October 2008

Martin Kearns has resigned as chairman. He wasn't there long enough to make an informed opinion as to whether this is a loss or not as the big sponsorship / investment deal (who is that with by the way?) landed during his brief spell at the club has been largely attributed to Morell Maison.

Added Thursday 30th October

Issue 2 is ready! No less than 32 pages this time - a 14 and a bit % increase which, depending on your viewpoint, may not be a good thing. It's a jam packed issue with one or two new contributors plus the usual suspects. All proceeds are going to the club and hopefully with the first few sales of this one I'll be able to sponsor a match ball soon.

I'm going to take some copies to the Yeltz Bar tomorrow night with copies to follow shortly in the HTSA Suite and Waggon & Horses. Or, for you long distance fans, get one here.

Added Thursday 30th October

Good luck to Chris Nurse who left the freezing Black Country climes yesterday to jet off to play for Guyana in the Digicel Caribbean Cup. Guyana open their campaign against St Kitts & Nevis on November 5th. If you are of a mind then the tournament can be followed here.

Added Tuesday 28th October

Halesowen Town 1 Two Left Feet Brigade 0

God, that was cold but I can just about feel my feet again. The horrific prospect of extra time was starting to loom large in my frozen consciousness when Zema Abbey got the winner in the second half to send us into the second round of the prestigious GX Cup.

Added Monday 27th October

Clive from Midlands NonLeague football has reviewed issue 1 of Bright Golden Haze. His review can be found here.

It's the big night out for the Stourbridge mob tomorrow as they get to play at a proper ground. The excitement might take their mind off the expected Arctic conditions.

Added Sunday 26th October

After a weekend of furious industry the second issue of Bright Golden Haze is now completed. An intense period of copying, folding and stapling awaits and then I can try and sell a few. I think it's a good one this time - there's the usual suspects contributing plus a newcomer or too. Some of you better bloody well buy it.

Added Saturday 25th October

Gloucester City 1-2 Halesowen Town

Blinding result! Halesowen came from one down to beat Gloucester and keep the league season firmly on track. The cups have been disappointing but the main thing is the league and wins in our last two games against promotion rivals Brackley and Gloucester have kept us in the frame.

Elsewhere, some ASBOs may be breached in Northamptonshire as Corby battered Bedford 5-1, and Evesham beat Rushden & Diamonds 2-0 to make it into the first round of the FA Cup. The yokels will be celebrating tonight.

Added Friday 24th October

Back to league action tomorrow against Gloucester at the windiest place on earth aka Cirencester. It's a tough game before we take on the two left foot brigade from Amblecote on Tuesday night.

Fanzine news - should be out by next weekend if I pull my finger out.

Added Tuesday 21st October

Halesowen Town 0 Durham City 1

The curse of the FA Trophy strikes again as Halesowen made their customary first qualifying round exit. The floodlights flickered and caused the game to be delayed although the only problem with that was that they came back on again. An abandonment and making Durham travel down again might have been our best chance. A step lower in the pyramid they may be but they are a good side. I can't remember seeing many teams knock it around better than them. Fair play to them - they won fair and square.

Added Monday 20th October

The draw is not being very kind to us in the FA Trophy. If we manage to beat Durham tomorrow then we are away to Marine who are currently 2nd in the Northern Premier League having scored 413 goals in their last 8 games etc etc.

Last bit of Corby bashing. Their manager Graham Drury was in one of the NonLeague Papers yesterday saying that their fans' forum is full of confused fans explaining the altered reality of being at the top of the table for a change. Perceptive and cogent thoughts must abound on the Corby forum then you would think. Well no, I found this:

http://steelmentalk.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=2503

http://steelmentalk.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=2515

and best of all this:

http://steelmentalk.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=2512&

Truro near to John O'Groats?

Perhaps there's a Corby forum I don't know about.

Added Saturday 18th October

Durham City 4 Halesowen Town 4

Blimey. They still haven't lost at home in two years but they won't fancy a trip down to Halesowen on Tuesday night for the replay. It all looked lost at 4-2 down going in to stoppage time but an own goal and a wonder strike from Mark Danks to complete his hat-trick (tell me again why he hasn't been starting games?) salvaged a miraculous draw. We clearly can't defend but it's churlish to mention that at the moment. This could be our year to finally come good in the FA Trophy!

