Sunday League Football

Does anyone play for a team? Did they used to play, what was the equipment, training like?

Mine was diabolical.

Training was on a Wednesday night which consisted of 15 people coming and we played a match, hardly any ball skills or warming up went on. There was 3 teams of 5 and first to score stays on, the other team swapped, fucking awesome but you paid for it on Sunday.

Matches consisted of some rock hard Mitre balls and kits that were too big for us, the pitches were muddy and hard, occasionally we got a good pitch, trying to play a pass along the ground was like trying to boil tea in a chocolate teapot. Which resulted to me missing a sitter for the winner as when I prepared myself to make it 1-0 the ball bobbled over my boot and made me slice it going out for a throw in. It sounds bad, but it was alright, because that's what we were used to. But, it really was shit and boring, no money was invested into it hardly, matches occasionally consisted of illegally playing players to make up numbers, that happened about twice.

So, what was everyone's Sunday League experiences?

EDIT: Pitch sizes were an issue, you had about 4 seconds if not less on the ball to think what you could do with it before some nutter came lunging in with their feet up at you, I was a right-back and playing a ground pass was out of the question which resulted in a big boot up the pitch every time.

Used to play football but quit at under 16's level.

The training sessions consisted of 10 minutes of running at the start, then some pointless drills for 40 minutes and then a 10 minute game.

The drills were the same things that I learned at under 11's level so the sessions were pretty much a waste of time.

Our home pitch on match day was terrible. Even for sunday league level. There was a 6 foot slope going downwards in the penalty box so there were lots of goals going in due to a dodgy bounce. There were also mole hills scattered around the pitch as well so it was impossible to attempt any passing. We did however win every home game on this pitch

I did have some great laughs though:

Watching the opposition coaches fight each other in our title deciding match.
Smacking the ball out for a throwing with the ball hitting my dad in the face with the ball rebounding into my mums face.
Getting the game delayed as I accidently smacked the ball into the bollox of the referee.
Doing a "Suarez" despite being 10-0 down in a game.

But now I just prefer playing with my friends against strangers at the park without the seriousness.

My 35 yard volley

Our coach is a tit, absolutely clueless. Type who picks the same every week. The pitch we have is alright because it's a welsh league pitch but some of the valley teams we play have diabolical pitches. I've played on when were the manager has had to clear the sheep away first.

crump wrote:Does anyone play for a team? Did they used to play, what was the equipment, training like?

Mine was diabolical.

Training was on a Wednesday night which consisted of 15 people coming and we played a match, hardly any ball skills or warming up went on. There was 3 teams of 5 and first to score stays on, the other team swapped, fucking awesome but you paid for it on Sunday.

Matches consisted of some rock hard Mitre balls and kits that were too big for us, the pitches were muddy and hard, occasionally we got a good pitch, trying to play a pass along the ground was like trying to boil tea in a chocolate teapot. Which resulted to me missing a sitter for the winner as when I prepared myself to make it 1-0 the ball bobbled over my boot and made me slice it going out for a throw in. It sounds bad, but it was alright, because that's what we were used to. But, it really was shit and boring, no money was invested into it hardly, matches occasionally consisted of illegally playing players to make up numbers, that happened about twice.

So, what was everyone's Sunday League experiences?

EDIT: Pitch sizes were an issue, you had about 4 seconds if not less on the ball to think what you could do with it before some nutter came lunging in with their feet up at you, I was a right-back and playing a ground pass was out of the question which resulted in a big boot up the pitch every time.

I too played at right back Crump. I remember my game against Forest Green where a player did a kung fu kick into my chest after I played the ball . The referee didn't even give me a free kick for what was a blatant red card as I got straight back up.

It was pretty much the same in every game as the referee's were shit and were too lenient. Because of that I went in hard on every winger I ever played against with many challenging me to a fight as I pissed them off too much .

How I never got injured in these games i'll never know.

Mc Babel wrote: I've played on when were the manager has had to shag the sheep first.

Fixed.

On the subject of bad pitches, we once turned up to play a rugby game at this total shithole, and they were busy trying to move a dead donkey that had strayed from the nearby gippo camp and dropped dead near the half way line.

Nope i was always a rugby league boy, Started at Under 8s and quit at Under 15s but some of the pitches there were ridiculous i played in a snow covered pitch at under 12s , Im starting for the fans team at Bury though with my mate haha.

Haha yeah, CTFC.

How I never saw someone get badly injured I'll never know.

Mitre Balls

Used to play at center half 2 or so years ago. The best thing about Sunday League though was the after game drinks that's probably about it. Refs are useless,some of the tackles you can get away with . Our pitch was quite good in comparison to the rest of the league. Training was shocking though.

There was one biased ref before, he sent off our player for saying poor decision.

Another time he sent off our player getting subbed for walking away from him (The ref). Turns out he was talking to the wrong player and it all kicked off, red card stood for the match though.

Training was a piss about really, my mates dad ran it and it was the same every week. Indoor - running from one side of the hall to the other 10 times, then split into 3 teams for matches. Outdoor - Run around the park, shuttles, match. Still a great laugh though

Didn't score many goals as a CM, but was an assist machine

Mine was too bloody serious. Two 3 hour training sessions a week and each one consisted of an hour of fitness at the start.

