Right, so it has all gone a little bit strange since December so I will try to update you. 

Where to start, well, I went away for a trip to Australia at Christmas, and all manner of developments with our teams, some sad, some very sad, and a couple of good bits too. 

 

Let’s start with Craig Hughes and Newport County. Well, my sister Sarah, a Dons fan, and I went along to the AFC Wimbledon v Newport County match on the 20th December, (the Dons won 3-0). We arranged to meet Craig before the game, and he was a really decent sort. Had plenty of time to chat with us, about his career, his mates in football, introduced us to one of the directors of the club, and best of all, gave us complimentary tickets! That and a few photo opps, and a plug on the Newport County commentary program we enjoyed our day with the Wombles, well Sarah enjoyed it most as Wimbledon won!

So imagine our surprise to hear that Craig had left Newport and signed for Carmarthen Town on January 8th. I got the text through whilst enjoying the 40 degree heat of Western Australia. We have now switched our sponsorship to Newport forward, Craig Reid. Well welcome Craig, good to have you as part of the Oldfootballshirts.com sponsorship family; I see Craig has scored 15 times this season, including a hat trick against Chelmsford, not a bad record. 

 

Well, sad news here too, our sponsored player Scott Chamberlain, after 2 years he has been released by the club. Scott only made one first team appearance for the Seagulls, against Bristol City, although he was a regular in the Albions reserve team. We wish Scott good luck with his new team, Bognor Regis Town in the Blue Square South.

 

Well, one door closes and another opens, we are delighted to announce our new Brighton player, Trinidad and Tobago International Chris Birchall. Chris has joined the Albion for the rest of the season and has already racked up a number of impressive performances for the first team, we’re looking forward to his first goal in Albions colours.   

Annan have had an impressive run over the winter period, weather permitting. A 3-0 win over Montrose and a 4-0 win over East Stirlingshire, together with a 0-0 with Stenhousemuir and a 0-1 reverse at Cowdenbeath. Our sponsored player, Ryan Adamson, featured in all 4 games. There has been a flurry of comings and goings at Annan in the transfer window, but Ryan stays with the club.  

 

 

Well this is the sad one. Bangor FC have announced that next season they will not be competing in the JJB Sports Premiership next season due to spiralling costs amongst other things, and will accept relegation to the Championship next season. A sad day for all the Bangor fans, and we of course wish them and the club and players, the very best for the rest of this season, and beyond. In light of this development the manager has left the club and taken one of our sponsored players, Andrew Plummer, with him to Glanavon. Our other sponsored player, Jim McMenamin remains at the club, and in addition we have picked up the sponsorship for Ryan Brown, the new number one goalkeeper. Let’s hope that Bangor can finish the season in style, and we hope to continue our sponsorship next season.  

 

Well, after meeting Craig Hughes while he was at Newport, I contacted his new club, Carmarthen Town, and we are delighted to announce that we have continued with Craigs kit sponsorship for the rest of the season. Carmarthen play in the Principality Welsh Premier League, where Craig has slotted in just fine, scoring 2 on his debut and more since. Carmarthen sit fourth in the league and are through to the quarter finals of the Welsh Cup. Good luck Craig from oldfootballshirts.com

  

So, a new team in the fold with Carmarthen, I don’t know how I am going to keep up with them all, but here is the Oldfootballshirts league table up to Wednedsay 4th Feb 2009.

 

Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Points
Carmarthen Town	20	12	3	5	35	27	8	39
Newport County	27	8	9	10	30	35	-5	33
Bangor Football Club	27	9	6	12	35	45	-10	33
Brighton & Hove Albion	27	6	10	11	31	39	-8	28
Annan Athletic	20	8	3	9	32	30	2	27

 

Carmarthen go straight to the top of the league, think I might have to do some adjustments to the system to account for the different amount of games played etc, but we’ll deal with that at the end of the season, probably be based on the average points per game or something similar. The winning team at the end of the season has the pleasure of www.oldfootballshirts.com sponsoring a match next season.

 

  All the best