Blarney

FA CUP 4TH QUALIFIER from The Recreation Ground, Aldershot (nice little stadium) Big win for the club, always nice to beat a team a step above us. We deserved the win in this one, I think. It was a good contest and they definitely challenged us but we put up a lot more shots and held a small possession advantage overall. We were up 2-1 at the half and then 3-1 late until they put one in late in added time to make it look closer than it was. We are moving on to the First Round of the FA Cup!

ALDERSHOT PREVIEW FA Cup match We travel to The Recreation Ground in Aldershot, Hampshire to in our 4th round qualifying match. In an interesting turn of events, Aldershot just fired their manager previous to this match. Whether that is a good thing or pushes the team to play even harder remains to be seen. Aldershot currently are in the National League but in the drop zone so although a step above us... I wouldn't say they're tremendously more capable. It should be a good test for us.

ELEVEN from Westleigh Park, Havant a win is a win... doesn't matter the score We continue to miss a lot of shots, but we're young so I'm trying not to be very worried. The good side is we are playing much better defense now so we're not allowing much. 1-0 is still a win. We're also holding a good possession advantage in most games so it's all coming together... slowly.

September in Review Schedule Excellent month. 4 matches, 4 wins in league play. 2 wins in the FA Cup to advance. The icing on the cake was 3 clean sheets in league play as well. Just a good turnaround from where we were last month. Table We move up to the 3rd spot. National League South Team Stats First in goals. First in conversion rate. I'm a little surprised our possession rate isn't up there but it's improving. National League South Player Stats Tartt moves up the leaderboard in goals scored. He had a very good month. Finances And we're further in debt... although we didn't lose as much money this month.

FA CUP - 3RD QUALIFIER from Champion Hills Stadium, London (nice little stadium btw) We pulled it out in the end This match was a lot closer than it should have been. We only gave up 3 shots and they scored twice off them. We put up 16 (only 4 on target) and scored 3. We continued our possession advantage in matches. A nice little win streak going now.

TEN from Kings Court good result This was probably the most complete match we've played this season. Clean Sheet. Good possession. 14 shots, 7 on target compared to 9 and 1 from Yeovil. Overall a really quality match from the boys.

FA CUP - 2ND QUALIFIER (REPLAY) from Brickfield Lane, Edgware a little better this time... I guess 21 more shots put up, only 3 on target - this is becoming a problem. But we got the win with a heavily rotated squad so I'm good with it. We're moving on.

FA CUP - 2ND QUALIFIER from Kings Court Not the result we wanted -- guess it will take 2 to get this one done Someone is going to have to explain how we put up 23 shots with only 3 going on target.... and they put up 1 shot, scored 1 and we walk away with the draw. Unbelievable. We did rotate pretty much everyone as we were going up against much "lesser" competition... and almost paid the price for it.

NINE from Optima Stadium, Weston-super-Mare change of tactic... leads to a lot of goals Amazingly though, it was with a lack of shots. 7 total shots but 4 goals scored. Good possession advantage again though. Maybe we'll give this another match and see how it goes.

EIGHT Back home at Kings Court We secure another victory at home Stayed with the same tactic to give it another chance. We still outshot our opponents and this time 50% of our shots were on target so that's an improvement. Nice possession advantage as well. Still might mix things up going forward, will have to play with it and see what looks best.

SEVEN from Saunders Transport Community Stadium in Farnborough and we have our FIRST road win! It's taken 4 matches but we have our first road win and our first match where we outshot our opponents. We did change our tactic and pull a man back as I discussed we might. I'm not sure I love this one and we may make another change just to see what works best, but can't argue with the result. Although only 2 shots went on target of our 10 attempts... so we're still not shooting well. At least it's a step in the right direction.

