FC CHAPLIN'S / YORKSHIRE PRIDE 2011/12            

May 2009

As if the last Season had not been surreal enough already, there was yet another twist in the continuing saga of FC Chaplin's. After having been regarded by many as the English thugs who would never survive more than a few weeks in a much less physical Spanish League and then almost being thrown out of this same League only a year later it was surely only a matter of time before the vultures would get their pound of flesh.

However, the people who never doubted the team are the people that really mattered, and it has been these people that through pure hard work and dedication to the cause have now proved to everybody once and for all that there is no such thing as impossible. With players like Ross Musk who has played 50 games ( 3510 minutes ) with only a single booking, Alan Belshaw who has also yet to be booked in 45 games ( 3410 minutes ), Gary Lane with only 1 yellow card in 41 games ( 2945 minutes ) and, of course, the unprovokable Manager Lawrence Mentesh who lasted 46 matches ( 3580 minutes ) before finally being honoured with a yellow card.

Thanks to the Management and current players of FC Chaplin's, history has been made and surely even the members of the Spanish League Committee must be checking their coffees for brandy after having seen that the team that has now been the most respectful and the most sporting in their entire League is in fact the very team that they had so often lambasted in the past for being violent, aggressive and discourteous.

Considering that most of the other teams, including FC Orange, have nearly double or more bookings than FC Chaplin's the true immensity of this achievement becomes apparent.

It is an absolutely amazing turn-around and it has been more than deserved after all the knocks that the team has had to endure. This is now, perhaps, the first major step in taking FC Chaplin's towards what they have always set out to achieve; not just  fair recognition in this League but also ultimate success.