed to make in the second half, more goals threatened to come if the Collins didn’t get their act together quickly.

They didn’t. Terrassa’s third saw the ball crossed in and frustratingly managing to bounce of the toe of some guy who was laid out on the floor to go in, the fourth was a one-on-one as one of their players managed to leave our defenders standing. Terrassa were reinvigorated by all those substitutions, the Collins were demoralised and, in laymen’s terms knackered, and by the time it was 5-2 the green and whites were beyond caring any more and yelling at the referee to blow for time and put them out of further misery.

All in all a thoroughly disappointing defeat, for at half time it had all looked so very different, but if any lesson was learned today, it was the importance of having a strong set of players, five if possible, to bring on in the second half – it’s in the last half hour when games are won or lost, as we found out the hard way in Terrassa.

The man of the match award was shared by Walther and Victor ‘guapo’ as Terry has decided to name him (as opposed to Victor ‘máquina’ in midfield). Next week, it’s the Cup first round, a difficult task in high-flying Black Horse, but wouldn’t it be just fecking marvellous to put out a side that is surely already making plans for their second round game against Storesnay. This season, when the Collins click, we’re a match for anyone. Let’s hope there’s plenty of clicking in front of the Wags on Saturday then.

Vs Storesnay 0-0

2008-11-19T13:10:00.002+01:00

Not much to say about this game part from the fact that the first half produced about total of 3 shots from both teams. The defences were rarely tested. All our work went up the right wing and both forwards were dragged there meaning there was rarely anybody in the box to score when needed. Cedric was wide open on the left yet it never got that far.

The second half was all collins though, we dominated possession, and really should have scored in the 1st part of the half but it wasn´t to be. Brendan´s sending off for thinking about reacting to blow could have screwed us but it actually galvanized us into motion, and there was a flurry or attacks, post, save, bar, save, save and bloody save. The icing on the cake was from the effervescent Walther who managed to blaze over from 3 yards out with 2 minutes to go. All in all, a clean sheet so point is ok, but the midfield forward understanding needs to improve alot to make any inroads in this league. We really should be winning these.

0-0 vs Torpedo

2008-11-11T10:25:00.002+01:00

Not a bad result vs the 2nd division champions on saturday, especially when you take into account the state of the manager pre match. Apart from Terry,and Pat, we were at full strength, so should have been very competetive but Richards 3 hours sleep and hangover did not make for a good defensive cover. Fritz was back to add meat to the challenges at right back. James and the argentinians were late arrivals so Caj started on the right wing, and Humberto started up front.

St Marti is a rotten pitch for football, so it was always likely to be scrappy but the first half was horrible. There was no cohesion in our play, the ball was carelessly given away constantly, and the defense was always busy, although rarely found wanting. The Torpedo strikers were not particularly efficient, but then whenever they got within 20 yards of the goal, one of the back 4 crunched them hard enough to make them wary. Maybe this was what started them whinging, but it became the main aspect of the game. First half they seemed always to have an extra link up man in midfield, and had the better of the play, but we weren't particularly worried about their firepower. 0-0 half time.

James came on for Humberto and Walther for Caj at half time. Mike refused to come on for a flagging Richard as he said his hangover was worse after attending the same wedding. The second half was much better as we kept the ball better. The addition of Walther especially made the midfield a little more tricky, and started causing Torpedo some problems. After the 0 shots on target from the first half, we started creating chances, though mainly they were spurned. Corners and free kicks were coming reglarly and even with 3 players over 6 foot, we could not break the deadlock. Simon came off injured and Juan moved on to the left wing to start causing havoc with the tired Torpedo whingers. The game petered out in the end with nothing much going forward with either team. 0-0 a fair result although disappointing after the last game.

Man of the Match FRITZ, he's back!!

4-1 Win vs Mallorca

2008-10-26T13:15:00.003+01:00

When we're good we're very good, and today it all clicked into place. Our first game at the new San Andreu pitch proved to be a great chance for the team to show what they can do. The Mallorca players boasted to our new recruits that they were a first division team and had 9 points so far (albeit against weaker opposition), but i had a good feeling about this one.

The team consisted of Hugo in Goal, JKris and Terry centre halfs, Cedric and Rich as full backs. Juan moved up to left wing, Victor right wing, and the new partnership of Victor "the machine" and Tomasz in central midfield. Up front were James and Pat for his last game for the collins.

We wanted to play the ball on the ground against this team that Victor and I had watched the week before. We realised that their only strength was their ability to hold on to the ball. Our gameplan was to be very aggressive at ball winning, and to keep it simple.

The first half was a blur, with the Collins winning everything in midfield, Victor and Tomasz clicked in a way that i've never seen yet, and dominated the middle of the pitch. Terry and kris were immense at centre back, and there was only 1 threat from my memory throughout the first 45 minutes. Victor broke the deadlock after our forwards had spurned chance after chance, we were having 2-3 shots every five mintes and the vaunted 1st division team looked shaky indeed. It took a moment of magic from Victor on the right wing to kickstart it though. He cut inside and floated a lovely 25 yard lob over the keeper and into the top corner. Inch perfect, and thoroughly deserved, 1-0 collins. A few more poor finishes and we were approaching half time with a lead but one that could be taken from us with a slip. And slip we did, their striker outjumped Kris and was through on goal 1 on 1 with Hugo when Victor from nowhere sprinted 30 yards to nick the ball from his toe just as he was about to shoot. Half time, 1-0. Victor then took a headbut to the face which dropped him like a stone and caused a gash on the lip, but it could not stop him and made him even more determined.

Juan had been lucky to stay on the pitch after a string of rash challenges so he made way for Glendon at half time, and we left it 10 minutes before the Doctor was to replace Rich. Almost immediately Pat broke through the Mallorca defence and slotted cooly for 2-0. Mallorca were on the back foot nowand it was like a turkey shoot. They made multiple substitutions to try to stem the flow, and Doctor cam on for Rich. Unfortunately his first action was to bring down a striker in the box for an unnecessary penalty which they scored, 2-1.

From then on, the midfield mastery proved too much for Mallorca with Victor winning everything that came through the centre, and Cedric marauding up and down the left wing. James got through on goal and scuffed the shot, but fell on the ball. Somehow he kept control of it on the floor and passed it out for Victor coming in from the right to hammer it into the roof of the net, a deserved 3-1.

At this point Mallorca had nothing, the domination was total, and Victor (winger) was a little damaged and came off for Walther to soon earn his new nickname "Hannibal" for telling one of the Mallorca players that he was going to eat his liver......

Simon came on for James and immediately took the mantle of centre forward and started running at the defence. They just couldn't handle the renewed pressure and Pat popped up to put in a 4th.

Caj came on for the last 15 and almost made it 5 from Simon's cross but it was just behind him. Cedric ran the whole length of the pitch twice and almost scored both times, but in the end the game finished 4-1. The Mallorca manager came up to me afterwards and said it should have been 10-0. He said they were rubbish, i say we made them play rubbish. Wonderful to watch, and even better as we videoed it.

Man of the match by a unanimous verdict, Victor the Machine..... 2 weeks in a row for him as MOM and to think i thought he wouldn't be physical enough to play in central midfield.

My apologies to those of you who came to the collins to watch the video and we couldn't get the TV to work, but we had a laugh anyway. Lets try to keep this momentum going and who knows where we'll be in a few games time.....A very happy Gaffer

Saturday 11th vs Manchester 8-1 loss

2008-10-15T14:26:00.003+02:00

Under pressure from ex players who love to view our misery (thats you Tim), i am forced to face up to this result in public.

