The comittee of Acton Town FC have decided that the club will undergo a number of major and minor changes in time for the new season in September. I am actually on the comittee but sadly I was out-numbered on a lot of the issues which I feel will hurt us moRe than help us as a club.

It as agreed to change the name of the club from Acton Town to AFC Ealing. This was decided upon to move away from the name as nobody lived in Acton. The name Acton Town as a football club dates back to the 1860s and has graced the FA Cup on numorous ocassions. I believe the name s changed to move away from the humiliating defeats we have suffered in the past.

Another big decision was to move the club out of the Middlesex County League and into a lower and weaker league. This was decided upon so that we could actually win some games and silverware, the plan will be to then step back into the league in a couple of seasons.

I was dead against this. The Middlesex County League was on the football league ladder now we are playing in a glorified Sunday league pub league. I do not understand out stepping back into a weaker team will help us progress? Surely we will learn more staying where we are?

Another decision I was not happy with was the decision to force members to pay up their entire seasons’s fees in one lump sum of £165.00 (this is actually more than last season when we were in the Middlesex County League and had a reserve team). There are many of us out of work or in college who will struggle to find this money.

I am looking at opportunity of moving to another club, there are plenty of clubs in the football league ladder who are looking for a left-footed defender …. or maybe I’ll just pay my money and continue to bitch and moan via this blog.

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Training was enjoyable tonight. I was expecting a hard training session as I have become acustomed with on Saturday training sessions but Jayson decided that we were going to play football.

Half way through Jayson decided to do a thing where you pair up with someone and then you both take turns in standing in front of your partner and fall backwards so he can catch you.

I teamed up with Phillipe and although he was a little nervous I easily held him every time. But when it came to my turn I just could not do it, I was simply walking backwards into his arms which obviously got a lot of laughs from the other lads.

It was not that I did not trust him it is that I am a misanthropist which means I do not trust people in general, plus we used to do this a lot in PE at school and I always got dropped because they thought it was funny.

At the end we had a big game and I started pushing forward and looking for the ball and taking players on, this is something that I want to add to my game but have never had the belief to do it in matches. I also skilled up and skinned Nathan Deane!

I got the ball and I side-stepped him and went past him. Ok he did not try and chase me but that is not the point! I skilled him up, the first time in four seasons!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Days left till holiday: 77!

I have played for Acton Town for four seasons now and in that time I have had moments where I have seriously considered walking away and not playing for them anymore, but today was the first time that I have seriously wanted to punch one of my teammates out cold.

I’ve had rows with players in the past, Leon Miller, Mark Stone, Edward Hawthorne, the list is quite long, but today was the first time that I have ever had to stop myself from whacking one of my own team players.

I turned up at the away ground, a little piece of green that was tucked away in Hounslow. I clocked Edward sitting in his car belting out old school classics (like Guns & Roses) I would have gone over but I was getting a litle bit pissed off with the other guys as they had not shown up yet.

They rolled up at about 2:30 and Jayson announced that we only had seven players as players like Leon, Ashley, Zico, etc had let him down. Leon was told to meet at 12pm but did not wake up until about 1pm and managed to get himself lost in an area where he has lived his entire life!

I said that someone should buy him and AtoZ for his bithday and Theo turned around and said that this would make no difference as he can not even follow simple directions on the phone. The guy is an idiot!

Having only seven players meant that we all had to work a bit harder than normal, I knew this would take its toll on me and Jayson (no offence to him) as we are not exactly as fit as the others guys.

To cut a long story short we were battered 17-0. I had two attempts to score, the first fell nicely for me but I managed to shoot wide and the second attempt it just evaded my foot.

Leon turned up at around the 80th minute mark and just strolled across the green towads us, I yeld at him “Run, you fucking cunt!” which had everyone spinning around to see who it was yelling. I’m the captain, I’m meant to yell.:)

Although we got hammered I was very pleased and proud to captain the team because we really played our hearts out. The only weak link was Nat who who not tracking back to defend quick enough and although people screamed at him I had a quiet word and he picked up his game.

After the game everyone buggered off and I decided to pop into a pub for an after match pint (which is fast becoming a tradition for me). I only had the one as I saw Millwal had lost 2-0 to Leeds and got the hump.

On the train journey home some drunk Liverpool fans got on and started singing Liverpool songs and after about ten minutes they started singing a song which had the lyric “Where are the famous Millwall?” I could not keep my mouth shut and started chanting Millwall songs back at them which they took in great humour and for the next 20 minutes there was a singing contest between ten Liverpool fans and one stupid Millwall fan.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Days left till holiday: 79!

That is not a slight exaggeration, Jayson reay did put us through the mill tonight and had us running and jumping for most of the two hour training session, I think we got about 10 minutes of football out of it.

I was OK on the way to the train station, a little tired after all the running because my ample frame can not tolerate it as it used to when I younger and fitter. But as I got up out of my seat to get off the train at Bethnal Gren station I felt pain shoot up both my calfs.

I had to walk home like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster (Frankenstein was not the name of the monster, it was the name of the doctor a lot of people make this error) as it felt like my calf muscles had been removed and replaced with jagged rocks.

When I got home I got straight in a warm bath hoping that this would ease my suffering but although the pain and stiffness went away it came back again about an hour later. If it persists tomorrow I shall have to get one of those gel packs that proper athletes use when they bash their knee or shoulder.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Days left till holiday: 86!

Tonight we were told that training was off and we were going to go to Hanwell Town FC to watch a football match, it was meant to be some kind of homework assignment as we were told to watch the player in our position and study what he did and did not do. This was hoped that we would see where we were going wrong and put it to use on the football pitch.

I miss-judged the weather, when I left my house it was sunny and warm so I just wore a t-shit but by the time I got to the ground it was bloody freezing, I spent the entire first half of the game huddling up trying to keep warm.

The game we saw was an inter league game, this is where a league picks some playrs from the clubs in its league and plays another league in a competition. The team we were looking at WELFA were absolutely terrible, we should have been looking at the much better Cypriot team.

The first half was terrible, but at least at halftime I got to duck into the nice warm club house for a pint of beer. As the second half started I bought a cup of hot chocolate and headed back out side but it had actually got even colder because now I was visibly shaking so much that half the contents of the cup went on the floor.

I thought “fuck this” and went back into the club house to watch the game from inside with copious pints of beer. I left the ground at about 10pm and though I could warm myself up by running to the station. For anyone wondering no that does not work.

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