Sunday 24 July 2011

Worthing Win Over Wobbly Rooks

Fenelon on trial against one of his former clubs
Steve King suffered his first defeat since returning to the Lewes job in just his second friendly at the club, falling down to Ryman South side Worthing. King decided to experiment with his side that won against St Neots last week by bringing Stuart Robinson out of the goal and replacing him with Mark Zawadski on trial from Horsham.

Another trialist Dylan Merchant also replaced Jordan Lang meaning Hamilton was over at left back with Merchant on the right. There was even one more trialist on display in the form of Hakin who played solidly in the centre of midfield replacing Jed Wallace, on trial at the club last week.

Rooks legendary striker Paul Booth also fitted in to the side replacing Jamie Cade after he has now returned from his holiday.

In a game that you would expect this Lewes sie to dominate, Lewes fell short in what seemed very much like a training game for the Rooks against the Rebels.

Lewes actually started the game on the upper foot and could have been two nil up within the first ten minuets when Ian Draycott, who was playing on the wide right side, was played through on goal only for his shot blocked well after he took a second too long to get his shot away.

The second chance came when a similar ball played attacking midfielder, Michael Malcolm, through but again hesitated before his shot was well blocked on to the side netting by the Worthing keeper who had a good game.

Lewes carried on the offensive style and a Hamilton cross found the top of Paul Booths head which looped up a came close to coming back down into the net but fell just over the bar. Just moments later and the head of Paul Booth had yet another chance, this time Nic Ciardini the creator as his ball found Booth perfectly but he dragged the header just wide of the post.

However, despite Lewes having the majority of chances, Worthing were the team to brake the deadlock when a ball into the box was bouncing up and fell to trialist Dylan Merchant at chest level, the right back attempted the chest the ball back to keeper Mark Zawadski but it was week and Worthing striker, Steve Davis, crept inside and headed the ball in from 1 yard out.

Fans may have expected Lewes to create a wonderful turn around like last week at St Neots but the rest of the half didn't promise much with just two week shots on goal, one from a Michael Malcolm free kick which found its way under the wall but wasn't strong enough to beat the Worthing keeper. The other from Matt Somner who took a shot which was easy for the keeper to dive on.

Lewes made some changes for the second half, bringing on Stuart Robinson in goal and bringing on new signing Warren Mcbean who played on the left wing with Nic Ciardini moving back to left back.

With the game going on and on, no team were creating major chances despite Stuart Robinson having to make a few very good saves from the giant keeper, although his first three goalkicks were miss kicked allowing Worthing to keep coming back at Lewes.

However, again it was Lewes who had the best chances of the second half with Chamel Fenelon, on trial to come back to the club, came on for Ian Draycott and the tired Booth was taken of and replaced by another trialist Nayim.

Lewis Hamilton came forward from his right back position in the second half and twice managed to turn the defender inside out, running in to the box and playing square balls across, only for the strikers various shots to be very well blocked by a resilient Worthing defence.

Fenelon looked strong on the left and barged his way down the wing with strenght and speed before whipping a ball in to the box only for Hakin to drill the ball high and wide. Fenelon repeated this run moments later but this time went alone and sent a powerful shot at goal which the Worthing keeper again made a great save, however the ball fell down to Warren McBean with the goalkeeper on the floor, he side footed away from the last defender only for Nayim to be in his way and Nayim took a week shot on goal which the keeper was able to wrap up.

In the end Worthing deserved their lead as they were more up for the game than Lewes who seemed to just want a run around, however with improved performances sure to come Lewes will look ahead to next week when they will hope to put in a better performance againts a good Essex Utd. side.

Friday 22 July 2011

McBean And Malcolm Latest Rooks

Michael Malcolm
Lewes have pulled off two magnificant signings in forward players Michael Malcolm and Warren McBean who come from Farnborough and Bromley respectivly.

Michael Malcolm is a striker who follows King from Farnborough. The 25 year old who can also play as a right winger has been at Wycombe and Stockport as well as being a trainee at Spurs.

In 2007 Malcolm joined, then onference North side Kettering and clearly impressed as a month later he found him self at Conference Premier side Rushden.

Just last season Malcolm started at big spenders Crawley but was loaned out to also Conference Premier side Hayes before King signed him for Farnborough last christmas.

Warren McBean
The other signing, Warren Mcbean joins up with an already impressive strikeforce including Paul Booth and Ian Draycott. McBean is well known to Conference football as he was such a key player for Bromley and finished their top scorer two seasons ago.

