I'm sure by now everybody knows the idea behind MyFC so I won't waste any time going over it here (if you are not familiar with the MyFootballClub concept you can visit the website and find out more by clicking here).

Well anywho, I signed up last August and then pretty much waited to see what would happen.

When it was announced that "we" had agreed a deal in principle with Ebbsfleet United of the Blue Square Premier I was pretty pleased, and since then have kind of yo-yo'd between taking an active interest and not doing an awful lot.

What I mean by that is I always take part in the votes and make sure I do my research so I'm going into them "blind", but I don't really hang around the forums too much other than just to get a general idea of what's going on (much as I do with the City message boards I guess).

Tomorrow is a massive day for the Fleet, as we're playing Torquay in the FA Trophy Final at Wembley, and I'll be there.

Truth be known I'm a little apprehensive. I'm obviously extremely excited at the prospect of making my first trip to "New" Wembley, but are there going to be hordes of angry Ebbsfleet fans waiting to attack me for not being a "proper" fan?

I hope not - I'll be wearing my "owner" polo shirt and everything. Come on the Fleet!

The game itself kept me busy.  I only had the one offside to signal for, but play seemed to want to stick over my side of the pitch.   There was also a couple of was it out or in play decisions which gave me some calls to make.

One thing that was interesting about the game was that early on the Referee set his stall out with players pinching yards at throw in's.   He stamped this out early and was consistent.   The assessor said afterwards he wondered if he would carry on with it, however he didnt need to as they go the message early on and stopped trying to pinch distance.   It was good to see that players do take the hint and adjust.

Ive been appointed to an FA Cup 3rd Qualifier at Gainsborugh vs Blyth.  Then the following weekend I have been appointed to Leamington vs Banbury United.

Really pleased with those games and it wraps up a great October!

I just got home and opened an email with all the details from Ryman League Secretary Bruce Badcock with all the FA draws.  If you haven't seen them yet we are at home to Bedford Town in the FA Cup 1st qualifying on 13 September. Bedford have been relegated for the past two years but got a reprieve at the end of last season and will start the news season in the Southern Premier League.

In the FA Trophy we are also at home to Croydon Athletic, who play in Ryman Division One South where they finished 13th last season.  That game will be played on 18 October.

In the FA Youth Cup we have to travel to Welling United in the preliminary round (w/c 8 September) and the winners of that game will be away at Cockfosters (w/c 22 September).  Should we come through those two away games we have a home tie in the 2nd Qualifying Round against either Thamesmead Town (who we narrowly beat last year), Northwood or Redbridge.  That game is due week commencing 6 October.

Full details of all these draws can be found by clicking here.

Nantwich Town v FC United of Manchester

[full draw available here, in pdf format]

FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round - 18 October 2008

FC United of Manchester v Radcliffe Borough

[full draw available here, in pdf format]

Brilliant. Our bogey team (albeit one we finally defeated in the Copa del Presidente final) from last season in the Trophy. And Nantwich in the FA Cup, who shellacked us 5-1 at the quarter final stage of the same competition. You can bet they'll be double checking all the paperwork this time round so as not to get booted out again. We also face Nantwich in a preseason friendly on Saturday 9th August.

Go read.

UPDATE: It's been really interested reading feedback on the Fleet forums and the article itself (wish I could access the MyFC forums but I'm not parting with £35 just for that) and raises points I'd never have thought of. What's also interesting is the number of people who thinking dropping the Pick The Team element would be a good thing, although it's hard to tell how representative a sample all the respondents are.

Il goal di Stacy Long a 4 minuti dalla fine del secondo tempo supplementare rompe l'equilibrio, durato 206 minuti, tra Fleet e Burton, portando la squadra alla prima semifinale di FA Trophy della sua storia.

