Saturday, June 20, 2009

Casual as Fuck 1994/95







The Casuals FC were born in 1994 mainly because I had been given the boot from the local club I had previously played for.
I had a few British mates and we all decided it would be a laugh to start up a team of our own. We were pretty much a bunch of misfits, mainly Brits who ranged from piss poor to pretty fucking good. With the addition of a few surfer/pot smoking yank types we (or I) somehow pulled it all together and started off in the 3rd division of the Tri County Soccer League.
We lost our first couple of friendlies and to be honest we were doing it for a laugh amongst mates rather than anything else.
We were sponsored along the way by Lake Lindero Coutry Club, The Borderline, Simi Valley Plumbing and Soccer Kick who all proved to be very helpful in getting us the funds and equipment needed for that crucial first season.
An interesting fact is that green and white became the Casuals official choice of colours by accident. I ordered the same unbro kits in blue and yellow stripes but they didn't have them in stock, so Dave Wynalda called me the Monday before our first game letting me know. I asked him what other choices I had, he said black and white, red and white, blue and white or green and white adding that they would ship them via UPS next day delivery at no extra cost.
So I picked with the green and white off the top of my head and the rest is history.
Our first proper game in Oxnard didn't get off to the greatest start, we found ourselves 0-1 down after 5 minutes, but after Nick Gillitt scored the first ever Casuals league goal our confidence was boosted and we went on to win by every Englishman's favourite score 4-2.
We started off on a roll and what was supposed to be a laugh became a bit more serious as we won our first 7 games. Our squad was a small so I made the decision to recruit fellow Brits Gary Moss, Chris McGinty, Dave Allan and ex-pro Jimmy Rolland along the way.
Despite an early Cup exit we strolled through the division winning the league with 3 games to go against Hibs, our closest rivals.
We eventually won all 18 of our league games, playing some great football and enlisting Mr and Mrs Swindonfan and Eric Wynalda's dad Dave into our band of travelling supporters.
Chris Wildman and his brother John were brilliant for us as were Northam siblings Matt and Jimmy. We had a great squad but this four really were the backbone of the team that first season with Jimmy Northam's one man show against Malibu my Casuals FC highlight until this day.

Oxnard Utd (Away) Won: 4-2
Amgen (Home) Won: 13-1
CSC76 Centurians (Away) Won 6-1
Malibu (Away) Won: 5-1
Ventura (Away) won: 1-0
Rangers (Home) Cup 1st round Lost: 3-1
Oxnard (Home) Won: 6-0
Ventura Police (Away) Won: 4-3
Amgen (Away) Won: 4-2
Malibu (Home) Won: 5-4
Ventura Police (Home) Won: 3-0
Ventura (Home) Won: 6-1
CSC76 Centurians (Home) Won: 1-0
Crusaders (Home) Won: 4-1
CSC76 Kickers (Away) Won: 6-3
Crusaders (Away) Won: 4-0
CSC76 Hibernians (Away) Won: 4-1
CSC76 Kickers (Home) Won: 6-0
CSC76 Hibernians (Home) Won: 1-0

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