Wymondham Town United Youth Football Club

Yesterday’s match showed what is presently missing in the team: the desire to win. That was brought home to me whilst watching Match of the Day 2 later last night: all the players in the winning teams particularly cared about the game and wanted ownership of the ball. The strikers, midfielders and defenders were all battling for every ball and chasing any loose one down. If they were tackled, they tried to get it back again.

If we’re going to start winning matches, the boys need to want to win and more importantly, they need to play to win. That means running their hearts out for 60 minutes and not just attending…

Thanks to Nick Harvey for being linesman for us - it’s much appreciated.

Fixtures

Training and Friendly, 2 December 2006

Saturday morning training starts this Saturday - after an aborted attempt last Saturday due to weather - with a friendly against the Lizards Under 11s. Training is at 9.30am and we’ll kick off shortly after this. The Lizards will be wearing their Red & Blacks (home kits)  and we will wear our away kits (Green & Whites) as we will be wearing our Red & Blacks the following day.

Hellesdon (League Cup Second Round), 3 December 2006

This is an away fixture kicking off at 2.00pm at Kinsale Middle School, Kinsale Avenue Road, Hellesdon Norwich, NR6 5SG. From Drayton High Road, turn right into Middleton’s Lane, go past the High School and turn right at the Dentist’s into Kinsale Avenue and it’s on your right.

We will leave Ketts Park at around 1.00pm, so if you intend going directly, you should meet us shortly after 1.30pm at the school. Please can the lads wear our home kits - I specifically made sure that they wouldn’t clash this week…

Match Reporter

We still need a volunteer or volunteers to act as match reporters. The boys really appreciate seeing their names in print but we need people to prepare the words for me to upload to the various web sites and send to the ‘papers. All I need is for one or more volunteers to make some brief notes and e-mail them to me: I’ll do the rest.

Christmas Party

We have made arrangements for a Five-a-Side Christmas Party at Wymondham Leisure Centre on Thursday, 28 December 2006 from 5.00pm to 7.00pm (with the five-a-side from 5.30pm to 6.30pm). We have the main hall for the five-a-side and the bar area for our party food and drinks. It would be nice if as many parents as possible could come along to meet each other.

As last year, could you all arrange to bring along a plate of some sort of party food - the e-mailed version of this newsletter is being copied to everyone so if you could Reply To All to let us all know what you’re bringing along to avoid us having thousands of sausage rolls and no cakes…

Again like last year, we have invited the Lizards Under 11s along to join us so we can have plenty of quick games and we’re asking them to do likewise with the snacks.

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Jex -v- Wymondham

Result: 12-1 Loss
7-1 Halftime

Goalscorers: Matthew Plater

Wymondham Player of the Match: Luke Chalcraft

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Our Home Kits have finally arrived - albeit without Asher’s goalie kit… - so I will be handing these out at training on Saturday, 25th for those who are there.

If the lads who aren’t at training on Saturday - that is, Daniel Brindle, Henry Leather, Joshua Mellor and Matthew Plater - could please make arrangements to collect their kits from me before Sunday, 26th’s game if they’re playing, I’d appreciate it.

As we are almost at the halfway point in the season already and as the boys have worn their official away kits (green/white) for all the games so far, I’m proposing that they should wear their home kits (red/black) for all matches (home or away) for the rest of the season unless there’s a colour-clash when we’re away, in which case I’ll let you all know.

Talking of kits, I’ll be handing out the kits with shirt numbering in more or less alphabetical order as we did last year with the away shirts. Given that we’ve had boys come and go, the numbering has more or less gone out of the window and I need to check who has which shirt number.

Could you all please let me know - preferably in writing/by e-mail as you know what a rubbish memory I have - what shirt number your boys have on their away kit.

See you tomorrow morning for our friendly against the Lizards.

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Today’s match was a return to form as far as I was concerned. The boys played well overall but again gifted Drayton four of their five goals - any mistake can be costly and it’s usually just a mistake or a moment’s inattention that leads to a goal. It seems we presently have a 45 minute team rather than a 60 minute one - hopefully we can do something about this in training (by working on strength and stamina) and in matches when we have our full complement of players (with the addition of Dan Brindle once the League sorts itself out and with Joseph Bush coming back on board after injury).

A return to form it was, nonetheless. The applause when the boys came off the field from the Drayton supporters speaks volumes. Well done everyone!

Good to see Nick score from the penalty spot on his birthday too!

Thanks also to Kristian Websdale for being linesman for us again.

Lost and Found

I have a pair of gloves from training last week, a green baseball cap from Bawburgh Golf Club and a white FITC drinks container. Anyone claim ownership of these?

Fixtures

Training and Friendly, 25 November 2006

Saturday morning training starts this Saturday with a friendly against the Lizards Under 11s. Training is at 9.30am and we’ll kick off shortly after this. As the Lizards haven’t got a match on the Sunday, they’ll be wearing their Red & Blacks (home kits) - we will wear any kits or shirts the boys want as we have an away match the following day and will need our Green & Whites (away kits) for that.

Talking of which, our kits have arrived in Dereham and are presently having their sponsor logos applied to them. Which reminds me: thanks once again to our sponsors for their generosity.