the Richmond Royal Podcast Jake Spratt Richmond manager, Ted Lasso, was kind enough to come in for a few minutes today and talk about the season so far. Welcome, Mr. Lasso. Ted Lasso It's Ted, Jake, and it's good to be here. Jake Spratt Ted then. So, you've been at the helm of our Richmond club for a little over a month now. You're 3-3 to start the season with 3 good wins at home and 3 bad losses on the road. Can you explain what's going on when you leave Kings Court and why the club is playing so poorly away? Ted Lasso Well, Jake, that's the million dollar question now, isn't it? It's concerning for sure. We've given up 1 goal in 3 games at home but 11 on the road. It can't be for lack of preparedness because we're not doing anything different when we get away than we are when we're home. Whatever it is, I'll take the blame and it's my responsibility to fix. Jake Spratt So far we've seen the same formation for the first 6 matches and it hasn't lead to the best results. You're 4th in the league in scoring but you're being pushed around on defense. You're giving up an alarming amount of shots against and goals against. This is obviously not a sustainable winning formula. Are there changes coming? Ted Lasso That's a conversation I'm having with Beard and Nate the Great. Obviously we don't want to react poorly to a few bad matches but at the same time if something isn't working we need to identify that quickly and make changes before it really snowballs into a big problem. You'll probably see something new our next time out. Jake Spratt Jamie Tartt put 2 in the back of the net his very first match and then has been held to nothing since. He has a woeful 25% shots on target ratio with a 17% conversion rate. Are you sticking by him or will we see changes up front as well? Ted Lasso Jamie is my man until I see that he isn't. I don't think you instill much confidence in any player - especially a young one - by yanking them at the first sign of adversity. I have faith he'll turn this around. Jake Spratt On a personal note, the supporters haven't really let up in letting you know how they feel about you at the matches. Is that something you pay attention to and is it a distraction with the players? Ted Lasso Well given that we're 3-0 at home I'd say it hasn't really been a problem. I know that I have work to do and I'm out there every day trying to prove I belong. Hopefully the fans see that. Jake Spratt Well thanks for your time, Ted. Ted Lasso Thank you, Jake.

Lasso's personal diary So we're one month in and we're truly a Jeckyll and Hyde club. At home in 3 matches we've given up a grand total of 1 goal.... 2 clean sheets. Won all 3 games. Away in 3 matches we've give up 11 goals... and lost every game. We've given up more shots than we've taken in 5 of our 6 games and in the other it was an 11-11 tie in shots taken. I hate to make knee-jerk reactions so early in the season but I may need to mess with our tactics a bit and pull someone else back on defense and just put 3 up front in attack. It's definitely worth thinking about.

August in Review Schedule What an interesting month. 3 wins at home. 3 losses on the road. We gave up a total of 1 goals at home and 11 on the road. Table We're holding steady mid-table. Not exactly where we want to be but it could be worse. National League South Team Rankings We are scoring at a pretty good rate but giving them up just as quickly. National League South Player Rankings Finances I'm very curious how our financial situation is 'okay' and yet we have no money... none.

Six We're back home at Kings Court today... can we get the win Yes, yes we can The good We won. A slight possession advantage. Hall and Hunt score. The bad We still gave up too many shots, more than we took again. By xG we should have lost, so we may have got a bit lucky.

Five Hello from Twerton Park, Bath... home of Bath City Another road match... another road loss The good Nothing. Horrible shooting. Horrible defending. Horrible possession. The bad The opposite of everything good. We are just being pushed around on defense.

Four We're at Bolitho Park in Plymouth, home of Truro City FC And once again a very bad result on the road The good Nothing. Nothing good came from this match. The bad Third straight match where we gave up more shots than we took. We were under constant pressure in this game, giving up 16 shots total and 10 on target. We were lucky we gave up only 4 goals. Our defenders were lost out there.

Three At home again And another good result The good Another win. A slim possession advantage. Kent gets another goal. The bad Gave up more shots than we took again.

Two At home in Kings Court for today's match A little better result this time. The good We won. Possession was good. The bad Not a lot of shots, just 1 shot on target -- but it was all that we needed. Gave up more shots than we took. Defense is still porous and we had to fight them off to get the win.

One We were away to start the season at Priory Lane, the home grounds for Eastbourne Borough It was not a good showing for the good guys The bad Too many mistakes, including not clearing a shot and giving it right back to the opposition for an easy goal. Committing a foul on a bad, bad tackle attempt and giving up an easy penalty shot. And not even realizing we were playing a match until the very end of the first half and playing behind the whole game. The good A goal by Kent and 2 by Tartt give us some hope that we can score.... but stopping the opposition may be a problem.

