The Manchester Cup 2008 tournament that the U12, U14 and U16 age groups competed in over the Easter weekend was a fantastic experience and one of the best footballing events of their lives. The players had three nights in a hotel with the group stage games on the Saturday followed by the last of the group games and the finals on the Sunday. The whole experience was hugely beneficial in terms of players being responsible for preparing for matches independently and introducing the players to living with their teammates over a short period. Entering into tournament football is a completely different environment to compete in, with lots of games over a short period of time and trying to negotiate your way through to the eventual final. This is excellent experience for any players that may be selected for the England training camps and being involved in any International tournaments with the National team.
All the players gave everything over the weekend. The U12’s played some of the best and most attractive football seen at the entire tournament and were unlucky to finish fifth in their group after an excellent 1-0 win over Liverpool.
The U14’s went all the way to the Manchester Cup final itself only to lose 2-0 to a very strong and powerful Greater Manchester Girls Centre of Excellence but they did fantastically well to get there with some excellent performances in the group stage games.
The U16’s eventually finished fourth in their group. I think it is fair to say that they started slowly and got stronger and stronger but you are always playing catch –up in tournament football unless you start well. Their most notable performance was a 2-0 win over a very good Blackburn Rovers team and in the end I feel they could have won the competition with a little more experience.
Players and the coaching staff have all learnt valuable lessons from this experience and it is something we will look to do every season and next season we will be looking to enter the English Ladies Super Cup held at Calverton in Nottinghamshire.
The players faced West Riding FA Centre of Excellence at a neutral venue at Joseph Whittaker Sports College in Rainworth, Notts last Saturday (12th). Due to many girls being away on family holidays and school trips that it was possibly the youngest teams that we have ever put out at U12, U14 and U16. All the players showed terrific character and ability, especially the U12 and U14 with so many excellent performances it would be unfair to single out anyone in particular.
This Saturday (19th) see a long trip to Salford Sports Village to face a strong Greater Manchester Centre of Excellence, who we encountered at different age groups at the Manchester Cup tournament recently. With a huge catchment area for players to choose from they are always very competitive and they will be a significant test for our talented players.
On the 23rd December 2007 the players, staff and parents took part in a charity ’12 hour football match’ on the Sincil Bank Astroturf. We kicked off at 9am in dense freezing fog and finished at 9pm in dense freezing fog with some clear spells in between. The players were raising money to enter into the Manchester Cup tournament and 25% of the overall amount was raised for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance. This amounted to £716.25 which Holly Crosby, Naomi Johnson and Sophie Blades were selected to present the cheque to some of the delighted staff at the Air Ambulance. After the efforts of last year’s charity event to raise funds for ‘The Nomad Trust’ in Lincoln I believe that it is very important that even though you are a Centre of Excellence member, in a privileged position, that you should also think of others from a social awareness and development perspective. This is something we will endeavour to organise every year.
Well done also to April Hallam and Corinna Pearce, who are not pictured, but made significant contributions to the overall amount of £2,874.94.
The squads for 2007/08 are as follows-
The U10’s: Ellie Reynolds, Elise Keyworth, Charlotte Moffatt, Elizabeth Ashcroft, Charlie Green, Jasmine Bailey, Katie Williams and Olivia Leslie.
The U12’s: Holly Crosby, Katie Jackson, Lucy Read, Abigail Kelly, Kayleigh Packwood, Emily Edwards, Naomi Johnson, Tobey Vidler, Robyn Floyd, Charlie Martin, Jade Sheppard, Megan Francis, Megan Foster, Abi Murrell and Abbie Fields.
The U14’s: Rachael Prescott, Sophie Harris, Charlotte Cross, Emily Roberts, Hannah Goold, Abigail Young, Laura Ross, Chloe Thompson, Beth Hodgins, Martha Harris, Lauren Would, Emily Harris, Paige Wright, Caitlin Lynch, Sarah Beal and Billie Brooks.
The U16’s: Chloe Turner, Georgia Wallis, Becky Anderson, Jillian Crombie, Amy Kilgannon, Lauren Green, Sophie Crosby, April Hallam, Camilla Haynes, Sophie Blades, Corinna Pearce, Emily Clark, Sarah Flynn and Lauren Hewitt.
We wish all these talented players continued success and that they develop their ability towards their ambition to play at the highest level.
Finally, the Centre of Excellence is very lucky to have a dedicated and innovative group of coaches to oversee this exceptional array of talented players. To work with good players, I believe you need good coaches to carefully harness talent, so great credit must go to Keith Hewitt (U16’s), Jess MaClean (U14’s), Linzi Hewitt (U12’s), Matt Petch (U10’s), Chris Phillips (GK’s) and support staff Tracy Nixon, Steve Harris and Carly Shutt for the great work that they do.
The staff behind the scenes are Jane Cooper, Centre Administrator and physiotherapist, Becky Fraser. Together they do an excellent job in keeping the Centre of Excellence players fully informed and in peak physical condition to compete at this level.
The FA Centre of Excellence can boast three players of their own Becky Anderson, April Hallam and Sophie Harris, who have all received international recognition so far, following on from Sophie Wallis’ England U17 inclusion last season.
These players, along with many talented players coming through the system shows that the FA qualified coaching staff, the Centre and the Development Programme, are working to the highest standards.
The establishment of 52 Centres of Excellences throughout England are an integral part of the Football Associations female player development pathway and is the pinnacle from which our Youth International players are selected.
The ‘Philosophy’ of each centre is to disseminate both technical and theoretical information to each player stimulating the players learning. To this end, the precept must be to promote a player centred approach allowing the ‘game to be the teacher’ when appropriate and encompass the principles of Long Term Player Development
Therefore, each centre must consider the needs of each player and take account of their developmental stage from a growth, development and maturation perspective and implement a programme to develop young players who have and can maximise their potential in the short but ultimately in the longer term.