Hempnall FC

Comment on this article

Many moons a go an old mentor of mine quoted a saying that has stood long in the memory & was the soundest piece of advice I ever received as a manager.

Those words were ‘You can’t win unless you win’, thanks ‘Cheners’.

At the time I was a 25 year old player and didn’t fully understand their meaning but it didn’t take long to get to grips with them once management became my trade some 20 to 25 years ago.

Why do I talk about them now? Well for me the last 48 hours have highlighted them to the extreme!

On Saturday we lost, no sorry, a good side rightly took a 2 – 0 lead away from us and I had many a person expressing a view about why I did this and why I did that.

On Monday, I made as many decisions and changes as I did on the Saturday but other than the ‘true’ loyal football people, whom I will listen to all day to understand what they see and glean as much knowledge as I can, nobody peeped a word about why I did what I did.

I continue to use the ‘I’ word, as although I am a joint manager much of the decision making comes down to me once Frankie steps on the pitch. He contributes fantastically well as a manager on the side that goes out on to the pitch, but the ‘mistakes’ or not that are made after the whistle blows are mine alone (well a little bit of Marty if anyone wants to fight about it lol!)

The difference a 2-2 draw on the Saturday versus a slender 1- 0 victory on the Monday. If any young mangers read this, take these words on board and truly understand their meaning, they will serve you well.

Back to Monday’s game and off the soap box!

We travelled to Acle with out 3 major players, defensive guru Marty Addison, skipper Ben Player & fellow ‘engine room’ midfielder Greg Devlin out injured.

This left us with some big holes to fill but if anyone ever doubted the wisdom of swelling the squad on the eve of the deadline, this truly proved the point.

Tom Halliwell & new signing Neil Renuat became the engine & Mr Utility JP took the controlling role at the back.

Kelvin, Kristian and for the first time, Hunts, (having been ill) took a place on the bench. To a man their attitude was first class and fully illustrated the camaraderie in this squad.

Thanks guys, it makes a huge difference to ‘all’ having positive (but understandably disappointed) attitudes, even those not playing.

The ‘all for one and one for all’ mentality is a major plus to this side and its desires to be successful.

The game opened fairly evenly with both sides probing to find that all important break through.

However, although competitive the game never really got going as a spectacle, with far too many long balls being launched!

I struggle to remember too many clear opportunities or that much free flowing football being played, as the wind and the officials to frequently intervened.

Our best chance a goal ‘chalked off’ as Frankie tucked the ball home on the far post after good work down the left from Browney. Our players ‘biased’ view being it was perfectly good.

At half time things were optimistic, with us feeling we had another gear and the wind now blowing in our favour.

However, I felt we went into the same trap a Acle in that we continued to pump ‘wind assisted’ long ball, playing vey little football.

With the clock ticking and much debate on the sidelines around how we could change things to bring more football and a better quality delivery to the front men, up popped, I am a ‘Soul man’ Sam Wenham with a left foot volley from just inside the penalty area. Sweet as a nut and worthy of winning any game!

This goal was typical of the boy, and brought a totally different mind set to the whole proceedings and on what needed to be done. Knowing we now had the 3 ‘crucial’ points in our hands.

Acle stepped up their efforts and some half chances came and went.

All 3 subs were introduced as the two games in 3 days started to take effect on some but it was a reasonably comfortable run down of the clock, to know we had taken 3 points from a good and competitive Acle side on their own patch!

Again the game was played in good spirit and we thank Acle for their hospitality after the game.

In a solid all round performance JP sneaked in for man of the match.