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Added Sunday 31st August
Hemel Hempstead Town 1 Halesowen Town 1
For a man who scored 19 times in the final 20 games of last season, 2 games without a goal may constitute something of a lean patch but Dean Brennan got off the mark in fine style yesterday with an excellent free-kick against one of his many previous clubs.
In what sounded like an open match a draw was probably fair and the Yeltz can be reasonably pleased with their start to the season. We have two extremely winnable games against Oxford and Mangotsfield at the Grove in the next week; win them and things will be looking very good indeed.
FA Cup news - I wanted Nuneaton Griff but it goes without saying therefore that we will be travelling to Meir KA in the first qualifying round in 2 weeks.
Added Friday 29 August
My much anticipated (by me) media debut has been postponed by a week. I should now be 'starring' in the Halesowen Chronicle next Thursday.
Good to see that my Season Preview has been popular with other fans of Southern League clubs.
It has also fuelled some typically intelligent debate on the Corby forum:
I have never been called an 'asspiece' before but as the genius who came up with that failed to grasp that I did not write the uncomplimentary bits about Corby I'm not too worried.
Added Monday 25 August
Halesowen Town 3 Evesham United 1
I knew it was going to be a funny day when, on the way to the game, I saw a fat Jerry Springer lookalike in a dress. I am still unsure whether it was a really ugly woman or a really ugly bloke trying to be a woman. Still more bizarre was the sight of Darren Caskey flying effortlessly to his left to save a penalty after Nick Bussey was sent off for "punching" an Evesham player and then having a tantrum that probably only Super Nanny could have curtailed. It was tremendous entertainment but I imagine Mr Bussey's Yeltz career is hanging by a thread tonight.
Added Sunday August 24
Now, I don't know Ken Turner but regular readers (if there is such a thing) will know I am no fan of his. He strikes me as a man who goes to bed in his blazer and is never knowingly too far from his rule-book, so his latest bout of intransigence comes as no surprise. It appears that a number of clubs are upset with the quality of balls being used this season but Ken is having none of it. He won't even entertain the notion that anything is wrong until the next board meeting in September. We can't have any spontaneous action in the Southern League can we Ken?
Added Saturday August 23
Bashley 1 Halesowen Town 3
Excellent result. This looked one of the trickier tests of the early season and it has been passed with flying colours. A win on Monday and, despite the dismal opening day, we'll have had a good start.
Added Friday August 22
Where are my legwarmers? Bright Golden Haze, in a free regional newspaper kind of way, is going to be famous. Today, a lady from the Halesowen Chronicle came to my house to ask me questions about the fanzine with a view to putting a story in the paper. She also took a photo of me and the first issue of Bright Golden Haze and, very kindly, let me have my dog Suki in the shot as well. It is good to be able to publicise the fanzine but it is more exciting to get a picture of Suki in the paper.
Added Thursday 21 August
With two defeats in two games I bet Rod Turner is relieved he didn't make any rash predictions about Rugby this season (see 19th August).
Added Wednesday 20th August
Rugby Town 0 Halesowen Town 2
We hardly ever win at Rugby, well not recently anyway, so yesterday's win was vital. Two defeats in the opening two games of the season would have been a poor start to what we all expect to be a full-on tilt at the title this season. But it didn't happen - a tricky trip to Bashley at the weekend will be approached with infinitely more optimism now.
Added Tuesday 19th August
Good to see that managers are delusional at all levels of football. Writing in NonLeague Today, Rugby boss Rod Turner says: "We may have finished as the Premier Division's strongest team in April, but you won't get me making rash predictions about the coming season ahead."
No, that would be silly Rod. But not as silly as claiming you were the strongest finishing team in the league last season. Have a look at King's Lynn's results and have a rethink.
Added Sunday 17th August
Halesowen Town 0 Tiverton Town 1
Well, what an anti-climax that was. Disappointing crowd, disappointing score, disappointing (if predictable) weather and a very disappointing performance. It's not as if Tiverton were any good - they clearly came for a 0-0, scored a soft goal and then defended for their lives. Nothing wrong with that of course but it made for a frustrating afternoon as we clearly weren't good enough to break them down. Never mind, long way to go etc etc.
I'm not updating the stats on this site as the brand spanking new Bright Golden Haze site should be up and running in the next few days or so and it's all on there.
Added Wednesday 13th August
The new season is nearly here and so is the new site. Ideally it will be up and running before Saturday but there are some technical things to do which may take a bit longer. I am not doing them incidentally - if I did the entire internet may well disappear.
The last friendly has been played - last night's game with Willenhall ended a minute early because we appeared to run out of balls and players. There is a threadbare look about the squad at the moment which is slightly worrying (in terms of numbers that is, not quality).
The fanzine is out now. Currently available in the Waggon and Horses and the Yeltz Bar, I saw a few being sold yesterday which was nice.
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