Scott won't be able to make tonight's game as one of his friends was rushed into hospital late yesterday so him and Liz are off through to Edinburgh to go and visit. Fingers crossed for Eggo please.
Andy is able to step in so we'll just keep the teams the same with a straight swap of Andy for Scott - give those Tatties a chance eh?
Can the Mincers match their performance from last week? Can the Tatties prevent a five goal head start again? Will the pitch be invaded by zombies? Find out in this week's thrilling episode of "Fitbaw". 6:30pm. Pitch 6.
Onto "Xmas Night Oot" news. I've spoken to everyone and the date has been set for Friday 14th December. That means that the last game to decide all the awards will be the 12th December. We'll still have the option of playing the week after if folk want to.
It's at the usual place and food will be provided via the kitty. I'm confirming the "menu" later this week as they have a new Christmas menu coming out - ooooooh. The kitty may even be up to a round of drinks too but after that we'll all have to chip in just like last year.
I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that there will be awards this year courtesy of Foxy and Neil - watch out for the "PISH!" award would be my guess!
I can hardly believe it! I didn't have to spend the first half of the week trying to get everyone and anyone to play for us. No friends of friends, no random cousins, no last minute scramble - just ten guys that normally play together all on the park at the same time. Brilliant! And it made for a good game too as it was tight all the way through with everyone working really hard and playing well. A joy to behold so thanks to all.
Even better is that it should be the same ten next week although I'll believe that when I see it to be honest.
MOTM is up - I'm looking for ten votes this week please.
Well Karl actually. Katiya gave birth to a 7lbs 7oz baby girl called Sophia. Mother and baby doing well - father looking rather frazzled. Congratulations guys.
In more exciting news, we have ten "regulars" for the match tonight. Stu's back from his bust toe, Si's still not injured, Alan's back from holiday, William's not getting drunk and Scott's all done and dusted with the wedding.
Teams to follow later today. Please remember and get your MOTM votes in for last week if you haven't already.
UPDATE - Teams are up.
Well the ringers get more and more random, this week seeing the inclusion of Doogie Howser M.D. or Andy's cousin, Howard. But is seems to work as last night's game was cracking! Si started off in goals and pulled a number of cracking saves out the bag to keep the scores almost level.
Slowly, the Mince men built up their lead to 4 or 5 at one point but a spirited fight back from the Tatties saw them level the scores and even take the lead themselves. By this point, if I'd had a watch on we could have called it full time and claimed the victory as it was probably well after the 5 minutes of extra time that we normally play. However, no watch was the be had and we played on until we lost the game - great tactics!
Never mind though as it was a really enjoyable game that saw the injury free return of Si (complete with his new magic tights). MOTM is up for your voting pleasure.
Hurrah - we managed to change the kick off time this week so we can all watch the Scotland game. Glad we managed to sort that one out.
We also have ten players! Alan's on holiday, Stuart's got one more week of toe resting to do and William's not playing coz he's going drinking instead - poor show sir! Martie's back and we also welcome back Si! He's going to play in goals for most of the game and come out for the odd run about to test stuff out and keep warm.
Filling the spaces are Andy Hood again, Andy's cousin, Howard, who's up for a few days, Allan (Ponto's mate who played a few weeks ago) and Stephen (Martie's mate who played a month ago).
We'll pick teams at half time when we've met everyone and have a better idea of what kind of players we have.
See you up there for 6pm kick off and a pint or two! COME ON SCOTLAND! (AND LITHUANIA!!)
It's always hard to choose teams when no one knows the new guys - not even the guy who brought them! It initially looked ominous for the Mince guys as William's mates started pinging the ball about but the Mince guys got stuck in and kept hold of the ball well and took their chances when they arose with only three in it at the end.
Martie and Kyle are back next week but Alan is away on holiday. Si may be back (but only in goals). Andy is playing again but Grant is watching the Scotland game. Speaking of which, kick off is 6pm so we can watch the first 30 minutes up there if anyone's interested.
