Along with other English clubs such as Norwich City, West Brom & Colchester United, we were invited by Henrik Niss to participate in the Norhalne Elite Cup against professional clubs from Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany and even Brazil!

We took five squads, two playing 7-a-side and three 11-a-side, with a total of 60 players aged between 8 and 15 years old.

The experience these boys gain in travelling abroad without their parents, taking responsibility for themselves and playing football against teams from other countries is invaluable for their development. The boys, as always, conducted themselves in an exemplary manner on and off the pitch and enhanced the reputation of the club.

In turn, the time between matches allows us to educate the players further in terms of diet, warm ups, cool downs and preparation in general for each match. With tournament football, it also enables mistakes to be identified and addressed within the same day rather than from one Sunday to the next.

Each squad played six matches of 25 minutes each way over three days, so it was physically and mentally demanding. In essence, it was a great learning curve for our youngsters and a fantastic opportunity for us to assess our players in this kind of environment.

Under 9/10's

We split these squads into two mixed teams. Tom Pell's team did extremely well, coming fourth out of twelve teams. Whilst a number of players impressed and the squad played some excellent football throughout the three days, Lee Watkins was nominated by Tom as our Player of the Week. This award is even more impressive considering Lee is an Under 8 and was playing in an Under 10 tournament.

The other squad struggled in comparison but Max Holden excelled and was head and shoulders above the other players, showing great consistency throughout the tournament.

Under 10/11's

This was a huge challenge to all our players who had played only a limited amount of 11-a-side football before this tour. Under the tutelage of Adam Davies the players responded superbly well, coming fourth out of twelve teams following a single goal defeat by Colchester United in their final game. There were many notable performances but Jack Howard was the pick of the bunch in the centre of our midfield.

Under 12/13's

This squad performed beyond expectations on the first two days, winning three out of four matches and playing some excellent football. Jimmy Unwin rotated his squad on the last day and two defeats ensued which demonstrated the difference in quality when we did not field our strongest XI. This age group was won by Norwich City but our boys can feel proud of their efforts. Whilst Olly Bennett and Aaron Forshaw scored some memorable goals, our midfield duo of Ben Baxter-Hunt and Jake Gent (pictured) were our joint Players of the Week.

Under 14/15's

This squad was extremely disappointing and did not perform anywhere near the level required from Centre of Excellence players. Apart from Jackson Ramm and Randeep Biriah we had little threat going forward and if it was not for Sam Clare in goal, our results would have been even worse. Suffice to say we finished bottom of our group and ended up playing for 17th place on the final day.

Jez George
Head of Youth Development

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