Manager’s End Of Season Round-Up…

Following the twelve friendly games we played during the 2006-2007 season, we were formally elected into the Asian Football League and played our first truly competitive match on Sunday 12^th August 2007.

We had been training fairly regularly on Wanstead Flats on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons for a few weeks and had, we felt the makings of a reasonable, if slightly numerous squad. Courtesy of Ozzie Shafi’s splendid organising a party of players, committee and their friends and relatives met on 24^th July for a meal at Tayyab’s Restaurant in Whitechapel when the Lea Valley shirt was unveiled for the first time. I lost count of the number of times during the season we were complimented about that kit with its proud club and Charter Standard badges.

To start with we found ourselves involved in the Asian League North London Cup, a series of four 45 minute games against first division clubs spread over two weeks. We achieved a win and two draws leading the (Asian League) pundits to forecast a serious promotion drive during the following months. Another three weeks of Asian League Cup matches followed - - doing nothing to undermine their predictions - and broken on 16^th September by a match which will probably be remembered as the highlight of the season. We were drawn at home in the 1^st round of the County Cup, the first occasion we had played at the Douglas Eyre Centre, against Asian League first division high-flyers Cricklewood Scorpions. A never-say-die performance and a clear margin of three terrific goals in our favour sent shock-waves through the Asian League.

Ramadan came and went during which time mid-week training was abandoned. It was becoming obvious that the team was not functioning particularly well as a cohesive unit. While there was a reasonably solid backbone to the side, too many players were playing for themselves. As a consequence, team spirit waned and results started to suffer.

Our first League game was played on 14^th October at Wanstead Flats against Inter Leyton and ended in a 2–2 draw. This was followed by two cancelled matches. Firstly when the referee failed to turn up at Douglas Eyre Centre for a visit from London Tigers, and the following week when our 2^nd round County Cup opposition, Barnet wood, pulled out at the eleventh hour – giving us a bye to the third round. November was best forgotten with four losses out of four, the last of which happened to be the 1-4 3^rd round County Cup loss against Constitution FC, for which we struggled to raise a team. By this time Tom Hazelton our manager had moved on to become coach to ladies team Clapton Orient and Melvin Sullivan had taken over temporarily. Too few players seemed willing to pass the ball, but there were a sufficient number of positives and physical effort to provide encouragement for new manager Kris Balut who started with us on 11^th November.

Defeats piled up week on top of week culminating in our worst loss (and worst performance) when we were on the wrong end of a 3-8 drubbing at the hands of FC Leytonstone. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suspect the lack of players willing to turn up to regular Thursday night training at Haggerston Park as the root cause of the problem; but in reality we were hard pushed to achieve eleven players each week let alone the required quota of six Asians. Our first League win on 16^th December was anything but the auspicious occasion three points should merit as we achieved them through a ‘no-show’ from Inter Leyton.

2008 started with two more losses, but on 27^th January at home to FC Leytonstone, we nailed our first three real points by winning 2-0. Everyone turned in a good performance and with a little more luck we could have scored five. What a difference a win makes to morale! We went on to win the next two games, both away, the second being in the Asian League Cup at Bethune Park against old adversaries Cricklewood Scorpions. Cricklewood reduced the arrears with only six minutes remaining, but with every Lea Valley player getting behind the ball and repulsing a series of corners we managed to achieve a second cracking win over this opposition.

We returned to our losing habits on 17^th February against the best team we had met - London APSA. The chronic lack of midweek training lit up all our weaknesses and our failure to contain the midfield and our seeming inability to use the width of the pitch was a problem we encountered all season. More defeats and a cup quarter-final defeat at the hands of first division FC Bulwer on 9^th March did little to improve our spirits.

Our last two matches in the Asian League were due to have taken place on Easter Sunday and on a Sunday morning in far off Southall. Perhaps sensibly, both were cancelled.

A surprising late run of wins by bottom club Inter Leyton relegated us to bottom place in the table – a far removed finish to the Asian League Committee predictions!

Earlier in the season – on Saturday 27^th October – I was talking to the fixture secretary of Amateur Football Combination (AFC) club Old Parmiterians and he was asking why we hadn’t considered moving over to play Saturday football in that League. Little did I know then that by the following May 2008, we would have resigned from the Asian League and applied to and been accepted into the AFC for season 2008-9. It was made clear to us by the AFC that we would be expected to play a number of ‘friendlies’ against their clubs if we were to stand any chance of entry, and between 16^th March and 10^th May we played eight such games. During that period we were negotiating the possibility of creating a union with the Clapton based Springfield Youth Club with a view to starting an Under 14’s side with them and taking some of their existing Under 18’s into Lea Valley the following season. They joined us for three of those ‘friendly’ matches until negotiations broke down and the two clubs decided it was not in their interests to join each other.

Our record during that time of four wins and two draws has given us all cause for optimism in the future. We are assured of a place in division 7 North of the Amateur Football Combination and are, at the same time, entering an Under 14’s age-group team into the Cheshunt League under the management of Tom Hazelton.

Next season promises to be very interesting!