Rovers demise a real wake-up call

IT’S AMAZING how an empire can collapse in Sunday morning football. The warning bells were ringing at London Rovers when Jeremy Brown stepped down as manager but no-one could’ve predicted just how quickly they would fail.

It’s hard to believe last season’s Division Three champions folded so quickly. Vyvyan Emanuel, who won Team Secretary of the Year in June, was first to go. He was unable to pass up the opportunity of testing himself in the Premier Division with Blizzard Storm. He was soon followed by key players Dovi Vogel and Zalmy Cohen and there was no way back after Brown resigned.

MGBSFL chairman David Wolff recently told me that the league is setting up a sub-committee who will look into ways to attract new teams and players. They’d better get a move on.

One team not complaining, however, are Hendon United Sports B who have received a bye after drawing Rovers away in the second round of the Cyril Anekstein Cup.

Two players in the MGBSFL have been ruled out for the season with ACL injuries. The evergreen Nick Goodmaker injured his on duty for Catford & Bromley Maccabi, while Brady Mac- cabi player-manager Josh Dagul faces an operation after injuring himself against FC Team.

Another man in the wars is star striker Adam Shiffman. The Haroldeans hotshot faces two months out with a recurrence of an ankle injury.

Haroldeans chairman Fraser Saville said: “Adam’s absence leaves a big void. We will miss his goals.”

The Australian selectors might have ignored master blaster Michael Klinger, but the PCA judges did not. Klinger was named player of the year in both the Royal London One-Day Cup and NatWest T20 Blast after finishing as top run-scorer in both formats. See Danny Caro’s weekend round-up at thejc.com. Email dcaro@thejc.com and/ or follow Danny on Twitter:@djcaro