No 35 RFC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

On Tuesday evening we meet Kenny Macreadie’s Hailsham Town for the second time this season - the first encounter going in their favour after we had taken the lead twice. To be fair we have numerous players adding to our squad since that game and that includes Joe Adams, Percy, Pricey, Simon Greatwich, Huggy to name but some - so we hope for a positive attacking game in which - have no doubt - we will be going there all guns blazing and attacking from minute one to get three points.

One mistake usually means one goal and this was the case against Shoreham on Saturday in the League one encounter. We played 4:3:3 for the first 45 and if our second conversion had not been disallowed, I think that we’d have gone on and won it. Having said that Shoreham had the ball in the net 3 times but disallowed on each occasion - twice for offside and one for a foul on our keeper - and whilst the players will have a view whether that and all other goals being disallowed, I don’t because I don’t belt up and down the line checking on lino decisions and I wasn’t close enough to see the foul on Joe either. Having said one mistake, I thought our back four were pretty tremendous to be honest. We have a balanced feel to the four and I think they enjoy playing together. I hope they continue to play as a unit in 2009-10.

Steve and I have made it clear at the football meeting that, regrettably, we cannot be a part of Ringmer FC next year if the current administration issue is not resolved. I have said also that I will not be working with certain members of the limited company - particularly those responsible for putting us into administration without consideration to me or Steve or more importantly, the players. Having said that of course we both hope that the issues are resolved and those people responsible go away forever from RFC and we can realise a dream of Football Youth Development leading into our senior football together with Chartered Standard to supply funding without the need of borrowing more and more money from the pitch. Together, perhaps with Ringmer College, we could start a “Football in the Community” side for young players who might not be given chances, given the high standard we play at - and in "Football in the Community", this would mean the RINGMER community to give the kids from this village involvement. So on one side I guess we have borrowing from a pitch idea and a return to directors’ running this club or perhaps a completely new way of doing football at Ringmer. Its your choice what happens next.

Football of course will continue for me and Steve and we’ll let the players know our plans as soon as Ringmer have concluded their issues. David Ruffles asked me on behalf of the club as to whether the players would attend an “End of Year” presentation evening. David stated that the Administrators, Atherton Bailey, were prepared to make funds available. We asked the players and they have decided that they do not want to attend a presentation event, instead they are intending to do a paint ball session together and as the end of season draws to a close, a horse racing day. The coach to and from the venue will be paid for by private sponsorship and the players will pay their way on the day.
Our reserves went down 1-2 on Saturday against a tough Shoreham reserve side. See Steve Frost’s report on the web site.

At this moment, I am uncertain what arrangements are being made for the reserves training on Tuesday - the first team playing as I said earlier. Texts notifying will be sent.
Next Saturday the front side are away to Selsey and the reserves are at home to Hastings United. There will be a mini-bus for all of the squad for the trip to Selsey.
We now need 12 points from 16 games to be safe. We need to make three of those land Tuesday.

Hope to see you all there.

No 34 RFC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

I really didn’t know how to start this Newsletter this week. Should I start with the first team win over Chichester? Should I start with the reserve win over Hassocks? Or perhaps should I start with games coming up this week? Or even a mention of the “Football Only” meeting me and Steve held at the club on Friday night?

Or perhaps I’ll start with the 10 points now showing deducted on the SCL website. Yeah lets start there. I’m disgusted with this and I’m disgusted with the people responsible. If I didn’t care about Ringmer or our players, have no doubt that I would give you factual details regarding those I know to be directly responsible. But I’m gonna wait till we get through this and then we’ll have it straight.

The only people now to get us through this mess they’ve created is the players. When they’ve made it you can thank them and not the people who wander about like they own the place and who’ve been responsible for trying to kill Ringmer Football Club. I’m so angry about this and to be honest I feel completely betrayed. I’m not in the mood to accept the crap being banded about at the moment so if you’re responsible, stay away from me. We all know who has done this to our club and to be clear its certainly NOT the hard working people at the club almost every day trying to make this work.