McBean has played for a host of clubs including; Barnet, Farnborough, St Albans and Sutton before making the switch to Bromley in 2009 and quickly establishing himself there.

Steve King is delighted with his new players as the squad is coming together and had this to say on them:

"Both are very talented signings and each are capable of 20 goals a season, as all my strikers are."
"Strikers win you games and we've got four of the best in the Ryman league."

King was particularly pleased to have secured long term target Michael Malcolm stating that he is a "big signing for Lewes Football Club". 

Monday 18 July 2011

Rooks Sign New Defender After Stirling Performance

Dominic Stirling
Lewes have made their 10th signing of the new season as they have snapped up Dominic Stirling after he impressed while on trial in the 3-2 win over St Neots on the weekend.

Stirling joins Lewes from Staines of the conference south after he has made 23 appearances for club where Dave Wheeler has just made the move he other way. Stirling started his career at AFC Wimbledon before he made a brief appearance for Wealdstone when he then enjoyed a good two seasons at Hayes where he made 75 appearances.

Jed wallace
However, his expeience does not stop there, he also played 36 times for Aldershot where he was in the team that were promoted to league 2, he has also made an appearance in the play off final. He has also played for Canvey Island in the Conference Premier for a couple of seasons before he moved to Maidenhead in 2006 where he made over 100 apps and won 3 player of the season awards.

Michael Malcolm
He then made the switch to Staines where he joins Lewes from, he also has international experience having played for Englands C team.

Lewes also had some trialists playing against St Neots over the weekend who were midfielder Jed Wallace from Farnborough, Michael Malcolm also from Farnborough who is very highly rated and is expected to sign permanantly for the Rooks.

Mark Zawadski
Lewes also had Horsham goalkeeper Mark Zawadski on trial and he kept a clean sheet as he came on for the second half of the 3-2 win over St Neots.

City Keeper To Villa Is A Given

Given To Villa
Manchester City goalkeeper is on the verge of signing for Aston Villa after a bad season for him in a deal worth £3.5 million. Villa were in need of a new keeper after they lost Brad Freidal to Tottenham, new boss Mcleish has been able to spend some of the funds recieved for the sales of Ashley Young to Manchester United and Stuart Downing to Liverpool.

Given has past his medical and so there is now no reason as to why the deal will not go through as everything is arranged. Given has plenty of Premier league experience having played for Blackburn and he became a fans favourite at Newcastle before making the big move to Man City. However after a successful couple of seasons Given was dropped to the bench as Joe Hart impressed during his season at Birmingham and took up the City number 1 spot.

Villa are also still waiting on a reply to their £10 million bid for Wigans Charles N'Zogbia who they see as a good replacement for Downing who moved to Liverpool for £20 million.

Saturday 16 July 2011

Brighton Make Winning Start To New Life

Brighton at Hart
Brighton and Hove Albion won the Sussex Senior Cup today in their first ever game at the Amex community stadium. Brighton overcame Eastbourne Borough 2-0 to claim the title thanks to goals from Gary Hart and Steve Cook.

It was a dramatic moment when Hart flicked the ball into the back of the net in his final appearance for Brighton, where he signed in 1998 and he earned the recognition he most deffinatly deserves after his time at Brighton has now come to an end.

Hart wore the captains armband and recieved several standing ovations from the pumped Brighton fans and his goal made the occassion that extra bit special. Brighton dominated the first half but coud not break through a resiliant Eastbourne defence.

The first clear cut chance came for Brighton in the second half when Hart curled a ball into the area for the ever busy George Barker where he took it past a defender with ease but took too long to get his shot away and a magnificent Rikki Banks was able to dive and punch the ball away from Barkers feet, a mistake would have resulted in a penalty but Banks was impecable all game.

Just moment later Eastbourne had a golden opportunity when they won a corner which Brighton failed to deal with properly allowing Baker to put a volley at goal, however his shot went over the bar, wasting the opportunity.

Throughout the game Brighton picked up more and more momentum with their beautiful passing play being lead by a solid Grant Hall at the back leading the passing play. Anton Rodgers nearly scored directly from a free kick when he curled the ball just over the wall and forced another brilliant save from Rikki Banks. However despite Eastbournes hard work they were unable to deal with the corner when Grant Hall flicked the ball back in after the corner was weakly cleared and in amongst a jumble of players Gary Hart managed to flick the ball on into the back of the net sending the Brighton fans into raptures.