MANCHESTER were always going to be a tough prospect. Easily as good as Dynamo, but with better individual players, Hans etc, we were on the back foot immediately. Kristin and Tom both gave no warning of their non attendance, which meant there was only one CB available, and James had to play in defence, leaving no target man up front. We played 5 across midfield to try to contain Hans and friends, and left poor Victor Lopez up front against 4 defenders.

The first half was a good game, with the Manchester captain coming up to me at half time and saying that we have improved dramatically since last season and that this was exactly what they needed. It was only 2 or 3-0 by that time, although we had sustained periods of possession, and looked threatening at times.

Lets qualify this game early. Manchester are out of our league. They have ex professionals, one who has played for Antwerp. The class shows, and he scored at least 3 goals, one a spectacular overhead kick taken off James´s head, which is no mean feat in itself. They had 5 subs who were as good as our best players, and they are extraordinarily fit.

The second half kicked off with no changes to personnel, and a good feeling that we might get goal. At 60 mins it all started to go wrong. As the midfield tired, people stopped tracking back and the defence were overrun. 5-0, 6-0 and it was all over with 25 minutes to go. It was time for fresh legs and Caj, Janek, and Hektor all came on to try to batten down the hatches. As it was, it made no difference. Victor, bravely soldiering on alone up front earned a penalty which he deserved for his hard work and made it 6-1 but 2 more goals given away through tiredness, lethargy and lack of heart meant it was a rout.

What can you say, its tough to play against these teams, and we should have plyed the best of the league now. Only West Ham, and maybe Metropolitan worry me a little but we should be alot closer to them than the last two games. We have a week off now, and then Mallorca who are nowhere near as free scoring as Mancester or Dynamo. This is the real test for our level. One thing that we ave seen so far is that we can´t afford any passengers. If we have subs, they must be an addition to the side, as good and as fit as the people that they re replacing. The other is that we need to play at the top level for 90 minutes, not 70. In 2 games we have performed well for 65-70 minutes and then collapsed. This has to change!

New 2008-9 season starts with a loss

2008-10-05T13:32:00.003+02:00

Well saturday was the start of the new season, and the Collins were drawn in a tough group this time around. Our first game was against the very potent Dynamo, who beat us 8-0 or something last season. A few new faces were here this year, with Victor and Simon starting up front for us, Pat, Cedric, Kris and Glendon across the midfield, and Juan, the Doctor, Terry and Tom in defence. Mike was between the sticks.
The game started better than we could have hoped for and the surface was much better to play on thannSt Marti. The passing was crisp, the players took a while to settle and we had to soak up some early pressure, but in all, we were playing well. There waas a bit of banter between the teams, with Juan the ringleader, but it was all pretty lowkey.
A lack of concentration, a very quick forward and suddenly it was 1-0 Dynamo. Mike was left sprawing in front of the new missus, but there was not much he could do about it. It was not a time to let the heads go down, and although Mike had to make a string a excellent saves, we were still in the game. As Dynamo flooded forward, we started to get some luck with the counterattacking football. Cedric and Juan were linking up well on the left and when Victor dropped back to link up, the ball was moving quite well. Simon had a great opportunity but the goalkeeper saved well, and a couple of speculative 20 yarders from Cedric and Pat were close aswell. Our central midfield of Pat and Kristian started to control things then, and forced the Dynamo attacks out wide.
A corner kick sparked us into life again as Terry floated a Staunton-like corner straight into the goal, and it was 1-1 before half time. We failed to capitalise twice after that but at 45 minutes, we were good for the draw. No changes were needed, we were playing good football.
Second half came and we continued to press forward, squandering a couple of good opportunities, until a strong 20 yard volley from the impressive no.8 from Dynamo beat Mike and started the Dynamo attack. The time was 70 minutes, it was 2-1 vs the 2nd best team in the league, and we were looking good. Dynamo then turned up the gas! They brought on 5 subs with fresh legs and good skill, and our midfield started to be overrun. Victor came on for the Doctor for fresh legs, and Walther moved to CM taking a knackered Simon off and pushing Pat up front.
Taking Pat out of midfield was probably a mistake, as the floodgates opened then. Very soon it was 3-1, then 4-1. We were still creating, but not finishing our chances off. Dynamo were scoring top corner goals every time. Zugi came on for Victor who had cramp and Glendon pushed up front. Some very poor refereeing gave them a penalty for a nonsense handball to make it 5-1 then Terry was enraged after a 3 metre offside call was ignored by the ref to make it 6-1. He seemed more interested in getting his car off the parking outside and scuttled off immediately.
With a scoreline like 6-1 alot of people would be disappointed with that performance, but to be honest, we played for 70 minutes like a good team. With a bit more fitness, a couple of additions in key places, we will definitely improve from last season. Juan was voted Man of the Match, the aptly named "Toro" was everywhere leading from the back. Cedric and Victor both played well in their first game, and Victor deputised well at RB when he came on. Next week Manchester for another stern test, but heads up, i like what i see!

vs Pilote Urbain lost 3-1

2008-06-09T16:58:00.002+02:00

I personally went into this game with a good deal of dread after the french rampaged through our team the last time we met. They have improved somewhat since that last humiliation so the thought was a little disturbing. When Carlos did his customary disappearing act and we had no goalkeeper things were looking worse, but on the upside it was a beautiful day and we had 4 subs.

The game started with little change to the team. Ben (a new signing) started at right back and Glendon went to the wing to allow Ian back up front with manuel. Apart from that it was all as usual.

We started strongly and looked like we would hold them firmly but the movement and pace of the french forwards was causing a few scary moments. Our forwards were however seeing alot of the ball, and for a few better passes, or through balls and we might have had a sniff at the other end.

The crunch came from a long range speculative strike from 30 yards out that beat stand in keeper hugo, and hit the postage stamp. Beautiful goal for the French and nothing anyone could have done about it, a deserved 1-0. This however galvanised us, and midfield started pulling a few strings with Tim galloping aroung the centre circle and against instructions, Kristian was up in the penalty area more often than not. The blight of our season though has been poor finishing and it was coming back to haunt us. 2-3 chances went begging that i'm sure the opposition would have put away, and we were left cursing our luck. As the sun beat down, the french got a free kick in a dangerous area, and a beautiful curled shot was headed in by one of their forwards. poor defending but a great goal nonetheless, 2-0 down. Half time came and we weren't that disheartened, more of the same was the order, just lets convert the opportunities.

To get some fresh legs on in the heat, Kristian went back into central defence for Rich, allowing Walther to move into midfield, Fritz came on for the exhausted Ben at right back, and Juan replaced Reuben at left back. None of the changes were needed but everyone was busing to get on, so it was only fair.

The fresh legs told soon after, Ian was moving with some freedom around the opposing half now and juggled the ball at a sprint through the defence to score a great goal, and it was all Collins from that moment on. Thats not to say the french didn't threaten. They hit the bar and a post from long range but we had 70% of the possession, and probably 15 chances to score.

Unfortunately even the introduction of Caj "super boots" Wirman and Zugi couldn't swing victory, and a last minute goal by the french against the run of play showed the reality of the season. Good game though, and on to the friendly on saturday at 6pm at St Marti

Vs Dragon 3-2 win

2008-05-26T12:22:00.003+02:00

Well a game of two halves again, the first half disastrous, and the second much better. Dragon started with just 10 men and it looked on paper like we should have whitewashed them but as is always the case with the Michael Collins fc, we didn´t allow it to go to plan. We were playing like it was a foregone conclusion and missed about 10 chances in the first half that would have opened the flood gates for a resounding victory. Defensively we were struggling with the speed of the Dragon front two who were surprisingly good, and once again our midfield wandered.

