retired_jgirl87

What was that message you used to get in CM01/02?

"The Harrow Hill board is pleased with your overall performance, but is concerned at the recent run of defeats."

I hope you can turn the recent form around. KUTGW :thup:

retired_destiny1124

Thanks Spav You have the message word for word...

***

27.11.05
Having sufficient funds has not really made us a more attractive club to come to. We are still obscure and not many players are interested. That is why it was nice to get another one like Powell- who is willing to come here and only wanted a modest salary. I have been negotiating off and on trying to get Braniff as a player, but he wants more money than I can offer him so it has been a fruitless venture so far. With how disappointing our forwards have been- we really need Braniff (and likely someone else), but so far we still have to be content with him on loan for the season. His niggling little injuries have been part of the reason for our recent swoon as he hasn't played in any of the last three matches.

Overall, we have shown that we are improved, but we still have a ways to go. The loss of Franklin Simek helped us so much financially, but really seems to have hurt the club's cohesion. I consider the core of the club to be solid, with Carl Laurie, Mark Berry, Jordan Fowler, Steven O'Donnell and Justin Bowler all players that we are fortunate to have. Our 2nd tier, such as or keeper trio, Kieron Gradwell, Gavin Bolger and Matt McGowan are certainly adequate. Because of my spending sprees we are still carrying too much weekly wages- but that is a problem I can accept for the moment because of our positive financial standing. What I need to do at this point is find out who, if any, of the youngsters really has potential (Peter Morris?) and keep concentrating on the core of the club. I can't find anyone interested in taking any of our free transfer players, so it's likely I will have to live with their contracts until they expire.

***

4.12.05
It was disappointing, but apparent that I wasn't going to be able to work out a contract with Kevin Braniff. Our best offer was still short of what he expected and I was really out of room to offer anything else- so we will have to enjoy his being on the loan to us all season.

retired_destiny1124

7.12.05
Harrow Hill (0) Lewes (0)
It was disappointing to finally return home and then play poorly. We were fortunate to take points away from the match as Lewes outplayed us for large stretches. Our offense never seemed in sync at all- though we did manage a few good chances that were parried away by Adoma Bankole. Daniel Austen earned MOM honours for the way he defended our net as our Yiadom Yeboah again provided a less than inspirational performance. Our passing was never really on track as we frittered away many easy passes. The draw drops us down to 4th in ECS and we really need to score a goal soon as we have now gone 4 matches in a row without scoring and the last goal we scored was over a month ago in our 1-1 home draw against Bishop's Stortford. It is back to the drawing board to try and figure out why our offense has suddenly disappeared.

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9.12.05
In another effort to address our backline problems, I managed to purchase 21 yr old DRLC Nick Mountford from Luton. Mountford received excellent comments from both my scouts and with Powell still weeks away from being ready to play- will likely step directly into the lineup.

retired_destiny1124

10.12.05
Harrow Hill (2) Cambridge City (1)
Finally! We made a grim start to the match as Daniel Austen completely misplayed a long 30 yard shot into a goal to put them ahead early in the first half. We had trouble coping with their pace, as they are much faster than we are, but we kept plugging away. Nick Mountford had a solid debut paired with Kieron Gradwell and provided a very steady presence. We rallied in the second half when Danny Singh made a superb pass that put Jason Hallett away. Hallett, who had missed over the net twice in the first half, didn't miss this time and took it past Duncan Roberts to score his 5th goal of the season. As the match waned, I was resigning myself to another draw, but we got a break when Jonathan Stevenson was forced to pull Singh down in the area. Hallett stepped up and smashed the penalty kick home and we had recovered from a poor start to gain a hugely important 2-1 win.

retired_destiny1124

14.12.05
Weymouth (4) Harrow Hill (3)
I can't say how frustrated I was to follow up a big win with a terrible defensive effort as our backline and keeper failed us to ruin a superb performance from Adam Parker. We went off on a flyer as Parker scored in the first minute of play, but we quickly gave that back and they took the lead on two Adam Wilde headers. We went down 3-1 after Austen misplayed another chance and it was grim. Parker scored his 2nd goal of the game on a pretty 20 yard blast, but moments later we were down 4-2 when Kieron Gradwell was called for bumping Dean Stevens in the area and Stevens converted the penalty kick. Parker scored to finish his hat-trick, but we missed two more great chances to equalize in finishing out the 4-3 loss.

