Sunday Bloody SundayDynamo Landor. Hackney Marshans. Clapham Sundays. Clapham Eagles. South Circular FC. There's been plenty of teams in this league over the last few years who have called it a day. Simply had enough of players fucking around. Every manager has had his Kevin Keegan moment. When you just have to say, 'that's it' and walk away from it all.
Today Recreativo came very close to it. Having left out players to accommodate some returning younger squad members, it's soul destroying to ring them half hour before kick off and have to wake them up! FOR FUCK SAKE! This is after another player had texted to say they were too drunk on saturday night to make a 2pm sunday afternoon kick off. Recreativo's history is littered with stories of drunkenness and players hiding behind the trees spliffing up (while the rest of the team are going through their warm up), team mates squaring up to eachother, the van catching on fire, getting attacked by an iron-bar wielding crackhead, the odd punch up and the like. It's part and parcel of sunday league folklore. It always seemed a bit of a laugh. But as you get a little older, maybe a little less tolerant, you just want everything to work out sort of okay. Is it too much to ask a player to return a text message to say they are coming? (It's laughable when players say they had "no credit"!!! What grown up adult still uses pay-as-you-go for fuck's sake?) Is it too much to ask a player to turn up at least half an hour before kick off? Is it too much to ask a player to stop faffing about with his bootlaces/sock-tape/i-pod/mobile phone/hair and join in
with the team warm up? Is it too much to expect a player to pay his £4 match day subs when we have to find over £1000 every season to keep this fucking team going??!!!
.........pause..............deep breath......
Anyway, the best team won today, fair play and all that. Recreativo played some good football, but it wasn't to be. We shook hands as always and headed home. Not even roast chicken, a bottle of Merlot and the new series of Top Gear could blot out the frustration of a this afternoon's shenanigans. To let players turn up 20 minutes from the end and still give them a game left a bad feeling throughout the squad and it sure won't happen again. We need every player to pull together and keep this team ship-shape, turning up on time and getting their act together if we are to continue past the Christmas break. God save Recreativo..again.
Team: Ivan Murillo Ortiz, John Megaughin (Tino), Jimmy Lloyd, Nick Candy, Joe Dunthorne, Mario Pisano (Stefan Garcia Fernandez), Joao Spinola, Lee Walsh, James Humphreys (Bilal Talib Ali), Tall Aaron, Max Bland.