OK, so I sat down with some of my players today and we decided on our recruitment needs for next season. We are looking to add 12 more players to the roster and we have identified the positions.

When Blackburn Rovers won the English Premier League in 1995 (Yes the did!) the coach, Ray Harford made a massive mistake.

What a game, what a night, what an occasion!

In front of a record crowd, our team ended their season in a heartbreaking way...it was suddenly all over.

We played the semi final of the conference tournament seeded #2 against the #3 seed. Previous encounters this season went to OT with us winning one and the other remaining a tie.

So, how do you prepare your players for the biggest game of their lives so far?

We play in a few hours, we play the semi final of our conference tournament at home in front of the biggest crowd of our careers.....

Last night we gave them the night off from practice so that they would be rested and refreshed for today.

We finished the regular conference games this weekend extending our unbeaten run to 11 games. We have only conceded 6 goals in the last 10 games, so our defense deserves a lot of credit.

When I say our defense, I should really say our defensive play. We have to defend from all positions all over the pitch and the hardwork our forwards put in pressurising the opponents in our attacking third deserves as much credit as the defenders working hard in and around our penalty box.

Sometimes you just have to win ugly. Do whatever it takes and just get the job done. In what was our worst performance of the regular season we ran out 2-0 winners away from home to qualify for Play Offs with 2 games remaining.

This was a tough game for us. We were playing on the worst field in the league, rock hard, bumpy, bone dry, uneven.

Wow, this team continues to break its own records, we have now won 6 and tied 2 of our last 8 games!

We put in a very solid and professional performance this weekend running out 3-1 winners. The opposition had beaten us in the previous 24 games before this season. We tied them away from home earlier this season 0-0 after double overtime.

In another incredible performance the team extended their unbeaten record to 7 games made up of 5 wins and 2 ties.

What a game! We were tied 0-0 until the 73 minute and were awarded a penalty to go up 1-0. The opposition came back and tied the game up in the 83rd minute. We won the game in the 88th minute from a header from a deep free kick into the box.

Wow, we are having a great season. The stats show this is the best season for this team since 1995! We are currently enjoying a 6 game unbeaten run with 4 wins and 2 ties.

I have learned a tremendous amount this season so far and I am sure over the remaining 5 games of the regular season I will learn some more very valuable lessons.

Saturday saw my college players win 7-0 against conference rivals. We made the decision over a week ago to devote at least half of each practice to finishing and set plays. As a result we have scored 12 goals and conceded 4 in our last three games.

I have a number of effective and demanding drills for shooting and finishing and the players really enjoy them.

Yesterday my players played away at a conference rival's and ended a 24 game losing streak. During this time the team scored a total of 14 goals and conceded over 100 goals!

We played very well, we were disciplined, kept our shape and held the opposition to a 0-0 tie. The game went into golden goal overtime and the game remained 0-0.

After losing on Wednesday 1-0 away from home, we decided to dedicate Thursday and Friday's practices to shooting and finishing...boy did that idea pay off!!!

We played away against a school who had a record of 19 wins and 1 loss against us over the last 10 years. In that time we only scored a total of 4 goals to their 80 goals!

So, soccer can be a cruel game and it can also have the last laugh as we demonstrated on Saturday. The players went from feeling like they were on the top of the world, to feeling like they had been ripped off by the tooth fairy!

We played a team we were more than capable of beating. Very close contest, matched each other exactly in shots and corners, they had 31 fouls, we had 10, so maybe that was a factor.

Wow......what a start to our college soccer season!!

Home game against the reigning conference champions, actually they have won the conference for the last 8 years.

They have beaten us for the last 21 games straight.

Until last night that is!!!!

Last night had to be the best game of my life as a coach.

OK, we are now two games into pre season and we came down to earth with a bump last night.

We played against a school with three times the enrollment we have, a school that has had its best start to a season in their history, a team that was 3-0 and had scored 14 goals conceding none....we lost 4-0.

Ok, today is all about recovery, repair, review and fine tune. Fortunately it is not about going back to the drawing board.

This morning we had a team meeting, then the players who were used last night did their recovery run. At the same time I had a meeting with the players who did not play last night to make sure they understood their roles within the team.