Hendon were untouchable last season as they clinched the treble. Boss David Garbacz tells Danny Caro that retaining the league is the priority, but don't back against Les Invincibles bagging the lot again.
Competitions entered: MSFL Premier, Cyril Anekstein, Peter Morrison and London Sunday Challenge Cup which is a step up from the London Intermediate Cup from last year.
Hopes for season: It would be easy and slightly crazy to say that our hopes for the season are to emulate last year and win the lot again. More realistically our number one target is to retain the Premier League championship and anything else on top of that would be a bonus. We are there to be shot at and are under no illusions as to how hard it will be this year to maintain last year’s standards, but we believe in ourselves and our principles and are quietly confident of another memorable season.
Main challengers: I think the Premier League this year will be very competitive with any one of a number of teams fully capable of mounting a title challenge. London Maccabi Lions have an excellent crop of youngsters coming through and they will be a force to be reckoned with as will Redbridge inevitably and the newly combined Raiders team. However, the team I predict to be the biggest challengers to our crown would be new boys Oakwood who have a very talented squad, take their football very seriously and above all else have that hugely important commodity at this level – great team spirit and togetherness. It seems a bit weird that there is no Neasden to resume good relations with but hopefully we might draw them in a cup.
New signings: On balance our squad has not changed a great deal this year. We have lost both the Bentley brothers who I personally will miss more than most, as well as the hugely talented Yoav Kestenbaum who is on a gap year in Israel, however ,despite our success last year we saw little contribution from Dovid Korman and Ben Kon due to injury and Yishai Last who was away. All three are now back and fully fit and have looked super sharp in pre-season as if they all have a real point to prove. I know it is an old cliché but they really are like three new quality signings and should all have big years. We also managed to retain the great Ben Lauffer’s services for another year despite his wife giving birth to second child and that was big for us for obvious reasons. In terms of actual new signings to the club, we have signed Ari Nevies from our B’s who is a fabulous young defender to replace Paul Bentley and are also looking at three quality youngsters at the moment but probably only have room for two and we will announce who they are as and when the deals are finalised. Once these have been sorted we will have at least as good a squad as last year if not better.
Captain: Josh Lipman has replaced Josh Bentley as club captain.
Ones to watch: As has been mentioned above, I am expecting big things this year from Dovid Korman after a disappointing season last year. Technically, he is the best footballer at the club apart from Greg Corin and he looks sharp and hungry. Rafi Kon is another who has impressed enormously in pre-season and is another set for a big year. He has enormous confidence for a young lad and is vital to our general possession and passing game as he hardly ever gives the ball away. At the back – he is hardly one to watch as he has been around for so long, but Josh Lipman just gets better and better and as long as he stays fit all year, teams will find it incredibly difficult to score against us.
Home ground: Is still Hadley . It is never the smoothest of surfaces but we know where each and every one of the bumps are and that must be to our advantage. The only trouble is Lauffer hates playing there and always needs to be massively schmoozed to turn up to home games!
Sponsor: We do not have official kit sponsors but the Kisharon charity for children with learning difficulties is very close to all our hearts and we wear their name with pride across our shirts.
What will the team bring to the league this season? We will bring what we always bring – great attitude , fair play, no backchat, good football , good organisation and a squad full of the most determined Jewish footballers in the country.
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