William's back this week after recovering from his DIY injury - a sure sign that us professional athletes shouldn't be taking on such tasks - but as Gordo has played his last game for this season we are another hardcore down. There is good news on the horizon as Si is thinking about a game in goals next week which would be great news - fingers crossed for that. Still no word from Donny about his return (or even if there's going to be one).
So this week missing is:
- Si (recovering)
- Donny (recovering)
- Stuart (couple more weeks for his toe to fix)
- Gordo (off on his travels soon)
- Martie (in London)
- Kyle (out on the lash)
- Karl (waiting for missus to pop)
Out reserve wise is:
- Craig (bust wrist)
- Steven (bust ankle)
- Paul (cold)
- Scott (getting married at the weekend)
- Brad (work stuff)
- Ponto (on holiday)
- Allan from last week (birthday party)
In is:
- Grant
- Andy from last week
- William's mate from his Saturday game #1
- William's mate from his Saturday game #2
- William's mate from his Saturday game #3
Basically, William's managed to get three of his mates to make up the numbers. I have no idea how good these guys are or what kind of players they are so if you could all bring both tops, we'll just sort out the teams there and then.
Remember that you are now having to pay £5.50 for the privilege if playing now. Please, please, please could you make sure you have the 50p. I can normally manage to get everyone change of £10 and £20 notes but you'll need to bring the 50p please.
Pitch 7 this week.
I'm not sure of anyone noticed but we had a last minute change of personnel last night. One of the new guys, Wilson, dropped out at 5:20pm. I made a couple of calls but to no avail and in a gamble I asked Gordo to play. As it turns out he'd managed to sort his car out last night ad said he would play so we weren't stuck - what a guy! Thanks Gordo!
That was also his last game this season as he's off on sabbatical for three months on a round the world trip the lucky sod. Have a great trip big man and we'll hopefully see you via video link for the Fitbaw Xmas Night Oot. Say "Hi!" to Jon if you see him in Oz. See you in February.
So despite all the new faces the teams were pretty balanced with the ringers (and Gordo) taking and holding an early lead. The regulars decided to wake up and start playing too and it was tight all the way through. A great game I thought.
Next week the subs go up from £5.00 to £5.50. This is because the cost of the park has gone up to £51. £6 is too much and only having £5.10 seems a bit daft. Besides, we need to have some money in the kitty for web site fees, the night out (food and deposit) and maybe a new ball (although we do have one coming from Powerleague for playing hunners of games). I hope this OK - most of the guys I've spoken too seem OK with this. If not, let me know.
MOTM and stats are up.
This has officially been the hardest week to get ten players. Gordo is trying to punt his car tonight, Martie is in London, Stu's toe is still on the mend, Karl is waiting for waters to break, William hurt his back at DIY, Scott's carrying an injury from last week, Steve, Liam, Brad, Craigo, Ponto and everyone else who has ever played for us are all unavailable. Expect, that is, Paul, Grant and Allan. Paul and Grant played last week and Allan has played a couple of times over the years - he's one of Ponto's mates and they play their own game every Thursday - so thanks to all of those guys for stepping back in.
That still left us two short but as luck would have it, one of my mates Dave "Wilson" Wilson has only just returned to Glasgow after a few years in the wilderness of London so he's in. Also, another one of my friends, Andy "Hoody" Hood (not to be confused with Scott's Andy, Andy Armour) is a fives player and has professed an interest in playing in our game. I keep on forgetting this but luckily I remember this week and even more luckily, Andy was able to play tonight at very short notice.
I've known Wilson since 1988 but I don't think I've ever seen him play football, only rugby (which he was not too shabby at in his day), but knowing Dave's natural level of fitness and absolute self belief I'm sure he'll be handy enough. Andy plays fives quite regularly and by his own admission is "not bad" which I reckon is a polite way of saying "I'm frickin' awesome at this game".
So not having seen out two new players play, I decided to just to regulars vs ringers and we'll see how it turns out. If the teams seem ridiculously one sided (but with the defensive work of Paul and Grant I doubt it) we can change them around.