It came as no surprise when true to my prediction after 15 minutes, Dragon scored. They deserved the goal too, poor marking from throw ins made life easy for them and a cluttered defence allowed them to poach 1-0 from us. this was not going to plan. Luckily for us, Tim and Manuel got over their handbags argument and passed the ball to each other which opened the door for a great Glendon cross and manuel cooly volleyed past the Dragon keeper. even at 1-1 we looked suspect. It was hard to watch from the sidelines but soon dragon scored the second with a wonderful solo run from their nippy no. 9 who went past 4 players from midfield and scored a cracker to put them in the lead again.

Half time couldn´t come quick enough, and changes were made more to shake things up a bit and remove the lethargy that seemed to have infused the team. Rich came on at centre back, moving Kris up into midfield. Andre replaced Hektor at right wing and the doctor came on for Caj. Mike went off to watch the eurovision song contest which shows the quality of our play really.

We started strongly this time and Sebastian scored early to even things up. we were creating lots of opportunities again but the forwards seemed to be drifting into wide roles and there didn´t seem to be anybody in the danger area time and time again. Tom was smashing chinese players all over the pitch and being politically incorrect about the whole thing as usual, and he soon reduced their number by one by breaking one of their forwards ankles. 2 minutes later a petulant slap to the back of Sebastians head and his customary reaction earned two red cards to reduce the numbers more, 9 versus 10.

At this point anything could happen and it duly did. A corner from the left, Glendons despairing reaching header glancing the ball into the path of.....wait for it......Me! and the magnificent centre half buried the winner bringing a tear to the eye of his adoring public.

It still had a few twists as some appalling defending allowed Dragon 2 free kicks outside our penalty area which they should have done better with but hey we won at last, not convincingly, not stylishly (apart from my goal), but 3 points is 3 points, so now we have to prepare for the french in 2 weeks. A sterner test i think!

17th May vs Terrassa lost 5-1

2008-05-20T10:24:00.002+02:00

I for one went into this game feeling like we had a good chance against a reasonable but beatable terrassa team. The game had been cancelled the week before due to torrential rain and the replay looked wet too.

The collins lined up with three new argies and a new american keeper, but Tim came back from injury, and we had a few spare players on the bench. At kickoff, Tim felt his ankle wasn´t up to it which was a great blow, so we lined up with Caj and Reuben on the full back berths, James (back from obscurity in the UK) and Kris at centre back, and new keeper Den. Lluis, Sebastian (new argie), Zugi, and Andre in midfield. Glendon and Manuel were up front.

This starting line up should have been strong enough to defend the basic forward play that Terrassa had to offer but over the next 15 minutes the Collins imploded. The structure was fine but everybody seemed to be out of position all of the time. The two full backs were constantly 5 or 6 metres ahead of their markers with one of the centre backs playing them onside. In front of the hapless defence were a non existent midfield who like schoolboys ran around after the ball like headless chickens and gave no cover to the defence. The sum total of this was that every time the Terrassa players got the ball, they could play a long ball to the wings and their players found they were in space with no markers, or they just ran through the middle of the park without challenge and overwhelmed the flimsy line ahead of them with sheer force of numbers.

The first goal started a deluge where time and time again, the full backs were caught out and the wingers roamed with impunity through our penalty area. Den, brave despite the onslaught kept them out 4 times out of 5, but after 30 minutes we were 4-0 down. Richard, screaming at them from the sidelines to keep their shape had to do something, and aj was swapped for the Doctor (argie) at right fullback, and he concentrated his ire on Sebastian who seemed incapable of staying in position, and Reuben who also drifted dangerously. The problems slowed a bit as the structure returned but the damage was done.

Half time could not come soon enough, and a roasting ensued. after alot of arguing and blaming each other, nobody wanted to take responsibility for the poor performance and I was disappoined with the lack of character we showed. If you screw up, admit it, and improve. Don´t blame all of those around you. Its a team, not indiviaduals, and i´m going to have to do some soul searching before the next match. Sebastian was subbed and Richard came on to organise a pathetic defence. Kris was pushed into midfield to offer a defensive shield in front of the centre backs. Jose (argie) came on for Reuben, and we were off.Immediately we could see the change, Den had little to do, and we started to push on. The pressure was telling and the defence was suddenly firm. Terrassa started diving to drag the game out but Lluis burst through and scored to make it 4-1. The game was back on, and we pushed forward again and again, but the Terrassa keeper was having a great game and stopped shot after shot. In the dying moments a speculative 30 yard effort was poorly fumbled by Den who was the first to admit his error (a lonely voice of honesty) to allow them to finish at 5-1.

A tale of 2 halves it was, and the disappointment is that if we´d played like the 2nd half in the 1st, we´d probably have won, but once again we let ourselves down. If we continue with the bad attitude aswell then we´ll lose our hard earned reputation for hard but fair play. Anyway, onwards and upwards...

vs Torpedo lost 3-0

2008-04-28T10:25:00.003+02:00

The devastated Collins team was dealt a further cruel blow against the very average Torpedo today. The fact that we started the game with only 11 players really showed what a difference a few weeks can make in this league. Injuries being the main factor in our demise but a couple of holidays and a couple of people leaving meant that until an injured Mike and an injured Andre arrived, we were very thin on the ground.

A debutant south american started in central defence to cover for our injuries, and we started strongly, it was pretty 50 50, and a couple of early chances should have been finished better. The touch was off but things started to improve after 10 minutes until disaster struck. A clumsily misdirected defensive header and and own goal gave torpedo a 1-0 advantage. Kris spent the next hour willing a comeback goal and screaming at our miskicking forwards. Half time came and the Collins were arguing amongst ourselves stupidly. The forwards had spurned a few good chances, but the bickering was a waste of time. We still had alot to offer, but it was not to be. Fritz playing wholeheartedly as ever ran into the metal barrier and was playing like he had broken his arm, so Andre took his place. 5 minutes later, Ian collapsed after a challenge and was carried off the pitch with an egg shaped lump on his foot, so Mike came on for him. 10 minutes after that Kyle was carried off screaming in pain for another hospitalisation. Torpedo scored as we had to bring Fritz back on clutching his arm in pain.

Just to add to our woes, our stroppy south american centre back took off his shirt, threw it on the ground and walked off the pitch. We were playing with 10 men, 3 of whom were injured, so a comeback was unlikely, although it did spark a small revival and the forwards started to create something. Lluis was marauding for a little while but ultimately it wasn't to be. Now we need to find a new set of players for the next game in Terrassa. The league challenge is over, and to cap it all, Magog is leaving, so we have no goalkeeper. A thoroughly bad day at the office!!

5-3 win vs Vueling

2008-04-08T11:56:00.003+02:00

Wow are we on a roll. Barceloneta was warm and 18 players turned up for the match. Its amazing what a few points on the board will do. unfortunately this meant that 2 couldn´t play so Rich and Reuben missed out, but with a bench including Ian, Zugi, Andre, Antti, and Jerry, we were looking the strongest we´ve ever been.

Glendon and Manuel started up front, Lluis, Kyle, Tim, and Fritz in the middle, and Caesar, Tom, Kris, and Caj at the back. Mike subbed in goal for the sick Magog.

The game started with the Collins controlling play, we held the ball well, and the wings were working particularly well. A couple of missed early opportunities boded well for the match, when against the run of play, their left winger skipped past Caj and crossed for an unmarked forward to slot home. 1-0 Vueling after 5 minutes. The Collins weren´t perturbed though, and soon we were back on track with some excellent wing play from Caesar and Lluis ending in a goal for manuel. Soon afterwards Tim made it 2-1 with one of his trademark huge deflection goals that embarrass him on the field for their ease. 5 minutes later, Glendon scored and at 3-1 we should have been cruising. We had 80% of possession and controlled the play. The only option they had was a long ball from the centre backs over the top for their fleet footed forward to latch on to. We had flapped a couple of times at these and the service had to be turned off. The move of the game was Mike Roberts handball outside the area which cold have ended in a red card, but luckily the ref was feeling generous, it evened out later with another yellow for their defender though.