Ok, so what do we do about it in this season? Well, we win games. We approach games with a must win mentality. We see it that if we were to have won our game in hand then we’d be in third place. Instead, and I cant believe I’m writing this, we have to get 13 points from 17 games. We are in 13th place instead of 6th. Remember, we are 13th because of this crap they’ve created and not because of form. We are playing every game now as “must win”. And win we did yesterday against Chichester who beat us 2-0 a few weeks ago - and we won convincingly 5-1. They couldn’t live with us and we played some great stuff. 3 points closer to safety. So we look at Shoreham away next week and see them as a side we must beat to gain our next 3 points.

Our reserves also play Shoreham next week - obviously at home. But first we need to dissect the performance that produced a 1-2 win for them in what - in league terms particularly - was a spectacular result. We evidently took the lead early in the second half only for the home side to equalize late on. A last minute interchange produced the winner and I have to say well done to all involved in playing their part in making it a successful footballing Saturday.

On Sunday we saw Herve King’s memorial game take place at Ringmer. I was a spectator at this game and its not my place to put something on the website from the club thanking all who attended but I’d like to think someone will. It was well attended and it seemed strange to me seeing those players together once again - probably for the last time I guess. A good game played in the right spirit with great attitude from everyone and a fitting tribute to a man who lost his life so suddenly and so tragically a year ago.

Training is on Tuesday at Falmer and on Thursday at the Club. 8-9pm on Tuesday night then 7-9pm on Thursday. As always the Thursday session could be weather challenged but texts will be sent if in doubt.

What a strange up and down week. If this football club had just people wanting great football what a fantastic place this would be.

07/02/09 County weekend Round up

Click title above for full story from the Argus

Eastbourne United took advantage of their rivals’ inactivity to open up a five-point lead at the top of the first division.
Brian Dennis’s side were good value for their 3-0 win over Wick, who began the day in third place.

No 33 THE RFC INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Chichester at home next Saturday brings a very early opportunity to address the recent encounter when we lost to this side and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity in doing this game again and playing and winning this time. Don’t doubt we’ll be hitting the ground running on this one and with three wins out of four we’re all excited about getting the next game on.

But this is not our first game of the week. The first one is against the table-toppers Eastbourne United who we beat 1-2 earlier in the season. They’ll feel they should have won that as no doubt Wick would feel they should have won the first encounter we had with them too. We have to work hard and apply pressure in the right areas to overcome this side who see Ryman football as their next stop. Our approach to the game needs to be the same approach we have to every game since they murmured the words “ten point deduction” and that is WIN THE GAME. Our formations and our player selection may confuse you at times but trust me, Steve and I start working it out from the moment the previous game ends and we are focussed on survival in the Sussex County League - and survive we will. The players have a winning mentality as do the management and we’ll try our hardest to show you all that in our application on the pitch. Attacking football without any fear wins games and that’s our methodology. 7.30 ko on Tuesday night.

In terms of life - and not the fantasy world that football can be - the most important occasion of the year is at the Caburn next Sunday. It’s the Herve King Memorial game against Three Bridges, 2pm ko. The game that was being played on that tragic day was against this side and I’m pleased that our football club have organised this event in conjunction with them. On the day Herve died last year, neither me or Steve were at the game - we were with the reserves playing a Cup game. I remember winning the game and trying to ring Jono to tell him only to have Dave Souter answer his phone and tell me the tragic news. I went into our dressing room - which as you can imagine was pretty jubilant having just won against some superior side - and told everyone. All the players just picked up their things and went home. By the time I got to the ground about an hour later I saw Herve’s BMW - the only car left there - and went in to find the still very shocked people still there. We shut the club and left; the players returning later. I didn’t know Herve but through this last year I’ve heard some great stories about him. He was obviously a great guy and his death must have left a terrible void in a lot of peoples lives. I hope the day goes well for his family and friends.

Football postponed and football on were the messages being sent on Saturday morning. We managed to get our reserve game on at home against Selsey reserves but lost the encounter 0-2 in a frustrating game but earlier heard that Arundel’s pitch was waterlogged. Not our greatest day but we have plans to get things right with our reserve side. Next week our ressies play Hassocks away - check Malc’s web site for detail.