Added Saturday 18th October

I've upset a Corby fan. In response to yesterday's post he sent me an email calling me a 'moran'. I think he meant moron but anyway he proved my point about the standards of education there. But I know not everybody in Corby is an ill-educated drunk as I rather uncharitably claimed. So if you are an educated tee-totaller in Corby please don't be offended. If however you are an 'ill educated drunken moron' feel free to get in touch.

Anyway, back to football and the Yeltz's bogey competition - the FA Trophy. Today's opponents are Durham and their playing record in all competitions for this season has been posted on the official site. It is:

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
16	12	4	0	46	5

By anybody's standards that is an incredible record and when you add to that the fact they haven't lost at home for two years and play on a plastic pitch, it is fair to say we face a formidable task today. A draw and the chance to get them to the Grove would be a great result.

Added Friday 17th October

As I feared Dean Brennan is now a Corby player. It's a move that, provided Dean re-captures the form he showed for us last season, should cement Corby as favourites for the title. All you can do is wish him well personally whilst hoping his club fail dismally. Luckily he won't (I assume) be living in the town that has been branded the 'ASBO capital' of the UK. Only 8.5% of the population have a degree-level qualification whilst around 39% have absolutely no GCSE or equivalent qualifications at all, which considering you only have to turn up nowadays to get one is incredible. In short Corby is a rubbish town full of ill-educated, drunken morons. So who cares if they are getting a good football team - you wouldn't want to live there.

Added Thursday 16th October

It seems that the Maison v Brennan bout is not being pursued further by the Wiltshire Constabulary, which is good news for the club. It's probably a sensible decision. Without condoning it I would imagine that fights amongst personnel at football clubs are hardly unusual, the only difference in this case is that involved the manager and was in the middle of the pitch! Whether Dean Brennan ever plays for Halesowen again is another matter so it's not exactly a happy ending but it could have been a lot worse. Nobody wants to see their manager/owner/entrepeneur-in-chief up before the beak!

Added Tuesday 14th October

Halesowen Town 3 Brackley Town 2

Well, it was 4-4-2 and Mark Danks started so that was what I wanted on Saturday night. It was hard work, especially when they had a man sent off, but we held on for a morale boosting three points. Danks scored a great goal and then proceeded to be caught offside several thousand times so I can understand why people get frustrated with him but he's got too much ability to be left out.

It wouldn't be a Halesowen game if there wasn't a debut. This time it was Chris Nurse, a right sided midfielder who looks pretty good.

Finally, special mention to the harridan of a Brackley supporter who spent a lot of time screeching at Darren Caskey before asking no-one in particular: "Do you want a picture?" Er no, not really.

Added Sunday 12th October

In the NonLeague Today paper Morell Maison has refused to rule out Dean Brennan playing for Halesowen again. Click here for the full story but if this is true then Mr Maison needs to be prepared to eat as much humble pie as required to make it happen, especially if Hilmi Michi has been brought into the side as a potential replacement.

Added Sunday 12th October

More bleating...Being a bit of a nerd I like to make sure I always get my match programme. In the past I've failed to get one but that's been down to me not leaving the pub on time and finding we've sold out. Frustrating but entirely my own fault. Yesterday all the programmes were sold by 2.30pm which suggests to me that nobody at the club bothered to work out how many people were coming from Maidstone. As it happens, and it was no secret, there were a lot and they were all in the ground early and bought most of the programmes, which they are perfectly entitled to do. But why didn't the club just print more in the first place?

And another thing - apparently (I don't know for sure) there was only one turnstile open at the Shed end of the ground and a lot of people were still queuing up when the match kicked off. Looking back on it that was a blessing in disguise if they were Yeltz fans as it meant they missed out on some of the shambles on the pitch but it was still pretty poor organisation.

Added Saturday 11th October

Halesowen Town 1 Maidstone United 4

Questions for Morell Maison:

- why do you think 3 at the back is a good idea?

- what makes you think Hilmi Michi is a footballer?

- what's Mark Danks done to you?

Three defeats in a week now and it wasn't far from humiliation today. No, actually it was humiliating. Maidstone look a half decent team and at the moment that is more than enough to beat us but if they'd beaten us by six or seven goals no one could have complained.

We've got Brackley on Tuesday night and if we don't play 4-4-2 with Mark Danks in the team I will start to think that there is something wrong with Morell Maison.

