Karavan

The Final Whistle - 2011/12

Way back in August 2011 I wrote a blog called Clean Sheets All Round about the excitement and hope of the new football season.  I said it was the best day of the year at the time, the first game in a long journey through the dark winter months and out the other side.  But this evening as I write this on the train up North to attend Sheffield Wednesday’s final match tomorrow, I am as excited as I was back then.  Of course it doesn’t always pan out this way, I’ve had many seasons where the last game of the season is just a relief for it to be over, or worse, completely gutting as you are staring relegation in the face.  But tomorrow is going to be AMAZING – 38,000 SWFC fans (and 270 Wycombe fans) are going to raise the roof, bounce due to not being Blades and will that goal into the net even if Llera doesn’t manage it with his magic skull cap.  All of the hours we’ve invested in travelling to matches, watching matches and discussing matches is going to be rewarded.  Unusually for Wednesday, our fate is at our own feet – it doesn’t matter what anyone else does, if we win we go up!

This season has been long.  At times I have felt like a footballer myself  - ‘travelling’ pretty much every other weekend.  At least the season before there were more southern games to go to in League 1! I can’t say I have always enjoyed watching Wednesday this year, even games we have won haven’t been the most attractive.  Anyone who has read my blogs before will know that I was never a Megson fan – I stopped blogging in the end as I was beginning to irritate people.  I just hated his man management style and I was dancing about my flat like a loon when I heard he had been sacked!  I know I was in the minority but I think Dave Jones has more than proved that it was the right decision – and now we are actually trying to play football – ON THE FLOOR!! It’s enjoyable to watch and everything! 

Another highlight of the season for me has been discussing every match with my new friends on Twitter, the SWFC gang on there has really grown into a fab community.  I’ve already met some of them in person and will be meeting some more tomorrow – so far so good, they all look like their pictures and haven’t turned out to be dodgy 90 year old men anyway ;)

So here we go, my 25^th (I think but need to check tickets!) SWFC match of the season with everything to play for kicks off at 3pm tomorrow.  Even if (and this won’t happen) we lose, we have the safety net of the play offs.  And once our team name is safely tucked up in the Championship fixture organisers folder, we can all enjoy a break!  I am looking forward to a couple of months of being able to stay in London every weekend and not having to check the fixture list whenever someone invites me somewhere! If only the sun would start shining, everything would be perfect!

Come on you Blue and White Wizards.  We’re ALL Wednesday aren’t we?

My 2012 Resolutions

I know, I know, you see the word resolutions and instantly think that they will be forgotten by 10^th January! But these are different, think of them more as objectives in the Kate Hamer strategy! I’ve even used the old marketing test of making them SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed!

1. Give blood twice this year – I would really hope someone had donated if I needed it so I really should give it myself.  I am a wimp but if I have managed all the stuff with my back this year then I should be able to do 20 minutes of squeamishness followed by a cup of tea and a biccy!
2. Fix my back once and for all – first session of the New Year with my personal trainer is booked for 5^th Jan.  I am also going to cut out the rubbish food (NO MORE chocolate and biscuits at work!) and start pilates.  If I reduce what my back has to carry and support and get my muscles doing the right things I will be grand!
3. Finish more things – you should see my to-do list! It’s constantly full and still has things on it from 2004 like editing holiday videos! I need a plan to get through it and clear some headspace.
4. Get Bovril back at Wembley.  This might be quite a big ask but the campaign could be a laugh!
5. Go on a proper holiday – one where you go on a plane and have to shop for things like sun lotion and mosquito repellent!  The last one of those was Tenerife in January 2009 (work trips to LA don’t count) so I think it’s about time!
6. Meet a friend after work at least once a fortnight – I have so many good mates that I have been useless at keeping in touch with and this year I am putting that right!
7. Do something cool for my birthday – after last year’s non-event it seems only right! Maybe a boat on the Thames or a rent a penthouse in Manchester…
8. Do one charity event – I had entered the Moon Walk in 2011 but had to pull out due to my back.  I might enter that again or I might do something different, maybe a bike ride of some sort.

A Review of My 2011

I haven’t been a very frequent blogger recently; I’ve been tied up with other projects!  But I wanted to end the year with a blog and start 2012 as I mean to go on.  It’s a random collection of thoughts which contains bits from unfinished blogs too.

2011 hasn’t been the greatest year in my life but the problems and challenges I have had are nothing compared to lots of people in the world.  Don’t worry, I am not about to start moaning!

