Manor Hit Form!

There couldn’t be a better time to be writing my second notes of the season. We are playing some really good stuff just at the moment, scoring bags of goals and looking like a top Essex Senior League side.

As I said in my last notes we overcame a difficult start to the season by grinding a few results out. Gritty draws with Enfield 1893 and Southend Manor along with hard fought scrappy victories over Basildon and Clapton in the League cup started our season off, but it was the defeat at Hullbridge in October that really started to turn things around.

I was away that day, but all the feedback was that we were very poor at Hullbridge and didn’t play well enough to get a result. It was probably a good thing that we had a midweek game on the Wednesday against Mauritius Sports to start to put things right. We reverted to a 4-4-2 formation, and even missing some of our top players on the night we responded to going a goal down and blew them away 4-1. The following Saturday we outclassed Sawbridgeworth in a 2-0 home win and then came from behind again to get a draw in a pulsating local derby against Barking.

However – the past fortnight has been something else. We were tremendous at Basildon United last week. Again missing players, especially up front we just roared into them got a 2-0 lead and then came out second half and finished the job off supremely well to win 4-0.

Following that, and our exit from the Gordon Brasted Trophy earlier in the season, we all knew how big the League Cup Quarter Final first leg against Tiptree was. We talked about the importance of trying to give ourselves some sort of cushion for the away leg before the game and the players’ attitude was faultless. To win 5-0 was beyond any expectations and puts us in a tremendous position to reach another semi final, after our appearance in the Gordon Brasted semi last season.

It was great to see Danny Clarke get 4 goals in the game too. I think we’ve all felt that at times this season Danny has not got the goals that his performances have deserved. But we all have absolute faith that he remains a quality player and a very important part of our squad and hopefully the goals coming as they did on Saturday will give his confidence a boost.

But it is important that we don’t start making stars of people. The recent run has been a team, even a squad effort. Michael Wakefield and Jamie Merralls have both kept clean sheets in goal, the back 4 have been excellent and Paul Marin and Dean Frett must be the hardest working pair of midfielders in the league. We have some genuine strength in depth this time around and we need every one of them to remain together and united if we are going to achieve what I believe we are capable of this season.

So to our loyal little band of supporters – I hope you’re enjoying it at the moment and to our players – just keep doing it!!

Up the Manor!
Paul

Welcome to a New Season!!

Welcome to the first coach’s corner of the new season. I apologise that it has taken me 6 or 7 weeks to get around to doing one of these but at this time of year, with the cup competitions, the games come thick and fast. As some of you will know I’ve now taken on some of the administrative burden for the current season as Football Secretary.

Between Alex, Reg and myself we have got all the bases covered for now, however, we would still like to hear from anyone interested in taking on the secretary role on a permanent basis. They are welcome to contact either myself or Reg and our details are on the website.

Off the field the other development is our move to play at Mayesbrook Park, Barking. We have settled in pretty well and it is starting to feel like home to us. We hope to be here for a long period of time and we would like to develop the facilities and improve the venue. Obviously we will continue to work closely with Barking FC and Barking Council to try and make that a reality.

On the field things haven’t quite got off to the start we were hoping for. We have been in every single game this season, but have come up short by the odd goal too often. Narrow defeats to Takeley, Tiptree, Stansted, Stanway Rovers and Erith Town have hurt, especially as 3 of those have come to goals scored in stoppage time.

However, the draw against Southend Manor a week ago showed us that stoppage time isn’t all bad, as Sid Nelson opened his account for the club with a 25 yarder in the 92nd minute to rescue us a point. We didn’t play well in that game, especially first half, but we kept plugging away and battling and in the last 20 minutes it was one way traffic. Tom should have scored and Chris Barratt tested their keeper a couple of times playing as an auxiliary centre forward. I thought we deserved a point in the end, and on the back of our draw at Enfield the previous Tuesday night it was a vital result.

That then kicked us on to the game at Basildon. Having thrown away leads against Basildon at home and Clapton away to only draw our first two League Cup group games we had made a winnable group look difficult for ourselves. In some ways it was “win and bust” at Basildon last night and our players responded superbly. Without Joe Nightingill, Carl Bailey and Manny Sackey for various reasons we had to re-jig again, especially at the back. Danny Alleyne and Chris Barratt came in and did very well and it shows the depth that is in our squad this season compared to last that we have people of their experience and calibre to come in. We made it tougher than necessary for ourselves late on letting in the second goal in added time to make it 3-2, but we held out for a well deserved win….. at last!!!

However, it was equally important that we picked up the three points in the league at Mauritius Sports. We knew from the original Vase tie that it would be a tough game and despite controlling the play we found ourselves behind just after the hour mark. The character that we showed again to come back, with two goals from set peices was very encouraging.

The game at Enfield marked the start of our season in some ways. We played well that night and edged a game that we could have won – fully deserving of our point. We’ve finally started to get some players back. Neil Barratt is back with us after holidays, Sid is fully fit after starting the season late, Joe May and Scott Lovett have returned from absences and Tom Nyama is fit again. However, Danny Clarke is still struggling with his groin and we are yet to get what we would consider our “best XI” on the pitch together this season. Jamie Merralls played in goal for us on Saturday and he was the FIFTH different goalkeeper we have used in 9 games and including pre-season is the SEVENTH that we’ve used since Nick Wilson sadly broke his ankle in the opening friendly.

On the squad front, from last season we have added Sid Nelson, Danny Clarke, Michael Marin, Paul Marin, Michael Wakefied, Isaac Alabi and Manny Sackey. A few have come and gone as well and we would of course like to wish them all the best for the future. Two key members of last season’s squad that have departed are Jerry Nkrumah, who has joined Enfield 1893 and Michael Georghiou, who despite starting the season with us has struggled for games and is moving on to Takeley. We thank them both for their contributions to the club and wish them the best for their futures.

The next 6 weeks are about building on our little unbeaten run and starting to turn draws into wins. Hopefully getting some consistency into our selection should make that easier to achieve.

Finally you may have noticed the goalscorers table newly added to the front page of the website. I think we might have a nice little battle there this year with Clarkey, Courtney and Fretty……. Place your bets!!!

Up the Manor!

Paul