The Cup of Dreams

It's the best cup competition in the world. Without question. The FA Cup. This season 762 football clubs entered the FA Cup. Any 1 of them could win it. The beauty of the format is that teams enter at various stages of the 14 rounds based on the league they play in. But progress in the Cup means that they can play higher placed teams. Take Havant & Waterlooville, they play in the Conference South. Last year they beat Swansea City (from the top of League 1) and played Liverpool away. 6 divisions seperated them but the beauty of the cup put them against each other. Unbelieveably Havant lead twice at Anfield and stole the hearts of the nations. Liverpool showed their fitness and superiority and won 5-2. The romance of the cup was back to the showbiz fans and showed them that grassroots football has romance. Chasetown did it too. My team Ware rocked the non league pyramid by beating teams from higher divisions to reach the First Round Proper and capture their moment in the limelight. An appearance on the Crossbar Challenge on Soccer AM, a brief highlight on Match Of The Day, the town of Ware coming alive and over 2,000 people snapping up tickets to watch the game. It was amazing and made me so proud.

Yesterday morning I looked at the First Round draw and instead of thinking "who might cause a giantkilling..." I found myself thinking "who will...". Every year a League club will get humbled by a Non League club, it's just a matter of who. Non League clubs playing Premier League clubs happens more regularly now, Havant last year, Stevenage Borough took Newcastle to a replay in 97. Sutton United knocked out Coventry City in the 80's. That means the bar is raised for Non League clubs. Beating League clubs isnt necessarily eyebrow raising anymore. But still when these scores came in yesterday I couldn't help but cheer and shout loudly... Curzon Ashton 3 Exeter City 2, Blyth Spartans 3 Shrewbury Town 1, Histon 1 Swindon Town 0.

Brilliant. I love this cup!!

Finance

Now this is amazing. With my job at YFC I have to raise half of my annual salary through asking people to give to me each month. This was a mammoth task and started back in August. I had only 50% of what I was meant to and it was getting me down. It's not the easiest time to ask people for money but aside from that most of the people I know are poor youthworkers/students so its hard as it is!! I'd got myself into a financial pickle and was so close to maxing out my overdraft and being able to buy anything or pay for bills. I knew that pay day was at the end of the month but that would only be half of what I'm meant to get due to me only raising half of my side of the bargain. So things were very tight. My car, bless it, was running on fumes.

On Thursday we had our YFC Full Team Meeting and during it we had a prayer time. In 3's we prayed for each other and the full 5 minutes was taken up praying for me as I opened up to how brassic and desperate I was. So 2 hours after the meeting someone who is in a similar same boat as me decided to bless me with £200!! I could not believe it. They said that they'd been blessed with finance recently and wanted to help me out. I didn't know what to say. That money has helped me to breath easier and not panic. But that's not the end of the story...

A couple of weeks ago a standing order came in from some old friends for £150 a month, which is amazing but I thought that couldn't be right. So I didn't add it to my total raised until I'd followed it up with them. The easiest thing to do would be to make a phone call, but I was too scared. I even saw them last week but didn't say anything. So I plucked up the courage on Friday and phoned them. I asked if it was meant to be monthly or a one off (the much more likely of the options), he said "no it is meant to come out once a month". Right i thought, then surely the amount cant be right. So I tentatively asked if the amount was correct and they said yes!!! and then asked is it not enough and would i like more!! I was astouned. With gift aid on top that makes it £192 a month and moves me to 70%!!! I ALSO had more standing orders come in, one for £64 a month (which I knew was coming on), £32 a month (unexpected!!) and £3 a month (complete bonus). So what a great day!!! The end is in sight and I still have to speak to my old church and give letters to key people there.

But it doesn't end there!! My sis-in-law text me to say a cheque from Soul Survivor had arrived for £130 to say thank you for running Sports!! AND I followed up some work from May and the cheque for £100 is on its way as well!! GOD IS GOOD!!!! Within 24 hours of people praying for me I had had all of this happen, not only did God get me out of a hole but He has provided for me beyond that!!

I have learnt some valueable lessons though, firstly I am now budgeting everything that I spend and keep a track on bills and incomes. Very useful. I also now value prayer so much more. Get in there!!

The new car!! And the past week...

So I have a new car!! Its my housemates old (emphasis on old) car. It's a classic Nissan Sunny. It was born in 1988 (F reg) and has been well looked after. It's just clocked up 101,000 miles and now it's mine. Now I don't have a good history with cars (either they die on me on they murder them through crashes). Apparantly Sunny's don't die, so let's see if thats true. My record is 12 months and a few days. Can the Sunny beat that? We shall see. It also needs a new name and people can suggest that to me, I'll add a photo on here once I summon the energy.

Went to a new ground on Saturday and that was Worcester City FC and for once I wasn't there JUST because it was a new ground. AFC Wimbledon were playing there and it felt sooo good to be back on the terraces supporting my team. But we played so poor. We were 3-0 down after 15 minutes and felt like crying. We pulled things back a bit but lost 3-2. Good character for getting 2 but that first half performance was NOT Conference South quality, it was like watching a poor Ryman 1 performance again. And it cost £11 to get in. Grr.

