Nottsborough celebrated in traditional champagne style in the Royal National Hotel at the SAL League dinner on the evening of the 3rd June. The 1's picked up the coveted Senior League trophy for the third successive year, something they are rightly proud of with so many good sides around. Gary Cullinan picked up the trophy for Rep player of the year as voted for by the Rep team. Some of the class of 2011 are seen celebrating the trophy, whilst skipper Arren Sutcliffe deservedly gets his hands on the trophy after all the hard work he put in. Chris Apaloo trials a new underarm fragrance.

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3s season review

After a hugely successful 09-10 season, the new Corcoran/Collins axis were immediately under pressure to deliver trophies with attacking fluent football. Wenger, Ancolotti & Mancini all face managerial pressure but it's the man who finally replaces Ferguson who will be under the most pressure, and that's very much how Corcoran/Collins (Houllier/Evans) felt.

First job was to tie down out of contract stars with the promise of a good time and trophies.  Man mountain Bails, sick note Roberts and the combustible Emry all pledged their  futures to the club but it was the capture of David Shaw, from local rivals 'Nobs' who really gave the 3s the much talked about 'fantasy' element, following a host of player promotions up the club from the previous season.  Ever green Corcoran snr and former captain Si Owen were convinced to stay on for 'one more year' by the fans and the squad was beginning to take shape.......click here for the rest of the review.

Two League Titles to Celebrate

With the season all but over we can celebrate two league titles. It was my pleasure to attend the first league dinner of the West London Vets league on Thursday to see Graham Appleby collect the League trophy to go with the AFA Senior Vets trophy won earlier in the season. On Monday I was there to see our 1's take three points from a good Old Owens team, having secured the league trophy with a draw at Old Salesians last Saturday. In the end we took the league by a margin of 9 points, a club record, but it did not feel that comfortable at any time of the season.


SAL Senior Division 1 - Final table - 2010/11

Neck and neck with West Wickham for much of the season we finally took advantage with a 2-0 home win against our old rivals, although we had to withstand a really good performance from them in the second half, which was only missing a goal to have put us under severe pressure. Later in the season Old Owens came with a fine run and we were really struggling with availability and injury issues. We took 14 points from our last 8 games and crucially 10 from our last 5 to retain the League trophy. There seems a big gulf between top and bottom but perhaps the hardest 45 minutes we had to face came at home against Old Actonians who pretty much ran rings round us. We held on and scored several in reply and that was how the season went for many games. Once again Alex Ewin and Nathan Violet were our main goalscorers with 30 and 16 respectively. Unfortunately both had injuries towards the end of the season but goals from Ben Hughes, Chris Apaloo and Dan McEwan helped enormously. We scored the most in the league but crucially we also had the joint best defence. We would have comfortably had the best defence but for a superb performance at Tolworth by Winchmore Hill who simply blew us away with a 6-2 win. It was at Winchmore that Dan Ashley produced the "save of the season". Dan kept 7 clean sheets throughout the season and generally a settled back four of Ben Hickes, Rich Parker, Arren Sutcliffe and Gary Cullinan kept things tight. In midfield the Kerr brothers had another fine season. How much longer can they keep going? Steve McMillan and Michael Classen were good new additions to midfield. Other newcomers in James Sims, Ross Newell and Dan McEwan also produced good performances throughout the season and Dan's goal at Salesians effectively sealed the title.


West London Veterans Football League - Final Table - 2010/11

Our Vets were neck and neck with Polytechnic almost all the way through and a 2-1 defeat at Poly threw things wide open for a while. That defeat also scuppered the Vets hopes of beating the club record for successive victories. Andrew Greaves and Jonathan Hill were the leading goalscorers but skipper Graham Appleby chipped in with several vital goals as well. It really helped having a big squad of 20 or so players and from what I saw this was very much a triumph for team play as the Vets played some lovely passing football throughout the season. To concede less than a goal a game at Vets level is quite an achievement. It looks as if the West London Vets league will be going from strength to strength with 3 new applicants lining up to join and it is likely that the League will have 2 divisions in a year or so. It will be harder to win the title next season with teams like Sinjuns Grammarians joining but from what I saw this season there is a renewed appetite for Vets football at Nottsborough. We look forward to the new season!

"All Change at Nottsborough"

After the success of last season there has been a complete change of Captains at Nottsborough for the new season. First team skipper Matt Kerr has stepped down after two wonderful years. Two SAL Senior titles, two AFA Senior Cup Finals, and two Surrey/Kent Senior Cup Finals. The record just speaks for itself. All this was not an accident and Matt played a huge part in organising and motivating the senior side. Matt can be especially proud of the back-to-back league titles, as in each season we had such a demanding run-in with several midweek away games to negotiate. Arren Sutcliffe is the new Nottsborough Senior captain with Matt Kerr acting as his assistant.

Peter Morris and Andy Lea had three super years at Intermediate level winning the SAL Intermediate title and last year winning the Surrey/Kent Intermediate Cup. Johnny Briggs is the new Captain and he will be assisted by Dan McEwan. Nottingham will mix with Leeds. Si Owen and Matt Beckett after one record breaking season at Junior level have decided they are "one-hit" wonders and the new Captaincy team is Patrick Collins and Martin Corcoran.

The all-conquering 3's will be broken up, but reading Junior Captains should still expect a strong Nottsborough team. Dustin Seale, Nottsborough's resident American football-nut, has stepped down after winning the Minor League title and the new Captaincy team is Alex Gardner and "player of the year" Adam Hamadache. At Vets level Dave Hallam will be stepping down and Graham Appleby will lead the new Vets into their first league campaign in the newly formed West London Vets League. 14 league matches and a run in the remaining Vets Cup will test the Vets resolve.

Training has been going now for a month and attendance, despite summer holidays, has not fallen below 36. There are a good number of new players and you will hear more about these in future articles. Pre-season friendlies start with 2 matches against Old Parmiterians on the 14th August. There are then matches against Old Meadonians and Old Hamptonians to follow.

36 attend first training session!

Coach Brian Williams took the first Nottsborough training session of the new 2010/2011 season on the 20th July and was delighted to have 36 players to work with. A good 90 minute session was completed on the lawns of Tolworth despite the very hot conditions. After the success of all Nottsborough teams last season a lot of work has to be done. Nottsborough are on the look out for new players and it was good to have former mid-field heart-throb Jay Larkin back training alongside one or two new faces. Nottsborough have entered a Vets league for the new season and new or old Vets players (over 35) will be very welcome at training or just to play. The Club AGM will be held at Nike offices, Wardour Street on the 4th August to confirm the club captains, new club officials, and details for the new season. A club day will be held on the 4th September for all teams and will be a great opportunity to introduce new players and to match the teams against each other.