THE boss of the Southern Amateur League representative side admits his team are feeling the pressure.
SAL won the last FA Carlsberg National League Systems Cup in 2008 and with it the big prize of representing England at the UEFA Regions Cup in Italy in October last year.
This Saturday sees them take on the island side, in the guise of the Senior County Division One representative team, at the Corbet Field in the second round of this year’s knockout competition.
SAL defeated the Gloucestershire County League 2-0 at London Lions Football Club in the first round in September.
However, their coach Bob Leeds (pictured) was not too impressed by the performance and blamed the weight of expectancy that comes with being the reigning champions and the team that many are tip to take the honours once again.
‘There’s more pressure than last year,’ said
‘Last year (sic) was the first time we entered. Now we are holders and we represented England.
‘There’s a lot more pressure being champions and it showed in our last game. We didn’t play anywhere near we have been and we were fortunate.’
SAL is an association football league affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance.
It is based in and around Greater London and was formed in 1907. The league admits only fully amateur clubs that are a mixture of ‘old boys’ associations from schools and colleges, business house sports clubs and private clubs.
The League currently has 33 member clubs running in excess of 200 teams.
The representative team regularly play together against the likes of Cambridge and Oxford Universities, with whom the league has close links.
Last night, they had one of the biggest games of their season when they took on the Amateur Football Combination in their annual match.
Leeds said he is unable to choose from a full strength side for Saturday.
‘We’ve got a few injuries, to be honest, but I’m not making any excuses,’ he said.
‘I’m still confident that they will perform OK. I’m confident in the team we’ve got.
‘If they perform on the day it will take a good side to beat them, but I’m sure that Guernsey will be a good side.’
Guernsey were knocked out of the last NLS Cup by the Amateur Football Combination in January 2008.
The match was 2-2 after normal and extra time, before the Sarnians, who at the time were coached by Steve Ogier, agonisingly lost the penalties 10-9.
‘If they [Guernsey] gave the AFC a good game, they will be OK,’ said Leeds.
‘I’m sure that they will be a good side.’
Leeds admitted that he does not know too much about the island side.
However, his team have experience of playing in the Channel Islands as they took on Jersey a month before going to the UEFA Regions Cup.
They went down 2-0 in the friendly.
‘We treated it as a warm up and we came unstuck,’ said Leeds.
‘I’ll assume that Jersey and Guernsey are similar [in standard]. The Jersey side were capable and I’m sure Guernsey will be the same.
‘But I’m not making any assumptions. London is clearly a lot bigger place from than Guernsey and I have more people to choose from but that doesn’t mean a lot to me.
‘It’s 11 guys.’
If Guernsey manage to get past SAL and go all the way, they too will have the honour of playing as England, the famous white kit and all, in the next UEFA Regions Cup.
‘It was magnificent,’ Leeds said about the experience.
‘It was the best thing that’s happened to me in football.
‘We treated like the England team with all the physios and coaches. Everything was catered for us.
‘It’s something that will live with them [the players] for the rest of their lives.’
Article posted on 19th November, 2009 - 2.30pm
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