From the Dugout (Sticker Home)

Last Wednesday saw a huge improvement in performance with a convincing 3-0 win at high flying Newquay

We found a level of intensity, coupled with a bravery on the ball, that had been missing in previous games

The hope was the same lads could reproduce that, in the short turnaround on Saturday, however despite the effort clearly being in place, we just lacked the same physical zip to replicate the performance, eventually losing on penalties in the league cup to holders Okehampton

It’s a hard one to take as we were leading deep into stoppage time, but lacked the concentration to get over the line

Tonight’s opponents sticker suffered a similar fate, stoppage time heartbreak in defeat to Newton Abbot Spurs

I guess tonight’s result may come down to who can get over that disappointment and find their form

Sticker were great in our meeting in august, defending superbly then showing the clinical side we lacked, to beat us 1-0

We will have to be brighter in and around their box to turn the tables.

As I’m writing this, we have a few injury concerns. Sam Gerken and Brad Rowe will be missing, plus there are concerns over Jacob Rowe and Lewis Webber, who were both struggling during extra time on Saturday.

Hopefully we can get another league win and start climbing the table.

Enjoy the game

When I’m dealing with the arrangements for games one of the things I often forget is to check there are no colour clashes with kits. Will the opposition’s blue kit clash with Rob’s blue keeper’s kit and so on. Some of you may have opinion on our new kit this season, my wife is a fan of the purple kit and thinks we should play in that every game. Sometimes I think kit colours are brave, a recent keeper in all pink was a confident choice.

Colours are a wonderful gift to us, and we use choices of colour to say things both intentionally and just out of habit. When a player wears very bright coloured boots, I often think you need to be a very good player to wear those. In church we use different colours to mark different seasons and celebrations throughout the year. During lent and advent, we also wear purple, and in what we call ordinary tie wear green, and there are others too. Colours tell us about moods, personalities, and seasons of the year. I love the changing colours of autumn with all the different shades of trees. Autumn has a very different beauty to the other seasons, and we know that it signifies a change, it will be getting colder for one thing! I think recognising and celebrating changes in the seasons is important to the rhythm of our lives. Things are not meant to be the same all year round and neither are we. There is a time for tears and a time for joy, a time for celebration and a time for quiet reflection, a time to care for others and times when we need others to care for us.

Last week Rower talked about the challenges of being a football manager and how he enjoyed the struggle, the reality is that sometimes there is more joy in achieving something when it has been a challenge, the reward all the greater. Over the coming months we hope to see the Club developing and growing in new and creative ways. For some this will be the fruit of many years of hard work and persistence. Waiting for the colours and the seasons to change can often feel like it will never come. But for those who persist, those who keep going when others fall away, those who find that extra bit of energy in the 89th minute, the rewards come. Enjoy autumn, it is beautiful and signifies changes ahead.