Davanti a soli 849 spettatori festanti, di cui circa 30 del Burton Albion, Daish ripropone gli stessi undici del pareggio di sabato al Pirelli Stadium.
Inizio di partita con occasioni da entrambe le parti, poi un leggero cresendo del Fleet che termina con la traversa scheggiata da Bostwick verso la fine del tempo.

Nel secondo tempo il Fleet parte in attacco creando diverse occasioni. Long, Akinde e McPhee sciupano o vedono i loro tiri parati dall'estremo difensore del Burton, Deeney.
Nel finale il Fleet rallenta il ritmo e il Burton ne approfitta per organizzare l'attacco, ma le buone prestazioni di Cronin, McCarthy e un grandissimo Sacha Opinel (alla fine nominato man of the match) impediscono al Burton di portarsi in vantaggio. Gli ultimissimi minuti dei tempi regolamentari sono per il Fleet che attacca in forcing. McPhee si vede deviato in angolo un buon tiro e sul corner il neo-entrato Moore alza di poco sulla traversa.

Iniziano i tempi supplementari con una discesa di Akinde che crossa per Nade anticipato dal difensore Austin. Le squadre sembrano pensare ai rigori imminenti anche se McPhee ci prova dal limite ma il portiere Deeney para.

All'inizio del secondo supplementare Daish mette in campo Purcell, il Wayne Rooney della Non-League, che subito si fa ammonire per aver calciato lontano la palla dopo un fuorigioco. I tifosi si scaldano dopo che ancora Purcell e Long vengono fermati per dubbi fuorigioco. Ma i ragazzi non si arrendono e Purcell scende veloce sulla destra, mette in mezzo per Long che tira e il portiere non trattiene la palla che scivola verso la porta per il goal dell'1-0. Lo Stonebridge Road esplode in un boato, e anche i tifosi alla radio urlano la loro gioia virtuale!

Il Fleet ha meritato la vittoria grazie a una prova di carattere e ora Wembley è a soli 180 minuti contro il temibile Aldershot Town.

Team: Cronin, Hawkins, Opinel, McCarthy, Smith, Bostwick (Moore 83), Barrett, Long, McPhee, Akinde (Purcell 106), Nade (Eribenne 120).

Il Fleet rimane imbattuto nelle 3 partite giocate contro il Burton questa stagione dopo il pareggio senza reti dei quarti di finale dell'FA Trophy.
Ora bisognerà ribadire il record nella ripetizione della partita di martedì sera allo Stonebridge Road che potrebbe portare a una storica semifinale di coppa.
Il pareggio è stato ottenuto, davanti a 2.103 spettatori - di cui 230 del Fleet, grazie a una grande prova della difesa che ha rivisto in campo Peter Hawkins dopo l'infortunio che lo aveva colpito a Gennaio.
Per la BBC l'uomo partita è stato il nostro Sacha Opinel. Grande prova del portiere Cronin che sventa più di una minaccia del Burton, mentre in attacco hanno un po' deluso Akinde e Nade, autori di una gara sufficiente, ma poco precisi al tiro. Nemmeno gli inserimenti di Moore e Eribenne hanno permesso di sbloccare il risultato.

Team: Cronin, Hawkins, Opinel, Smith, McCarthy, Bostwick (Moore), Barrett, Long, McPhee, Nade (Eribenne), Akinde.

Domani, martedì 26 Gennaio, la partita decisiva in casa. In caso di pareggio si andrà ai suplementari e quindi ai rigori. Speriamo che lo stadio sia caldo!
Appuntamento alle 19.45 GMT, 20.45 CET.

