Carl Robinson's Official Blog

So the start of the premiership has caught all the headlines with liverpool losing two games already, burnley beating man utd, drogba and anelka showing they can play together and harry rednapp s spurs topping the standings. Oh and jolean lescott moving for a ridiculous amount of money…….

Other headlines have caught us….

1/ The stabbing of west ham footballer callum davenport apparently by his sisters boyfriend. Stabbed twice in each leg, and left in a pool of blood, maybe leading to him never playing again or even having his leg removed. Shocking incident. A fellow teammate at norwich, get well soon buddy.

2/The courage showed by west ham footballer jack collision to play in match against millwall literally 48 hours after his fathers death from a motorcycle accident. Young jack, a fellow welsh team mate broke down in tears after the match and will need his loved ones around him too be strong…. My thoughts are with you buddy.

3/The shocking scenes in match between west ham v millwall in the carling cup match. Apparent stabbings again before the match, trouble and fighting during the match, pitch invasions, and trouble again after the match. These two teams are bitter rivals but do we really need this? Shocking scenes that can be seen on tv. We want this kicked out of football for good. Never let these hooligans watch football again.

4/ sol campbell signs 5 year deal at notts county at age of 34. Under sven s guidance he believes they can play in premier league in next few years. Not swayed by money, but purely a footballing decision. Strange move, but everyone has their reasons.

5/swansea end up with 7 men in cup tie. Surely a referee cant send off 4 men in one match can he? Obviously he can, but i get the feeling that he wanted the be the headline of the match and not the actual game!!! 

Just some headline making news…….

This was our first away game to the west coast  in the next three weeks and a game we felt we could definately get something out of. The visit to the home depot centre was a massive game for us, so was vital in our push for the play offs. We were without captain jimmy brennan who picked up a suspension the week earlier so adjustments were made to the line up, but again the theme was youngsters as we only had four older guys in the line up.

The game started and we were positive from the whistle passing and moving and getting the ball wide. I have to say for the first 25 minutes we were totally in control of the game, but then as usual we conceded a sloppy goal off a set piece. A corner came in and from the second phase we let the first goal in. This was a little unfair after the way we started but thats football as it usually kicks you in the teeth. The disappointing thing for us then was that we did not get  back to playing and went in a goal down. At half time the manager made changes and changed tactics although five minutes into the second half we got scored on again to go two goals behind. Then as we chased the game to try and get back into it we opened up and could of conceded again without rarely threatening their goal. This was disappointing for us as we felt we could win this match but after going behind we never got back into the flow of things. Infact we did not have one shot on target all night, which says it all.

We missed jimmy brennan as we have no other left back in the squad so a centre back played their, and when making changes we dont have an outlet of a natural winger on either side since rohan ricketts has left. To cap a hard night off , myself and adrian serioux picked up our fifth bookings of the season and now miss the seattle match next week. 

With eight games left we are still confident that we will reach our target but need to sort out our away form soon. The next two games are huge for us in our quest for end of season play offs.

Well it was built as a must win game for us in the lead up to it. Dc united were ahead of us in our conference so it was crucial that we got a result and jumped above them with only 9 games remaining. The line up had a few changes to it with some youngsters coming in with injuries to some senior players. However as the game panned out it was great that these young lads bought some energy into the team with the weather approaching over 100 degrees. We started brightly and went a goal ahead when de ro scored another header from a sammy cronin cross. O ‘brien  white nearly added a second just before the break as we went in a goal up. The second half was similar as chances came and finally OB scored his first pro goal. A great moment for him after the injury that he has battled through. A big 2-0 win for us before a run of 3 away games, and special mention to all the young boys who performed superbly throughout. Oh and the noise at bmo was as loud as i ve heard it this year….

Re some of my old team mates here, mo edu is continuing his recovery from injury and hopefully he ll be back training soon. Rohan ricketts has been on trial at aberdeen but i have not heard how he is doing. Ronnie o brien after just becoming a dad for the first time is just playing lots of golf!!!

Some great talking points from the mls this week. David beckham being sent off and saying refs are poor, fisticuffs in the locker room at chicago between player and coach, and colombus winning at home AGAIN!

Well after playing against one of the best teams in the world on friday night, and losing convincingly its quite hard to know what to say. Ok, we knew we were playing against the best players in the world and we knew that it would be a tough match, but i think after the event everyone was able to see the difference in class between the teams. Sometime you just have to hold your hands up and realize that the standard of real madrid s play was pure class. Those levels are what every soccer player has to strive for to try and be the best.

What you do take out of the game is an incredible experience and to be able to say that you played against the mighty real madrid. I think everyone enjoyed it and the younger players we have will benefit from this in the long term. This has now gone and we now need to get back to work for our main target of reaching the play offs this year.

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