HT Thistle

Holy Trinity Thistle – a report for the 2010-2011 season, by Russell Thomas, Manager.

What a season! 13 games played, 11 in the league, 1 in the cup and a friendly. And the only win – expunged, wiped out, written off, didn’t count – because Oakridge decided enough was enough, after having 3 sent off against us. Which reminds me – two bookings for very technical offences – changing goalkeeper without  telling the ref (Jack injured, with Dan going in), and leaving the pitch after an injury (David could only just walk!).

It started so well, a 1-1 draw at St.Peters – without the manager! Back to take charge, and a 9-0 drubbing at the hands, or should that be the feet of the speedy wingers, of Harefield. We then managed to stage a remarkable recovery from 0-3 to 3-3 against KCA Argyle, before throwing away a 2-0 lead to KCA Harriers, to lose 3-2. Even at this early stage, you could see that this wasn’t going to be our season, which was confirmed in the following game when we lost 0-1 to St. Peters despite dominating the game.

Worse was to come. Ten men to play a cup game (it was only a bit cold!) which was reduced to 9 when Luke took out captain Mike. End of our cup run, losing 5-1 but battling all the way.

We had some good games against St. James’s, finishing the season with a friendly against them, when they kindly bought pizza for us all – well, we did lend them some players, and Connor scored a cracking own goal for us, or them! I can’t even tell you the stats for the season as they don’t all appear to be in – according to the web site, our top scorer has 3 – Dan Simpson and Luke!

The squad was basically the same as the season before (hence the same picture), but no Sam and Tom. We did have the addition of Alex “Eden” Sewell, converted from rugby (at least in some games) but all too often were short of players.  Next season will be a challenge – it will be far more physical as we continue to lag behind in size, although we did show that at the Hazlemere Sixes, where we ended up as runners up in the cup, that it is skill rather than size that matters.

Thanks to all supporters – you were tremendous, to Paul and especially to Adam who ran all the training sessions and match day teams.

Russell Thomas