Earlestown Athletic JFC

What a difference a year makes. This time last year we had a squad of 13 players. I was struggling to give every player equal time on the pitch and a lot of the changes I made weakened the team significantly which was obvious to us all but I felt I had to do it.
Jump forward 12 months and we don’t just have 11 players in the squad. We have a team. 11 young boys who will work, fight and stick up for each other with the aim of winning football matches playing good attractive football. Whilst it’s sad when a player chooses to leave. From a team and coaches perspective – the right players left both from a behavioural and attitude point of view but also in terms of ability. This all means that when Shaun and I make changes now we don’t weaken the team. In some instances we can make it better and it allows us to adapt to the game situation.
I know it’s supposed to be non-competitive but we’d all be lying if we didn’t say we’d much rather see the boys win every week than trudge off the pitch having lost….again.
Historically we’ve been awful in tournaments but the signs were very encouraging in our tournament. We more than held our own. Only lost once (and that was to the winners). We found we had a more than capable back up goalkeeper in Kian. Zen, in his first proper game, showed tremendous composure and that he is able to read a situation so he’s in place to deal with it. That’s something you cannot teach. If you compare him now to the boy who started training with us 1 24 months ago the improvement is staggering. His parents deserve praise for allowing use to work with him for before putting him into games. Many would have taken him elsewhere.

I don’t like singling out players and this season I don’t need to because each and every one of them has had a terrific season so far. Goals have been shared around the team. Some of the defending has been brave and purposeful and we have played some great attractive football. There were time last year when Alfie seemed to do nothing but pick the ball out of the net. This season there have been games where he could have taken a nap.
I hate it when I see teams whose first thought is to get the ball to one particular player or hoof it as far as they can. That doesn’t help the players develop. Personally I’d rather stop coaching than play that way.
Our players are happy to play in different positions, take responsibility and don’t complain when I tell them where they’re playing.

Obviously our performances have seen us moved up a level but if we keep playing as we have been we should have little to fear.

So what have we learnt so far this year?
1) A smaller squad makes for a better team
2) It only takes one bad apple to cause big disruptions
3) If you are going to incentivise your child to score goals you really need to think about how much it could cost you before doing so
4) Winning is most definitely better than losing
5) Shaun is probably only a few weeks away from a heart attack
6) Lewis has taken to this like a duck to water
7) We have a great set of parents that get on and genuinely look out for the whole team rather than just their own child