RECREATIVOvs The Llamas
sun 10th January
Regents Park 2pm kick off
Hallelujah!
Joe, Max and Joao all scored and Bilal could have (should have) scored another three. It's been a long time coming, but we finally won a game. Our best performance this season saw players really committed, crunching tackles flying in until the very end. A very deserved win, and just in time for Christmas!
After battling through another sunday morning storm, getting lost in some industrial wasteland in South East London, re-jigging a team sheet after the usual late pull outs, a goalkeeper who's gone AWOL and unable to see through the condensation inside the car, we arrive at Battersea Park to find both pitches under a foot of water. The park keeper tells us the matches are off and that the Sports Booking office is closed from friday afternoons onwards so was unable to inform any teams (???!!!!). Our squad had travelled across London, all arriving roughly at the same time, by car, train and in Jimmy L's case, bike, only to find a deserted park and huge lake where the centre
circle should be. With the Merseyside Derby, then Arsenal-Chelsea and Barca-Real offering a decent day's viewing on the settee in the warm indoors we head for home and the kit stays clean until next week. Nice one to everyone who made the effort.
The darkness of the skies and impending storm seem a fitting backdrop to Recreativo's day of destiny in deepest Clapham. We go into the game standing adrift at the bottom of the table, the gap between us and Barking Mad opening wide like the abyss of Hades, self-destruction, doom, despair and desperation dragging us down. It begins to rain so hard that we can not actually see through the car windscreen. However we make it to Clapham Common and huddle in possibly the worst dressing room we've ever been in. Mud and shit and rubbish and old tracksuit
bottoms. It's like the Fritzl's basement that they never found. However, a kind of Dunkirk spirit begins to spread through the team as Jimmy L and Adam show, having cycled miles from north London in the most atrocious conditions and everyone readies themselves for the slosh-fest conditions on the pitch. Before a ball is kicked we're already wondering which poor sod is going to have to wash the kit this week. 
Sunday Bloody Sunday

Handbags and Gladrags
Despite the canine over excitement, the spirit throughout the team was good, the squad bulging today to allow for four subs. The plan was simple, get on with the game, take three points, shake hands and get home in time for the second half of Chelsea-Man Utd. Unfortunately, we were two goals down in the first half, the ref playing a big part in our downfall. Debutant Max had a clear cut penalty shout waved down and every Recreativo tackle was greeted with the sound of the ref's whistle. To top it all a downright disgraceful decision to award Livingstone a penalty when the ref adjudged Lee to have handled the ball (smacked against his hand, his arm by his side) brought an unsavoury handbags element to the game. Despite it all, there were some real positives from this game. Once again a really good turn out. Max and Bilal looked really good up front, plenty of chances and goals to come in the very near future. And at the final whistle, at last, Stefan's mutt finally stopped barking! Meanwhile,the kit washing rota is in full flow, Mario the lucky boy this week! Next up, Jeff's Chippy. Bring it on!
Always Look On The Bright Side of Life...


"Low Lie the Fields of Regents Park..."

Can't Get Used To Losing (You)...
Two match balls are pumped, first aid kit checked and everything put in the 'football cupboard' ready, the saturday ritual diligently carried out as the family step over shin-pads and goalie gloves and try to eat their lunch.
Altogether Now
and across Silver Street to Pymmes Park, a beautiful oasis of green in the grey urban sprawl of Edmonton.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?
he eleven. The usual suspects show up at the meet wondering just how many we'd put past our old keeper, now at Shepherds Tuesday. And of course we do indeed put four past him. Problem is we let in seven ourselves in a huff and puff kind of a game. Nothing too exciting to report from the game, bar the decent header Nick scored from a corner, a penalty scored by Joao, a penalty missed by Joao and a debut goal from Ked. One of them days when the football simply didn't click, but we know we'll be back soon and do so much better. We trudged off back to the car, past the giraffe enclosure at the Zoo, eager to seek the Utd-City score (4-3 to Utd with Owen scoring the winner in the 95th minute...bloody hell!). Back home a feast of roast chicken, veg and gravy awaits, gulped down with a lovely bottle of Camp Viejo Rioja. Despite us losing, despite Chelsea beating Spurs on the box, life doesn't seem all that bad.
Young Hearts Run Free
drag it kicking and screaming all the way through to March 2010. It's un-pretty football today, but early days. Both Lee and Jimmy Lloyd stood out today, something positive we can take from the game. And Joao's fantastic header too.
Whoop! Whoop! Its da Sound of the Police!
a distant part of town again, it felt like another fabulous sunday outing, a top Recreativo away day. We actually played some very good football at times and despite losing some of our younger kids over the summer, our grown up industrious squad will see us through a long season ahead of us. Well played the new lads!
A decent warm up game this, against a youthful good passing side from the Bangladeshi Football League. Workmate of Jimmie and Kali and good friend of Recreativo, Abdul Koyar, brought his boys over from the East End proper for a very competitive game.
were slow to the ball and allowed East One's slick passing to cut through us. Our previous game should of been a warning, a 1-1 draw against our Under 11s!