Jex, 26 November 2006

This is an away fixture kicking off at 10.30am at Larkman Middle School, Clarkson Road, Norwich, NR5 8ED. From Dereham Road, turn into Larkman Lane, then turn left into Clarkson Road and turn first right into Motum Road. After two houses on the left there are some gates to some Council Offices and the playing field beyond that.

We will leave Ketts Park at 9.30am, so if you intend going directly, you should meet us shortly after 10.00am at the school. Please can the lads wear our away kits as usual.

Match Reporter

We still need a volunteer or volunteers to act as match reporters. The boys really appreciate seeing their names in print but we need people to prepare the words for me to upload to the various web sites and send to the ‘papers. All I need is for one or more volunteers to make some brief notes and e-mail them to me: I’ll do the rest.

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Drayton -v- Wymondham

Result: 5-2 Loss
2-0 Halftime

Goalscorers: Nicholas Parker (pen.), Matthew Elvin

Wymondham Player of the Match: Joshua Mellor

A massive improvement over last week’s game. Matt Plater and Jack Morris working well up front; Matt Elvin, Josh Mellor, Zack Harvey & Nick Parker covering well and using the wings to full advantage; Dan Warncken, Luke Chalcraft, Louis Hyett and Olly Charlish using the offside rule to their advantage under Luke’s leadership; and Asher Websdale using the whole of his area to make a number of cruical saves.

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Just a few points to cover today.

Today’s match was probably the worst I’ve seen the lads play and was probably one of the worst results we’ve ever had. Every player needs to look at their individual performances and ask themselves what they could have done better. Part of that is their attitude: Dereham is a good team, but then Manchester United is a good team and look what Southend United did to them recently. The match was lost in the minds of a number of players even before a ball had been kicked: turning up with that mindset means we might as well just roll over and play dead (which is basically what we did for the first half). The only shred of comfort I took from today was that we tried harder for the first part of the second half and didn’t actually give up - there was still some spark of the Silfield Spirit there.

Lost and Found

I have a pair of gloves from training last week. Matt P’s? Following today’s game, I have a green baseball cap from Bawburgh Golf Club and a white FITC drinks container. Anyone claim ownership of these?

Fixtures

League Cup, Second Round

We have had our second round fixture confirmed: 3 December away at Hellesdon (I’ll confirm times closer to the fixture with them). Given our league record thus far, it might be worthwhile concentrating our energies on the League Cup…

Drayton 19 November 2006

This is an away fixture kicking off at 10.30am at Drayton First School, School Road, Drayton Norwich, NR8 6EP. We will leave Ketts Park at 9.30am, so if you intend going directly, you should meet us shortly after 10.00am at Drayton. Please can the lads wear our away kits but be prepared to change into our new home kits which may be here in time - I will bring them with me if they are here in time.

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Wymondham -v- Dereham

Result: 1-16 Loss
0-7 Halftime

Goalscorer: Nicholas Parker

Wymondham Player of the Match: Asher Websdale

Quite possibly the worst game I have ever seen our lads play and certainly one of our worst ever results.

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Just a quick update today on purely administrative stuff.

Training

We have decided to stop training on Wednesday evenings altogether.

The space that’s lit up by the floodlights is perfectly adequate for one or two teams to train, but at present we’re sharing the time and day with the Under 11s Lizards and both Under 12s teams. Other evenings don’t really suit the boys due to Scouts and other evening clubs. The training area itself is standing up fairly well at the moment, but sustained rain and use will take its strain sooner or later.

In addition, the nature of my and Alex’s work means that we are occasionally required to be away from home mid-week for work commitments (as I am the next two Wednesdays).

Now, until such time as we effortlessly win every game we play, we need to continue training sessions, so the only viable option open to us is Saturday mornings despite that effectively tying up our weekends for the rest of the season.

We have agreed with the Under 11s Lizards that we will both train at Ketts Park on Saturday mornings from 9.30am until 11.00am and that the last half-hour of those sessions will be an 11 a side game.

So, training on Wednesdays is over and training on Saturday mornings will start on 25 November 2006 (a number of the boys will be away the Saturday before as Robert Kett school is holding or taking part in a football tournament on 18 November).

Regular training fees will be £2 per session as usual.

Home Match vs. Dereham, Sunday 12 November 2006

We’re at home against Dereham this Sunday. Kick-off is at 10.00am, so could we please all turn up at around 9.30am for briefing and warm-up?

Again, it would be useful if someone could volunteer to be our linesman.

Boys Making Their Own Way To and From Ketts Park

At the coaches’ meeting last night, it emerged that we may have issues with boys making their own way to or from Ketts Park for training or matches. Although we are only responsible for the boys’ welfare when they have reported for training and until they leave the session (i.e. we are not responsible for them elsewhere on Ketts Park or beyond as these are public areas), we are obviously concerned for their well-being at all times.

Pending clarification of the child protection issue, it would be preferable if parents or guardians could deliver and collect their boys form matches and training sessions. Failing that - especially in the case of the lads who live on Harts Farm, for instance - when possible it would be good if they could ride or walk each way together.

There have also been instances when relatives I don’t know or haven’t met before have collected lads from our sessions: again, it would be helpful if those dropping them off could tell me of these arrangements beforehand.

–ooOOoo–

See you all on Sunday.

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