Banks continued his fine form after that, saving a brilliant reaction shot after Barker shot from a tight angle which Banks dealt with well. However he stood no chance when Brighton won another free kick on the edge of the area, this time instead of shooting it was sent in with fantastic accuracy, finding Cooks head where he placed it perfectly into the top left leaving Banks standing.

Eastbourne were far from out of it though and substitute Ian Pulman had a super shot lob the keeper from a wide angle but just fall on to the bar to keep Brighton 2-0 up and cruising.

The game was a day of firsts, one of those being the first ever yellow card for Eastbourne left back Sonny Cobbs, it perhaps could of been a red for the two footed tackle, however the referee took sympathy for the slippery conditions. Cobbs has just signed for Eastbourne from rivals Lewes.

Confusion Over Barness And Breach

Promoted to First Team
In an interview with Lewes manager Steve King he confessed that with the current budget it has been difficult to attract the quality of players that he would like at the club and has said that numerous under 18's will be brought in to the first team squad to make up numbers throughout the season which is after all what Lewes fans were asking for and is proof that King is sticking to his tight budget.

Jordan Lang has impressed King during training and has signed a deal with the club, he played at left back during Lewes's friendly at St Neots today, joining in with the first team and it appears that he could feature a lot this year as King is impressed.

King claims that he still wants to sign up four more players as well as the nine signings that he has already made. We were also informed that Chris Breach and Anthoney Barness are still undecided about their future as they have both been offered new deals, however, at lower pay than that of last season and in Breach's case he also has offers from Bognor and Hastings.

Ayre sure that's ok?

Ethiad stadium
Liverpool's managing director has teamed up with Arsenal as both clubs question Manchester Citys new 10 year deal with Ethiad airways which will see Eastlands be re-named in a deal worth £400million.

The company is based in Dubai, the location of City's owner.The concern is that with the financial fair play rules coming in, the club has to spend within their means which aims to cut out clubs spending money hanks to ultra rich owners. However the worry is that Citys owner has just persuaded the company to put in this money in to City as it would mean they can spend it as they would technically be "spending within their means".

Ayre is questioning whether City may also own Ethiad airways and in which case "Uefa would have to act". Ethiad also sponser Man Citys shirt and they aid the training facilities. Any team that spends more money than they make will now be kicked out of Europe campetitions such as Uefa league and the Champions league, so the FA cup winners are being acused of finding loop holes to ensure they can still spend big money.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has already questioned the credibility of the rule and say that this City deal is a "risk to the rule".

In Man Citys argument they have catagorically denied having anything to do with Ethiad airways before the deal. They also claim that the figures are not accurate and that they will not be disclosing the real sum.

LuaLua Back At Brighton

Deal: finally complete
Kazenga LuaLua has rejoined Brighton for another loan spell from Newcastle after he could not sign perminantly at this moment in time due to his failing of a medical.

The loan deal is for 6 months and at the end of the deal it is expected that he will finally complete a deal to move to Brighton. The saga has been dragging out for months and Poyet has been desperate to put an end to the speculations.

Lua Lua started last season brilliantly on the right wing for the Seagulls who were promoted to the championship, but unfortunatly he broke his leg early on ending his season. He then went back to Newcastle and made a few appearances for the Magpies at the end of the season.

Poyet never his the fact that LuaLua was a "top summer target" and he will now catch a plane to join the rest of the squad who are on a pre season training camp out in Portugal.

Friday 15 July 2011

Rules Have Been Bought

First ever rule book

The first ever rule book for football has been sold at auction for nearly £200'000. The rule book belonged to the first ever football club- Sheffield FC.

Some of the rules in the handbook still exist such as diresct and indirect free kicks and the use of the cross bar. There are also rules such as that you are alowed to push with your hands but you must not trip or hack others under any circumstances.

Latest Transfer Rumours

Downing has completed his move to Liverpool

After Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing completed his move to Liverpool, talks are now happening between the two clubs as Villa see Joe Cole as a worthy replacement. Cole signed for Liverpool last summer from Chelsea but has never really recovered from his injury, however Dalglish is keen on British players.

Aston Villa also want to use some of the money they recieved from thde sale of Downing on Scott Parker from West Ham. The midfielder would reportadly cost £7 million. However there is reportedly also interest from numerous other clubs such as Chelsea, Tottenham and more.