At half time, we were looking at a potential 10 goal haul if this continued. The Collins had made 20 odd chances and should have scored more. The changes were Antti for Caj, Ian for Glendon, and Jerry for Fritz. The fresh legs on the right immediately took effect and Jerry was terrorising their left back. Antti had effectively shut off their speed advantage at right back, but a slump in midfield was pushing the Collins back on our heels a little, and a goal came from 5 minutes of pressure from Vueling. 3-2 and one of the centre mids had to make way for Zugi, so Kyle gallantly stepped out. Zugi, much improved from the start of the season stepped up to the plate and a swap of Ian and Tim´s positioning gave a bit more legs to the midfield and immediately we were back on top. It seemed like we were creating chance upon chance. Lluis breaking in from the left at every opportunity, and Tim creating everything from a forward position, we were outnumbering them time and time again, but no goal, posts, crossbars, good goalkeeping and just plain bad luck were keeping the Collins out. Finally the pressure paid off and Manuel slammed home for 4-2 and at this point we took our foot off the pedal again. Jerry went through on goal and pulled up in agony, twisting the old knee injury that had kept him out for such a long time this year. Carried off Andre replaced him and whilst distracted, Vueling sneaked in for a quick counter goal. 4-3, 10 minutes to go and forward we went, Manuel shot and almost scored but a defender dived and handled on the line for a blatant penalty. The pressure built and the goalkeeper saved with a last flailing leg to keep us out. Back and forth we went up and down the pitch but the Collins were having all of the play. Vueling had no more subs and tired legs allowed Tim to slot home for his second with 2 minutes to go. 5-3 was the scoreline but with possession we should have scored 10, 3 points is 3 points though and we are clawing our way up the ranks. Terrassa and Independent drew 3-3 so we climb a place and Storesnay with surely the upset of the day beat the leaders Torpedo, meaning that the Collins are 2 points off the lead with both those above us yet to play us. A last word for Jerry who is so unlucky with these injuries, get well soon mate, and we hope you´re back on your feet for next season!!!!!
Man of the Match - manuel even though he did miss a penalty for his Hattrick, awesome up front!!

2-1 win in a friendly vs Sitges

2008-04-01T16:16:00.006+02:00

Friendly vs sitges is a joke in itself, but the performance was a good barometer as to our potential. the main recollection was that our two new argentinian players arrived for their first game in collins colours and what a debut. Manuel was massive up front as a target man, and seemed to be a joy to play alongside. the rolling subs meant that most people only got a 15 minute spell before being dragged off for someone else to get a run out but we kept our shape throughout. A couple of finishes that should have been better meant that we went into half time 1-0 thanks to a piece of sublime control from Manuel and a half volley, but we all knew it should have been at least 3. Magog was winning plaudits more for his brand of wild kung fu goalkeepers than anything else as the sitges forwards were rarely threatening Tom and Dom as centre backs. The full backs were great going forward, Reuben and Caesar in particular earning plaudits from everyone. The referee was very poor but we will get dragged into arguments about poor decisions and when 5 or 6 players surround the ref and the opposing team plays on, the inevitable follows. Nobody at the back, kungfu keeper, penalty!!

At 1-1 we resumed control again, and dominated the second half without scoring. The fresh legs were really showing near the end and within the last minute, the deserved winner on 90 minutes was a shambles but we´ll take it. 3 seconds from the whistle to restart and we had full time. Great game by all, Magog got MOM for pure hilarity, and Doms second leaving game ended in glory. All then went off for lager steak and dancing. Great Day out:

Photos from MHG win

2008-03-19T15:57:00.005+01:00

Michael Collins 4, Mu Gung Hwa 3 - Doms Adios

2008-03-19T15:51:00.003+01:00

The rampant Collins continues its steady march towards a strong finísh to the season.

This game was always a potential banana skin especially given what happened in la primera vuelta. MGH are tidy enough and well organized especially when pushing forward to catch the forwards offside.

Like any team believing it has the God given right to the 3 points on offer, MC played the first half in a very relaxed fashion. There were an awful lot of offsides due mainly to the forwards – Dom and Glendons lack of checking runs. Supply from the wings was scant ,due mainly to the absence of the Road Runner Luis on the wing.

Sometimes it takes a team a while to find its feet in a game and this is how it looked on Saturday. A good carriage of play resulted in the impressive Tim wrapping his boot round the ball and sending it into the top corner (artistic licence here ;-) No matter, you make your own luck. The King of deflections Deco would have been proud of it.

MGH wasted little time in getting back on terms. Again another deflected shot sent the keeper the wrong way. Even Stevens at the break. One point of interest in the first half was the imperious Mike “the turtle” Roberts heading everything in the air. After about 48 years of playing football he has worked out it doesn’t hurt to head the ball. Well done Mike !

The break allowed big Rich to show his tactical nous by pulling the strings. Rich fell to the bench and pushed Ian up front, Kris to midfield and Dom to centre half. The gaffers changes were quickly justified after a flurry of very good goals. Firstly Zugi reckons he headed Dom millimetre perfect free kick into net. Good goal Zugi. Kris followed up a great ball by Andre by sticking it into the back of the onion bag. Finally after not a few chances Glendon lobbed the keeper or something and his team mates then decided to leave an indentation of him on the pitch to mark both the pitch and the occasion.

Ky came on to replace someone and also give Richs ear a bit of respite.

Then the Collins went to sleep. Dom was pushing to far forward and left Tom who was having a great game and Mike to take care of the Korean forwards. Mike decided his heading career was finished and the Korean snuck a few scrappy goals to give Rich a nervous last few minutes.

This meant 7 points from the last 3 games so there is some momentum finally. A good team performance and plenty of reason for optimism. Selection will be difficult for Rich next time as the midfield performed very well.

Man of the match went to Dom – who recognised this as a farewell gift and says cheers for all the games and good times. Hope to see you all in Valencia.

For me it was a great way to finish a BIFL career. This current MC team is a great bunch of lads who enjoy playing together and also enjoy their social time together. Long may it continue !

