Wymondham Town United Youth Football Club

Thanks very much to all the parents and boys for coming along to the Presentation Event on Sunday despite the appalling weather.

Jon White’s photos of the event are here:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Photographs2Art/WymondhamTownUnitedFCPresentations

I’m also sorry that I didn’t get a chance to spend much time with any of you, but the main apology has to be about the ’speech’: I knew exactly what I was going to say until the moment I had to say it - I was handed the microphone and my mind went blank.

So thank you to the parents for the support they’ve given me and Alex this year - it’s very much appreciated - and thanks also for the signed team photograph. Gestures like that are what make all the effort worthwhile.

One thing that might have caused some concern was when I tried get around to the parents to ask you to let me know ASAP if your lad still wants a place in the squad for next year.

As you may be aware, our squad presently stands at 15 but two aren’t able to play every weekend and for next year at least two or three won’t be able to train with us either. The Lizards have 13 but may be having another couple of boys join them.

So in effect, what we will have are two smaller squads from which we may need to borrow players to make up a minimum 11. For that reason, we will be entering both sets of boys in both leagues so that when called upon to make up a team for a game, we can do so without worrying about players being unregistered.

We do need to know for sure if anyone is planning to leave the team for whatever reason as we would need to make plans for that eventuality: all four coaches (Lizards as well as United) want to continue with two teams going forward, but neither team has a squad of the right size (17 or so) and any player losses could mean us having to consider a merger.

Hopefully, if everyone confirms their willingness to continue, then we go on as before but this year playing teams that do not have massive squads as the Norwich teams in particular do and getting more wins which the boys deserve.

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29 April 2007 Challenge Cup Photos by Jon White

If any game this season had to be won, it was this one: United Under 11s playing the Lizards Under 11s for the Challenge Cup. As I told the lads beforehand, losing was not an option.

As a sweetener, it was ‘accidentally’ mentioned during the pre-match briefing that players should make sure their parents knew that they would be paying £5 for every goal scored and £20 for a hat-trick!

Talking of the parents, both teams had excellent and good-humoured support from the boys’ families, that humour being put to the test given the decibel levels of the coaches’ yelling from the sidelines!

Fortunately, and despite our top scorer this season being away, the lads were up to the challenge and played to win from kick-off.

The Lizards were unfortunate to put the ball into their own net early on from a Nick Parker corner, but we were able to show we could score for ourselves, with midfielder Joseph Bush putting one away for our second goal.

After a couple of close calls, Nick scored our third before half time.

Coming out after half time, it was important that we got the first goal or risk losing the advantage and maybe even the match. The revitalised Lizards came very close to scoring and this was a wake-up call to the boys who began an onslaught with good attacking moves from Jack Morris, Henry Leather, Matt Elvin (striking the woodwork), Nick Parker and Joseph Bush before Dan Brindle was rewarded with our fourth goal.

The Lizards never gave up and a nice move in particular was rewarded with a goal from Harrison Cheal-Ferris to make the final score United 4, Lizards 1.

United Captain Jack Morris received the Challenge Cup from the Lizards’ Will Morley; the cup will now spend some time at each player’s house until next April when the Lizards will try to regain the trophy from us.

Click to enlarge photo

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Fixtures

Jex, Saturday, 7 April 2007

This is a home fixture kicking off at 10.00am at Kett’s Park once more.

Could all the boys please make sure they’re there for 9.30am for warm-up and briefing.

Please can the lads wear our home kits (Red/Black).

Team News

Team Presentations: Players’ Player of the Year

Could all the boys please independently decide who their player of the year is and let me know in confidence. I need to know this weekend, please.

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Wymondham -v- Drayton

Result: 0-7 Loss
0-5 Halftime

Goalscorers: None.

Wymondham Player of the Match: Dan Brindle

One of the worst performances of the season from the boys, sadly…

Thanks again to Roy Parker for running the line for us.

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Fixtures

Training, 31 March 2007

Training this Saturday will be up at Kett’s Park with the Under 11s Lizards from 10.00am until 11.00am.

Drayton, 1 April 2007

This is a home fixture kicking off at 10.00am at Kett’s Park once more.

Could all the boys please make sure they’re there for 9.30am for warm-up and briefing.

Please can the lads wear our home kits (Red/Black).

Team News

Team Presentations: Players’ Player of the Year

Could all the boys please independently decide who their player of the year is and let me know in confidence. Ideally I need to know this weekend or next at the very latest.

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Wymondham -v- Spixworth

Result: 2-3 Loss
1-2 Halftime

Goalscorers: Matthew Elvin, Henry Leather

Wymondham Player of the Match: Zack Harvey

One of the best performances of the season from the boys: we were unlucky not to come out winners, with other near misses from Jack Morris, Matthew Elvin and Nicholas Parker and excellent play from everyone on the team.

