[JonInMiddleGA]

July 9, 2012
Veteran F Leon Constantine joins the club on trial. The 34 y/o spent last year at Boston Utd but had his best seasons in League 1 for Port Vale from 05-07 (32 goals in 2 seasons). He can definitely finish, just not much stamina left.

July 10, 2012
We book a couple more friendlies, an away match at NPD1 side Lancaster City and a home match against just-relegated Blackpool now of the Championship. We'll get killed in that one but there's about $30k-$35k profit expected from it.
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26 y/o RD Kevin Lee joins us on trial. He's spent the past six seasons with Southport after coming out of the Wigan system. A potential backup/rotation guy on the backline most likely.
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July 10, 2012 (afternoon)
Blyth (BSBP) vs Musselburgh Athletic (Scottish Eastern Superleague) - Friendly

GK - Knight
D: Kulsten - Mellish - Purvis - Robson
MF: Morrison - Musungu - Lee - Abraham
F: Chinthengah - Aite-Ouakrim
(Available: A cast of thousands)
4-4-2 Standard

10:00 - Chinthengah beats the keeper who rushed out to grab a long ball ... he puts it into an empty net (1-0)
13:50 - Aite-Oukrim with a nice cross from the right channel over to Morrison in the area ... quick sidestep and he shoots ... GOAL (2-0)
29:00- Chinthengah skips past a challenge and heads into the area ... to the right side ... a bender that goes through the keeper's outstretched arms (3-0)
34:30 - Free kick from the left channel by Chinthengah ... plays it easily to Morrison on the near side of the area ... two steps and a left-footed shot ... beats the keeper to the inside of the near post (4-0)

Halftime - That's more like it. Clearly a talent & skill gap today but it's good to see us actually performing to that situation instead of playing down to it.

Subs: Dalton on for Knight, Rickard for Aite-Ouakrim, McGovern for Kulsten, flip-flop Robson to CMR and Lee to DR

55:00 - Sub Bennett for Chinthengah, Harrison for Musungu, Wallace for Purvis, Williamson for Mellish

59:49 - Wallace free kick from the left side ... Williamson diving header ... nicely done (5-0)
60:00 - Sub Pearson for McGovern (knocked)
65:00 - Two nice saves by Dalton, including a one on one where he completely stoned the shooter
69:00 - Sub Smyth for Robson, Christensen for Lee, Sheppard for Morrison
80:00 - Sub Seery for Wallace (mild knock) flip Christensen to DR
93:00 - Stupid foul in the area by Bennett on a meaningless corner, that's a penalty ... Skinner beats Dalton to his right (5-1) Way to put a damper on an otherwise near perfect day

Fulltime - Fair enough. Chinthengah (MOM 9.3) makes his case for more first team action, Morrison (9.2) makes a bid to get a contract. I liked what I saw from Tamer Dalton (6.7) in goal as well, until that wrong guess on the penalty anyway. Also liked the energy shown by Rickard (6.7) in the waning moments. Bennett (5.6) on the other hand, that was just dumb.

Again the comments from Fell are interesting. Lee & Robson are finding it hard to motivate themselves to play "for a head coach of my standing". Morrison & Aite-Ouakrim appear to be struggling to cope with the pressure of interest being shown in them.