Winning and Losing.

Bigger men than Giles Coren will ever be.

Morning all, today I am basking in the glory that is an ashes retention. Once again I wasn't awake to listen to TMS, I went to bed for a quick nap after dinner so I could stay up during the last of the play and woke up at 3am after it had all finished. Doh!
Congrats to England and commiserations to the Aussies. I'm one for rubbing it in in a good natured way like most people after all it's natural, and it's borne out of the fact that the Australians are so good at doing the same thing. Until five years ago they had the best cricket team in the world for 20 years and they let everyone know about it. Now they're going to have to get used to the fact that they are a team in transition.
But should we be unsporting and rude about it? Of course not, it's not British, we are a nation that takes defeat graciously and winning with dignity, so I find this article from Giles Coren on The Daily Fail online particularly offensive.
Do you think Andrew Flintoff would say anything like that? Of course not, he's a sportsman, even Ricky Ponting at his irritating worst would not say anything as unsporting or frankly racist as that.
This sort lazy writing has no place online or in print and it proves that Giles Coren knows nothing about sporting behaviour and has to write this sort of garbage to get noticed. How very Daily Hate.

Dons Through to Round 2

The 3rd game I've been to this season, I've got the bug again! Yesterday saw Braintree Town come to Kingsmeadow for the 1st round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy.
The game was a wee bit dire to be fair and the 3-0 result was flattering considering that Braintree Town were a man down for most of the game after Michael Alaile was judged to have committed a professional foul on Danny Kedwell. Dons boss Terry Brown also admitted that the midfield needs more bite, you can see his post match interview here. There wasn't anywhere near enough closing down from them yesterday, Wellard and Gregory seemed to let the game pass them by and Luke Moore looked well below his best, when he was replaced by Mark Nwokeji in the 2nd half The Dons finally looked like they had some spark about them. I think Nwokeji deserves a chance start more games than he currently is, think back to how well John Fashanu and Terry Gibson used to play together in the late eighties-early nineties, think Keds and Nokkers up front. The game on Tuesday night against Dulwich Hamlet might be the perfect opportunity to try it out!
Back to yesterday though, the stand out players for the dons were Danny Kedwell who seems to have lost a bit of weight in the last couple of weeks and looks more lively for it and Sam Hatton who just seems to play well every week and when Ryan Jackson came on late in the 2nd half he looked very dangerous although his crossing needs a wee bit of work, if he can get the final ball right the Dons will have a very potent right hand side.
The goals were well taken and well worked, Christian Jolley his chance very well after some great build-up play, Mark Nwokeji rounded the keeper after Sam Hatton put him through from a quick free kick and Danny Kedwell finished well from the edge of the box. Three highlights in an otherwise ordinary game. Still through to the next round, lets hope they perform like we know they can from now!
You can see the highlights here.