Winger Alexis Sanchez is reportedly finally going to end any specualtion on mving to Manchester this week as he will complete his move to Barcalona, his prefered destination. The Sanchez deal has been a long one as he was first expected to sign for City, then Chelsea and now Barca, however Utd. are also interested.

Inter Milan have contacted Man City to tell them that if they want to prise Samuel Eto'o away then they will have to put in a "huge" offer. Eto'o has already stated that he is interested in a move to England with Arsenal also interested. City are in search of a new striker as Carlos Tevez  is on his way out.

QPR hero Adel Taabart's agent has come out and stated that the playmaker is sure fire to leave loftus road this summer as he is in search of a bigger club and big spending Liverool are interested.

You may be windering why Hammers striker Carlton Cole is taking so long to complete his signing for Stoke. The reason is that Stoke chairman questioned his injury record in a recent TV interview which angered Cole leaving him open to a move to QPR or he may just stay at West Ham where they appreciate him.

Despite Tottenhams position on selling key players, both Milan clubs are going to test their patience by battling it out to sign Tottenham ace Gareth Bale.  Tottenham are already holding firm over Modric and Bale has been advised to stay at Spurs.

Man City will sell Carlos Tevez to Corrinthias if they can pay £45 million- £10 million more than they originally offered, this is so that Man City can purchase Thomas Muller from Bayern Munich for exactly the same price.

It looks as if Newcastle have given up on keeping full back Jose Enrique as they want to sell him to either Liverpool or Arsenal as soon as possible so that they can find a replacement as soon as possible. Newcastle have already sold key player Nolan as well as Carrol back in January.

Wigan have set an asking price of £9 million for Charles N'Zogbia, however Villa have confirmed they have put in a £10 million offer, just to be on the safe side. Villa have already lost two key wingers and see the Wigan man as a good replacement.

Arsenal manager Arsne Wenger belives that because of Arsenals terrible end to last season, they are destined to win the title this season, clutching at straws a bit.

The Premier league have changed their "weakened team" rule and teams can now play anyone within their 25 man squad without the risk of being fined. Last season Blackpool were fined £25'000 despite using players within the 25 man squad rule which is in place to try and get teams to use younger players and give people a chance.

Manchester United boss Sir Lex Ferguson is angry at claims that De Gea is too young to be the next number 1. Utd. have signed the young keeper as a replacement for retiring keeper Van Der Sar.

Tottenham centre back Michael Dawson has said that although he does not want to lose playmaker Luka Modric to Chelsea, the Totteham squad is not upset about Modric letting the world know about his desire.

Want away Man City striker Emmanuel Adebayor signalled his intentions that he wants to sign permantly with Real Madrid after he sucked up to Jose Mourinho by saying that he is a better manager than Wenger or Roberto Mancini.

New Manchester City signing Gael Clichy is shocked by how hard his new team mates go in to tackles, maybe because he is not used to it during his time at Arsenal where Wenger complains about any tackle against his side.

Quatar Bought World Cup

The decision was a strange one. When it was announced that Quatar would hold the 2022 world cup ahead of popular bids from Spain and other more desireable locations, questions were raised. There have already been numerous wacky ideas upsetting people of football such as: winter world cup, fake "clouds" and games being played in 3 thirds to name just a few. However the argument is also that Quatar brought the world cup with their vast riches, so we have looked into the countries spending in more detail.

The countries leaders have refused to discuss how much money exactly was spent on the world cup bid, rightfully drawing a lot of attention, especially with all the bribe claims going around and so people are eager to find out the truth behind their successful bid.

Numerous questions have been asked about what the budget was, however no one will budge their position and enlighten us, hardly filling people with confidence in Quatar or Fifa.

Quatar argue that opening their accounts to the public would just cause more trouble than it is worth, what trouble we do not understand, surely signifying that there is something they do not want people to know about. They seem to feel that if their budget was shown then people would complain that they only won because of money, which is precisly the reason that people want to see the budget so that Quatar can try to prove that money is not the sole reason they won the 2022 bid.

Previously it was reported that the bid was worth around £30 million, however we are now told that it is actually "alot more" than the stated budget but how much "alot" is, is yet to be found out. Our guess is that the total cost of the bid would be £65 considering they spent £17 million on a prototype of a stadium alone and they are also having to pay for air cooling systems due to the epic heat in the country which is also a comlained about factor.

