.::gareth ainsworth-official website::.

more recent - index - previous

28 august 2001
Not been the best week.

Not been the best week for the lads results wise.

After being unfortunate at Burnley and deserving at least a point we were turned over away at Brighton. The lethal Bobby Zamora striking twice to knock us out the cup. The lads were gutted the next day and really wanted to get back to winning ways, soon. Willo's shin injury he sustained against Birmingham on the first day took another knock at Brighton and he came off and that has proved to be a big blow for us. Not just for his great defensive play but we've missed his attacking runs into the box at set plays, I always feel he's going to win the ball or cause some mayhem in the box.

Against Norwich on Saturday the lads had chances in the first half but we didn't get the rub of the green and paid for it late on when Norwich sneaked a goal to take all the points. I didn't think they deserved to win the game but we played below par, especially after the great standard we set against Birmingham. Jobi McAnuff came on late in the second half and it was good to see him get some experience, but it was too late for a real impact to be made. Apparently the Gaffer handed out a few bollockings after the game and must have been frustrated we didn't take our chances in the first half.

Preston was two days later and the lads had a long journey up on the Sunday preparing for the game. One of my old clubs, and I wish I could have been involved, that's twice I've missed playing up at Deepdale. Steve Allen said plenty of people were asking for me and it would have been great to see all the fans and players again. Having not seen the game I can only tell you what I've heard from people at the game. Apparently our two best players were Rob and Chris at centre half, Darren came in for Jermaine and Jobi made his full debut instead of Dave Neilsen. Great again for Jobi who I heard got stronger and more effective as the game went on. Nice to see Darren over his ankle injury too. Shipps got his 3rd of the season on the stroke of half time, one of the best times to score according to the pundits, but Preston equalised in the second half and taking a share of the points. That's not a bad result considering the players we had out and I think most people at the club would have settled for a draw before the game.

Let's hope we can get back to winning ways against Watford a week on Sunday. We should have Willo Trond and Kelvin back for that one, three massive players in my opinion. On the injury front, as I said Willo should definitely be back with Trond, they've both made good progress this week. They both pulled out of their international commitments, which is a blow for both players but maybe there's a silver lining in there somewhere, two less games for them both. Kelvin is getting there but he still has a crack in his thumb and says he wouldn't be 100% at this moment. He also asked me to thank the fans at Burnley who got behind him even after his mistake for Burnley's goal, he says the fans were great and seemed to get behind him, singing his name which gave him a lift. So your support definitely does get noticed by all the players. Kelvin's hard as nails and hates missing games, I would have done the same as him trying to play through the pain but with a fracture it's difficult and he's keeping himself fit at the moment, running, sit ups etc. for when he gets back.

Damien Francis is looking better by the day and is going over to the Bank of England later this week to train with Steve Allen. This is great news for the squad and for Damo and will give everyone a real boost at the club.

Kenny is not far off either and will be back training in September hopefully along with myself. We are both still a couple of weeks away but this time last year we still were a few months off so we keep that in mind.

Peter Hawkins also will be September time, he has good days a bad ones but the bad ones a getting rarer now.

Par Karlsson who has been out with a knock on his knee will hopefully be days rather than weeks and he's also raring to get back.

Kjetil who has been waiting for a stress fracture to heal says he has to wait 2 more weeks then have another scan to check his leg is strong enough. It will be great to see him back soon and he deserves it with the amount of work he has put in. Lionel Morgan is doing more than he was, but still hasn't progressed to running yet.

The only real long termer is big Andreas Lund who is making slow progress compared to Damo, but is steadily coming along, but it's unlikely we will see him figure till at least March/April time.

I was speaking to Willo today and we have a great team in the medical room at present: 1.Davis 2.Cunningham 3.Hawkins 4.Francis 5.Williams 6.Waehler 7.Ainsworth 8.Anderson 9.Lund 10.Morgan 11.Karlsson. wonder how that team would do?

Musical Front now and Trond has written a new song for the band which sounds great so we'll be working on that in the coming weeks. Also after hearing the rubbish coming out of the ghetto blaster on Saturday before the game I have decided to get together with Wu-Tang and create a CD with a bit for everyone on there, Rock and Garage mainly but I'll be putting the track list on my site soon. (might even sneak an Ainsworth,Perry,Anderson song on there!)

Hopefully England will do the business on Saturday and I'll have some good news for next week.

Gareth.