New grounds and new phone!

So the phone came through!! It's very similar in look to my old K810i which is good as its familiar in the way it runs. It looks slightly sharper. Its nice to have the torch function that the K810i didnt have as well as all the extra features...

So at first the internet was very slow and Google maps had been taken off (for some strange reason) by o2, so I wasn't happy! But I then went online and went to www.GetJar.com (wap.GetJar.com from your mobile) and downloaded Google Maps which works perfectly and also downloaded an internet browser called Opera Mini and its so much faster and shows the full internet instead of the old compressed mobile version of old. I also downloaded eBuddy which means you can use MSN or Facebook Chat on your mobile - its actually so much more reliable than Facebook Chat on your PC! I also, and you'll love this, downloaded the Bible to my mobile!! All of this was free. So for the moment, after 24 hours, I love my phone.

So in the past 4 days I've been to 3 new grounds. Firstly Pilkington XXX, it's my local club. They were playing Cadbury Athletic in the FA Vase and XXX won it 2-1. The ground was old and cute, it has a stand of 50 seats and 3 stone steps that go most of the way round the ground. Next up for the me was Sutton Coldfield Town on the Tuesday night. They played Halesowen Town in the League Cup and guess what... it went to penalties! Halesowen scored a 30 yard screamer, one of the best goals I've ever seen, had their goalkeeper sent off and still won it!! The ground was alright, plenty of covered terracing, small stand and a nice tea bar. My final ground was Aston Villa FC for the League Cup clash against QPR. Only 21,000 in that night to see QPR cause an upset. So that puts me on 133 grounds. I reckon I'll surpass 150 by the end of the season, that's unless I became settled at a club.

Phones 4 me!

Ok, so some of you will know that I recently upgraded my phone to an iPhone, I was on a £35 a month contract (600 mins anytime, 500 texts, unlimited internet) but had to go to a £45 a month contract (1200 mins, 500 texts, unlimited internet) to get it free...

At first I loved it. I loved the way that you could have full internet, access to email, a gps system (very helpful to find things like you local HSBC etc), an iPod and other such fun things. But after a week I noticed a few things that I really didn't like. So here's the list: you can't bluetooth anything to any other phone or computer; the camera is poor at 2 megapixels and doesnt record video or have flash; you cant forward text messages and when writing texts you have no way of knowing if youve gone into a 2nd message; you cant have songs as ringtones, only ones downloaded from itunes; and also the battery life is extremely poor which is hardly surprising considering what it does.

So I sent it back, saying I wasn't happy with it. o2 were fine with it. So the search for a new phone began and I came across a very good review of the Samsung Omnia which is very similar to the iPhone but it also does the basics very well. Happy in my choice I phoned o2 who then told me that they don't offer that phone! I guess it isn't that surprising seeing as its the most similar to the iPhone. Vodafone offered that phone and a pretty good contract with it for £35 a month (600 mins anytime, unlimited texts and internet). So that's better than my existing contract and it offers the phone I want. So I then phoned o2 AGAIN and they did the usual blurb and I then said I wanted to end my contract at which point things changed. I got put through to the retention department and they offered me a similar contract (600 mins, 1000 texts and unlimited internet) for just £20 a month! The different phones they offered for that price were the o2 XDA Ignito, Blackberry 8310, Nokia 6220 and the Sony Ericsson C702. I looked at all of them and the winner was the Sony Ericsson c702.

So I'd say that its well worth phoning around and seeing what deals are out there with whatever phones. I think I've done pretty well out of it. Looking forward to the phone turning up now. Remember though, it was only when I said I was disconnecting that they offered me the great deal at £20 a month.

A new era.

It's been since November since I last blogged. That's quite a while. Probably a big part of me blogging again is because I often want to say more in my facebook status than I really can, so thought I'd ramble on here again!

So I'm now living in Birmingham. Got a shared house with Tim and Will in Selly Oak and it's a pretty good house at a pretty good price. I'm working for YFC as the West Midlands Sports Development Officer. I'm also about to start studying for a Masters in Sport & Christian Outreach. Quite amazing how things can change in a year!! My car died after a year, which is good for me, and I'm waiting to get a new one. Still single, which is good. I'm not playing football at the moment due to moving to a new era but hope that will change. Also now been to 131 football grounds.

So we shall see if I actually continue to blog. I think I may.

im back!

well its been a long time since I've posted on here!! almost 6 months, oh how some of you have missed. and how others havent even noticed!!! things have changed big time! I finished uni, got my degree bla bla bla, ive left youth work, i now work in a pub and do football coaching on the side. im also about to move to the pub. and would you believe that i have the SAME car!!! unbelievable i know!

tonight I went to St Neots Town FC, the club that I developed at all those years ago (2000-2002). it was the last time that i will see a game at their old ground, Rowley Park, as they are moving to a new ground in the new year. anyway chaps, see you soon!