They also paid for high profile ambassadors such as Zinidene Zidane meaning they surely spent a lot more than other countries bidding for the same prize. One of those other bidders was the United States who feel that Quatar used their money to make the bid completly unbalanced and they state that they were clearly "not on a level playing field."

However, Quatar's argument is that spending big was a neccisary thing to do as they were the underdogs and that they needed the chance to show the rest of the world what they could do, like when Chelsea "bought" the Premier league title.

"We will not lie, our budget was significantly higher than any of the other bids," he told me. "But if you take into consideration what we had to spend it on. We started behind everyone else, we had to win hearts and minds." So they admit that their budget was significantly higher than any other bid so why can they not show how much and what the money was spent on, surely they cannot have anything to hide.


Lusail Stadium in Qatar, which will host the 2022 Fifa World Cup final
Qatar's Lusail Stadium will host the 2022 World Cup final

"There were a lot of people who did not take our bid seriously, whether it was inside Fifa or outside Fifa,"

In the current Fifa plans the World cup final will be played on July 3rd, however on this date of this year the tempreture was supposedly "cool" for Quatar but it was still in the mid 40's and was unbearable for more than 10 mins and that was without playing football or being stuffed in a stadium with thousands of other boiling people.

However the heat is not the only reason why people believe that the decision made is not right. With all the corruption allegations and wrongdoings going on inside the secrative Fifa, how can people trust such a odd, brave decsision made by the organisation, especially when the winning country also so happens to be extraordinarliy rich.

Bin Hammam has already quit his job within Fifa after he was accused of trying to buy bids for himself to be made the Fifa president, however he was also the leader of Quatar's bid and if he is found guilty then yet more questions will be raised over Quatars bid as he could have used the same bribery methods.

Quatar deny that Hammam had anything to do with winning votes, saying that he only had a minor role within the bid.

Fifa have closed the case on the 2022 decision as they want it to be over, however questions are still being asked and it will be a difficult burden to get rid of until Fifa can prove that no corruption has been going on.

Monday 11 July 2011

Lewes Make 9th Somner Signing

Experience
Steve King has snapped up holding midfielder Matt Somner from Conference Premier club Mansfield Town, the 28 year old was a regular in the Mansfield side and made over 60 appearances for the club.

The experienced midfielder started his career in 2000 with Brentford where he made 84 appearances in the football league for the club. since then he has played for Camberidge, Bristol Rovers, Aldershot and Notts County, also including a spell in the under 21 Welsh international squad.

When asked about his new signing, King said he was "thrilled to sign someone of his quality".

Updated Lewes squad:

GK Stuart Robinson- Farnborough
CB Steve Robinson- Farnborough
CB Max Hustwick- Kingstonion
LB Lewis Hamilton- Retained
LB Nic Ciardini- Farnborough
CM Gary Holloway- Farnborough
CM Matt Somner- Mansfield
ST Paul Booth- Farnborough
ST Ian Draycott- Bedford
ST Jamie Cade- Horsham

Invited to Pre-season:

CM Lewis Ide
LW Jordan Lang

Contracts offered:

RB Anthoney Barness
CB Chris Breach

Confirmed Departures:

David Wheeler - Staines Town
Andy Pearson - Whitehawk
Chris Winterton - Whitehawk
Jack Walder - Hastings United
Jamie Crellin - Hastings United
Sonny Cobbs - Eastbourne Borough
Ben Godfrey - Whitehawk
George Jones - Burgess Hill

Explanation

I feel that you viewers of this website deserve an explanation as o why the website has not been regualy kept up to date with news in the last week, the reason is, as I was away on a Wales camp week to help the year nines of my old secondary school, Chailey secondary school.

My week
I left on Sunday morning after arriving at the school at 10 past 10 in the morning and had a long trip at the front of the bus stopping off on the way at a service station just past Reading, on the journey I heard the news that Djocovic had won Wimbledon 3 sets to 1 against Nadal.

The week was a good one, staying at Llangorse lake just past Abergavenney. I did numerous activities such as: rambling, caving, canoeing, rock climbing, dingle run and kyaking. My particular favourite being the dingle run, a obsticl course through a river and I would reccomend anyone to go and stay in the area and try out the activities as they are all great.

While I have been gone I understand there has been some big news that I obviously missed, it would be much appreciated if anyone could comment some news on here to show what I have missed, thankyou :)