Germany 4 v England 1

Not much to say really than the obvious which was that Germany just simply out classed England. Germany deserved the win and finished the game with a real chance for reaching the final. There was of course the controversial decision where Lampard's goal was disallowed. This went and brought out the ever long dispute over whether technology should be brought into the game. We think it should certainly be trialled instead of just ruling it out completely. We think all teams would welcome a trial.

We couldn't help but wonder along with the rest of the country that if Lampard's goal stood, then would it have been a different game? What we do know is that England need to step up, their whole performance was just not quite world class.

On and upwards to Brazil!

Slovenia 0 v England 1

We did it! Through to the last 16. Ok, there was only one goal, but it looks like the team are back to their old selves, so good news all round and we can only get better. We thought the whole team played really well and Milner was superb. We felt for Rooney though, he is so desperate to score and we hope he does in the next round. Not a lot to say apart from that we are so happy for the team.

Our next game is on Sunday 27th June and it's against Germany. We think England have a good chance. If England win against Germany then they could meet Argentina and Spain in the next rounds, a very tough way to win the World Cup, but you never know.

We'll be watching the next game with family and another BBQ, you've got to make the most of the good weather when you live in England!

England 0 v Algeria 0

Well what can we say? We don't look like a winning team. The players looked lethargic, there was no compassion. Whose the Wayne Rooney look-a-like because it certainly isn't the same Rooney we all know and love. Again, we can only choose two players we thought did their job, for us it was Ashley Cole and David James.

It was a very disappointing match, but fair play to Algeria. What did we think of Wayne Rooney's comment after the match? Well he was obviously angry, but you can't blame the fans for booing. Its costs the fans thousands to be in South Africa and they don't get the chance to let the players know their individual comments, so the only way to express their disappointment is to boo. The England team need to sort out whatever it is that is wrong and they haven't got a lot of time to do it in. We know they are better than their previous two performances.

Things could be worse though, we haven't lost any games and we could be in a complete revolt like the French team.

On a more lighter note, British comedian/ actor/ presenter, etc... James Cordon has launched a national campaign. All men to 'Back the Beard' for the England team. Andy has been growing his and has even made it through the itchy stage! What do you think?!

COME ON ENGLAND!

England 1 v USA 1

England played their first group game against the USA yesterday (12th June 2010).

We had a little get together at our house with a couple of our friends and Steph's dad. Andy lit the BBQ for a pre-match meal since the weather was lovely and pretty hot. To join in the spirit of the World Cup and England we put a few flags up, wore our shirts and the dogs wore their England bandanna's.

What can we say about the game? Well we if we're honest we have seen England play a lot better. The beginning was superb with Gerrard scoring a brilliant early goal, but this start was not to be carried through to the end. We can easily point out a few players who played their part brilliantly and we can also point out a few who did not. Of course Green made a huge blunder but you could also point out that the rest of the players didn't help correct that by not scoring any more goals. Rooney seemed to only come in the game in the last 20 minutes. Heskey was taken off but for us he could have got man of the match. Heskey was always busting a gut to win the ball and we felt he played very well.

The worst point of the game for us was the fact that we never got to see Gerrard's goal, the reason was down to a huge error by the tv channel, ITVHD. Someone cut the game and put an advert in and when it went back to the game, Gerrard had already scored! What a mistake to make.

The interview with Gerrard after the game shows he felt they can play better as well. We have every hope in the team and know they should qualify from their group. Fingers Crossed!

Well, to bring up the past, England drew their opening game at the World Cup in 1966 and went on to win the whole thing, so you never know!!

TSFC Trophy Night

On Saturday July 18th 2009, TSFC held their presentation night. Up for grabs were trophies for top scorer, most improved, best in training, players player and managers player, to name but a few! There were a few surprises on the night with special trophies for the manager and assistant manager from the lads to say thank you for helping them win the treble. There was also a surprise for the lads. Although TSFC came second in the Lucozade league, the manager presented the lads with a trophy from Lucozade and VIP tickets to see a premiership game. A good night all round!

The Treble!

TSFC have had a great season this year, they won the league and two cups. As you can see from the pictures there is a lot of silverware. Fully deserved, they worked hard and it paid off. Next season they have decided to conquer the premier league on a Sunday but may come back to Saturday football after that.

Deja Vu Wembley!

We embarked on another trip down to Wembley on the 23rd May 2009, to see Shrewsbury Town football club (again!) v Gillingham football club.
Again, another convoy of coaches headed down south, making one stop at a motorway services, where Shrewsbury fans just took over the whole place.

