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The New Season.........

The season holds much promise with impressive displays in both the Seymour and Landlords Cup competitions.

The first game saw The Mighty Sheps sweep aside a below par Netherton 6 - 2, followed by an impressive 3 -0 win against Stanley with only 10 men for ¾ of the game.

The Cup win against Walton saw 3 successive home wins bringing back the saying of "Fortress Parker Rd".

To date this has been the best start to any season and gives the team a good foot hold to climb the league and push for that first trophy whether it be the league or the cup.

Following the narrow defeat to Hemsworth MW, it would seem that these are one of the teams to beat should we want to get any silverware this season. However all the players involved are convinced that we can beat them and it was a slight off day with a hard to judge swirling wind proving a major deciding factor.
Two further wins - both convincing, proves that the quality IS at The Sheps. Lets show the B*!%*!*!.

Well done Andy - never thought you'd be on the goal scoring list.


Have you ever said something that was really funny at the time only to realise who you were talking to

Ask Andy Knights

He'll tell you all about it

The Trophy Race is on

The trophy race is well and truly on this season with a total of 24 players signed on all wanting to prove a point.

The very hotly contested "Drunk of the Year" is one that will be hard to decide this year. Previous winners wouldn't like to give this title up without a fight.

Both Knightsy and Al have set the standards high and will continue to do so - however Jonesy and Ben are having impressive starts to this one, while the man who disappears while going to the toilet could be a surprise package.

The "Managers Player of the Season" is currently deadlocked and should also go right to the end of the season.

Early contenders are Jermaine Jones, Ben Inman, Jamie Brealy, Shaun Taylor and Jamey Cox. However with impressive displays over the last couple of weeks watch out for Geoff Nash, Matthew Karadzic, Nigel Sugden and Andrew Wilkinson this IS going to get very interesting and very hard to decide.

Players Player

The "Players Player" votes are coming in thick and fast every week and will prove an interesting fight. There have been some excellent performances so far, with Shaun Taylor, last seasons "Player of the Year" taking an early lead (all be it 1 vote) following his impressive display at Walton in the Cup, where he collected 11 votes.

Then comes the chasing group, 1st year trophy hugger Allan Ellis with Jermaine Jones, Ben Inman, Jamie Brealy and the Captain of the team Jamey Cox all very close behind.

Within 2/3 votes of this group come the mighty group who will push the current front runners all the way - Andrew Wilkinson, Dave Ramsey, Andrew Bland, Nigel Sugden and Matthew Karadzic are all hot on their heals and will certainly be up there when the end of the season arrives.

This is one of the true battles of the season and will decide who in their fellow players eyes has been most consistent throughout the season.

Watch this space and I will keep you informed of how the battle is going.

Top Goalscorer

This one is going to be interesting……after 6 games we have amassed 23 goals with 11 players scoring.

The race to be top scorer will surely go to the end of the season - with Jermaine Jones - a previous winner currently on top with 7 in total - one being a hat-trick (even though it was given) , closely followed by new boy (who has already succumbed to The Sheps way of life) Ben Inman.

Shaun Taylor has now started to find the net with Aidy Bramald also opening his account.

I suggest you watch this one carefully !!!!!!!!!
It WILL go to the end.

There's always something about the cup

As every footballing team knows - there really is something special about playing in the cup games. This year The Shepherds Arms are in three cups and still are after playing the first round in both the Seymour and Landlords competition.

The first game in the Seymour Cup was at home to our old foes Walton SSC - always likely to be a good game and this certainly didn't disappoint.

They travelled to fortress Parker Road thinking that this would be an easy game….3rd division against 4th.

Sorry to P*!! on your fire boys - but The Mighty Sheps are and back with a vengeance.

Never wanting to let this one go - a substitution in the last five minutes saw Andrew Bland come on and score the winner - oh what a shame, my heart bleeds.

The Landlords trophy was next and guess what - Yes, Walton again but this time away.

Starting with five in the middle proved to be too much them on the day with goals from Aidy Bramald and Steve Wilky.

We have now been drawn against Lupset from the Premier Division in the Seymour.

COME ON THE BOYS

At this point we are not sure of the Landlords or the League Cup which will be drawn in the near future.

Lets hope for nice draw in the Landlords and who knows - we might upset a few on the way.

That Blade of Grass

There seems to be something about the Parker Road pitch that seems to bring the best out of The Shepherds Arms Allstars.

Is it because the grass needs cutting ?

No, I don't think so.

It's just that something has started to happen when we are playing there - the normal composure on the ball disappears for a slight second with, in some cases, hilarious results.

Let's take Sunday 10th Oct as an example. Jamey Cox - the normally sure footed Captain of the team had the ball at his feet and simply fell over - no explanation but it did take Jamey a good minute to recover from the laughing -

Was it that blade of grass?

Then comes the next instance, a perfectly weighted ball to Suggy down the line - in acres of space and simply fell over whilst trying to cross the ball. The referee asked if I wanted to bring the bucket on as a substitute - a little bit harsh I thought.

Maybe Suggy was tackled by that blade of grass.Then we have the two instances where perfectly capable defenders cross the ball into their own box when trying to clear the ball. The first was Suggy (again) but he said he must have had his boots on the wrong feet. The second was Al, he also blamed it on Suggy's boots.

Could this be the same blade of grass at work?

Every home game always has the same strange noise when errors occur on the field - "Oooooooo oooooo oooooo ooooo oooo" is always heard - is this purely coincidence or is there something else at work at Parker Road.