The Smithfield FC

Former player of the season Kevin “Giggsy” jones has suffered a sickening blow to his recovery from Achilles heel surgery.

The talanted winger well know for his gracefulness and balance stumbled on a “piece of rough ground” and tore the his Achilles. To make matters worse he has also broken his ankle in the freak accident. His leg is back in plaster and his come back target of March 2012 now seems beyond him.

Best wishes go out to Kevin and his family.

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Blurton have got the most random results I have ever seen this season:

• V’s John Marston Away -  5-4 Win
• V’s Brittania @ Home – 2-2 Draw
• V’s Thistleberry Away – 4-0 Win
• V’s Draycott Potters Away – 3-4 Lost *
• V’s Brittania @ Home – 3-4 Lost *
• V’s Duke of York @  Home – 4-3 Win
• V’s Village Town Away – 4-3 Win *
• V’s The Place @ Home – 5-3 Win
• V’s Auto Direct Away- 4-2 Win
• V’s Angel Inn Away – 2-2 Draw

* Indicates cup fixture

This looks to be a tricky fixture for the Smithfield as Blurton Club have cleary got goals in them scoring an impressive 34 goals in 10 games. This is similar to the Smithfields record who themselves scored 30 goals in 8 games.

Both sides have got suspect defensive records with the Smithfield conceding 26 goals in 8 games and Blurton conceding 27 goals out of their 10. 

The big difference between these sides is the difference in opposition. The Smithfield comfortably beat the Duke of York ealier in the season and should have beat them by a bigger margin, whereas Blurton just sneaked a victory in a 4-3 thriller.

The Smithfield are also on excellent form not losing over 90 minutes in 4 games and getting the 2 best results of the season within these fixtures. Although the defensive record is not good on paper, the Smithfield seem to be settling down defensively with the central partnership of Tudor and Harris becoming pivotal in the side. The full backs have been producing much better performances recently and the implementation of a holding midfielder seems to be giving the Smithfield a defensive edge.

This mixed with the goal scoring ability the Smithfield with Ford, Jones, Askey, Maskery, Smith, Bagnall and Craig all netting goals for the side, it is no wonder the Smithfield are on favourites with BET365 offering 4/11 for the win. Jones will be missed after netting himself 7 goals so far but has been placed as doubtful due to injury.

Currently 2nd in the Premier League the Smithfield will be hoping to continue their cup run and pick up a win this weekend.

This pundits prediction: Blurton Club 2 v 4 The Smithfield.

Lets see more predictions:

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In the knowledge that there wouldn’t be any sponsorship money this year the club were on the lookout for a new pub for next season, when a phone call from none other than Harry Potter turned the clubs future on its head. The Smithfield is under new management and the manager in to run the place is one-time Smithfield midfielder Chris ‘Harry Potter’, who waved his magic sausage wand on Sunday and provided the lads with the best spread in a long time. There was the usual chips and bread & butter, but new on the menu were sausages and curly fries.

In talks with the Smithfield ownership, Harry promises to do his best to secure the club some much-needed sponsorship money, arrange for some quiz nights again, and even put his feelers out for a race night next year.

Our hats off to Wayne Maxted, philanthropic Smithfield owner, for allowing all of this to happen.

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Stanway

Injured but played to his credit. Excellent first half performance, kept the Smithfield in the game with some crucial saves. Second half performance generally good but a couple of mistakes crept in, should have done better on 1 of the goals.
8/10

Cobby

Steady game from the full back, some good tackles and battled in the air. Needed to communicate more with new left wingers.
7/10

 

Clarke

Defended well throughout the game but lost the ball a number of times in the second half in opposition half which caused problems for the defence.
7/10

 

Tudor

Best game for the Smithfield so far. Clear Man of the Match performance. Some amazing last-ditch tackles, improved performance in the air. Only negative in the entire game was clearly hand balled in his own box and fortunate not to concede penalty.
9/10

 

Harris

Gave the armband and captained well. Improving performances by the game, very solid throughout. Talked well to the side.
9/10

 

Goldstraw

Debut for the Smithfield summer signing. Worked hard but fitness let him down. Sick on the pitch after a sprint.
6/10

 

Askey

Played in a holding role, supported the defence very well and distribution was generally good. Solid performance.
8/10

 

Maskery

Worked hard and tracked man throughout. Distribution wasn’t up to usual standard.
6/10

 

Craig

Supported the defence when required, covered a lot of ground up the line. Needed to show a little more when ball being held by other players.
7/10

 

Jones (L)

Frustrating game for the striker, didn’t create enough space to receive the ball and squandered a couple of good chances. Excellent work to assist the second goal though.
6/10

 

Ford

Scored and assisted, created chances with good distribution. Performance let down by a miss control from a bobbled clearance that gifted oppositions first goal.
7/10

 

Smith

Came on at half time and made an instant impact. Ran at defenders and caused numerous problems. Scored first goal which was taken well. Excellent debut.
8/10

 

Bagnall

Injured and given management responsibility. First manager to gain a result from AFC007. Excellent collection of subs.

