Posted: 25 June 2010 at 10:40am | IP Logged

I was part of the Hall Farm team that defeated Sportsmans Arms in a play-off a few years back to get promoted to the premier behind The Dagmar. It was a great achievement and we as a team were delighted to be playing in the Premier but as we found out it was a very difficult first season there and we struggled all year and were on the wrong end of a couple of heavy defeats but we, as a team, stuck at it and gradually improved the next year and again the year after. So as a footballer I want to play against the best teams and the best players to really try to improve as a player and cant understand anyone who would just turn up and not want to test themselves. Teams in the first should jump at the chance to go up and if its too difficult then they will come back down the next season but at least they can hold their heads high and say they gave it a go instead of hiding in the first. Thats my two peneth worth

Posted: 25 June 2010 at 6:12pm | IP Logged

i remember the season before last when i volunteerd to go up into the premier division when we were the mountain daisy.

a couple of issues arose from that ......

players left and the squad was immediately halvedwhich was a huge problem. we struggled for the rest of the season and also like the previous post we suffered some very heavy defeats indeed BUT playing in that division we had some decent results like beating the jolly potter to get to the final of the aged minors trophy where we were eventually beaten by a very strong 1ST DIVISION side in the cove.

secondly... the players that stayed felt as if every time we turned out we would be beaten which took morale to an all time low.

eventually we were inevitably relegated back to the 1st. personally i would never volunteer to go up again, but the experience was, i suppose a good one after it showed me the standard of football expected week in week out.

BUT AND THIS IS A BIG BUT........

IF YOU DONT TRY YOU WILL NEVER KNOW..