This Friday night there’s a meeting at the club to discuss football and football only. I don’t mind who comes to this meeting to be honest but its gonna be about football only. If you’re interested in how me and Steve see our future and want a snapshot of our view on where we are now regarding football - be there. There will be a Q+A session either as we go through or at the end but please understand that there’ll be no platforms for people to bang on about their own agenda. It about football. I don’t expect my players to be there - they already know what we think.

Training for the reserves on Tuesday night at Falmer and for all at the club on Thursday - weather permitting. As I write this I’m hearing the news and they are forecasting a severe weather front coming in so things may well alter through this week.

Last note - going back to Herve’s Memorial game next Sunday - you can imagine how important it is for Ringmer to get this game on so if it rains they’ll need to get loads of people there forking the pitch and if it snows they’ll need to sweep it off. If they need help its likely that an emergency notice will be posted on the web-site (I imagine that’s what they‘ll do anyway).

See you all at the Eastbourne United game at home Tuesday night - 7.30 pm ko.

31/01/09 County One Round Up

For Full Report Click Title Above

Eastbourne United showed title-winning qualities when they came from 2-0 down to beat Pagham 3-2 and maintain their advantage at the top of the County League.
Dave Berkowitz’s first match in charge of the Lions looked like ending in victory

Wick and Arundel's title hopes both suffered a setback. Third-placed Wick went down 2-0 at Ringmer, and Gary Norgate netted for Mullets in their 4-1 loss at Lingfield.East Preston's recent revival came to an end with a 2-1 defeat against Three Bridges. Lee Farrell struck for EP.Bottom-of-the-table Worthing United lost 2-1 at Horsham YMCA, who got their winner with three minutes left.Shoreham's match at Oakwood was postponed.

No 32 THE RFC INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

I had a long talk with the first team and did some explaining about our 10 point deduction. The best question I was asked by a player was “How come we have to pay the price of Administration when clearly its not our fault?”. But it’s the players that pick up the tab for this action and we have (possibly) till the end of the season to decide how we feel about it. For those of you who dont know, the club cant afford the appeal costs so we wont be appealing.

I first spoke to the players on Thursday evening about this disgusting situation and I got one single attitude from all of the players. Lets go and get the 10 points back. On Saturday when we met, we sat and chatted about it and every single player agreed that we weren’t going to allow a bunch of people who know very little about football affect the way we play and approach every game. And approach the Wick encounter we did with a positive state of mind. Before the game we had 19 points to get from 18 games. Beating Wick meant we now have 16 points to get from 17 games to be safe. Wick probably felt that they would come and get 3 points but in the back of their minds would be that we’d beaten them once already and we knew their style. To be straight, they did have a couple of opportunities undeniably but so did we in the first half. In the second half we went up a gear and left them behind. I thank the players every week but in particular I’d like to thank them all for their great attitude and application through that 90 minutes.

Staying with the first team for a moment, we play another Brighton Charity Cup game on Wednesday this time against Mile Oak, 7.30 ko I think. We will be giving opportunities players who haven’t played or who have not been available for various reasons. I’d expect me and Steve to make around 7 changes for this game. Staying focussed on games to come we go to Arundel next week in what we aim to be another 3 points of the 10 they’re nicking off us - without so much as an appeal huh?

Although we have a first team game on Wednesday, and despite what I said in the dressing room there WILL be a very light training session on Tuesday night at Falmer. Half of you wont be involved in the game and if the weather closes in as predicted, the game Wednesday night could well be off anyway. So all to attend.

The reserves went to Eastbourne United for their Saturday encounter and came away with very little. Once again I have to say that I’ve not had the chance to get the complete lowdown but on the face of it a 3-0 defeat will not be accepted by players and management alike. Training for all players on Tuesday night with Geoff Mactiffen.

Get used to this idea reserve players. Being relegated from the Reserve Premier League is not an option and is not going to happen and from here on in get your arse to training or have a good reason why you cant. Players who train are players who play. Just tipping up on Saturday is not happening no more.

The reserves play Selsey at home next Saturday at 2:30pm and with the first team playing at Arundel it may be a bit too far for our usual supporters so I hope they’ll get to the Caburn to get behind this young side, as they always do.

I hope you have a better week this week than we did last week.