vs independent 2-2 match report supplied by Ian

2008-03-14T19:16:00.001+01:00

So Michael Collins on an almost unprecedented run of one game winning streak and Independent consistently playing football, this was always going to be a tightly contested contest.
Collins stalwarts Kyle and Lluis were of gallivanting in foreign lands, but we managed to rope in enough players to warm two blue plastic chairs near the white line on the side of the big green thing.
Our opponents fielded Leroy, a bloke who played for us in a seven aside tournament at the start of the season. We were impressed, the feeling wasn´t mutual and he decided to fight for independence.
The game got off to what can only be described as a start with Tom playing some strong african style football and not soon afterwards Magok or however you spell his name played an incisive upfield ball which confused their two centre backs on the bounce, allowing Glendon to sneak in and head the ball over the on-rushing keeper and into the big squarish white thing at the end of the pitch. 1-0.
We sort of sat back on our laurels for a while, Ian missing a good opportunity lobbing the keeper. He did manage to lob the keeper but also the crossbar too.
Our opposition seemed to be making more chances than us and their pressure paid off before the break to equalise in some way or another.
Tim was having a good game in midfield, breaking up their play and creating good openings for us and we felt we were in with a chance. Alas early in the second half their child-like right winger smashed the ball towards the top corner after some tricky approach play to score a peach. Bastard.
We had forty odd minutes to get back into the game and after Fritz moved to our right wing we had a little more penetration due to his usual strong and energetic performances. We pushed our luck in defence, Independent guilty of wasting some good chances after slipping the markers but thanks to some robust play from Dom and Rich we managed to block out the best they had to offer. Leroy (their best player) had moved up to central midfield and posed much more of a threat than the first half but this weakened their back line. Strong running from midfield´s Tim, Antti and Zuhir the ball made it´s way to the right to a speeding Glendon who put in a perfect cross for Ian to head in.
With the clock running down Dom moved up into attack, Ian took to centre midfield and Tom moved back to centre back. In the final minutes a few insults were traded. Fritz impressing us all by calling someone´s mother a whore in Italian, Tom berating a crying dandy and Dom scuffling with the dutch nemesis Leroy, the referee decided to call a halt on proceedings and share out the points.
Not a bad result. it could have gone either way so onwards and acrosswards for the mighty Collins, next we´ll be playing the awful Koreans, let´s see how much of our tattered reputation we can rake back from them. Victory or death!!!

Men of the match Ian and Tim

Vs Red Stars 3-2

2008-02-23T19:55:00.003+01:00

Wow oh Wow, we won a game, unbelievable. Whether it was due to Christian in central midfield (who has yet to lose in our colours), or the fact that Lluis had his girlfriend to show off to, i don't know but either way we had moments of wonderful football again, and moments of absolute cack too!!

The game started against the 10 men of Redstars witha very shaky defence. In fact i have no understanding why. We were fit, up for it, and agressive pre match but when it started, we were crap!! the first goal was due to some dodgy defending by Mike, covered by some dodgy defending by Rich. The game was for the taking but we just weren't doing anything with the ball. We were slow to the ball and poor in control of it. It took a great cross by Lluis to Doms head to get us an equaliser, but really until that point we weren't very deserving of it. The highlight was the complaining of Caj about Kyles freekicks. He then took freekick duty and kicked it straight into the ground to the amusement of the opposition and Kyle, who by all accounts was still drunk at this point.

We went into half time with a 1-1 scoreline that flattered us, even if the last 10 minutes had been better. There were recriminations and arguments, oh and substitutions, which weren't complained about as the sun was shining and it was a nice day to lounge about on the sidelines. Carlos soon got the yellow card which i promised would earn him a substitution but in reality it was nice to have him back and he played very well on the right.

Redstars fought straight back and a poor defensive display by Rich earned them a flukey goal which Magog almost saved with a palm against the post. The almost immediate reply where Lluis moved to the right wing and blasted a 20 yard effort into the corner was a welcome relief for the Collins. Ruben and Anti were marauding up and down the wings from full back and causing all sorts of probems, and Rich's achilles finally gave in allowing Andre a game up front and Dom moved into centre back. Ian latched onto a lovely corner to win the game for us late on and realistically we should ahve scored 4 or 5 more but the finishing was woeful. We had to wait until the end of the match to realise that they had had a man sent off in the last 5 minutes. Most of us didn't notice. Red stars played dogged determined football but in the end the subs won us the game with the new energy they added. Either way its 3 points and rock on the Collins!!!!! Man of the Match because his missus was there ....Lluis!!!

Michael Collins vs French (1-4)

2008-02-15T20:11:00.001+01:00

This was definately one of the worst performances of the season. The game took place at Vallbona, but the bad pitch is no excuse for the terrible play.

Although we were missing our top scorer Luis and our German tank Tom in defense we turned up with a very decent squad-ready to beat the French with their captain - and former Collins striker- Flo. Andre and Glendon started up front, Ian, Kyle, Fritz and Zugi in midfield, Chris, Rich, Mike and Dom in defense with Caj, and Antti on the bench.

Instead of pushing the other team we started nervous and right from the beginning the French strikers turned up in front of our new goalkeeper Marroq far too often. After 5 minutes the ref gave a foul to the others and showed an indirect freekick. Marroq would let the direct shot on goal pass, still, the ref counted the goal, 0-1. From then on we ran around on the pitch like headless chicken.

We did not find our game, the French won every ball in midfield, our only serious possibility was a nice pass from Ian and Antti to Glendon who scored our only goal being offside, still it counted.

The French marked 3 more from counter attacks, the Collins were useless that bloody night in Vallbona. Although the ref was terrible we must never again lose a game like this. Focus on the next game and keep fighting Collins!!

vs Mallorca 2-5 BIFL Cup

2008-01-29T16:50:00.000+01:00

The late setting of the date for this match caused immense trouble for the Collins team, culminating in 6 first choice players missing the match including all of our potential goalscorers, and our goalkeeper. Last minute phone calls, bribes, blackmail and the random return of Glendon from the wilderness, and Alberto from the dentist actally helped us to field an almost full squad, although we did have 5 players that we had never seen playing for us. One look at league positioning, and our problems and you would have been forgiven to have called this as a double figures mauling, but against all the odds, we played out of our skins.

The first 10 minutes were very even with both sides having potshots on goal, and Carlos having potshots at anyone with a red kit on. Within minutes he was carded, 2 minutes later and warned again, and within seconds handballed for a second yellow. 80 minutes to go and down to 10 men...hmmmm.

This was not however immediately problematic. The team was Alberto in goal, Teemo dropping back to left back from midfield for Carlos, Tom and Rich as centre backs and Chris on the right. Kyle held the centre aided by Tim who came back from up front, Fritz had the right wing and Kai the left. Antti was up front alone. Oddly this seemed to settle us and although the Mallorca team pressured, we had the measure of them at the back, midfield held the ball up well, and Antti was very lively up front. I feel that we are starting to play simpler cleaner football, and this gives us alot more time on the ball. Mallorca scored to make it 1-0 after 20 minutes, but very soon after this, some great chasing on the right by Antti, put the very dodgy keeper under pressure and he parried into the path of Tim who made no mistake. 1-1, game on!!

Half time came and we were very much in the game, Kai came off for Andre, and Glendon came on for Antti to give some fresh legs up front. Immediately, Alberto was called upon to make a number of fine saves but the pressure eventually told. Twice the defence was found wanting and it was 3-1 very quickly. At this point, our forward line clicked again, and some very unlucky shots were just wide. The next goal from Mallorca was down to slow legs in defence. 4-1 and we were in danger of a thumping if we didn´t score soon. Glendon popped up immediately with a reply and 4-2 was a more realistic prospect. The Collins dug deep, Alberto saving twice more, and Caj coming in for Fritz to offer some fresh legs on the right. The next 15 minutes were all Collins as the midfield and forwards clicked like we had been missing for large portions of the season. A constant threat, Tim, Glendon, and Kyle marauded through the Mallorca penalty area and came close time after time, but it was not to be. Fresh strikers came on for mallorca and the ragged defence crumbled again, Richard a step too slow and 5-2. Mike came on for the final 10 minutes for Rich and shored up the hole, but a valiant loss, nothing to be ashamed about, and a strong showing from some of the new players.

Man of the Match, Kyle.
Honorable mentions: Tim, Glendon, Tom, and Alberto the octopus.

vs Sitges 2-5 loss

2008-01-23T11:18:00.001+01:00

Surprisingly i think this game was a turning point for us. Sitges has always been a bogey side to many of the clubs in this league and have consistently been at the top of the tables year in year out. A depleted squad without Branko and a recognised goalkeeper, and we were looking at a stuffing.

