Another sunny day down at the Cope, with a mood to match on at least two of the pitches.  Congrats to the 5's on another strong performance and the 3's on an efficient performance that saw them through to the next round of the cup.  From the away sides, it was good to see the 1's get off the mark, although you could tell from Dom's text to me that they were frustrated not to grab all 3 points, although rightly giving praise to a strong Lyonians side.  The 2's also gave a good account of themselves but were unable to overcome Wokingians 1st XI in the cup, so after 2 cup defeats next week a chance to concentrate on the league then!  And well done to the 6's and 7's both of whom scored 5 trimes away to set up emphatic victories.

However, this week I want to use my column to highlight a concern and something that I want to cut out from our club at all levels, and that is some of the negativity from some players that I witnessed in a couple of our games yeaterday.  We will at some time all have bad games either individually or collectively as a team.  At those times we will show our true character.  The best way to do that is to rally round each other and encourage as best as possible and try and work through the bad time together.  Unfortunately what I saw yesterday from a minority of people  were players who weren't performing brilliantly themselves, but as soon as a fellow team-mate made a mistake then taking the opportunity to verbally lay into them and shatter that players confidence further.  We all make mistakes, and lets face it if we didn't we would be gracing some premiership stadium rather than a field in Beckenham, and I am all for constructive criticism which helps to improve a player and also a gee up call when it is given in the right spirit.  An example I can give from own playing days involves a current captain of this club, who was playing left back that day.  We gave away a soft goal, and he let me know in no uncertain terms that I should have come and claimed the ball, but importantly because he knew I was capable of doing so...and he was right.  After that I came and claimed everything I could, because I knew what he had said was true - I needed the wake up call and certainly got that, but in a way that inspired rather than destroyed me.  There is a fine line between constructive criticism and having a go at someone, and yesterday there were a few players that went way over that line and destroyed their team-mates confidence, and what made it worse was that those players were actually playing no better themselves.  So, please think about the consequences of your actions - yes, sometimes we all need a wake up call or to have the error of our ways pointed out to us, but please let us do it in a way that has a positive result, rather than destrying the confidence of a team-mate and in the process destroying the morale of the team.  If we all take that on board, we have the potential to turn anything round, and who knows perhaps next week we will be focussing on the good things again.

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman

So the season finally got underway and I made my way down to a sunny "Cope", with four of our sides at home, looking forward to seeing whether the increasing optomism within the club was to be realised. And, despite a mixed set of results the signs are relatively good.  The 1st team took on a strong Ibis team in what was always going to be a tough opener, and so it proved with a tight game between two of last years promotion chasers.  Ibis ran out 1-0 winners, but we could easily have snatched all 3 points, and their jubilant reaction at the end of the game showed how delighted they were to come away with a win, and how we are certainly no longer seen as the leagues whipping boys - it was certainly one of the best defensive displays that I have seen from our 1's in a while, and they will be a difficult prospect for anyone this year.  The 2's also put up a brave performance and were unlucky to bow out the cup to Economicals, again a game that could have very much gone either way and should have gone to extra time.  Good to see that all the boys stayed on afterwards, despite the defeats although there were some disappointed faces in the bar.  And that is how far we have come in the last season or so....not so long ago, we would have taken the performance and have been pleased with it, but the whole mentality has changed and performance alone is no longer good enough, the result matters as well, and it is very good to see.  Yes, be disappointed that we didn't get the right result, but take the positives out of a good performance, get down to training to fix things and go out again next week, remember how disappointed you were and ensure that you swap that with jubilation following a performance AND a result.

Encouraging news from the lower sides as well.  The 4's can be pleased with a point from a Kew side that was very strong last season.  I was fortunate enough to catch the last 15 minutes of the 5th team game where on arrival they were 2 goals down.  Not sure that the Chairman can take any credit with his appearance, but it was good to see that heads had not dropped, that we played football and two brilliant balls into the box gave us the two goals that earned a point - well done to all.  The 7's were also at home and looked confident and it was nice to see one of our new players get on the teamsheet in a strong performance and a game which we dominated.  News from away was that the 6's scored four, but conceded more but are at least finding the net, and that the 8's showed real spirit in coming back from 2 goals down to beat Bank of England 3-2.

So, a mixed bag of results, but probably positives that can be taken from every game, good attendance and spirit in the bar afterwards and definitely an opening day that we can build on going forward.  Don't forget training on Wednesday, and lets go forward with confidence and our new found optomism. 

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman

As we get closer to the competitive part of the season, I wanted to take the opportunity to look at how we have prepared over the past couple of months.  I glad to say that most of what I see is very positive; training is well attended (but still room for many more!), we have a very enthusiastic set of captains who are all working hard behind the scenes and all of whom are looking forward to the season and optomistic about their prospects and we have had our most comprehensive set of pre-season friendlies for some time including a number of inter-club games (for which many thanks Brackers).  At a glance, some would say pre-season results have been mixed, and perhaps disappointing, but that may be how far we have come in recent years.  The reports back are that we have played well in most games and in fact we have set ourselves against stiff opposition who will play in higher divisions than us, so don't pay too much attention to the scorelines, we can all do that when the competitve games come and it really matters.

On Saturday, I went to watch our 8th team at Old Wilsonians.  As I don't have any captaincy responsibilities this year I am looking to spend at least one dedicated Saturday with every side this season, and so I started with the 8's.  A game in difficult conditions, our 8's were 1-0 down at half time before a storming 2nd half performance saw them bounce back to become 4-1 winners.  So what did I (and hopefuly they) learn. Well, in the 1st half there was a lot of high and long balls which simply didn't help us and a second half dominated by short pass and move more than helped our cause and was very pleasing on the eye.  It helped that Wisonians appeared to wilt more than us in the later stages of the game, although even the 8th team would agree that fitness is possibly not quite there yet.  It was good to see that most of the lads stayed afterwards and team spirit in the bar was certainly as strong as it had been on the pitch.  So an enjoyable afternoon made even better with reports of victories and strong performances from both our 1's and 5's - well done to all.

So, a promising start, but lets not get carried away.  We really need to ensure we are fully prepared for the start of the season as titles can be won and lost in the first few games.  I would therefore urge you all to make an effort to get to those last couple of training sessions and ensure we are as ready as we can be when the competitive season eventually kicks off.  I am really looking forward to the coming season, and hope that you are too, so lets make sure that we are ready and start as we mean to go on.

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman