1′s: AP 1 – South Bank Cuaco 0 (Hughes)

2′s: AP 2 – Birbeck  College 2 aet (Birbeck College win 8-7 on pens) (Hubbard (2))

3′s: South Bank Cuaco 1 – AP 6 (Brade(3), other scorers tbc)

4′s: AP 0 – Old Stationers 2

5′s: AP 1 – HSBC 6 (scorer tbc)

6′s: No Game

7′s: BB Eagles 7 – AP 1 (scorer tbc)

8′s: AP 2 – Broomfield 5 (scorers tbc)

AP Quiz Night returns next Saturday

UPDATE 17/02/2012: The 8′s game has now been moved to Albert Road. Also the cry-off person has changed, see the Selection page for new number. If you have already cried off you will need to do so again.

With the weather improving with any luck all matches should go ahead this weekend. Find out  who you are playing for here.

Next Saturday sees the return of the BIG AP QUIZ NIGHT. If you were one of the unlucky few who missed the last one now is your chance to find out what all your teammates have not stopped talking about since. So start swatting up and come  down to the club house next Saturday the 25th February.

Fixtures for Saturday 18th February

1′s,3′s, 4′s & 8′s : 2.30pm kick-off

2′s, 5′s & 7′s: 2pm kick-off

1s: Home vs South Bank Cuaco – Meet 1pm @ Racecourse

2′s: Home vs Birbeck College – Meet 1pm @ Fred Knight

3′s: Away vs South Bank Cuaco – Meet TBC by Kurt

4′s: Home vs Old Stationers – Meet 1pm @ New River

5′s: Home vs HSBC – Meet 12.30pm @ Racecourse

6′s: No Game

7′s: Away vs BB Eagles – Meet 11.45am @ Bounds Green

8′s: Home vs Broomfield – Meet 1pm @ Albert Road Racecourse

Fabio Capello bids England a fond farewell

In the only game to survive the cold weather last weekend the 7′s defeated Old Parks 2-1. You can read all about their day in their match report

This week only the 1′s & 2′s games are currently on have been CALLED OFF with all other  matches postponed once again due to the poor weather.

Fixtures for  Saturday 11th February

1′s: Away vs Ibis – 2.15pm kick-off – Meet 12pm @ Bounds Green or 1pm @ Ibis OFF

2′s: Away vs Birbeck College – 2pm kick-off – Meet Birbeck College ground @ 1pm OFF

3′s – 8′s: No Game

After last week’s frustrating result at Vamps, I was hoping for a stress free trip to Old Parks and when by Friday evening five of AP’s games had already being cancelled due to frozen grounds, I wasn’t too worried that I still only had 10 players, there would be plenty of people desperate for a game and if anything, surely our match would follow suit anyway.

Well Saturday morning came and so the dreaded texts too “8s & 2s games off, 7s on, bring your moulded” and with another two earlier cry-off and down to 8, I was the one desperate now. With a minimum of seventy seven players to call from, it should had been easy but few phone calls later only three players were available at such short notice to make up a starting 11, Bagley (I think he secretly wants to play in the 7s), plus 2 on the condition that they got a lift and played up front together, duly granted.

With them two having spent Friday night celebrating some friend’s 30th birthday till the early hours (Matt only slept 45 minutes), it was no surprise that my car smelled like a brewery, with Matt only contribution to the conversation through the journey being: “I need some meat”, which mind you, even after stopping to a café for an hangover cure bacon sandwich, his face still looked as grey as Fairlop winter sky.

We got there with an hour to spare which we spend most of it in the warm changing room, twelve of us actually, as Kennedy who originally cried off miraculously recovered and by the time we stepped outside for a quick warm up, Dale Small was making his way from AP, lucky 13? We kicked off and for a little while nothing much happened as both team were getting used to the treacherous conditions, really hard ground with patches of slippery grass, but we settled and started to be a bit more direct, by that I mean long ball to Matt and Andy but no end product.

Second half followed with a bit more urgency, Darren and Wayne swapping flank paid off almost instantly with Darren slick pass to the right for Andy to coolly lob the keeper from an angle, 1-0. Soon after (I’m not sure if it was corner or a cross) the ball felt to Matt for him to volley into goal (if only we had a video…) 2-0. It wasn’t plain sailing after that as Old Parks were putting us under pressure too and that paid off from a cross to their striker, 2-1. James and Dale came on for the last thirty, as both teams battled it out till the end with the last chance of the match falling to OP for Manuel to put a great save. A great team result where everybody worked really hard in difficult conditions, with special mention for Ricardo in his best game so far this season, Andy with his leadership kept us organised and to all the others for some great work.