First Match Preview Trent Crimm - Independent Trent Crimm, the independent. You're managing your first match today. Any jitters or are you feeling confident? Ted Lasso We've practiced well. Trained as I'm told you call it. You'll have to forgive the translation problems. I'm always going to back my boys. We're ready to get started. Charles Townes - Non League Paper Reports are that you're going with Jamie Tartt at striker over the more established Ben Seymour - who was just brought over from Plymouth before your arrival at the club. Can you explain this decision? Ted Lasso Ben's going to see a lot of time up front, but I want to give Jamie an opportunity to show he belongs. I'm not concerned about Ben and when we need him I know he'll be ready. Charles Townes - Non League Paper Any predictions for the season? Ted Lasso We'll be ready to play every game. We're going to go out and give the fans something to be proud of.

Pre-Season, Predictions and Poll Results Pre-Season The main objective of the pre-season is to get match readiness and to come out healthy. I'm happy with how we played but unfortunately we suffered several injuries and will go into the season a little short handed. We rested a good number of players in the final match but had a pretty good showing in our first 3. Golden Boot I think Jamie Tartt might be a surprise here even though he's completely overlooked in the poll. Top Player Roy Kent getting a little love. Predicted Finish A solid 4th place finish is predicted for our club. We'll take it. Poll Results And the winner is ------ "Legend" by The Score It was a very close race between Legend and For the Glory but Legend comes out on top by a few percentage points. We look forward to our supporters singing loud and proud in support of their favorite players when we take the pitch at our first home match.

Lasso's personal diary I'm sitting down for the first time and really looking over this roster and trying to put together some semblance of a plan for the season. We don't have much money to work with, which I was told up front so it's not a surprise. We're operating with about a 10k per week salary budget and spending pretty much every penny of that so there's no room to bring anybody else in, which is a problem because we have holes. I do have some dead weight, but not much considering my lack of depth to begin with and it may be more expensive to replace someone than it would be to just keep the players I have but I do need to make some moves. The roster itself isn't horrible - I don't think, since I don't know much about our competition... but we do have a few good young players and if we can perform as a team I don't see why we can't be competitive. But moving forward I can definitely see problems arising if we don't start winning and putting some money on the books. Up front I think we'll be good, it will be the back-end defense that is my biggest question mark currently and also where we have an alarming lack of quality depth. I could use a couple more warm bodies but without money... it's going to be difficult. I guess it's time to hit the market and see what moves can be made.

