At the end of April 2005, Eric Coe and myself decided to set up an under 9 team at NPL. I have been involved with the current under 13’s and 14’s at NPL whilst training to be a teacher and Eric is coach of the Under 14’s so we both knew what was involved in running a youth football team. After discovering that NPL was expanding its youth football section it seemed the perfect time to set up a team. Trials were held over four weeks through May and after seeing many boys of considerable talent, 10 boys were selected for the team. We were very lucky to have an offer of sponsorship from MKG3000 Mazda Twickenham who supplied an impressive kit for the boys.  When Eric and I first decided to establish a team we assumed we would be playing in one of the lower leagues. However we soon discovered that we were to be playing in the very competitive Division 1, so we knew we would be in for a tough season. After a few training sessions during the summer and a friendly against NPL Under 9 B’s the boys were ready for their first season of competitive football.

 

The boys performed exceptionally at times during that  season and  matched the majority of teams for ability but the lack of match experience meant that we  lost games that we could have won. The highlights of the season was the 4v4 draw against Sutton Juniors B (who were top at the time) with us scoring a magical free kick to equalise with the last kick of the game and the 2v2 draw against AFC Wimbledon (who were also top at the time). These performances have shown that we can compete at this level and proved that the more games that the boys played the better they will become.

 

We started 2006 with our first ever win! After leading Oxshott Royals 4v0 at half time we just about held on to win 4v3! We finished our first season in 11th place but were by no means outclassed during the season. We matched a lot of teams who had a lot more experience than ourselves. To compete in such a tough league in our first season and to gain some impressive results bodes well for future seasons!

 

During the summer of 2006 we played a number of friendlies and competed in tournaments to gain more experience. The hard work of the summer showed signs of paying off when we defeated AFC Wallington at the Abbey Rangers tournament in mid July and we started to believe that the 2006/2007 season could see us improving and winning many more games. We also increased our squad size to 11 as we signed on Áedán O’Brien as we looked to improve in the coming season

 

The first half of the 2006/2007 season was encouraging. We ended 2006 winning 4 games in a row including an inter-league cup tie against Horley Town A who were in a division higher than us! Four wins in a row was a fitting end to the year and our fantastic football was being rewarded with victories! The contrast from the 2005/2006 season was huge!

 

We finished the 2006/2007 in 7th position - a big improvement from the previous season. All the boys came on well throughout the season and at times we outplayed sides who finished higher in the league than us. We had a good defensive record which was one of the best in the league but the team failed to score enough goals to really challenge for honours. We passed the ball well throughout the season and with the addition of 4 new players (Federico Witt, Charlie Usher, Elliot Fagan and James Terrey) we seemed well prepared for the jump to 11-a-side football in 2007/2008. However we lost Nidal Aslam as he moved out of the area and we wished him all the best in joining a new team.

 

During the summer of 2007 the boys hard work started to pay off as we reached the semi finals of the Molesey Juniors, Bedfont and Brockham Badgers tournaments. In all the tournaments we could have gone on to win but couldn’t quite get past the semi final stage. The most impressive being the Brockham tournament where we were scoring goals for fun but lost in the semi final after extra time. The new boys seemed to have slotted in well and a few tough 11-a-side friendly’s meant we were ready for the start of the season.

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