A second half Gareth McAuley header gave a strong Ipswich Town side a 1-0 friendly victory over Bury Town at Ram Meadow. The home side kept Town on terms in the first half, but the visitors made their superiority show after the break and in the end should have won more comfortably.
Town lined up with Tamás Priskin in the centre of the front three in Connor Wickham’s absence and Reggie Lambe on the bench, Carlos Edwards on the left and Jon Walters on the right. Luke Hyam took up the deeper lying midfield role with Grant Leadbitter and Conor Hourihane ahead of him.
New man Hourihane hit the game’s first shot in the 17th minute, albeit well over after a neat Edwards layback.
It had been a slow start from Ipswich with Ryman League Premier Division Bury passing the ball around neatly, but in the 20th minute skipper Jon Walters went close when he nodded Grant Leadbitter’s hook into the area over after a corner.
Five minutes later Leadbitter shot wide, then just before the half hour mark Jon Walters took down a long pass, cut in and hit a shot over.
Colin Hourihane struck a left-foot shot across the face of goal in the 33rd minute, then the home side came close to going in front with the move of the half. Former Blues academy striker Kieran Leabon fed Chris Henderson down the left, Brian Murphy pulling off a fine save and also stopping Scott Chaplin’s rebound.
New signing Mark Kennedy was introduced at half-time, taking over from Conor Hourihane, who as at Leiston last night impressed, this time in a more attacking role. His left-foot set pieces also look likely to become a regular fixture once he has established himself in the first team. Kennedy went to left-back with Shane O’Connor switching to midfield.
Early in the second period Edwards headed a Peters cross straight at Garnham, then the Bury keeper, who played a few games for Town’s U18s and reserves in 2005 and 2006, saved Leadbitter’s low 20-yard drive.
In the 51st minute Priskin had another good chance to put Town in front but failed to get a significant touch as he looked to take the ball past the keeper and Garnham got a toe to it.
Gareth McAuley was denied twice on the hour mark from a corner. First the Northern Irishman’s header was cleared off the line, then his subsequent effort was blocked.
From the resultant corner, the ball was played back in from deep by Peters, Walters flicked on, Priskin laid off to O’Connor, who forced Garnham to make the save of the game, pushing his shot wide.
The goal which had been coming for most of the half finally came in the 63rd minute, Gareth McAuley powerfully heading in from eight yards from a cross from the right. While Bury prepared for the kick-off, Lambe replaced O’Connor with Edwards moving into the centre.
In the 74th minute Priskin, who was getting more and more into the game, twisted and turned his way into the penalty area but stabbed weakly at the keeper, who also stopped his spectacular overhead kick rebound.
Four minutes later a Priskin flick put Walters in the clear, but the Town skipper saw his effort saved. Soon after, Leadbitter’s shot from the edge of the box deflected through to the keeper.
Bury will be pleased with the manner in which they matched Town in the first half, but on the balance of the second period the Blues deserved the win and probably should have scored more than the single goal with Tamás Priskin and Jon Walters amongst those guilty of misses.
New man Kennedy looked assured and confident at left-back, loudly issuing instructions to his team-mates throughout, giving little sign that he had only joined the club earlier in the day.
Four members of the Bermuda Football Referee Union will be heading to Jamaica as the head of FIFA's refereeing department Fernando Tresaco-Garcia and deputy general secretary of CONCACAF Ted Howard will lead a high level delegation which will conduct a FUTURO III Refereeing Course between August 2-7 at the Superclubs Breezes Resort and Spa, Rio Bueno (formerly Grand Lido Braco) Trelawny, Jamaica.
The course is being held by FIFA's Development Office (Port of Spain) in association with the Jamaica Football Federation.
Bermuda Football Association 2nd Vice President Gregory Grimes, Bermuda Referees President Kuhn Evans, along with Anthony Mouchette and Granville Bennett will make up the Bermuda team.
Garcia and Howard will be joined by Ramesh Ramdhan, FIFA Referee Development Officer, Merere Gonzales, FIFA/CONCACAF Fitness Instructor and Peter Prendergast FIFA Referee Instructor in an intense period of instructions involving some 30 participants from eight countries in the Caribbean Football Union. These are Jamaica, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The FUTURO III Refereeing course will focus on the education of referee technical instructors, referee fitness instructors, and heads of refereeing.
This is the second consecutive year that this refereeing course will be held in Jamaica.
The Courses will be broken down as follows: 02-07 August -- Course for technical instructors – Mouchette & Bennett
02-04 August -- Course for heads of refereeing - Grimes
05-07 August -- Course for fitness instructors – Evans
The programme for the Technical Instructors Course includes: * Fair Challenges * Serious Foul Play * Breaking up a Promising Attack * Simulation Offside, Interfering with Play * Concentration and alertness The programme for Heads of Referee Course includes: * Promotion and demotion of referees * Recruitment of referees * Assessment of referees
The programme for fitness instructors course includes a fitness test and will examine injury prevention and strength.
