Vines: I have learned my lesson (From Surrey Comet)

Vines: I have learned my lesson

1:56pm Monday 22nd February 2010 in

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Tooting skipper Joe Vines admits he must keep a lid on his emotions if he is to have any chance of leading Tooting & Mitcham into the Ryman Premier play-offs.

Vines was hoping to return from a four-match suspension at Waltham Abbey last night (Tuesday) - a spell that has seen the Terrors fail to win a game in his absence.

And after the most recent result, an ill-tempered 1-1 with play-off rivals Sutton United on Saturday, Vines accepts things must change.

He said: “I hate watching football and it gets very frustrating because I have no influence over what is happening on the pitch.

“But the fact that I am not playing is entirely my own fault.

“I seem to keep doing stupid things and then having to pay the consequences.

“I am my own worst enemy.

“With other players now suspended the team needs me so I am going to be on my best behaviour.”

It was the turn of Colin Hartburn to feel the referee’s wrath on Saturday, dismissed for two yellow cards in a feisty local derby that saw Simon Parker strike for the Terrors.

Vines added: “Colin’s sending-off was an absolute joke and I do not mind saying that.

“I thought it was a fantastic tackle and even if the ref deemed it a foul there was no way it was another yellow.

“Then you have their player James Norwood blatantly diving and nothing gets done about it.

“Their manager took him straight off after that which tells you everything, but it is still very annoying.”

Tooting host struggling Hendon on Saturday as they look to put right a horror run of five winless games at Imperial Fields.

The skipper added: “We have to get our home form sorted, but if we knew what we were doing wrong we wouldn’t be doing it.

“The key is to cut out the stupid errors.

“There is nothing worse than working your socks off and then somebody making a mistake - it really knocks the b******s out of you.

”Good sides don’t make those errors and that is what we have to aspire to.”

Tooting & Mitcham’s next three matches: Feb 27 Hendon (h), Mar 2 Carshalton Athletic (a), 6 Horsham (a)