To be fair though it did pay off as we were the best team in Yorkshire and won everything we entered every single year, but it became so unenjoyable in the end.

Ben wrote:Mine was too bloody serious. Two 3 hour training sessions a week and each one consisted of an hour of fitness at the start.

To be fair though it did pay off as we were the best team in Yorkshire and won everything we entered every single year, but it became so unenjoyable in the end.

Good lord. I could never understand people taking SL serious.

Now me and some mates go down the park and just play Wembley, you hardly get better from playing it but it's what I'm going to do for the next 5 years because it's fun, unless I join a mens league team, If I do I'm just going to play in goal.

Hated the team I played for last season, quit halfway through because it was shit. Our manager was clueless. As a winger, he had me marking their winger for the full 90 minutes every single game. What's the point in that? That should be the left back's job. He had me and whoever was on the other wing just chasing them up and down the pitch for fuck all. We could barely contribute to attacks at all because by the time our team got the ball we were completely fucked.

We also had a few absolute knobheads. The kind who never pass then blame other people for not helping them when they get tackled, start on their own team-mates and... well, are just pricks in general.

Training was a bit too serious but sometimes it was a laugh. It was kind of stupid though because the slowest people always got punished. We did a lot of running drills and the last 5 to finish or whatever always had to do press-ups.

I went over on my ankle 5 weeks ago and it's been swollen since. I went to the doctors last week and he said it's a bad sprain. I've now just spoke to a professional physio and he said from the sounds of it I've ruptured my ligaments. Fantastic, don't think I'll be playing again for a while.

This is one of the main causes of the lack of technical ability English players have. Indoors football or astroturf would be far more beneficial to younger footballers.

Bobbly pitches are no good for anyone other than the headless thugs who charge at everyone, hacking and hoofing the ball downfield. Still, if you can't beat them, you must join them in this foul tactic.

Do not think that you are inferior to others for missing "sitters" in a match. if the pitch is bad their is not much you can do other than make sure you have the ball under control. First time shots and passing are very difficult and will nearly always be misjudged.

A prime example to make you all feel better is that even world class footballers with stunning out of this world technique and ability such as Dimitar Berbatov can miss seemingly simple chances by miles because of a bobble, even on one of the finest pitches in the world at Old Trafford:



We all know that on a fair and non-biased pitch, Berbatov scores, so there is no need to feel any shame at missing simple chances at Sunday league standard. Just keep it simple and do things guaranteed to work

EDIT: I am appalled at the terrible BBC commentary on this video. "Wretched finish"? That is clueless commentary It is of my firm belief that this is infact wretched commentary and an unlucky finish from Dimitar Berbatov

LiamB_14 wrote:This is one of the main causes of the lack of technical ability English players have. Indoors football or astroturf would be far more beneficial to younger footballers.

Bobbly pitches are no good for anyone other than the headless thugs who charge at everyone, hacking and hoofing the ball downfield. Still, if you can't beat them, you must join them in this foul tactic.

Do not think that you are inferior to others for missing "sitters" in a match. if the pitch is bad their is not much you can do other than make sure you have the ball under control. First time shots and passing are very difficult and will nearly always be misjudged.

A prime example to make you all feel better is that even world class footballers with stunning out of this world technique and ability such as Dimitar Berbatov can miss seemingly simple chances by miles because of a bobble, even on one of the finest pitches in the world at Old Trafford:



We all know that on a fair and non-biased pitch, Berbatov scores, so there is no need to feel any shame at missing simple chances at Sunday league standard. Just keep it simple and do things guaranteed to work

EDIT: I am appalled at the terrible BBC commentary on this video. "Wretched finish"? That is clueless commentary It is of my firm belief that this is infact wretched commentary and an unlucky finish from Dimitar Berbatov

Is that you, Liam?

Blazing wrote:

LiamB_14 wrote:This is one of the main causes of the lack of technical ability English players have. Indoors football or astroturf would be far more beneficial to younger footballers.

Bobbly pitches are no good for anyone other than the headless thugs who charge at everyone, hacking and hoofing the ball downfield. Still, if you can't beat them, you must join them in this foul tactic.

Do not think that you are inferior to others for missing "sitters" in a match. if the pitch is bad their is not much you can do other than make sure you have the ball under control. First time shots and passing are very difficult and will nearly always be misjudged.

A prime example to make you all feel better is that even world class footballers with stunning out of this world technique and ability such as Dimitar Berbatov can miss seemingly simple chances by miles because of a bobble, even on one of the finest pitches in the world at Old Trafford:



We all know that on a fair and non-biased pitch, Berbatov scores, so there is no need to feel any shame at missing simple chances at Sunday league standard. Just keep it simple and do things guaranteed to work

EDIT: I am appalled at the terrible BBC commentary on this video. "Wretched finish"? That is clueless commentary It is of my firm belief that this is infact wretched commentary and an unlucky finish from Dimitar Berbatov

Is that you, Liam?

Absolutely my friend, I am pleased to hear Berbatov is staying at United for another year. Hopefully the bobbles on the pitch will be ironed out so that Berbatov never misses