Added Friday 10th October

Transfer news - the exotically monikered Hilmi Michi, an attacking midfielder, and defender Lee Canoville have signed and go straight into the squad for tomorrow's FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round game against namby pamby Southerners Maidstone United.

Added Friday 10th October

I can't think of anything worse than Dean Brennan signing for Corby Town (well, I can but this is a Halesowen Town site) but that appears to be at least a possibility according to the Halesowen News. Apparently the plastic Jocks, Farnborough, Hednesford and Telford are all interested although I wouldn't have thought they would be the only ones. If he signs for anyone in our league, and realistically I would have thought that could only be Farnborough or Corby as I doubt anyone else could afford him, then it will be a major blow to Halesowen. Hopefully it might also be a lesson learnt for Morell Maison. I like him and I want him to be our manager for a long time but you can't do that, as Meat Loaf once nearly said.

Added Tuesday 7th October

Atherstone Town 2 Halesowen Town 0

It hardly matters as it's the Birmingham Senior Cup but the Yeltz put on a dismal show to crash out against lower league opponents. As you'd expect it was a much changed team but the reserves showed they can play badly too, just like the first team on Saturday in fact. All in all Morell Maison's 50th game in charge sounds like it was a massive damp squib.

It could be worse though - we could be Stourbridge. Somehow, I don't know how, they contrived to lose 4-0 to Rugby tonight. That would be a Rugby team that hadn't won and scored just 6 goals in the league all season before they came up against the two left feet brigade from Amblecote. Pathetic.

Added Monday 6th October

It's a long trip up north to the plastic pitch of Durham City in the FA Trophy after they beat Curzon Ashton in their replay tonight. It's a bloody long way to go for the first qualifying round to face a team who've conceded just one goal in their seven league games so far this season. A tough day in prospect on the pitch with the risk of some deep vein thrombosis thrown in on the coach. Marvellous.

As is the way with most of our players it seems Daryl Taylor's spell at the Yeltz was a short one. The promise of regular first team football has lured him to Hinckley United. You'd need something to lure you - I don't think I'd go there voluntarily.

Finally - I saw Morell Maison in Halesowen today. Physio Rob Woodbine is right (wait until issue 2 of BGH - this is what we in the trade call a teaser) - he does always wear the same clothes!

Added Sunday 5th October

It has occurred to me that this team is the second that Morell Maison has built since he took over last October.

Let's have a look at the starting line-ups from the play-off final against Team Bath last season and the team that played yesterday:

	vs Team Bath	vs Bedford
1	Mark Osborn	Chris Sanna
2	Alex Cowley	Dean Smith
3	Davion Hamilton	Alex Cowley
4	Dennis Pearce	Tom Kemp
5	Stuart Pierpoint	Gavin Hoyte
6	Jay Denny	Michael Briscoe
7	Andy Hall	Jay Denny
8	Darren Caskey	Darren Caskey
9	Dean Brennan	Jermaine Palmer
10	Eldon Maquemba	Justin Rowe
11	Ikechi Anya	Aaron Cornwall

So which is better? There are two obvious differences to me. Firstly, the shift to three central defenders which I don't like and secondly we are much weaker up front. It's difficult to argue with the goals that Palmer and Rowe have scored, and I think Justin Rowe in particular is a good player, but in Dean Brennan we had a clinical finisher and Eldon was capable of producing moments of genuine brilliance which set him apart from virtually every player in the league. With Brennan and Maquemba we were never out of the game but I'm not so sure you can say that about Rowe and Palmer.

Added Friday 3rd October

Back to league duty tomorrow away to Jack Duckworth's each way bet Bedford Town. Early days as it is, it is a big game as Farnborough, as well as playing tomorrow, have two further games before we play another league game. If we lose tomorrow they could have 29 points by the time we play Brackley on October 14 (and that is subject to FA Cup replays), which even allowing for three games in hand is a big lead.

Added Thursday 2nd October

Colin Brookes is in the Halesowen Chronicle today saying the club have had no contact with Dean Brennan and will be contacting him in the next few days to decide how to proceed. It may not be a long conversation.

Gavin Hoyte has been signed on loan from Cambridge United until the New Year. He played against us when he was on loan at King's Lynn last year and is an excellent player. We've got loads of centre-halves now - perhaps instead of three of them we are looking to play eleven.