ALL CHANGE AT FINCHLEY CENTRAL You put Mark Henry in, Anthony Thomas out. In out, In out, shake it all about. You do the Hector Dackie and turnaround, that’s what it’s all about… As expected with the departure of Gary Meakin and the installation of the Nielsen / Norman combination at Summers Lane there have been a plethora of comings and goings over the past couple of weeks. Resigning for the club following brief stints elsewhere we have Ola Williams (Harrow Borough), David Laird (Enfield Town) and Mark Henry (Enfield Town). Most people associated with the club will remember them from their previous exploits at the club, indeed Mark Henry and David Laird only played for us last season. So I won’t bother penning any additional information regarding the trio. Promoted from the highly successfully academy side were Gavin Suddell, Joe Sharpe, Andreas Kyprianou and Ryan Sellers. Suddell made several more than presentable performances in the senior side towards the end of last season, Joe Sharpe made a singular substitute appearance at home to Cray Wanderers on the final day of the season. Kyprianou was the recipient of the Development Squad leading scorer accolade at the recent awards evening whilst Sellers is a young Jewish lad who has represented the club at a variety of different ages groups, basically an epitome of the clubs philosophy regarding youth development of young local lads. Notable absentees from the current squad list that were included in the roster of players that finished the season included Daniel Braithwaite, Andre Scarlett, Anthony Thomas, Wayne O’Sullivan and Jack Middleton. Former Hayes & Yeading left back Daniel Braithwaite, or Predator has became affectionately known to the fans due to his Jason Lee-esque pineapple hair cut proved to be an extremely competent full back during his short stint at Summers Lane, when Royane Marsh-Brown returned to Aylesbury I amongst others were left scratching their heads wondering where we were going to source a decent replacement from at such short notice has we hurtled towards our relegation dogfight show down. Fortunately Predator slipped seamlessly into the squad making his impressive debut at home to Wealdstone, eventually going on to make 8 appearances. My favourite memory of predator is definitely the full blown conversation he conducted with that pea loving fiend Sallinger during a break in play when we entertained Bromley at home in the London Senior Cup semi final. Although we obviously have Kieran Street coming back from injury who undoubtedly is a very competent left back, his injury record leaves me skeptical as to whether he can relied on to stay fit for the duration of the season. Another player who doesn’t appear to have been retained who I believe could have offered something next season was part time midget, part time footballer Andre Scarlett. (Or Andrew Scarlett if you’re from Leiston). The former Luton Town player proved his worth during his 23 appearances last season capably performing either in central midfield or at right full back. Andre also netted twice as a Blue God last season, away at Carshalton and then a few days later at The Met Police. A surprise admission from this season squad was of course former Barnet striker Anthony Thomas. Capable of sublime snippets of magical skill and infuriating efforts on goal that were often of sufficient height to worry local Air Traffic Controllers in equal measure, Thomas was a player of some talent who made 27 appearances last term bagging 8 goals in the process. When Radio Wingate caught up with the big striker, Thomas graciously thanked the fans for their support during the season however he revealed that he felt he could no longer represent the club following the ridicule he received from a certain fan during their speech at the awards evening. “I feel completely hounded out of the club” revealed Thomas. The final surprise omission from the list for me was the exclusion of the diminutive Wayne O’Sullivan. Former Arsenal trainee Sully was a skilful tricky winger who was able to operate on either flank. During the course of the last campaign Sully made 23 appearances, scoring on five occasions. My personal favourite memory of Sully’s exploits in the famous Blue was away at Harrow Borough. With the scores locked at one a piece he went through one on one with the goalkeeper. He dinked the ball over the keeper, who managed to get a touch on the ball ricocheting it agonisngly onto the post. The 158 strong crowd were then treated to Sully turning the North West London air blue as he launched a string of expletives in Lady Luck’s general direction! Finally a new name that appears to have signed terms with the club for next season is the current Montserrat international full back Dean Mason. The 24 year old enjoyed a brief spell at the academy of Premier League outfit Southampton before signing for Barnet, bringing him closer to his Islington based roots. The right back spent two years at Underhill without making a senior appearance before signing for AFC Wimbledon, with whom he won The Conference South. He then went on to appear for Maidenhead, Bishop’s Stortford, Chesham, Haringey Borough and finally Canvey Island making a total of 86 appearances and appearing on the score sheet 14 times. In 2012 Dean was called up to the full Montserrat International squad and currently has three caps. He also helped this country achieve their first international victory in over a decade when he appeared in Montserrat’s victory against that major international footballing powerhouse The British Virgin Islands.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:04:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015