I thought 33 had a good sound to it, I was in good health apart from the freak passing out in the shower in January (the only other time I ever passed out I was 16 and then this time 32.  I think my body just has to reboot every 16 years so we will see what happens at 48!).  However when my birthday came round I celebrated with my friends Jodie and Amrit who sat in a garden chair each in my bedroom whilst I lay on my bed whacked out on diazepam and co-codamol with a slipped disc.  My back injury has been a pretty constant feature in my year from March but after 2 epidural injections under general anaesthetic it is on the mend.  I’m still getting pain and twinges but it’s soooo much better.  On the plus side my injury did enable me to watch the whole of Brothers and Sisters – all the seasons!  On the downside, I would never recommend watching that amount of drama in one sitting (or should that be lying) as it can be quite an emotional drain!  Another positive thing about my back was that I found a fantastic physio and those thrice weekly visits were rays of sunshine even if they were painful! The football discussions made the 30 minute sessions fly by!

 There are three other people who have come into my life this year that I hope will always be in it. As you get older I think it’s harder to make new close friends, especially as everyone gets established in routines.   I met these three separately and really treasure the laughs and discussions we have.  Here’s to many more!

I’ve seen some spectacles this year from The Lion King stage show in February  which is immense, Take That at Wembley on a free ticket but they did win me over with the staging of it and then of course there’s been way too many Sheffield Wednesday matches to mention!  The Wednesday games are not always such a spectacle but they certainly guarantee to get your heart racing!  I also went to our national stadium to watch the England v Wales game, the first time I had been there to watch a match.  It wasn’t the greatest game but we were sitting by the Welsh fans so got to dance along with The Barry Horns.  The biggest disappointment was that they don’t do Bovril at Wembley – I was planning to start a campaign to re-instate it but never had time.  Maybe that can be a resolution!

Work wise, anyone who follows me on Twitter or tries to phone me of an evening, knows that I LOVE my job and spend a lot of time there.  There was a bit of uncertainty for part of the year but in October I was promoted and next week when I go back I have a new team member to work with so I’m starting 2012 with big plans and more time!

The World has seen a lot of uncertainty this year and even here in the UK we had our share of riots.  Trust me to choose that day to meet a mate at Clapham Junction! The only place we could get into was Wimpy and even then the guy locked the doors behind us!  My mate wasn’t fazed, he just happily ate and chatted while the young hooded rioters started to congregate outside!  I made it back to the station before the riots themselves kicked off.  Obviously I made a comment on Twitter about where I had been and another mate called to say ‘Put Sky News on, were you in that Wimpy?’ as it showed it getting smashed up! Close shave :s

I started a blog about the riots which also went unfinished, here’s the jist:

‘What is the World coming to?  How did we get to a point where parents are scared of their own children?  How did they go from baby to toddler to child without developing a respect for the very people who brought them into the world?

I was at Clapham Junction prior to the riots where I watched and felt the tension build.  These young teenage kids hanging around on street corners are partly there because their parents would rather they weren’t in the house!  I am more scared of these kids than adult terrorists!  It’s crazy!

The Police seem to be letting the tension build though – why don’t they cut it dead by moving them along straight away?  They are like a bad football team moving back alongside the forwards rather than cutting it off in midfield when the momentum isn’t as strong!’

There were also natural disasters like the Tsunami in Japan.  At the time I started to write a blog which I never completed but I think this sentiment is so true:

‘The World is a dangerous place full of natural predators for us humans.  Whether that is the environment that we live in, with its restless plates, uncompromising seas or harsh mountain ranges, or the organisms that surround and invade us like cancer and other diseases.  We have so much to contend with as it is to survive on this planet without fighting amongst ourselves!’

So in summary I have worked hard, trained hard to fix my back and played a little this year!  In 2012 I am going to rectify that balance – look out for my next blog of resolutions!

Smells Nothing Like Team Spirit

I have really tried to support Megson, I’ve had my doubts about him since that first press conference where he was lounging back in his seat.  All I want in a Manager is someone who takes the job seriously and works hard.  What I have seen from Megson is a smug, nasty attitude with a management style which seems to consist of either trying to prove the fans wrong e.g. last season when we had been questioning our formation and then lost playing 2 up front, or trying to knock every ounce of confidence out of his players, too many examples to list here but the most recent victim seems to be Mark Reynolds.

I have never heard him speak as a part of the team.  It is always about how the players should realise how privileged they are to wear the shirt or play for this big club.  Newsflash Megson, the only thing that’s big about this club is the stadium and even that has seen better days.  Don’t get me wrong, we have a brilliant fan base and I think we could be a big club again.  I will do everything I can to support the team back to its rightful place.  I might live down South now but I am not speaking as an armchair fan.  Already this season I have spent over £400 in train fares going to watch SWFC at home and away.  I subscribe to Wednesday player, I’ve bought the new shirt and I am invested in this club.  I’ve even volunteered to help with Marketing for free in the past.  I love this club and I want it to do well.

But I’m finding it extremely hard to support the current regime at Hillsborough.  Megson displays all the signs of an insecure man who thinks the only way to manage people is to keep them down.  Your ultimate aim as a manager should be to coach your team to become the best they can be, then you’ve done your job.