Thanks again to Michael Elvin for running the line for us.

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Fixtures

Training, 24 March 2007

Training this Saturday will be up at Kett’s Park with the Under 11s Lizards from 9.30am until 11.30am.

Spixworth, 25 March 2007

This is a home fixture kicking off at 10.00am at Kett’s Park once more.

Could all the boys please make sure they’re there for 9.30am for warm-up and briefing.

Don’t forget that the clocks will have gone forward so make sure you set your alarms properly!

Please can the lads wear our home kits (Red/Black).

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Wymondham -v- Thorpe

Result: 1-7 Loss
0-7 Halftime

Goalscorer: Nick Parker

Wymondham Player of the Match: Joshua Mellor

Our first home match to be played at Kett’s Park after a long absence thanks to the recent weather issues; the day started off dry and sunny but a tad breezy … OK, it was blowing a gale!

A definite game of two halves: the first half we battled into the wind and at times hail and snow but didn’t make sufficient tackles or any real use of the ball and we left a gaping chasm in midfield that was capitalised on by Thorpe.

7-0 to Thorpe at half time.

The second half was completely different and was won by Wymondham 1-0. Lots of good moves, good tackles and with the advantage of the wind, we were unlucky not to have scored more with shots from Zack Harvey and Henry Leather coming close and Nick Parker heading over the bar from another fine corner from Dan Brindle. Indeed, that was the pairing that got together to score our goal: a corner from Dan that Nick managed to hustle over the line to gain our consoltation goal.

All we need to do is develop and maintain some consistency in our play.

Thanks again to Michael Elvin for running the line for us.

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Fixtures

Training, 17 March 2007

Training this Saturday will be on the Astroturf at Wymondham Leisure Centre from 10.30am until 11.30am.

Thorpe, 18 March 2007

This is a home fixture kicking off at 11.30am at Kett’s Park once more. Let’s hope we’re not let down by the conditions yet again… So come on all the Mums and support your sons: after all, what else would you want to do on Mothering Sunday? {cough}

Could all the boys please make sure they’re there for 11.00am for warm-up and briefing and to support the Lizards who are on before us.

Please can the lads wear our home kits (Red/Black).

Jex, TBA

This is a home fixture. The league want us to play on Tuesday, 27th March in the evening but we can apparently agree something else with Jex. I was suggesting one of the Saturdays in March or April, but Our Man at the League was worried about the boys being able to do a Saturday and the following day. He did, however, say that we could play the Saturday over Easter, i.e. Saturday, April 7th, as we are not playing on Easter Sunday.

So, in an unprecedented example of democracy at work in what is ordinarily a benevolent dictatorship, could you please let me have your preference? I can then ignore them completely take the majority view on to speak with the Jex Manager.

Other Stuff

Presentation Event

A date for your diaries: our annual presentation event will be taking place on Sunday, 13th May. I’ll let you know more details as soon as I have them.

Wymondham High School

On the basis that we all enjoyed the facilities at Wymondham High School last Sunday, I had a meeting this morning with the Facilities Manager and the guy in charge of the upkeep of the pitches there (and a fellow High School Governor…).

The bad news is that we cannot play our matches there for the rest of the season as they will be preparing the area for a new athletics track.

The good news is that they may well be able to accommodate us there for the 2007/2008 season for our home matches. We will be discussing this with them over the coming months; from their perspective, a lot of the boys will be pupils there from next September, it’s Wymondham High School and we’re Wymondham Town and of course there’s the revenue to be derived as far as they’re concerned (the school has a lot of local community use of its facilities as part of its business management - well worth looking at if you’re doing community or indeed business-related events).

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Wymondham -v- Norman

Result: 2-5 Loss
1-3 Halftime

Goalscorers: Matthew Plater

Wymondham Player of the Match: Louis Hyett

Our first ‘home’ match to be played at Wymondham High School was after a long absence thanks to the recent weather issues. It couldn’t have been more different today with a bright and warm spring day to the extent that my face caught the sun, it seems.

Despite some rustiness in our team play, everyone played really well today and the result doesn’t really reflect the effort in what was at times a slightly physical match.

The game was marred, though, by a couple of incidents post-match. In the first, one of the Norman players deliberately scratched the hand of one of our players when the teams were shaking hands in what should have been a display of sportsmanlike behaviour. So I had a word with the Norman Coach and left the matter at that.

When it was just Alex, me, Joseph and Jack left, we then started collecting the corner flags at which point a small group of the Norman players, who were kicking some balls about in one of the goals, started verbally abusing one of the Wymondham players within my earshot. It’s not acceptable to me to have our players do this and likewise I don’t expect that behaviour from visiting players. I shall therefore be taking this up officially with the League.

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