Team: M. Veth(GK), C. Manning(RB), N. Bagley(CB), L. Caudebec(CB), S. Payne(LB), W. Rose(RM), R. Bowhill(CM), R. Kirton(CM), D. Tullet(LM), Matt. (CF), Andy. (CF)

Sub: J. Kennedy(LM) and D. Small(LB)

Update: The 2′s & 8′s games have also been called off.

The 7′s game is ON. Moulded studs are advised.

January Top Scorers

Fixtures for Saturday 4th February

2.30pm kick-off unless otherwise stated

1′s: Away vs Old Stationers – Meet 12.45pm @ Bounds Green or 1.30pm @ Old Stationers

2′s: Away vs Old Finchleans – Meet 1.30pm @ Old Finchleans

3′s: Home vs Old Lyonians – Meet 1pm @ Racecourse

4′s: Home vs Winchmore Hill – Meet 1pm @ New River

5′s: Home vs HSBC (2pm kick-off) – Meet 12.30pm @ Racecourse

6′s: Home vs Southgate Olympics – Meet 1pm @ Racecourse

7′s: Away vs Old Parkonians – Meet 12.30pm @ Bounds Green

8′s: Home vs Old Stationers – Meet 1pm @ Albert Road

Results for Saturday 28th January

1′s: AP 0 – Old Aloysians 0 (aet) 3-5 on pens

2′s: AP 0 – Wake Green 1

3′s: AP 1 – Winchmore Hill 3′s 4 (Brade)

4′s: Old Owens 5 – AP 2 (Rae, Robinson)

5′s: AP 2 – Old Parkonians 5′s 1 (tbc)

6′s: Game postponed

7′s: Crouch End Vampires 6′s 2 – AP 2 (tbc)

8′s: Old Parks 9′s 3 – AP 1 (tbc)

It was a bit of a hike up to Fred Knight. Not masses to report pre game, Chris Simpson did his back at a Zumba class, so Mike O’D came up. Egan turned up draped in a table cloth he had swiped from an Italian restaurant. The pitch was a bit of A Rebecca Loos, looked decent from a far but was actually a bit ragged. I have never met Rebecca Loos, I just imagine she would fall into that bracket.

Neither side had leaked many goals, so WE were envisaging a tight game. The plan was to turn them for the first 20 and impose ourselves as best possible. We actually played really well first half. The passing was tidy, Gunyon and Nicholau were excellent in front of the back four. We had quite a few half chances, Kelly and Hughes lifted a couple over the bar on the run. Morris had one turned away at the near post, whilst Egan had a header off the line.

Aloysians were well organised and tried to play the right way. They had a lively left winger, but Lee ‘the Rolls Royce’ Carlin shepherded him to the point of no return. We should have really gone in to the break leading but our final ball was well below par.

We tried to replicate our territorial dominance in the second half but it became a somewhat different game. The pitch at Fred Knight went to pieces and at the rate balls were flying onto the railtrack, Bob Crow will be lobbying TFL for some sort of North London danger pay (topical).

To be fair, Aloysians raised it a notch and marginally edged the second half. It turned into a war of attrition and I for one was absolutely knackered. We probably deserved to give a penalty away over the course of the second half, especially given how whistle happy the official was being in other areas of the pitch.

Extra time was a stalemate, we defended well and Mike’s handling was top class under pressure. The oppo rattled a post with a fine strike but I think on balance neither side did enough to win in it. We could have played on all day without a winner, so penalties would decide it.

Great moment when the gaffer asked for volunteers, 5 required, 5 hands go up. The gaffer, acknowledges 4 of these. Only John will know if he heard Lee Carlin. Banter will dictate he did in any future recollection.

The quality of penalties was high and we missed our 4th which sent us packing. Gutted to have missed out on a semi final against Winchmore Hill but I can’t fault the effort. It demonstrated again that we can mix it with teams playing at a higher level. It also showed that the margins of victory are particularly narrow at this level, therefore for the love of Wilkins please make every effort to get to training. It could give us that extra few percent in these situations

This leaves the focus on the league. It’s in our hands and we need to kick on at Stationers.

MOM : Morris/Patterson. Two hardworking, good quality performances of a very different nature.

