Be Humble in Victory and Gracious in Defeat...
!A weekend which will not be held in fond affection for the club with all three sides suffering defeat in one manner or another.
However we try to sum up the results from the weekend it just goes down as a bad day at the office.
The second team lost out by a single goal to Bexhill rovers, whilst the third team travelled to Hampden park in Eastbourne to finish on the wrong end of a 4 - 1 defeat.
Always remember, your opponent wants to win as much as you do.
I am certain that all those who represented the club did and gave of there best and situations such as these all we can do is ensure that we learn from it and get your boots back on and go and try again the following week - you go out and give of your best.
The only slight dissapointment for me personally is that having managed to field teams of 12 or 13 players in all three teams last week that this week I heard rumours that the 2nds had the bare 11, and the 3rds only 10 players.
I know sometimes we have committments to keep or work issues, but if I think back to my time as a player, when you signed for a club you were making a committment to that club and team to be there week in week out, it seems that this has changed and the players pick and choose when they want to show up - this all seems a little back to front to me - but is a sign that player power is not just prevelant in the professional game but also exisits to a lesser extent at grass roots as well.
The message is simple, try and committ as much as you can.
Having good numbers for each and every game is so important for your teams and the club and makes life that much easier for those guys who put alot of time and effort in to running and managing the teams.
I understand that all of you have been enjoying the structured training sessions on Wednesday nights which is great.
Please ensure we continue to support Phil and Gary in this respect and sustain good numbers for them to work with, it will improve your game.
One cautionary word of note would be if you are carrying an injury or a knock, be sensible do what you can manage without aggrivating it and making the situation worse and ensure you stretch and cool down properly.
First team report.
Sedlescombe 0 Hollington 4Sometime's you have to hold your hands up and say we were beaten by the better side !Yes there were a number of factors that conspired against us such as the weather, one or two players missing, two or three players carrying injurys or being forced to come off and having to make both substitutions after 20 minutes of kick off.
This you might say is just unfortunate.
However, the conditions were the same for both sides whilst the cancellation of a number of county league fixtures meant that Hollington could call upon those players who are dual signed.
However dissapointed we are with the result we should not make excuses.
Hollington were strong, technically very good, fitter than us by some margin in areas and smarting from the defeat to Battle the previous week.
They outplayed us and out battled us.
Yes we did attempt to play our football and at times we did impose ourselves and maybe should have done better with the chances that were presented, but the fact remains when Hollington chances came they were clinical.
That does not happen by chance, it comes from being strong physically and mentally.
The game for us was a step up in standard.
There is no shame in that, and I was encouraged by the way in which we as a side never gave up, we kept working and trying our best to fight back and in many ways the response was better in the last 20 minutes than against Battle Baptists game before Christmas.There was little or no bickering, perhaps an acceptance that we knew Hollington had been the far better side, where as with Battle we feel we should have done better ??Its also noticeable that when you make individual mistakes against the top teams you get punished.
If you look at the Battle and Hollington game we contributed to our own downfall and the mistakes were punished.
There were a number of good individual performances from many of you and if you give of your best then nobody can ask for anything more.
Whilst many of you gave all you had I think we will all recognise that there was one individual who helped to keep the score respectable and the Man of the Match for the second week running is Adam Corten.
Well done Adz and hope the eye is feeling better !!!I said last week that our goal should be to ensure that we finnish the league season in 3rd position and this should be our target.
I have not seen aything from the other teams that suggests that this is not achieveable and would be a significant step in improving on last seasons efforts.
So that is the target 3rd place in the league !We are still in 3 cups, and this now represents our best chance of silverware this season and a good day out.
So we must dust ourselves off, take pride in our own fitness and want to make a significant contribution to the team and prepare to go again this weekend against Hawkhurst in the quarter final tie of the premier travel challenge cup.
A home semi final tie with Eastbourne rangers or Battle Baptists would be the reward and perhaps a chance to exact some pay back !!!However, we need to take care of Hawkhurst first and we know that this will not be easy.
We also know what to expect in there style of play so we need to ensure that we are all properly prepared and ready for action.
Remember Champions never complain, they are too busy getting better = to be a champion requires preperation, preperation, preperation, get ready in the week to be able to inflict and hurt Hawkhurst this Saturday !!We go again, up the Seds and have a good week everyone.
