Sunday League Football or Uni 11?

[Confused Fan]

On Saturday I decided to go and cheer on our Uni football team in the Scottish Cup. I had been told that we had a good team so you could imagine my dissapointment in what could be only described as two teams seemingly intent on kicking each other rather than the ball. The standard seemed extremely poor so it was to my surprise that when I went to the fields on Sunday morning and watched another match the standard was far higher. The two teams played attractive, flowing football and some excellent goals were scored. I believe the team that won were called the Demons and I must say I was impressed. I would be curious as to what the outcome would be if they were to play the Uni 11 as if I was a betting person I know who I would be putting my money on. Is the Uni team just a group of mates or are they actually the best possible players?

[Mario]

You were impressed that the deamons managed to pass the balls round some cones. It easy to look good if the opposition puts no pressure on you. Imagine the difference when cynical old men want to kick you up the air and the referee hates you too.
The first team didn't play well on Saturday, but they won and moreover they have more than a few players coming back from injury.

[MadMick]

The football team do not have the best 11 players in the university, it is rather a cliche of friends that get along together. Lets see if the new coach can change this rather than a captain who will pick his own friends. Who ar these great players to return from injury? Will they actually improve the team ? We were poor last year with those players and we will be just as poor this season.

[Warlike Lover]

So the collective noun for friends is a "cliché" is it? I'd always assumed it was a "group".

Every day's a school day.

[cheimon]

or clique, maybe?

[Mario]

If they are just mates then can you pick the team? Can you name your best 11?

[Hilly]

The John Burnet football team - beaten by Chattan 7 - 4 at the weekend - went on to beat the University thirds 6 - 2 three days later. It strikes me as an indictment upon University football when a physically weak and malco-ordinated set of drunken monkeys can quite comfortably surmount a supposedly more professional outfit. My own explanation for this would be that there are too many 'sportsmen' out there who crave the image and stigma attached to University football when, in practice, their actual ability doesn't really extend beyond that of an amputee. The first and second teams are somewhat a different matter, containing a selection of fairly skilled footballers. Nonetheless, there remains to be a handful of Sunday league players whose talents haven't been recognised by what is rather closed and limited setup. Athol for the championship!

[scriven]

there remains to be a handful of Sunday league players whose talents haven't been recognised


and they would be?

[rubbermuffin]

Could atholl's 6-3 win against the 3rd XI be anything to do with the fact that the 3rd XI is full of freshers who were only playing together for the second time?

Plus the fact that the score was 2-2 at half time, after which about 6 substitutions were made in a sven goran erikson stylee. Atholl on the other hand are a bunch of mates who have been playing together for a while.

The university 1st XI is most definitely not a clique, if you joined the club and went to training and were good enough you would get in the side. Hence the reason there are several freshers in the team. To say that Chattan Daemons play a better standard of football than the 1st XI is laughable. You try playing in the fife league and not get lumps kicked out of you.

Sunday league footballers who think they are good enough should join the football club to make the uni teams better and therefore improve our unis sporting reputation.

[Neil Stewart]

Year after year we have the same argument in the pubs; "My Sunday league team could beat the first team" or "I could pick a team from the Sunday league that could beat the first team". These discussions as I said originate and belong in the pub. The university first eleven played on Saturday, WE won and progressed into the second round of the Scottish Amateur Cup. The match was not something Andy Gray or Allan Hansen would have purred over, but I know that many people who came to the game enjoyed it, particularly the second half which included 2 missed penalties, a few controversial decisions and three goals. For those people that came to the game and didn't enjoy it, fair enough. What I would say however is that they should come along again, we have plenty of fixtures over the season and on the majority of those occasions we will perform better than at the weekend.

In answer to the original question "Is the uni team the best eleven players or just a group of mates" - both. All clubs, not just the football club, seemed to get the clique tag associated with them. The reason for this is that people see them out and about having fun with teammates, but I must stress that all the friends I have through the football club, I met through the football club, it wasn't a case of me turning up and saying to my mate "I want a game, you'll pick me won't you?!".

To conclude a rather hefty post on this board, the university first team is made up of the best footballers in the unversity, the second team will also prove to be a very good side this year, and although the thirds haven't got off to a great start, as an Atholl supporter has proudly posted, they can mature into a good side. If anyone reading this disagrees with any of my points, they should come down to training on a Monday night at 5, we would be pleased to have you, especially if they could walk onto the first team! (No left backs please!!) Alternatively if you missed the game on Saturday and wish to see what all the fuss is about, we have two home games on the bounce, Saturday 18th October and the following Saturday 25th.

[anon]

Chris Hill - you're a talented footballer. Why don't you have the bottle to join the football club? Too scared that you won't be the best player in the team any more?

[Neil]

Sorry, I meant to put my name to a previous post. The one titled "Give us a chance". It was I, Neil Stewart. In responce to the Chris Hill comment, he is a very good player with whom i have had the pleasure of playing with, but if the person that suggested his name doesn't have the "balls" to give is own name I don't believe he should be giving Chris'.

[Dave]

Who missed the penalties?!

[Dave Mc]

1. We are called the deamons, not demons.
2. Thanks for the flattering comments on how impressive we were against Athol but I can assure you that playing Sunday League football and playing for the Uni first team are totally different ball games. When playing on Sunday we were up against a team who had probably not all played together before, were either still drunk or hungover (probably the previous judging by their tackling!)and none of whom would get in to the Uni 1st team. For our fourth goal I took the ball around 4 Athol defenders, if you attempted to do that on Saturday you would have your legs broken. When playing in the Fife league you are playing far more physical and determined teams who most certainly raise their games to play what they see as a bunch of English w*****s (excuse the language and I know half the team are not English but the opposition dont seem to care!) If the uni team are not the best players then why is it that the best Sunday league teams are ones with uni players? I would suggest that anyone that thinks otherwise should follow Neils advice and go to training ( I heard they need a left back and penalty taker)!) And as for Athol for the league, I guess you guys are still drunk..

[claire]

Chris is undoubtedly a talented sportsman a fact that even unregistered user anon isn’t foolish enough to dispute. Its hardly suprising however that he isn’t exactly doing naked cartwheels at the prospect of joining teams with such glaring undertones of playground politics. He was just making a point. Whether or not you agreed with him it strikes me as wholly childish to indulge in anonymous antagonism of an individual through the somewhat spineless medium of a public message board.

[Mr Comedy cannot be bothered]

further to earlier replies, the daemons did not in fact win, but got stuffed 6-2 by the mighty titanic melstadt.

[Sam Crooks]

Things are bad if Titanic Melstadt are mighty. No offence Meesh.

[Dave Mc]

I think that this topic is discussing the previous week when the DEAMONS won, the same week the oh so mighty titanics lost to the Strokers.

[Mr Comedy]

who of course won the division last year.

[Guest]

[s]Mr Comedy wrote on 21:31, 14th Oct 2003:
who of course won the division last year.


Don't remember any of those teams winning a division last year!