***

15.12.05
Mansfield, currently 23rd in League 2, approached me about taking over as manager. I listened to their offer, but politely turned them down.

retired_destiny1124

Shooting Star- aye, hope we do as well- struggling at the moment

***

17.12.05
Thurrock (0) Harrow Hill (0)
We were once again done in from a better result by our inability to finish. We controlled the tempo of play through most of the match and our passing gave us some excellent chances, but Richard McKinney blocked our best chances and we accomplished our usual misses over the net on others. We almost wound up with another loss when McKinney found Tresor Kandol splitting our defense as Paul Moss and Peter Morris looked lost on the play, but Kandol missed over the net against Lewis Anderson to leave us with another unsatisfying scoreless draw.

retired_destiny1124

17.12.05
Thurrock (0) Harrow Hill (0)
We were once again done in from a better result by our inability to finish. We controlled the tempo of play through most of the match and our passing gave us some excellent chances, but Richard McKinney blocked our best chances and we accomplished our usual misses over the net on others. We almost wound up with another loss when McKinney found Tresor Kandol splitting our defense as Paul Moss and Peter Morris looked lost on the play, but Kandol missed over the net against Lewis Anderson to leave us with another unsatisfying scoreless draw.

***

18.12.05
The press approached me as apparently I was considered to be the front runner for the now open Chester job. I wound up releasing a press statement to the effect that I was not interested in taking the position. A Board member approached me on the side and told me the Board was very proud and pleased at the committment I had shown the club. He did tell me that despite our financial well being that privately most of the Board thought we had too many players under contract. He was surprised to hear me agree with him in that regard. I told him I didn't plan on any more signings or purchases until we had a better balance- unless the player was really needed like a quality forward. Otherwise, I promised him that I would try to win with the players already here and he stated he would pass those glad tidings on to the Board.

retired_destiny1124

20.12.05
Harrow Hill (1) Exeter (1)
It is hard to say I am disappointed with the effort, because I wasn't. We outplayed 2nd place Exeter in the match. We had taken the lead when Steven O'Donnell made a good pass up the center of the pitch and Kevin Braniff had enough room to blast a 20 yard shot inside the left post. What was troublesome is that we gave up another weak goal. Daniel Austen had managed to block away a low shot from Paul Hughes, but wasn't able to get control of the rebound. Paul Moss stood by while Sean Devine tried to flick it past Austen to Oliver Allen, and instead it caught the corner of the net. We wasted more chances to regain the lead in the second half and wound up with the draw which drops us into 5th place in ECS.

retired_destiny1124

26.12.05
Harrow Hill (2) Redditch (0)
Our Christmas celebrations over with, we celebrated more on the pitch when our fans went home having seen a very pleasing 2-0 win over Redditch. Jason Hallett scored in the first half after a good pass allowed him to break free in the area. Hallett could have easily had another couple goals if he could have hit the net as they had trouble marking him in the first half. Ryan Ashington chipped in with a goal in the second half when he knocked home a rebound after Danny Knowles had stopped the initial blast from Kevin Braniff. Redditch threatened a couple times, but Lewis Anderson showed superb judgement as he short-circuited their attacks.

After the match I had to refute rumours that I was about to become the new MK Dons manager. These rumours of me taking every lower level job opening up are becoming annoying.

retired_destiny1124

28.12.05
Grays (2) Harrow Hill (3)
Two days later and we were facing a Gray squad that was desperate for a win. Though we were sporting a mostly renovated squad from the Redditch match we were off to a fine start when Steven O'Donnell hit a cracking 25 yard shot that sailed past a surprised Carl Emberson at 15 minutes. Less than 4 minutes later we grabbed a 2-0 lead when a good pass from Justin Bowler sent Danny Singh in free and he rifled a shot in off the inside of the left post. They came storming back and their crosses were continually catching our backline unbalanced and unable to effectively respond. They drew a goal back when Leroy Griffiths got free because of poor marking and fired a rising shot past Lewis Anderson. The early part of the second half was spent in our end as they were attacking effectively. Anderson, with support of the crossbar, managed to keep their shots out. It looked like we might have the match clinched when a deft pass from Michael Husbands allowed Singh space enough to blast his 2nd goal of the match and 5th of the season past Emberson. They managed a late consolation goal when Ellis Remy struck a 25 yard shot that Anderson missed because of a loss of concentration and that made the final margin 3-2, but still an important win in our ledger.