As I said in numerous blogs last season, not a single footballer sets out to play badly or lose.  It’s their job, they want to do well!  Even if they don’t like the club or the style of play, it is in their interests to do well as they will be more likely to be offered an escape route to another club.  I can’t believe how many players we have treated badly over the last few months at Wednesday and I am ashamed to have been a part of it!  Good servants to the club have been shipped out as Megson seems to chop and change his mind about who he does and doesn’t like.  Players who are Wednesday through and through had their confidence shattered within a few weeks of him joining  - he obviously has no true ‘coaching’ skills!  Whatever you might think of these players, you surely agree that everyone who puts the effort in deserves the support of their manager.  I don’t care what Megson says behind the scenes, that’s his job and I know he’s a Wednesdayite so maybe thinks a ‘United Front’ is not appropriate but that’s what we need.  He needs to leave his fan baggage behind and be more objective as a manager.  He is no better than a disgruntled fan off the Kop if he is going to publicly attack his team!  Can you imagine your manager going to customers and talking about how you fucked up the latest project you were working on?!  If nothing else it is marketing suicide!

I think Megson thought he needed to side with the fans because of the way they treated Irvine (which I am also ashamed of by the way) but he needs to be strong and plough his own path, it’s the team who will keep him in a job and get him out of this league, not the fans.  Yes we will play our part both in financial and vocal support but at the end of the day he needs the players to want to succeed for him.

I was disgusted after his behaviour at the Bradford game but I didn’t post the blog I wrote at the time as most fans seemed to be supporting what he was doing.  I should have had the courage of my convictions as more fans seem to be changing their opinion of Megson now.

I was at the Stevenage game last week and for me the difference was obvious.  Stevenage were a team playing together, they could read each other well, they train much more than we do and their manager is inspiring.  Wednesday on the other hand are a collection of individuals who are all insecure about whether they will stay in the good books or not with this manager who can take you from first on the team sheet to sitting in the stands in one fell swoop.  Most players seem afraid to try incase they make a mistake.  I thought Liam Palmer was brilliant and the other player who I felt has put in a good shift every game he’s played this season was Clinton Morrison.

Now there are rumours that Morrison might be leaving us and he hasn’t travelled to Yeovil today.  I just don’t understand it! Obviously there are fans saying that he hasn’t scored enough or who are getting into the nitty gritty of the stats.  All I know, from having watched 8 out of our 11 games so far this season, is that he is one of the only players who have consistently shown commitment and hunger.  He has made goal line clearances while defending, run back to win the ball when our midfield and defence have lost it and has been instrumental in at least 3 of Gary Madine’s 6 goals.  Him and Madine were becoming a good strikeforce and Madine himself has said that he likes playing with Morrison!  Two weeks ago Morrison came on at Charlton and changed the game, getting Megson his first point away from home and earning himself man of the match.  In the days that followed there were interviews with him apologising for his poor performance last season and showing his dedication to Wednesday.  Why on earth wouldn’t you want someone like that in your team?  On the pitch he is constantly talking to his teammates and praises any good moves – yes he gets frustrated and highlights errors too but no more so than Megson on the touchline and probably far more constructively!  We haven’t had the most vocal captains for a while now and I was really impressed when Morrison instigated a team huddle before the second half at Stevenage – we need more of this, team spirit will fuel our rise up the league.  If the rumours are true, it just doesn’t make sense to me that we would want to get rid of a player who is looking much sharper this season, is so keen to do well, is vocal in his love for Wednesday and is playing well with our top scorer! What is Megson doing? 

Some fans are saying they think his hands are tied by Mandaric in terms of who we buy or get rid of but I am not accepting that.  If it is the case I have even less respect for him – he should stand up to MM and say if he doesn’t have full responsibility for the team he will leave!  But then from what I have seen in his interviews he doesn’t seem like that kind of guy.

I’ve supported Wednesday for 25 years and the club is bigger than any player or manager but I am really struggling to know if I can bring myself to go to any more games while Megson is in charge.

No Substitute for a Winning Mentality

I wrote this after the Bradford game on 30th August but didn’t post it, I should have!

I have to say that I found it hard to concentrate on the game this evening, following the ridiculous tactics at the start! Ok, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy isn’t the FA Cup, but it’s a trophy, it leads to a Cup Final and the last time I checked, it’s been over 20 years since we won one!

If Sheffield Wednesday were successful at a higher level they would be ‘having’ to play in Europe, but we’re not so this is our version of that duty.  Johnstone’s Paint has invested in the sport to add an extra focus to the winter months and I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing.  The least we can do is honour the rules, whether we agree with them or not.  One tactical substitution I could accept – to be honest recently I have felt more confident with Rich O’Donnell in goal than Weaver anyway.  But doing it within 90 seconds, and without so much as feigning a limp, is like sticking 2 fingers up at the tournament.

