Shall we Sing a Song for you?

Wow, this is impressive! If I was Phil I’d want the scoreline plastered all over the place! Here’s his match report:

Shall We Sing has produced some unbelievable material in the past, but I would suggest this will take some beating. To keep you reading, I kept the scoreline out of the headline. Renwick stuck 20 on an absolutely dire Bloomfield eleven on Wednesday night. Embarrassingly enough Bloomfield managed to score four themselves. In a match that was bizarre in just about every way (a last minute change of fixture, an 8 o’clock kick off, a gravel surface, a goal keeper in tracksuit bottoms), Renwick put in as professional a performance as they could have, under the circumstances, and scored plenty of goals for their two dedicated supporters huddled in the cold on the sidelines.
At the time of writing, it is only an hour after full time, but I can’t remember the goals in detail! The first came in the first minute and we took it from there. New signing Peter Henderson had a fantastic debut performance upfront, though anything less against such poor opposition and he would have been making an early exit from the squad. He scored our first and went on to score seven more during the game. Mark McCavery started in midfield and again determined the running of the game for long spells, scoring five goals in the process, most of them headers. One was almost a carbon copy of the free kick Phil scored last week – Phil’s cross/shot looked like it might be heading for the top corner again but Mark made sure with a powerful header that the guy standing between the posts (I think he fancied himself a keeper) couldn’t keep out. Ian Buchanan, frustrated to the point of frustration personified against the Law Society last week, this week found the time and space to score five, some of them lobs from outside the box. Phil also managed to score again, with one in each half.
The quality of the opposition allowed Renwick to indulge in some radical changes of position, which saw Ian Dunwoody and Steve McCollum head upfront for a while, but unfortunately they couldn’t get any goals. The only bad news from the night was that Andy McKelvey picked up another injury early on. “P10” will have a scan and be assessed by team medics tomorrow.
It was interesting after the game to hear our two fans comment on the fact that Renwick behaved like a proper team compared to Bloomfield, who conducted themselves in a less than exemplary fashion. They clearly have a long way to go to reach the standards required of the Belfast Mini League. Their attitude was summed up late on by the goal keeper. As a Renwick attack came to nothing down the wing, he was told to stop talking on his mobile phone and take the goal kick. Oh. Please.

Team (4-4-2) : J. McCollum – S. Curry, A. McKelvey (for G. Hughes), S. McCollum, I. Dunwoody – P. Dunwoody, M. McCavery, C. Hyndman, B. McAuley – I. Buchanan, P. Henderson

Unfortunately the team photographer didn’t venture out into the cold October night so no photos this week!

Best Scottish Birthday ever!

The board also said ‘No-one is righteous’ at the top…

Presents included Irn Bru and Refresher Buns!! :-)

Yes I know it was McDonalds but having been to a symphony two days (see below) before I’d had quite enough culture to last me a good while!

Culture

The RSNO do Mahler’s 3rd. Or something.

Tim was in his element

Housewarming

The Falkirk Wheel

Up a tree in Rosemount

Oi Oi

Jumping over a stream

CY

Behind Enemy Lines

Random

Everyone – as drawn by Heather

Match Report by Philip Dunwoody

Renwick opened their Belfast Mini League campaign with a great performance that ended in a disappointing defeat at Ozone on Wednesday afternoon. Joel Loughridge, back from injury, made his first appearance of the season in goal, whilst Gareth Hughes moved to centre back in the absence of Ian Dunwoody. Ian Buchanan also made his full debut. In a first for a Renwick game, an official IFA referee officiated, which saved any arguments over offside or throw-ins!
Renwick suffered a disastrous start to the match, conceding within the first three minutes of the game, when the lawyers worked it down the Renwick left and forced in the resulting cross. It was always going to be an uphill struggle after this, but the team showed great commitment; Queen’s looked fit and ambitious, but Mark McCavery and Andy McKelvey made life difficult for the opposition in midfield, and Steve McCollum kept the back four on top of things for most of the first half. Queen’s played some nice football but should have made more of their possession. Unfortunately Renwick could not capitalise on this, and, long range efforts from Andy and Conor aside, did not pose a strong enough threat in attack in the first half.
The game was fairly physical, and wingers Phil and Simon, as well as striker Ian Buchanan, weren’t having much luck with the high balls that came their way. For a while it looked like we might hang on until half time and regroup, but The Lawyers finished the half strongly. After being thwarted by a number of well defended corners, they finally forced in a second minutes before the half. Again this was a terrible time to concede, and it looked like a long way back from here.
Nevertheless the team came out with renewed commitment in the second half. Barry McAuley came on and played on the wing to offer something more in attack, but again we didn’t have enough going forward. About twenty minutes in Queen’s got their third.
However, Renwick now began playing their best football of the afternoon. The defence was immense for the rest of the game; Steve put in a man of the match performance and made some brilliant tackles, along with Jonny McCollum and Andy. From their work at the back we got the ball forward more, and the midfield finally started linking with Ian and Barry, who were not being given much room to work by bigger, more physical opposition. With about twenty minutes to go we got our goal. Some hard work from Mark got us a free kick out on the left near the edge of the box, and Phil finally scored from a free kick, when he hit a curling shot into the far top corner of the net. This gave us renewed energy going forward, but again we were limited mainly to half chances; Phil was put through by Ian but his shot went just over the bar, whilst Andy Mckelvey and Mark also had some good shots thwarted. Renwick couldn’t force any more goals, and it finished 3-1 to The Lawyers. Despite the score the team took more positives than negatives from the game, and will not play many teams as good as the Law Society this year. Onwards and upwards!

Team (4-4-2): J. Loughridge – P.McConaghie (J. McCollum), G. Hughes (P. Dunwoody), S. McCollum, A. Lynch – P. Dunwoody (B. McAuley), M. McCavery, A.McKelvey, S.Curry – C. Hyndman, I. Buchanan

Next week: World Eleven United (Oh Please)

Photos: (courtesy Bob Parkes)

Phil and Stevie

Wow a real ref

That looks nothing like Joel

You’d a thought they would have retired the number 10 shirt :-P

Simon has either grown in stature or he’s just very near the camera

Who ARE these people?!

THAT looks more like Joel

Where’s reigning fan of the year Daphers?

A couple of weeks ago we did the full-blown Covenanter Tour. Here are some photos, courtesy of everyone.

Castle Campbell

Home of Archibald Campbell, Marquess of Argyll

Do you know anyone who would drive a people carrier down a road like that?!

St Andrews

Patrick Hamilton

George Wishart

Cathedral

Samuel Rutherford

The beach used in the filming of Chariots of Fire

Leuchars

Magus Muir

Revenge for Sharpe

Falkland

“The original Cameron House”

Falkland Palace

The way home: the last photo ever taken with my camera