For once, the phonecalls and hassle helped and we had a squad of 15, meaning that we would not get beaten for stamina, and the game began. Mike Roberts went in goal against his wishes as jordi will not be returning to the side. It was immediately obvious that we were going to miss him and a flapped cross enabled Sitges to go 1-0 up very early on. Carlos was having a battle of epic proportions with the entire Sitges team and was very successful in winding them up. Centre backs Rich and Tom were successfully bullying the Centre forwards but the back posts were very weak and it seemed that if the ball went over their heads it would be a goal. 2-0 up and not at all having the majority of the game, the very unlikeable Sitges team started to attack Carlos and were finally getting obvious reactions from him. On a yellow card already it was going to be necessary to sub him at half time to keep 11 on the pitch. Tom seemed to be happily crunching players left and right without any warnings so at least we weren't light at the back.

The small pitch in Sitges wasn't giving our wingers much room to work with and it was almost a surprise when Lluis nipped behind the defence and scored a goal to drag us back into the game. It was very much game on and we pushed forward with Ian and Kyle looking composed in midfield. As ever our shooting was letting us down. Dom and Alberto were not hitting the target, but we were creating alot of chances. Once more the Sitges team broke and a back post ball once more nodded in made it 3-1, soft goal after all the hard work at the other end. They quickly added another which realistically should have been saved, but Doms relentless character assasination of Mike in goal had reduced his confidence to tatters.

Lluis once more provided a retaliatory strike to make it 4-2 and once more the reply from the back post nod in was enough to silence any thoughts of a come back. The game came to a close seemingly very quickly, and although the scoreline looked comfortable, we really could have beaten them.

Lessons learned....

1. Defend the back post with the full backs better. It will inevitably improve with a good run in the side for the same players. 3 goals were scored today due to this.

2. Goalkeepers are absolutely necessary, and we need a replacement for Jordi asap.

3. We need a couple of out and out strikers and we'll be winning these games.

4. 4-5 subs make a huge difference to the game as fesh legs add that something extra to the team.

Honorary mentions:
Antti - ran his heart out up front out of position and almost scored
Jan - very composed at right back as a sub, and could be a good addition
Tom - Der Panzer, relentless with his tackling, agressive with his attitude, deserved Man of the Match

We can look forward to next saturdays cup game with relish. it will be harder that Sitges but we have a couple of strikers to try out, and Branko is back, so heads up, we fought hard and well on saturday. The only way is up.....vive Michael Collins!!!

vs Manchester 9-1 loss

2008-01-14T12:27:00.000+01:00

We went into this one hoping that manchester were more hung over and fat after the christmas excesses than we were. It seemed like we would have a large complement of subs at training on Tuesday so we were not unduly worried before the match. Valbonna is always a bitch to play at. Its a big pitch and an awful surface but we were in good spirits as we waited for the players to turn up at the meeting point, only to realise that lucho, Chris, and Mike didn't turn up. We had a couple of new guys who had never played for us before but the subs bench was a lonely place.

Immediately we kicked off with Tom at left back and Caj at right. Dom and Me in centre of defence and a 5 man midfield of Lluis, Kyle, Hugo, Branko, and Fritz, leaving Ian feeding off scraps up front. The worrying scene of 5 subs for the opposition boded badly for us.

The first goal was due to a lazy backpass after 5 minutes, the second a missed header into the sun, and the third, some very good wing play. The one thing you noticed about these guys was that they finished excellently. Jordi made 6 or 7 class saves within 20 minutes, and we were in danger of falling apart. Branko popped up with a 25 yard thunderbolt that moved in the air and dragged us back to 3-1, but the onslaught continued. Their wingers were marauding down the left and right, and with Hans their captain at his inspirational best, it was difficult to cope with them. At 5 or 6-1 by half time, we knew it would be hard work for the next 45 minutes. Our 1 sub came on at left back for Caj who was struggling to keep up with their lighning fast winger. The first 20 minutes of the second half we kept them at bay and a couple of chances came our way but were not buried, but then came their subs. They brought on 5 players wth fresh legs and all were as good as those that they replaced. The game was up when one of their attackers scythed Jordi in the box and dropped him onto his lower back, the scene of a previous injury that kept him out for 6 months. The rest of the game we chased shadows and had a goalkeeper who couldn't move. The final 3 goals were impossible to stop as tired legs gave way to the furious pace of the game. A sound thrashing, lets hope Jordi recovers or our season is in trouble.

Michael Collins vs Torpedo Raval 1-1

2007-12-17T09:05:00.000+01:00

After a turbulent few weeks with results going both ways the mighty Collins were looking for a prechristmas boost and a further win to get us through until 2008. Torpedo had had a few good results and were looking to advance into the top half of the table. St Marti was at its worst with dust devils blowing up across the pitch, and to cap it off, Isaac turned up to ruin the match with his personal brand of awful refereeing. Don't complain, don't kick the ball away, don't dispute, don't breathe!!!

A few players that we expected to start weren't there, and i arrived to find 4 players never seen in a collins kit before. Janus didn't get a chance to play. Nasim started at right back, Christian played at centre half for me to get a look at the opposition, and Fritz joined me on the bench. The usual suspects were playing apart from that.

The first ten minutes were very much in the Collins favour. Battling hard with 5 across midfield, and Dom up front, the Torpedo midield didn't have any of the ball, and it seemed only a matter of time before we scored. The game slowly levelled though and our fullbacks looked a little slow. A couple of scares proved that this would be quite an even game. Isaac insisted that we wear bibs as the colours were similar, and we ended up with our shirts inside out. Playing midfielders as defenders is always a gamble as they tried to get forward all the time and expose the flanks. Minutes later the inevitable happened as just this happened, 1-0 Torpedo. Heads didn't go down though. There was all to play for, and back we came we were seeing alot of the ball but it was looking crowded up front. Half time came and soem changes were needed.

The team thought that we should not change the plan and were feeling confident, so Fritz came on to add a little speed to the right wing for Zugi. Apart from that, it all stayed the same. 10 minutes into the second half after a comical fall, Richard replaced Mike as centre back. It was now very difficult to see anything with the wind and grit added to the direct sunlight in the defenders faces. Torpedo made a strange change bringing on a slow forward who was very easy to control. The Collins were starting to make a few chances at the other end and it looked like Torpedo were tiring. Just then they scored as we took our eyes off the ball, and bizarrely Isaac disallowed it for offside. He evened the tables though by sending off Lucho for a second yellow card within a minute for a very innocuous challenge. The opposing player was squealing like a stuck pig though.

Being down to 10 men actually improved us. Dom came back to central defence meaning there was more space up front for Lluis and Ian to work. Nasim came off and was repaced by Lluis friend (antonio?), and Fritz dropped back to right back. All of a sudden, their midfield had no bite left, their forwards were easily controlled and they were on the back foot. They began to argue amongst themselves and we pushed forward winning a series of corners and free kicks. For some reason a backpass was not dealt with and Ian slipped between goalkeeper and defender. It looked like he had overrun the goal but he managed to keep it in and pass back to Lluis, who buried it from a very tight angle. The Collins were in raptures, it was no more than we deserved after the red card setback. Isaac blew for full time, and a christmas point seemed a fair result. The Torpedo players were gents and took it well. 7 points before the xmas break is unheard of, are we getting better or luckier. We'll see in 2008. MOM kyle, great workrate in midfield. Great debut by Fritz. All in all a good days work....

