If Saturday at the Masters is known as ‘moving day’ then the third week of College Cup football must be ‘moving week.’ Teams who sit undefeated after three weeks know a top two finish is nearly in their grasp. Those who pick up fewer points than they anticipated know they need to pull something out of the bag to qualify in the last two games.
Forget about exams; the College Cup is what’s really important. On Monday I had a one day open exam but, having made good progress in the morning, I rattled it off by lunchtime, had it handed in early afternoon, and made my way down to the JLD to watch Alcuin 1sts in action.
Overall now in the competition, five teams sit on nine points from three matches; none are mathematically certain to qualify for the Cup knockouts, but those five teams are all but there.
Group A is by far the most exciting: behind Halifax 1sts who are comfortably top are five teams separated by just two points, all of whom could end up 2nd or 6th. The cup places in Group B are pretty much decided, with the battle for the Plate looking intriguing.
Group C sees Halifax 2nds looking to usurp Alcuin 1sts for the final Cup place, which looks likely to come down to goal difference. A similar situation prevails between Derwent 1sts and James 2nds in Group D.
This week I was once again in action for Alcuin 3rds, against James 1sts. We knew going into the game that James were the most potent attacking side in college football. They had no shortage of offensive talent. Bearing that in mind, the 7-0 scoreline was not one which I find particularly disheartening.
In fact, four of those goals came in a 10-15 minute spell in the first half – for the rest of the game we actually played quite resolutely in defence. Admittedly we didn’t have much going forward, by virtue of the fact we had to throw men behind the ball and didn’t really have an outlet.
Considering that the James pressure was persistent and never let up for the sixty minutes, seven goals was not too bad of an effort. Wentworth 1sts conceded nearly that many against the same team, and Goodricke 3rds nearly twice the amount. And we only let in two in the second half; I can tell you it was not because were letting up on their relentless attacking! So all in all, it wasn’t your typical 7-0.
I don’t really remember any of the individual goals. I do remember being floored by (I think, though I may be wrong) James Davies… completely through my own fault! He was through on goal and I came out, unfortunately he got a toe in on the ball and we collided quite violently.
Tom Clarke swooped to tap the ball in. Our team appealed in vain for a free kick, though in reality if Clarke hadn’t come in to score it should probably have been a red card and penalty, so I’m not complaining.
And now – I’m not sure if it happened then or at another moment in the match – I have a poorly knuckle. It’s on the little finger of my right hand and is quite swollen. As I say, I don’t really recall how I did it! It reminds me of last year’s college cup when I missed a match through a badly swollen finger. Footballers can usually make do with hand injuries, but we keepers can’t! Funnily enough, after I noticed it, I didn’t concede any more goals, despite the fact it did hurt when the ball hit my hand.
Hopefully I will be ok for Monday – typical that this is our quick turn-around week – because we have a huge match against Wentworth 1sts. They’ve been understrength and struggling so far, and if we can win we will be favourites for a place in the Plate. Even a draw could prove enough, but it’s too early to tell. The battle for the Plate in Group B is quite a tense one.
Game of the week
Forget about the 2012 Premier League and Aguerooooo, this was the grandstand finish of the decade. It is the most enjoyable game I’ve covered so far in College Cup 2013. Derwent 3rds had played really well and led 2-1, before conceding a last minute penalty against Langwith 1sts.
Matt Morton stepped up for the team in yellow… and hit the top of the bar! There was no time for the goal kick, decided the referee, and Derwent got their first win of the competition, throwing Group A wide open in the process.
Performance of the week
Special mention to Derwent 3rds (who might have won this too had theirs not been the obvious choice for the game of the week), and to Halifax 3rds who also overcame higher ranked opposition in Goodricke 2nds.
But this goes to Halifax 2nds, who pummelled Langwith 2nds 9-0 and in the process got the upper hand in the quest for a top two finish which may come down to goal difference. Connor McCoy scored four, Elliot Ragan and Hamish Denham each with two.
Player of the week
Tom Clar… No wait! Somebody has risen to the challenge and superseded the James goal-machine in this week’s stakes. Connor McCoy hit four for Halifax 2nds in their win over Langwith 2nds, before hitting another four when called up for the 1sts against Wentworth 2nds. Fifteen goals scored in Halifax 1sts and 2nds games this week – McCoy scored eight and assisted two. Not a bad week.
Team of the week
John Thompson;
James Fraser, Stu Dunk, Dan Franks, James McNeill;
Connor McCoy, Keiran O’Dwyer, Ben Bugeja;
Elliot Ragan, Sven Sabas, David Kirk.
Coming up this week
Monday sees James 1sts and Vanbrugh 2nds in a battle for first place in Group B, as well as two pivotal matches in the race for the Plate. Another top of the table clash occurs on Tuesday as Goodricke 1sts and Halifax 2nds meet on the JLD. On Thursday, Halifax 3rds will look to shake up Group D as they meet James 2nds, before three huge matches on Friday in Group A: Langwith 1sts and Halifax 1sts meet, with two matches on either sides which pit 2nds teams against 3rds in the frightfully close group.
This team of the week is awful. Any respectable first team would beat this select 11 by some considerable margin. Suppose it is being picked by an Alcuin 3’s goalkeeper though, who’s footballing knowledge is obviously extremely limited.
Also this entire article is ridiculous, nobody particularly cares whether you’ve bruised your little finger. Huge waste of space, time and effort.
I thought the article was great mike and as for the team of the week i maybe would have had a few James 1st’s in here!
Also, if you think this article is ridiculous why have you ‘wasted’ your time commenting on it… Idiot
The ‘Team of the week’ is meant to be the eleven players who have put in the best performances in their match or matches each week. It does not claim to be a team of the best players in college football. I suspect such a team would be quite boring and monotonous, made up of the same eleven people every week. It seems unfair that you want to exclude 2nds and 3rds players who stand out in their matches, whoever they be against.
Cheers for the feedback, though it seems that the only waste of time here is on your part for reading the article. Next week you may choose not to bother. I won’t lose any sleep over it. Not sure what you expected from an article whose title clearly states it is my own ‘diary.’
Oh, and my finger is feeling better. Thanks for your concern ‘Footballer’!
I found this article quite useful as neither Nouse nor Vision had put the James 1sts – Alcuin 3rds report up, yet Michael’s profoundness on consistency lead his Diary to be updated ASAP after the round of matches.
Keep going, fellow cat.
Maybe ‘Footballer’ would like to dedicate time during a busy 3rd year exam period to write articles like mike does. Mike picks the team of the week so every player, regardless of which level they play at, due respect and recognition when they play well which is the point of these ‘waste of time’ articles.
As a Captain from a lower team, my players love seeing their names written down and their pictures on the articles, if people like you had you’re way we wouldn’t get a mention.
@Footballer, life is hard isnt it. I would bet £20 you don’t even play football, were you always the last one to be picked in the playground? Did someone always steal your milk at lunchtime? Fair enough, hiding behind a name so inventive as “footballer” and abusing an article is a valid use of your time.
Some people at university play sports, some try and write articles for student papers, some join glee club, some fall in love and some, just some “Footballer” stay inside sitting at their desk where the cold heart fills the room with deathly chills, whilst switching between writing anonymous comments abusing people and going through the photos of their ex girlfriend who now has moved onto a buff rugby dude crying and sipping warm flat beer before disappearing into nothingness as their life is worthless.
Anywho I don’t even like football or Student media Papers
BRING BACK MICHAEL