 

Latham and Baggeley

Both no shows, Latham didn’t answer phone and Baggeley turned up half way through first half to watch Britannia on next pitch. completely let team mates down. Both need to show more commitment.

 

Craig (T)

Didn’t think to tell players he was going on holiday. Probably one of his “mad” motivational tactics.

 

Plant

Spending time with Ace from film Casino, looking how the Hacienda casino in Vegas could benefit from possible 1 hour shift rotation system.

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The Smithfield were without managers Craig & Plant in arguably the toughest game of the season so far.

Ratings are as follows:-

Stanway

Superb from crosses and throw-ins, distribution much better than any other game this season. Some excellent saves. Man of the match performance.
9/10

Cobby

Another brilliant performance, showed excellent form recently and hopefully will continue. Kicked lumps out of everything in his path and didn’t give forwards a chance to produce.
8/10

Clarke

Steady as a rock, won everything in the air, tracked their pacey winger throughout and dealt with him over and over.
8/10

Tudor

Marked their talented, skillful striker who had about a foot on Tudor. Didn’t give the striker any time or space, challenged everything the air and made some crucial challenges. Building an excellent partnership with Chopper.
8/10

Harris

Took responsibility for the defence, constantly talking, some massive tackles. Confident performance.
9/10

Ford

Like a dynamo up and down the wing: back to defend and for short corners, and providing the attack with balls going forward. Took his goal well to break the deadlock.
9/10

Bagnall

Back to last years player of the season form. New role really suited him and showed excellent discipline not going forward to far. Won everything in the air and constantly supported both defence and midfield, captained the side well with talking throughout.
9/10

Maskery

Excellent work rate, didn’t give the midfield a second to settle, unlucky not to score.
8/10

Craig

Playing more defensively than usual and constantly supported Ben on the right hand side. Strong in the tackle and got forward when possible.
8/10

Jones (L)

Work rate improved massively, scored twice, one of which will be goal of the season. Showing 25 goals a season form.
9/10

Askey

Playing in the position he classes as his best and showed. Best performance of his season by far. Defended from the front, held the ball up really well, distribution was excellent. Set up 2 goals.
9/10

Latham

Defended very well last 15 minutes, good distribution too. Did the biggest header I have ever seen, must have gone 45 yards,
8/10

Baggeley

Helped to steady the ship. Defended well and battled hard.
8/10

Gold Member

Unfotunately did not get on but did a good job with the flag. Showed excellent attitude and drank the 2 quickest beers I have ever seen, didn’t even let the ale settle.
10/10

AWOL

Craig

Spent the weekend with Basil Fawlty.

Plant

Working a 1 hour shift.

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After much hard work and many hours the shoutbox is finally integrated into both the blog and the forum. To post you need to be logged in, and the same data is displayed wherever you are on the site.

I know you guys love it, so please make good use of it when we start playing some games and the site gets a bit more traffic (it’s like a ghost town at the moment).

I made a €10 donation to Pierre, the author of the shoutbox, because as well as the shoutbox being a cool and useful addition to the site anyway, he helped my fix a couple of issues that I was having that stopped me integrating the shoutbox into the forum. I hope the club funds can cover it!

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Well I have managed to get a plugin working for the site that allows synchronisation between the forum and the blog. This means when we post the Player Ratings on the blog a thread will be created in the forum and any comments made will be shared between the two.

I know you guys might find that a little geeky but this has taken me an age to get working and I feared I would not be able to surmount the issues I’ve been having getting the bloody things to communicate and kudos must go to this guy for putting me on the right track to enlightenment!

Even more kudos has to go to this forum for the technical solution to my ‘loopback connection’ problem!!!!!

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For the benefit of people who do not have the luxury of broadband Internet at home, the club has invested in a mobile version of the website – both blog and forum.

Now you can keep up to date with the latest Player Ratings and news on the move. The site will be optimised for the smaller screen of a mobile phone.

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Hello everyone, the website has been in training to get fit for the new season, and everything is looking good.

The forum has had a complete overhaul and development of that is ongoing, so if there is anything broken or not there that you would like, speak to Ian.

The main site is still a little slim on content, but more will be done when we know what league we’re in and who is in the league.

I hope to get some kind of shoutbox implemented again in the near future.

~Ian

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