Another week best forgotten 7-1 Dynamo

2007-12-04T20:01:00.000+01:00

Well it seemed to start ok, we had a full team and 2 subs. A new midfielder, Branco who looked the part, and we were feeling pretty confident against the team directly above us. On the back of a 7-1 win last week, on paper we should have had a good game against Dynamo. The fact that they had about a squad of 25 and all came to the game probably should have warned us but it didn't. The first half was a blur, they seemed to have 4-5 strikers cutting swathes through our defence at will. Every pass went straight to a man, and every clearance from us ended up back in defence within seconds. Midfield had the ball for seconds before being swarmed upon, and even the Dynamo centre backs were making it look easy. Defensively we were poor, both Rich and Mike looked too slow against the lightning strikers. Carlos and Tom were a glimmer of hope kicking everything that moved apart from the ball, and causing the Dynamo wingers to lose control a little. Either way, they were 4-0 up in no time and it was starting to get messy.

Ian manged to get on top of a long ball by Mike Roberts, skipped past the defence and lobbed a despairing keeper to give us a lifeline. The next 10 minutes the collins pushed up and caused problems. It looked like we were getting into the game at last, then came the whistle.

Weary at half time we realised we needed to change things and carry on the pressure. Branco moved inside and Ian to the left wing, Lluis to the right. Zugi came on for Carlos and his mate for Mike. Immediately at the restart they scored again and it was going to be difficult. Richard did his regular ridiculous slide in the area to gift them a penalty, and they made multiple substitutions (more than 5 i think), but each of the subs was as good or better than the men they replaced. 7-1 did not flatter them, they were that much better than us. One more game against Torpedo and then the xmas break. Lets try and make this one a 3 pointer...

Michael Collins vs Storesnay 7-1 woohoo

2007-11-25T18:39:00.000+01:00

After the match that cannot be mentioned the week before, i asked the team to show what they were made of, and prove to the rest of the league that we weren't going to be this seasons whipping boys. And they made me proud!!

Dom returned to bully the opposing defence, and Zugi was back from suspension, but without Lucho, Jerry, Chris, Javi and Adam, the team was looking a little threadbare again. Carlos came to the rescue with his friend Alberto, and Tomiu, joined us on the bench.

The game was so surprising that i actually forget when the goals went in, so its probably not going to be factually correct but from what i can remember.....

Storesnay were playing 4-5-1 and their gollywog striker although quick was easily marshalled by the centre backs. Our wingbacks pushed up and kept him sorely lacking in support. Lluis was running like a greyhound on the left wing and his marker was completely out of his depth. To stop their packed midfield running the game, we opted simply to miss it out by firing long balls at Doms head and letting Ian and Lluis pick up the pieces. It worked so well one might wonder why we don't do it all the time, in fact......

Lluis darted past his despairing defender and slotted calmly for 1-0 quite early on, and we were determined not to let the post goal confusion rattle us and allow an easy equaliser. The pressure continued and Ian bagged a goal soon after calming us down and showing that we can score more than one per game. Tom was sent to the dressing room for a small graze on his knee and we had to use a substitution by a very petty referee. Tomiu went to left back and immediately took the ball upfield on a long mazy run. Not a bad find but definitely wanted to get forward. Dom scored soon afterwards which he deserved for bossing the penalty area. A silly 5 minutes allowed Storesnay to get a goal back when we started to pass the ball about in front of goal but before the break Lluis was dragged down for a penalty and Kyle took it with style. Shellshocked, we retired to the changing room, the only blot being that we had 3 yellow cards for kicking the ball after the whistle had gone, nonsense and the ref was being pathetic.

The second half started with 4 changes for them, but much the same for us. Alberto came on for Mike and soon afterwards, Tom replaced the very good Hugo in centre mid for thigh strain. This meant no more subs, but plenty more goals to come. Dom added another soon afterwards and Lluis capped his man of the match performance with another goal and a penalty. Their forwards were trying spectacular dives and complaining relentlessly. Tom was trying his hardest to wind them up by commenting on their captains parentage being linked to poultry, and recieving an elbow for his troubles. Jordi was obviously bored in goal so began his brawl starting behaviour but their striker was so fed up he walked off. Ian got a second yellow from the pedant in the black for handball, and Jordi got one fot timewasting. At 7-1 with 3 minutes to go, why would you timewaste?????

Either way, it was a wonderful performance, and sets us up nicely for Dynamo on saturday.

Michael Collins vs Mu Gung Hwa, 1-2...oooo the shame!

2007-11-25T18:37:00.000+01:00

There were high hopes ahead of the clash with Mu Gung Hwa. After all, nobody
ever loses to the Koreans, do they? Last season they even managed to lose to
the even more inept Dragon United, so this was a chance to enjoy the
delightful scenery of Vallbona and three even more certain points than
England at home to Croatia.

But things didn't look quite as promising when we found we had only just
managed to scrape together eleven players, and the bench was occupied by the
suspended Zugi and his very bored looking girlfriend. To make matters worse,
Lucho was injured and in no state to play, and the other full back, Chris,
was anything but one hundred per cent either.

But once things got under way, it looked like this was going to be plain
sailing for the Bhoys in green and white. The Koreans were hopelessly inept
in midfield, their forwards may have been fast but were hardly threatening,
and they had a substitute goalkeeper who never used his hands and wasn't
much better with his feet.

A few promising attacks from the Collins and a few feeble efforts from the
Koreans, and the bookies were already paying out. This game had a five or
six goal win written all over it. Sure enough, some ten or fifteen minutes
into the game and Lluis struck home the opening goal with a shot that was
made to look a lot better than it really was by the fact that the goalkeeper
didn't bother trying to save it.

That was the wake up call the Koreans needed, and as the half drew on, they
started looking more and more dangerous, although their forwards couldn't
hit a barn door with a broomstick or whatever the saying is, and Jordi
expertly dealt with any miskicks that actually hit the target. Instead of
sewing things up there and then with a couple more goals before half time,
the Collins sat back and allowed the Koreans more and more chances, and we
were finally made to pay when one of their forwards exploited the fact that
Lucho was unable to run by running into acres of space and sticking away the
equaliser. This was a minor setback, and we all expected normal service to
resume after the break.

Unfortunately, where the Collins is concerned, normal service isn't perhaps
half as good as we would like to think it is. It's hard to find anything
positive at all about the second half, as our poor fitness started to show,
and a desperate lack of ideas up front failed to threaten Mu Gung Hwa's
stand-in goalkeeper. The best chance to wrap it all up come in when Adam was
through on goal but rather than slot the ball home, he opted to pass the
ball to Ian, despite the fact that he was in an offside position at the
time. Summed the day up nicely.

With Gerry also injured but no subs to replace him, from expecting to coast
to victory, the Collins found themselves desperately hanging on for the
draw. And with five minutes left on the clock, disaster. Richard stuck out a
leg to tackle the nippy (get it?) Korean forward who was through on goal,
and down went the wee git like a ton of bricks as if his ankle had just
become detached from the rest of his body.

Referee Chelsea John immediately pointed to the spot while the Collins
defence was outraged at this potential Oscar winning performance that was
about to cost us the match. For no apparent reason, Jordi's protests seemed
to hit a particularly nasty chord among our oriental opponents, and a
certain member of their team called Yassir ran the length of the penalty
area and went in feet first in an attempt to turn Jordi's leg into a
boomerang. Canadians play ice hockey so they are used to this kind of stuff,
so Jordi coolly throttled his assailant and allowed other players to drag
him away to Chelsea John for trial, and the verdict, and quite rightly so,
was a red card.

Back to the game, and the diving little imp took the penalty himself,
celebrated with a most ungentlemanly gesture towards our keeper, and we were
2-1 down.