The opening ceremony for the course will be held next Monday in the main conference room of the resort, beginning at 9:00 am. Special guest speakers will include president of the JFF, Captain Horace Burrell, Fernando Garcia and Ted Howard.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Lambe Unused Sub in Ipswich Win
IslandStats.com
Reggie Lambe was an unused substitute, as Ronan Murray and David Cawley scored the goals as a young Ipswich Town second string side won 2-0 at Leiston. However, the evening was less than a success with Luciano Civelli and Alan Quinn substituted with injuries inside the first six minutes.
Quinn was first to succumb, pulling a groin muscle as he took a freekick only a minute into the game. Civelli wasn’t far behind him, jarring his knee in a solid challenge.
The Argentinean was substituted as a precaution, immediately icing the knee which suffered the multi-ligament injury which kept him out of action for 16 months. The left midfielder’s condition will be assessed tomorrow.
Town appeared to be unsettled by the early injuries - first-year pros David Cawley and Jamie Griffiths taking over in the midfield - and Leiston went close to going in front when Danny Cunningham was sent through on goal only for Arran Lee-Barrett to pull off a fine save. Soon after, Mark Goldfinch’s shot deflected past the post.
Ipswich finally went in front in the 36th minute when Lee Martin’s cross from the left deflected into Ronan Murray’s path and the Republic of Ireland U19 international flicked the ball over keeper Jamie Stannard from close range.
The second period was similarly short on goalscoring opportunities, Pablo Couñago failed to seriously test Stannard with an early strike, while Jack Ainsley also hit an effort.
Billy Clark replaced new signing Conor Hourihane in the 59th minute, the Irish youngster having put in a tidy if generally unspectacular display in the holding midfield role.
The match almost boiled over in the 65th minute when Michael Brothers stood on the grounded Jamie Griffiths, Seb Dunbar reacting angrily and the referee having to calm things down.
Soon after, Leiston almost got back on terms when the ball scraped narrowly wide after a goalmouth scramble, then as the game moved into the final 10 minutes Danny Smy headed a left-wing cross against Tom Eastman, the home contingent calling for what would have been a very harsh penalty.
Ipswich sealed the win in the 81st minute when Ronan Murray rode a couple of tackles on the edge of the area, then fed Jamie Griffiths to his left, the winger sending in a low ball which David Cawley bundled home.
Town deserved the win, although Leiston will be pleased with the way they matched the young Blues for large parts of the game. Boss Roy Keane watched the match from amongst the crowd, leaving reserves manager Chris Kiwomya to take control of the team.
The following is a Press Release was sent to all media this afternoon from the BFA on behalf of the President Richard Calderon.
The information below is in the release nothing more, other media will spend an enormous amount of time making their own comments or finding those who are willing to have their say, however we feel it is only right to let the President’s speech be received by you the public.
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A recent change in employment and the demands of my new position has required that I step down from my role as the President of the Bermuda Football Association (BFA), effective the night of the BFA’s Annual General Meeting, scheduled for late September, 2010.
It has been a genuine pleasure to serve in this capacity over the past two years and while there remains work to be completed, I leave with the knowledge that much has been accomplished over this period and that the foundation and road map has been laid for my successor and new executive to build on.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the BFA’s fine staff of professionals ably led by the General Secretary, David Sabir. Equally, it has been my pleasure to work with the BFA executives who generously volunteer their time to serve football.
I wish all of those in football continued success in all of their endeavors and will continue to follow their progress closely, albeit, from the side lines.
Regards, Richard Calderon President
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Women's & Freddy Hall Updates
IslandStats.com
Women’s Football
According to a report posted on the Bermuda Football Association’s website, the Bermuda Football Association Competition Committee with the support from the clubs that run Senior women’s football, have agreed to move forward with a Island Soccer League (ISL) style set up with a centralized league for one season. Just like the ISL set up, all female players will register in a central Data Base and from there they will be placed on teams via a draft system.
In order to gets this structure going, the BFA is asking coaches who are interested in coaching in the new structure to apply to dbroadley@bermudafootball.com to be considered for one of the positions for the up and coming season. Priority will be given to those coaches who were coaching for the clubs participating in the 2009/10 season.
The BFA will accept applications up until 5pm on Tuesday the 27th July where the selections will be made. The coaches selected will then pick an assistant coach who will participate in the coaching education structure that will formulate the league, its rules and format for this one year trial period.
No applications will be accepted after the deadline on Tuesday 27th of July.
Freddy Hall
Hall was an unused substitute as Plymouth Argyle conceded an early penalty, that was converted by Nick van der Velden registering the game's only goal. The late dismissal of Plymouth forward Steve MacLean after a confrontation with AZ Alkmaar captain Kew Jaliens, top and tailed Argyle's prestige friendly in Holland.
There was still much positive to be taken by Peter Reid's willing team, not least the committed display of the entire 11, notably decent individual displays by Anton Peterlin and Krisztián Timár.
This second game of the Pilgrims' pre-season visit to Holland was a step up in every way.
In the 7th minute as Plymouth defended a right-wing corner, the AZ attackers congregated, bus-queue style, on the penalty spot. They were matched by their Plymouth markers, there was much shoving and jostling, and van der Velden went down with the referee pointing to the spot.
Van der Velden recovered from his ordeal to convert the spot-kick low to Romain Larrieu's right, while the Frenchman dived to the right.
