retired_destiny1124

16.12.06
Holyhead Hotspur (1) North Ferriby (1) FA Trophy 1st Round
We face a replay after we didn't play well enough to see off North Ferriby at The New Oval. Paul Nicholls return from injury hit a snag when Steve Metcalf passed directly to Rod Wallace and he blasted a shot in off the right upright to gain the visitors the lead. We kept working and our efforts finally paid off when Rob Walker looped a pass in and Neil Teggart deflected it past Craig Farr for the equalizer. North Ferriby's Danny Vella earned MOM honours.

retired_destiny1124

20.12.06
North Ferriby (0) Holyhead Hotspur (1) FA Trophy 1st Round Replay
It was another close battle with North Ferriby, but we got the better of them. Lewis McGugan scored his 1st ever goal for us on a short cross from Neil Teggart at 41 minutes. When Brian Mulhulland was redcarded for pulling down Teggart at 61 minutes it left them a man short, but they still kept coming forward and it took a pair of late saves from Paul Nicholls to preserve the win. Rob Walker earned MOM honours.

retired_destiny1124

23.12.06
Aldershot (3) Holyhead Hotspur (2)
It was a case of too little, too late for our offense and too much Jarman for our defense as we fell to Aldershot 3-2. Aldershot built a 3-0 lead thanks to Millwall loanee Nathan Jarman, who torched our defense twice for a nice brace. Veteran forward Eugene Dadi also slipped in to score a goal as we trailed 3-0 with 10 minutes left in the match. I was proud that we kept fighting and Ben Woods drew a goal back as the match moved to injury time. We added another goal when Kyle Critchell pushed D'juvane Davidson in the area and Carl Murkin converted the penalty kick for his 5th goal of the season, but our wasted scoring chances earlier in the match haunted us as we fell short.

As we reach the mid-point of the season, we are currently in 18th place. We are four points ahead of 21st place Farnborough. I have seen signs of improving play and our -4 differential is an indicator that we can be better than we have so far.

retired_sachin_g006

Another good cup win, keep it up mate.How you doing league wise

retired_destiny1124

mark- league wise, still only a bit above the relegation struggle...

***

26.12.06
Shrewsbury (0) Holyhead Hotspur (0)
I should feel satisfied with the draw, as they held control of the flow of play for much of the match. Despite that, it is hard not to be disappointed when we generated three golden chances to take the lead and our forwards failed to capitalize on them. Our backline play has been a lot steadier of late- now that I have settled on a backline of Stewart Morris- Michael Merrick- Jack Hobbs- Carl Murkin- and they were the main reason we were able to take a point away from the match. With Ben Woods out resting today and Neil Teggart and Danny Morgan also unavailable, we were left with our mish-mash of forwards who haven't shown any scoring ability this season. They demonstrated that again today as we sent Paul Jenkin, Nathan Geary and later James Pike in free and all failed to do much of anything- they just don't seem to have that scorer's touch. A point is better than nothing at Gay Meadow, so my complaining won't be strident, but we have to find a way to win these types of matches- the kind we won last season.

retired_destiny1124

30.12.06
Holyhead Hotspur (1) Dag & Red (1)
We are battling now. Still making plenty of mistakes, but at least we are working on making the next step in our play. We took the lead with a beautiful cross from D'juvane Davidson to Danny Morgan. Morgan fired a shot past Tony Roberts inside the far right post for the kind of goal I have been hoping to see from our club. Unfortunately, we gave it right back. Our backline got caught running around out of position again and that allowed Jamie Guy way too much space and he blasted a shot past Paul Nicholls to help himself earn MOM honours. They played better than us through many stretches of the match, but we managed to avoid falling behind with luck, a few good tackles and a couple timely saves from Nicholls as we held on to split the points. We are now in 19th place and only 2 points above 21st place Farnborough, so we need to start finding a way to win matches.

retired_destiny1124

1.1.07
The opening of the transfer window brings some much needed reinforcements, while also seeing some unhappy players leaving. Arriving here are 24 year old Irish rightwing Stephen O'Leary, who joins us from Luton for the cost of 1K. Also coming here is 20 year old rightback James Vaughan, who cost us 1K to purchase from Tranmere and will finally give us decent cover for Stewart Morris. We added 20 year old Welsh leftback/center defender Anthony Taylor for 1K from Cardiff. Our other addition is 21 year old forward Lewis Haldane, who cost us 2K to purchase from Bristol Rovers.

The other side of the equation saw Rob Walker moving to Airbus for 5K.

***

1.1.07
Grays (2) Holyhead Hotspur (1)
Same problems, different match. Our backline stunk again as they could easily have prevented both goals, but wandered away from who they should be marking while the ball was in our end of the pitch. We have worked on this over and over again- but it just isn't sinking in and we are leaving our keepers in positions where they have to come up with great saves- all the time. We managed to get a goal back to begin the second half when Craig Mitchell scored his 1st goal of the season, but we just weren't able to get that equalizer.

retired_destiny1124

5.1.07
We completed the sale of Danny Walsh to Mullingar Town for 18K today.

***

6.1.07
Airbus took two more of our unhappy players as they paid us 4K for Steve Metcalf and 12K for Karl Vernon.

***

10.1.07
Holyhead Hotspur (0) Hereford (1)
How low can you be? As a Manager- pretty low right now. We outplayed the 2nd place side in Conference National by a large margin, but we gave them the goal they needed to beat us when Carl Murkin sent a backpass by Paul Nicholls into our goal for an own-goal. At the other end, Andrea Guatelli was brilliant in stopping Lewis Haldane, who had a nice debut, and Neil Teggart on good scoring chances. Even when we do most everything right, the one mistake we are making is killing us. I am so frustrated at us not being able to make the good, solid play when we need to.

retired_destiny1124

12.1.07
We now have one of our key youngsters under long-term contract as just turned 17 year old forward Michael Holmes signed a new pact with us. Holmes is still injured and won't be ready for a couple weeks, but he is the fastest player on the club and will join the Senior side as soon as he is ready.

***

13.1.07
Holyhead Hotspur (1) Chesham (1) FA Trophy 2nd Round
We face another FA Trophy Replay after dominating Chesham, but having to fight back for a 1-1 draw at The New Oval. MOM Phil Eastwood flicked a header past Stuart Cain in the first half against the flow of play. Eastwood had of course been unmarked by our backline on the play. We kept working and hammering away and it finally paid off in the 86th minute when Jay Simpson slotted a pass that Paul Jenkin drilled past Zac Jones for his 1st goal of the season. We couldn't get another and will travel to them for the Replay.

retired_destiny1124

17.1.07
Chesham (3) Holyhead Hotspur (5) Extra-Time FA Trophy 2nd Round
It took a lot of extra effort as we squandered a 2 goal advantage in regular time, but we scored twice in the second half of Extra-time to defeat Chesham and move on to the 3rd Round in the FA Trophy. MOM Paul Jenkin was the hero for us today as he scored one goal in regular time and the match-winner in Extra-time off a good pass from Lewis Haldane. Also scoring in regular time was Nathan Geary and Carl Murkin converted a penalty kick. Murkin scored for both sides as his own-goal was a critical element to the home sides fightback. 16 year old forward Phil Eastwood has me wishing I could bring him to us- as he torched our backline for a brace and looks like a wonderful young forward.