It was in the final minutes of the game that the Collins finally worked out
that a bit of attacking football would not go amiss, but it was all too
little, too desperate and too late. We left the pitch with our heads held in
shame, having lost to the team nobody ever loses to, and despite the nasty
incidents towards the end, you have got to hand it to the Koreans. They don't
often get to enjoy winning matches, but at the end of the day, the Collins
only have ourselves (and a few injuries and absent substitutes) to blame and
Mu Gung Hwa rightful winners. Ooh, it hurts to say that.

Collins Vs West Ham - 0-3

2007-11-12T10:45:00.001+01:00

Well this was always going to be a tough game, against the league leaders, with the leagues top scorer for the previous 4 seasons, but we still went into the game with confidence as the previous 2 performances were good enough to merit something from the game. The problems started when 5 minutes before the start of the game we found that Adam, Javi, and Gary weren't going to be there and the teamsheet and tactics had to change completely. We did however welcome back Jerry who has been missed on the right wing, and Carlos appeared helping to add a much needed sub.

Carlos's job was to shadow Kike the striker, thankless task for anyone, this meant that Ian was up front on his own, and the wingers were there to support him. A defensive midfield of Zugi and Tom was used to shore up the middle of the park, and Lucho, Mike, Dom, and Chris started at the back.

The first 20 minutes were as usual pretty even, with the Collins getting a few chances but looking a little light up front. Ian worked hard but wasn't seeing much of the ball, and Lluis and Jerry gamely tried to support. Carlos drifted a few times but in all the forward line of West Ham was contained well. On about the 40th minute disaster struck, the wonderful defending lapsed for a heartbeat and an exquisite piece of skill from West Hams midfielder as he spun on the spot and rifled a postage stamp shot past the despairing hand of jordi. 1-0 West Ham. Half time came and we didn't have much to change. the strikers were havinga tough time of it, and Carlos was starting to tire but without the expected replacements there wasn't much we could do.

We started the second half on the back foot and 10 minutes in, a scrambled goalmouth goal slipped past everyone, and it was time for a change. Hugo, who had come on for an injured Lucho at left back in the first half was injured himself but Carlos was on his last legs, so Richard came on for Carlos, and Hugo had to suffer on. Dom was pushed up front and started to cause damage immediately. Within seconds though, Kike left a stranded Richard and fired past jordi for 3-0, always a danger when changing centre backs mid game. From there on in though, it was very even, the last 25 minutes were very positive. Dom was winning everything in the air up front and giving Ian and Lluis something to work with. Jerry went off injured and James came on up the right. We started pushing them on the back foot but unfortunately no goal was forthcoming and the whistle came too soon for us. We can't complain about the scoreline really, they were a better attacking force than us, but the last minute change of plans didn't help. Maybe we showed them too much respect and limited our firepower, but it was a strong performence by most of our players and something to build on. Carlos had a great game, as did Hugo, but Dom was the most influential player in the game, and won the MOM award. Zugi got sent off for a stupid argument at the end with the Narcissitic referee and will miss next weeks match.

Collins vs St George 2-3

2007-10-29T10:14:00.000+01:00

We went into this one slightly nervously but not without confidence after the wonderful 7's tournament scores the week before. St George had lost a few key players but they were still a very real threat. The league champions had lost the week before against the Celtic Cross and would be gunning for a good win.
The Collins started brightly with Ian and Adam up front, working the Georgian back line well, and the defense was marshalling their attackers nicely limiting them to 30 yard shots. Jordi had hardly anything to do in goal and we were looking good. About 10 minutes into the game and some good work on the wings allowed Ian to shoot, a rebound fell into Adams path and it was 1-0 Collins, this was just what we wanted and it was time to build on the score. The Georgians pushed on and a silly mistake in the very well organised defense and they managed a goal mouth scramble into the net 1-1 and frustration. The Collins were still in it though, and Lluis was rampaging down the wing at every opportunity. The Georgian keeper was looking pretty dodgy and the orders were to shoot on sight. 5 minutes before the end of the half and Ian teamed up with Lluis along the left, the flying winger skipped past two men and slotted a classic shot onto the postage stamp, the Collins were going in 2-1 up against the league champions.

Half time was about keeping up the good work. Tom was looking a little tired so James got a run out on the right wing to try to draw some of the cover away from Lluis. Kyle and Zugi were covering alot of ground in central mid but with the injuries there were no replacements for them, and they had to dig deep. Only one silly mistake had marred an otherwise faultless defensive display and Mike, Dom, Lucho, and Chris were covering Jordi well.

The second half started well again but soon the Georgian changed became apparent. Their manager came on at centre back and started stroking the ball around creating options for them. They looked alot more self assured, and created more chances. The Collins started to be pegged back in our own half and tired legs were starting to tell. Jordi began a series of wonderful saves and Dom had three goal line clearances to his credit. The Collins were under threat but coping well and the georgians started the long shots again. The equaliser came 7 minutes from the end and tired defensive players started to make mistakes. Richard came on for the last 5 and Hugo replaced and injured Lluis to try to fight out the last 5 minutes but it wasn't to be. A lack of subs pais the price for a sterling display by the Collins. With the last kick of the game, the Georgians scored to leave us with 0 points for all the hard work. Man of the match was Jordi for his outstanding contribution, and its a far cry from the 14-0 drubbing we recieved last year at their hands...

Barca 7s Tournament

2007-10-22T10:28:00.000+02:00

The Michael Collins went into this tourneo with no real expectations, just looking forward to a kick around and seeing a few new faces on the pitch. We arrived in bits and bobs and almost missed the first game. The tournament started with 2 groups of 4, and we started with a bang. The first hattrick for a very impressive Leroy on his debut and we were 3-0 up. Game 2 was against Flo's pilote urbain, and our nemesis struck to put them 2-0 up. The Collins rallied though and through impressive work from Kyle and Ian, brought the match back to a draw at 2-2 by the final whistle. Our final game was a 3-1 victory placing the Collins at the top of group 1 and into the next round.

The first game of the second phase was against a strong second placed team from the other group, the other french outfit. But Ian made short work of them after some wonderful football from Tom, Lluis, and Leroy. 3-0 Michael Collins and we were cruising. Next came Flo's french team again, and once more the Collins could only draw with the mercurial frenchman, and this meant that we needed a win to guarantee first place at the end. The signs looked good, the Black Sheep were to be our opponents and were carrying a bit of age on us. We had a few subs available but it was decided to play the strongest line up from the start. For some reason it just wasn't happenning in this game and tired legs gifted them an early goal. The heads went doen for once and at 2-0 Black Sheep the Collins ran out of ideas. It was a real shame after all of the hard work and ended our 12 match unbeaten 7's record. To make matters worse, Flo scored in the other game to win 1-0 and they went second.

A great day was had by all but disappointment that we only came third. Then to cap it all off England lost the RWC.........Bollocks!

The 2007-2008 Season begins 2-1 Collins

2007-10-18T18:28:00.000+02:00

The season began with a bang for the Michael Collins FC with a win at Barceloneta 2-1 against the mighty 9 man Red Stars. Either way a wins a win and it took us almost 6 months to get three points on the board last season. It was an odd game as we didn't know half the team, and we were trying out new players due to the lack of pre-season opportunities. Normally we'd have lost this one but i think the new Michael Collins is moving up in the world. Dom and Mike Moberts marshalled the defence well and the new forward pairing of Peter and Adam were getting in some good positions. The finishing was woeful though, and if we'd played like we were at the end of last season we would have scored 6 or 7. Anyway, the old guard of Ian, Kyle, and Javi played well as always and 3 points is a great start. A couple of new signing shone, Chris at right back is very assured, and Luis looked menacing on the wing. It will be nice when Tom and Jerry get back in action, there will be alot of attacking options for us by then

Barca 7's this weekend, and a chance to play against Flo the defector, lets see if we can convince him to come home......