Team : O’Donnell, Carlin, Patterson, Egan, Thrale, Gunyon, Nicholau (O’Leary), Gunyon, Morris, Kelly, O’Leary (Kenga), Hughes.

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

The reserves welcomed Brummie visitors down the M40, A406 (the way they should have taken – if they wanted to be on time) for a quarter final AFA match on Saturday. The game, which displaced the 1s to give the oppo some decent Sergio hospitality, took place on a boggy racecourse pitch which unfortunately led to rather scrappy affair and ultimately a 1-0 defeat. Disaster was on the cards from the off when we lost MOD to the 1′s (although massive thanks to Bardgie and the 3s boys for the loan!) and Tom Spencer arrived at the racecourse doubled over with pain having pulled something in his back at Kings Cross (make of that what you will).

Wake Green took the lead from a dodgy peno 5 minutes in after beegee simmo was wrongly adjudged to have handled the ball in the box. After that AP dominated the half with wake green keeper pushing a Wilding exorcet onto the bar and tucking a Hancock shot round the post. Hubbard also dragged a Bergkamp -style control and shot just wide from close range.

At half time skipper and manager asked for more of the same but for the first 20 AP looked subdued – and the oppo even managed to hit the bar from possibly their third venture into the box all game.

The final 25 mins were all AP’s but despite hitting the bar twice more and simmo trying (and failing) to flatten their keeper, the reserves 12 match unbeaten run came to an end. Good luck to wake green in next round (well done for staying for a beer). For the reserves – defeat had to come sometime – let’s just ensure this is a minor blip.

Team – Bardgett, McLoughlin, Simpson, Jeator, Irvine, Hancock (Nicholas), Wilson, Cornibert, Wilding (Manu), Harvey, Hubbard.

On a huge cup weekend for the club we had to pit our wits against 1st division oppo again. After previous performances we were reasonably confident in our chances.

With a couple of late changes we took the field with Steve in goal and defence of Fabb, Hancox, Jonsey and Demir. Midfield of Coughlan, Wood, Munero and Brade. Shaw-Morris backed up Fullerton. Adam Bruce started as sub. We started by playing downhill and we pushed Hill back straight away with some good passing and excellent movement with both Liam and Ashley looking effective as they got behind their backs. Johnny was pushing to back up Fraser and Kurt as often as possible. For the first half hour we played most of the football with Hill resorting to the long ball as they tried to release their wingers. The back four dealt ably with all that was thrown at them With Will and Fevzi being especially effective.

Fevzi added plenty in attack with his usual mazy runs and fine touch. Johnny and Jed were winning most of the midfield battles although occasionally Jed was isolated when we pushed up trying to score, something to watch in future. We created plenty of openings in this half with Johnny going close with a header and Liam, Fraser and Ash all having chances but not being able to punish Hill for all our possession. Hill always looked capable on the break and alas with a few minutes to go to the half we lost concentration for the first time and were punished.

Half time and we knew we were still in the game and if we could score next we had a real chance. Adam came on for Fevzi who had taken a knock. Both sides started as they left off with us spreading the play and Hill being a bit more direct. We created a couple of early chances with Will and Fraser going close. We looked slightly more vulnerable when they attacked as they used the hill to their advantage and we pushed hard for the equaliser. We continued to defend well until Hill pulled out a couple of crackers that left Steve in goal with no chance. The third seemed to knock the stuffing out of us a bit, but we gathered our breath and went again. The beauty of this team is that we never give up and no cause is ever lost. Fraser continued to dictate play and had a couple of long shots. Hill extended their lead with a breakaway. At 4-0 even their guy’s on the side said it flattered them. With time running out we pulled one back when Ash latched onto a through ball, rounded the keeper and slotted home. A consolation we deserved.

So out of both cups, but with heads held high. We have showed four first division sides that AP 3s are a force to be reckoned with. In all the games the difference was that the top teams took their chances on a more regular basis than we did. This was all the difference was and if we are to keep raising our game this is the one area we need to be more clinical with. All in all the boys did AP proud with everyone putting in a shift and also playing some sublime football. Some of the pass and move parts of our game are excellent. I do not like to pick out individuals but Fraser, Liam, Jed, Will and Fevzi were absolutely top notch on sat.

Back to the league next, with a home game against Lyonians. This is our chance to get back to winning ways and start taking those chances. Do not take them for granted though, if we do not turn up and play our best then we may just stumble. Remember last season, you have been warned. Let’s see everyone there sharp, get the goals up then we can concentrate on getting another 3 points. I want to win this division, DO YOU?