I am all for giving the younger players a chance but I would rather be giving one or two of them a run out in games that we were trying to win! How demotivating must it be to know they are only getting to play because we want to lose?  I assume that Megson wanted to lose, he hardly stood up all night, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d gone home at half-time!  Playing Obileye for the full 90 minutes was unfair too – is that how Megson hoped we would concede?  It could really destroy the kid’s confidence!  And what about the rest of our squad playing tonight?  What is the message they are getting?  We can afford to waste your time and tire you out because we don’t need you in the games that matter?  Megson has a chance to build a strong squad here that is interchangeable but he needs the right philosophy.  Giggling on the sidelines as he brings off 2 more players within the first 16 minutes is not the right attitude.

Our fans have travelled there and were in full voice as usual, they’ll have spent at least £40 each and deserve to see the team win! To be fair to the players on the pitch I think they were making an effort, Rich O’Donnell was great in goal and you could see the desire in others like Liam Palmer and Clinton Morrison but we didn’t really get many chances.

I knew we were going to lose this game from the moment I saw Megson’s smug grin, he got exactly what he wanted.  But I think there will be some damage as a consequence.  How can the team’s manager sit so laid back in the dugout during penalties and even look pissed off when Coke scored his? 

Whatever the match, we should be striving to win it.  Success breeds success.  We must accept the level we are at right now but if we keep winning then we’ll get to where we seem to think we automatically should be!

League 1 #Twitpicks 10th Sept 2011

The Fixtures

• Bournemouth v Chesterfield                  A
• Bury v Rochdale                                   A
• Charlton v Exeter                                 H
• Huddersfield v Tranmere                       H
• Scunthorpe v Sheffield United               D
• Sheffield Wednesday v MK Dons           H

The Entrants

• @hamer30                                   D, H, D, A, H, H        1
• @splan80                                     D, D, H, H, D, H       4
• @teachinggrump                           H, H, H, H, A, A        2
• @richardbelcher                            H, D, H, H, A, D        2
• @superchris57                             H, D, A, D, H, A         0
• @Gasmanbrown                           D, D, D, D, D, H        2
• @itsnoel                                      H, D, H, H, A, A         2
• @SouthernOwl                             H, D, H, H, D, H         4
• @james_newcombe                      H, A, H, H, H, H         4
• @Babushka1867                          H, D, H, H, A, D         2

The Table

League 1 #Twitpicks 3rd Sept 2011

Late again with the results this week - sorry! A poor week really apart from @dbainestoronto 5/6 performance!!

The Fixtures

• Chesterfield v Leyton Orient              D
• Hartlepool v Exeter                           H
• Oldham v Huddersfield                      D
• Sheffield United v Bury                     H
• Stevenage v Rochdale                      H
• Walsall v Brentford                          A

The Entrants

• @hamer30                               A, H, H, D, H, D       2
• @splan80                                H, H, A, H, D, H        2
• @teachinggrump                      H, D, A, H, H, D        2
• @james_newcombe                  A, D, A, H, D, A        2
• @BroomOwl                            H, D, A, D, D, D        0
• @superchris57                        A, D, H, D, A, H         0
• @dbainestoronto                    D, H, D, H, H, H        5

The League

We’re all on the same side!

The World is a dangerous place full of natural predators for us humans.  Whether it’s the environment that we live in, with its restless plates, uncompromising seas or harsh mountain ranges, or the organisms that surround and invade us like cancer and other diseases.  We have so much to contend with to survive on this planet as it is, without fighting amongst ourselves!

Be kind to yourself and others.

League 1 #Twitpicks 27th Aug 2011

I’m getting better at posting the updates! Soon I’ll be doing straight after the matches :)

Fixtures

• Brentford v Tranmere              A
• Bury v Charlton                      A
• Exeter v Chesterfield               H
• Huddersfield v Wycombe         H
• Leyton Orient v Carlisle           A
• Rochdale v Hartlepool             A

Entrants

• @hamer30                      H, H, A, D, A, D       1
• @Ol_Foz                         D, A, A, H, H, H       2
• @swfc_til_i_die                D, D, H, H, D, D      2
• @superchris57                D, A, H, H, D, A      4
• @teachinggrump             A, H, H, D, A, A       4
• @Sav91                         D, A, D, H, H, H       2
• @BroomOwl                   D, A, D, H, D, D       2
• @richardbelcher              D, H, H, H, A, D       3
• @james_newcombe         H, H, D, D, A, A       2
• @splan80                       H, A, A, H, A, H       3
• @chelseamamma             H, D, H, A, D, H       1
• @gasmanbrown               H, H, H, H, H, H       2

The Table