Gli altri risultati di FA Trophy:

• Rushden & Diamonds 0 - 1 York City
• Tamworth 1 - 2 Aldershot Town
• Torquay United 4 - 1 Crawley Town

Il manager, che è anche giocatore, è Nigel Clough, ex di Nottingham Forest, Liverpool e Manchester City. Ha giocato anche in nazionale nei primi anni novanta.
I giocatori sono chiamati "Brewers" (birrai) per la forte vocazione birraia della città.
Il Burton ha militato in leghe minori fino alla promozione in Conference nel 2002.
Tra i vari risultati ottenuti (promozioni, finali di FA Trophy) ricordiamo il terzo turno di FA Cup del 2006 in cui riuscirono a pareggiare in casa 0-0 contro il Manchester United. Poterono così giocare all'Old Trafford con 11.500 fans al seguito. Per la cronaca il Manchester United vinse 5-0 (doppietta di Giuseppe Rossi).
In campionato al momento è quinto con 57 punti in 31 partite (16V 9N 6P). Nello scontro diretto del 26 Gennaio, valido per la Blue Square Premier, giocato allo Stonbridge, si impose il Fleet per 2-1.

Quando il Burton gioca in casa, i giocatori indossano maglia gialla con bordi neri e calzoncini neri.
Lo stadio è il Pirelli Stadium da 6.500 posti.

L'anno scorso il Burton si fermò al secondo round dell'FA Trophy, sconfitto dal Worcester City fuori casa (1-2).

E ora un po' di storia. Il primo villaggio è nato intorno al monastero di Saint Modwen (fondato nel 7° secolo d.C.) ed è cresciuto come polo commerciale e poi come città di birrifici.
Al momento ci sono 5 birrifici attivi:

Insieme ai birrifici c'è anche la fabbrica della Marmite (prodotto tipico inglese) che non è altro che estratto di lievito, lavorazione secondaria della birra.
I primi birrifici volevano copiare la tipica birra di Londra - Pale Ale - ma la qualità dell'acqua del fiume Trent ha fatto nascere la specialità Burton Indian Pale Ale, a lunga conservazione e quindi adatta ai lunghi viaggi fino in India.

Serve una vittoria per potersi avvicinare sempre più alla finalissima di Wembley!

That said I was proud of the boys today.  Remember Weymouth are a full-time outfit two division above us.  The truth is we could have won, Peter Dean, Ben and Ryan all had chances in the second half.  We outfought them in midfield, the defence were superb.  I thought some of the tackling was fierce - but fair - and particular praise for two players who don't get the plaudits that often, Andre Delisser and Keita Karamoko who both played ever so well.

There has been plenty of interest in the match and of course it is a real shame not to go further and keep the run going.  I got called by the FA and spoke to the people who do their website after the game so you can see their report currently on the home page (Capello who?) or in full here.

Back to league action next week - we could be in the bottom four after tomorrow's games.

Let's get a couple of things out of the way first. The match is likely to be confirmed as being on the Friday night - 14 December. Interestingly live on Sky on the Sunday are two trivial games, Liverpool v Manchester United and Arsenal v Chelsea so not sure we could have competed against that. Fortunately Weymouth are happy to come up on the Friday and Northwood have been helpful in reorganising a function due there that night. So let's hope for one of those great Friday night Cup matches we've enjoyed before.

We are going to raise the admission to £10 for adults and £5 for concessions. I have read the various comments on the forum/mailing list with interest and I hope this is a suitable compromise. This is not about screwing our supporters - or Weymouth's - but if we get 500 people in the ground that is an extra £1,000 - this is money we cannot turn away and let's remember we have to split the gate income with Weymouth.

Incidentally we believe Weymouth may bring 400-500 fans themselves so it is likely we will have additional security costs as well - and I think these prices will be the same that we charged for the Watford friendly in the summer.

A journalist from the Kilburn Times called me up earlier and asked me about the draw. He asked when was the last time we played a Conference (sorry Blue Square Premier) Club. It is a while! Just looking at the Weymouth pen pictures there are lots of familiar names - with plenty of football league and conference experience. Check out Conal Platt too, he scored a hat trick for Liverpool against us in that great FA Youth Cup occasion 3 or so years ago. Hopefully it will be Carl Martin's turn this time.

Bottom line for me is that if our players can continue playing as they have been and keep injury free then we can give them a good game - and who knows what comes after that.

Exciting times!