It was a lovely day, so on arrival we headed to a pub. The pubs around Wembley were allocating themselves to either team, we ended up in a Wetherspoons.

Our seats in the stadium were a bit higher up than last time (ok, a lot higher up), but a good view. To cut a long painful 90 minutes short, Shrewsbury lost in the dying seconds to a late winner from Gillingham. The dream was over again. Maybe they will be lucky next time? Or maybe everything happens in three's?

STFC 0-1 GTFC

TSFC Update

TSFC receive a talk by a sports scientist.

Early last year Andy entered TSFC into a draw to win sponsorship from Lucozade. Tens of thousands of teams all around the UK entered but only 80 teams were going to be picked to receive sponsorship and compete in a virtual league.

The day of the draw we tuned into Talk Sport radio, to our absolute amazement, TSFC were second out of the draw!

Since the draw, TSFC have received a brand new kit, a regular supply of Lucozade products and a training session with a sports scientist. The team have been loving it!

The virtual league is calculated from the results the teams get in their own real leagues. TSFC have been doing brilliantly and are top of the Shropshire Alliance League which has resulted in them being second in the Lucozade league which is a fantastic achievement.

The season is not over yet. In the Alliance league, TSFC have 6 league games left and are in two cup finals. Every game counts!

There is a lot to play for and some huge prizes to be won with Lucozade. If TSFC win the Lucozade league they will play an exhibition match at Old Trafford, Manchester United's ground! And, they will win a trip to Austria to a top training camp where they will be treated like premiership players!

Other prizes can be won like tickets to premiership games, these can be won by being top scorer, most improved team etc... Our top scorer is third in the Lucozade top scorers!

You can track TSFC's progress with the Lucozade league here:

Lucozade League

and

You can track their progress in the Shropshire Alliance league here:

TSFC

So, its very exciting at the moment!

Good Luck TSFC!!

Sportsman's Evening

Andy and Jeff Winter

Us

On Friday the 20Th March, we attended a Sportsman's dinner in aid of raising some money for the Shropshire Alliance League at the Lord Hill Hotel.

The evening consisted of a dinner (obviously!), a guest speaker in the form of Jeff Winter a former Premier League Referee, a comedian called Danny Dalton, Irish Bingo and an auction of football memorabilia.

The evening started with dinner, vegetable soup to start, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables for main and apple pie and custard for pudding. Quite a filling dinner, but very nice.

The guest speaker Jeff Winter then entertained us after dinner with some of his stories and experiences being a premier league referee. He was very funny and interesting.

The comedian started after a short interval and with a very risque joke, but very funny!

The league had also hired a very brave lady in my opinion! Her job was to model the the football memorabilia for the auction, with little else on!

Andy had managed to get two signed football shirts, Leicester City and Shrewsbury Town to donate to the auction.

After the auction, Jeff Winter finished off his talk and did a book signing. Andy bought one of his books, will he read it? That's debatable!

All in all the evening went very well, the league didn't raise as much as they had hoped, but it was their first evening they had hosted, so next time should be much better.

We enjoyed ourselves, it makes a nice change to do something different in the evening sometimes.

Perkins Trophy Night

Last Friday was the Perkins FC's presentation night. All the players recieved a medal with an engraving saying 'Perkins Club 06-07' as next season they are playing under their new name Reman FC.

The usual category trophies were handed out with a 'jokey' one for one player. He's nicknamed 50p head, as his headers are all over the place, so he was awarded a figurine trophy with a 50p stuck to the figurines head!

All in all it was a successful evening.

Saturday League Presentation Night

Andy & Tali with the trophies.

Last but not least of the football entries for now! Phew!

The Saturday league presentation evening was held on the 8th of June. T.S.F.C. didn't win the league, but they did come third in the subsidiary league. We attended, as Andy was going to be presented with the runners up cup from the John Davis Memorial Cup Final. By the end of the night, Andy walked away with 4 trophies!

T.S.F.C. were awarded Sportsmanship of the season voted by the referees and Andy was named Club Secretary of the year (2 trophies). Andy then appeared in the local paper again for his and the teams achievements, keep this up and I may earn my place as a WAG!!

While the season is over for now, the team is taking part in a 6 aside tournament, more for fitness than winning.

We're trying to get away for a break at the end of August, somewhere in Europe as we don't have a great amount of time off. We haven't decided on a destination, but hopefully that will be decided soon!

