losing

The U10 lads are in a bit of a slump as it turns out. Last weeks loss and yesterday a 5-3 loss. Now the lads are 4w's and 3l's with no D's. It was one of those games that didn't auger well - the other team only had 6 so I agreed (not my best decision in hindsight) to match them 6 on 6.

Of course, it was disruptive because we've been playing well with a 2-1-2-1 outfield - so I have to take part of it on the chin. That aside, the lads were lethargic and sluggish with only a couple of them really working as hard as I would have liked.

I know it's important for kids to have a nice menu of activities and variety - but taking my Dad hat off and being a coach, some of the lads have three sports on a Saturday and even with the early kick offs some have a flag football game before the actual footie.

I know a bunch of them have baseball later in the day, so they're sometimes distracted by that too ('saving my arm, I'm starting pitcher...').

Still, there's the SuperMetro Division play off semi-final later today as Dinamo Red Star play Dog Town at Rio De Los Angeles State Park - and Jason has a full squad, so it should be exciting -I'll try to remember to take some extra socks.

Torquay bagged a home win (after 5 draws on the trot in the league) and captain superfantastic Chris Hargreaves did the business in front of goal against his old club Northampton. It could have been the other way round had Northampton's Adebayo Akinfenwa scored against his old club, us. Of course, my old acquaintance Ian Atkins managed them both - and it was nice to hear him interviewed by Alan Richardson yesterday morning on BBC Radio Devon. It'll surprise many people but Ian has a truly encyclopedic knowledge of football - he's as comfortable talking about Danny Blanchflower as he is the architecture of the Shakhtar Donesk Stadium, the defensive frailties of Paris St Germain or Kevin Davies' presence at set pieces.

I only got to that interview because the Daylight Savings and the end of British Summer Time were out of sync by a week. I was up at 7am ready for the game, and of course it was 2pm in the UK. Still got a bit of a consolation today as I watched the City / City game - great stuff - a very entertaining game - and Alex McLeish is definitely onto something, now they've found a way to play two up I think they'll build and comfortably survive. I do like him, too.