The Independent Exclusive Ted Lasso interview by Trent Crimm Trent Crimm Thank you for sitting down with us today. Ted Lasso Happy to be here. Trent Crimm You've come under a lot of fire since you're hiring for Richmond AFC. Do you think the questions and comments have been warranted? Ted Lasso I can understand the concern. I'd probably be concerned were I a fan also, but I'd hope that I'd have enough sense to sit back and see what happens also. To get to learn something about the new head coach and make my opinions based on who he was and what he brings to the table. But hey, I don't have any football experience and obviously football is a pretty big deal over here so it's no wonder that there are questions. Trent Crimm So what can you say to maybe calm down the supporters a bit and to explain what sort of a manager you're going to be? Ted Lasso That there is a pretty deep question. What sort of manager am I? I would hope that I'm someone that brings the most out of my players. In the end that's what it's all about. You can have all the talent in the world but if the boys don't play like it or don't play as a team then talent doesn't matter much, now does it? Trent Crimm So you'd say your managerial philosophy is teamwork? Ted Lasso I'm all about the team. Individual awards or accomplishments are great, I mean everyone wants to see their name in lights and on the leaderboard, but if you don't win as a team then you just don't win. So you've got, what is is 11 players out there on the field.... Trent Crimm Pitch. Ted Lasso Right, sorry. 11 players out there on the pitch. If they're not playing together then nothing is going to work. It's harmony. Each player feeds off the other. If you have one out there doing their own thing that all of a sudden you're not in harmony, there's no ebb and flow to the game. So you want all the players playing to their potential but you want them doing it together. Playing together is more important even than playing good individually. Trent Crimm What style of football do you expect to play? Ted Lasso So there's one thing I know. Points when games. Pretty much the same in just about every sport. I like to play fast and free... but controlled. Hopefully that makes sense. I think the players enjoy it when they know they're going to go out there and run and not just sit back and play timid. So if attacking is a thing in football then we're going to attack. Defense is important -- there's a saying that defense wins championships in American football -- but I think even more in your football, you have to be able to attack and put pressure on the other team. I don't like sitting back and reacting to what's going on, I want the other team to react to what we're doing. Trent Crimm If there's one thing we do seem to know about you is that you tend to have a special relationship with your players. Is that by design? Ted Lasso This is a game. That's what it is. I know a lot of fans think it's more but it's just a game. Now it's one we're all being paid to perform at so that's important. But I think it's my job beyond that to help influence these young men into doing the right things in their lives because they're only going to be out on the field, sorry pitch, for a short time. It's a short time in their life. And their life is so much more important than what goes on out there. So yes, I'd say I try to develop relationships with everybody and hopefully help them become someone bigger than just a football player, something more. Trent Crimm Can you tell us why Richmond? Why did you come here when you seemed to have everything you wanted back in the states with your Division 2 Championship and maybe other opportunities there? Ted Lasso Now that is a really good question. Something different I suppose. Maybe that's not the best answer but it's mine. I'll own it. Mr. Le Bars contacted me a few weeks back and said he had an opening at his football club and wanted me to come manage it. At first I was pretty confused. I had never heard of Richmond and I sure didn't know much about soccer. But as we talked I got more intrigued. I like challenges. He talked about what he wanted from a head coach and from the team and, I don't know, it just sounded like a pretty cool opportunity. It might be crazy, probably is, but we're here now and even if it is crazy, it's my crazy now. Trent Crimm Crazy indeed. I'm still not convinced this isn't a joke, though. I guess we'll see. Thank you for your time. Ted Lasso Anytime.

Press Release Richmond AFC is running a little competition. For our re-branding we want to include walkout music to get our supporters on their feet while our boys take the pitch. We have 3 songs that we've narrowed down that we like and think will get the home crowd going. Go to our website and choose the song that you like best and whichever is the most favorited will became our new entrance theme. These are your choices and a snippet of their lyrics. For the Glory -- All Good Things Better back down you're in my domain Got the whole crowd screaming out our name It's a blowout, it's a hurricane It's over before you know it Why you shaking, we're a dynasty In the making, we're the royalty Now we're breaking down the enemy Move over for the soldiers Take a swing, I can take a hit If we die, it's fine, we live for this It's all for this We're gonna stand on top with our hands in the sky Gonna raise our cup to the stadium lights For the glory (for the glory) For the glory (for the glory) We celebrate with the city tonight Hear the hometown cheer, it's the ultimate high For the glory (for the glory) We do it for the glory (for the glory) Unstoppable -- The Score There's a moment in your bones when, when the fire takes over Blood is running, heart is pumping as the battle gets closer They could say what they want now (Oh-oh, oh-oh) 'Cause we'll be screaming out We can be heroes everywhere we go We can have all that we ever want (oh-oh) Swinging like Ali, knocking out bodies Standing on top like a champion (oh-oh) Keep your silver, give me that gold You will remember when I say We can be heroes everywhere we go Keeping us down is impossible 'Cause we're unstoppable Oh whoa, we're unstoppable Oh whoa, we're unstoppable Legend -- The Score Here we go, here we go It's about time that we set it off Here we go, here we go Red lights, I could never stop A dreamer with the fever to be great was all I ever want Was all I ever wanted (wanted) A fighter with the fever for the fame was all I ever want Was all I ever wanted Got me singin' like Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang Let's fire the weapon Bang, bang Bang, bang Bang, bang Won't stop till we're legend The poll will run until 3 days before the season starts, so make your picks quickly. Thank you.