TSFC Presentation Night

Above, my best friend Claire and her brother Adam. Adam was awarded the Managers Player trophy.

Second picture, mine and Andy's awards.

On the 2nd of June the T.S.F.C. presentation evening was held. Andy and I had organised players medals and team photos for the whole squad, Managers Player Trophy, Players Player Trophy, Top Scorer Trophy, Manager recognition Trophy and Assistant Manager recognition Trophy a commerative plate for the sponsors and Top Supporter certificates.

Andy and the assistant manager Laurie were both on equal goals for the Top Scorer trophy, so they will each keep it 6 months.

Everyone had a complimentary drink on arrival and our pub sponsor, the Steam Wagon, put on a buffet.

There was a good turn out and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Andy came away with the Manager recognition Trophy, Top Scorer Trophy and a Players medal. I was presented with a Club Secretary medal and a huge bouquet of flowers from our sponsors, Technical Services (Shropshire) Ltd.

I think it would be fair to say that we all got very merry and headed into town to carry on the party!

Sunday League

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I've been busy with an essay, but normal service shall now be resumed!

On the 1st June, Andy and I attended Perkins FC Sunday league presentation evening. As previously mentioned, Perkins only just missed out on winning division 2, but as runners up they have still been promoted.

The squad had their picture taken by the Chronicle (local Shrewsbury newspaper) and all each received a runners up trophy.

The beginning of June has been fairly busy for us as on the 2nd June we had the TSFC presentation evening and on the 8th of June was the Saturday league presentation evening, I'll tell you more about these soon. The Perkins own presentation evening is still yet to be decided. All this football! It will all come to an end soon, well at least for a few months until the new season starts!!

Us inside Wembley

Andy rang home to tell our parents to keep an eye out for us on tv. When we got home we went through the match (we recorded it on Sky plus) to see if we could spot us. At one point you can just about see us when Shrewsbury had a free kick. A couple of our friends were clearly seen as the camera zoomed right in on them.

We will now return back to telling you about our trip in Wales...

Stadium 5

In the second half, Shrewsbury really battled to get an equaliser all the way into the last 6 minutes or so. Shrewsbury's keeper came to the Bristol goal at one point to provide an extra man to see if they could snatch a goal.

It wasn't meant to be though and Bristol went and scored in an open goal. It was all over. Its congratulations to Bristol Rovers.

Shrewsbury players battled though and deserved a standing ovation, which they received and a couple of lucky fans got some of the players boots as well!

We were sad for our team, but had enjoyed a lovely day despite a bit of rain on our way back to the coach.

When we left the ground we found that our way back to the tube station had been blocked off by the police and so had to go down some steps into an enormous crowd, as you can see from the photo. It wasn't that bad though and we were soon back on the coach. We didn't arrive home until 21.45.

A long day, but well worth it!

Stadium 4

Lenny the Lion (Shrewsbury Town F.C's mascot)

The Players.

Stadium 3

Stadium 2

We went to look for our seats and to everyone's surprise, we had great seats! This was our front row seat view!

It turned out that our seats were right down the front, the very first row behind the goal. Ok, we couldn't see the other end of the pitch very well, but there was no one in front of us, but the players! The only downfall was that we had a very good view of 2 of the Bristol Rovers goals!!!

There was a big screen in front anyway for a more accurate view of the other end of the pitch.

Shrewsbury scored in the first 3 minutes and it was brilliant! Our team were 1-0 up and we all got to celebrate at the new Wembley.

Now, i'm not going to talk about it too much, but Bristol Rovers did go on to score 2 goals themselves in the first half.

At half time we were quite cold and hungry, so we allowed ourselves to be 'ripped off' and got a pizza slice and hot chocolate for me and a pie for Andy.

Us outside Wembley

Stadium 1

We had arrived a bit early, but the place was already packed full of fans from Shrewsbury and the opponants, Bristol Rovers. It was a good atmosphere.

We went to get a drink from a nearby pub, but the place was so busy (understandably!) that we gave up and the lads got themsevles a drink from an off-licence.

We started our ascent towards the stadium. It is such an enormous place. We had out tickets checked and went inside. Some of us immediately went straight to the bar while others were greeting more friends from Shrewsbury.

I didn't hear any complaints about the cost of the lager, but the food prices were incredibly expensive! A small half baguette covered in little cheese and 4 pepperoni slices cost £4.00, a cheeseburger cost £6.75 and a chicken tikka pie cost £4.50! Only eat if you are really hungry!!