2014 FG5 Tournament

Almost a week has passed since the FG5 tournament and I have been meaning to put something on the blog all week but just been too busy. I think everyone would agree that the tournament was a major success despite the weather trying its best to ruin the day. The event ran very smoothly and punctual, the pitches were in very good condition and I think that all the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and rose to the occasion. The coaches were all extremely proud of the kids and couldn't have asked anymore of them. The Lions came away with 4 wins, a draw and a loss whilst the Tigers had a run of 5 wins and 1 draw (only conceding 1 goal all day). The teams are really starting to gel together well and at times there was some magical football being played. Since taking on the coaching role at Forest Glade I can honestly say that the tournament was my most enjoyable day so far and it was great to see all our hard work paying off. Lets hope this is a sign of whats to come from the league next season.

 

Tigers : Back Row, Coach Lee, Lorne, Ethan, Joshua, Alfie and Coach Jason. Front Row, Max, Ryan and Alex.

Lions : Back row, Coach Steve, Mason, Freddie, Sanual and Coach Stuart. Front row, Joe, Ellis and George.

There are hundreds of pictures I could upload to the blog from the day and hopefully I will get around to sorting these out one day and picking some of the best. However there is one picture that I just could resist putting up now. I think this occurred in the Tigers 2nd or 3rd game and it was an incident where our boys gave away a reckless free kick just outside the goal area. Without any instruction or prompting from the coaches or the parents, the team recognised the situation and organised themselves in a wall in front of their goal. For me this was an amazing moment as it shows they are really understanding the game and are able to make on field decisions themselves. Of course I am not sure we needed all 4 out field players in the wall but who am I to complain as they protected the goal well!!!!

 

Ryan, Josh, Alfie and Max form a wall to help protect Ethan in goal.

 

Apologies for not including the Leopards results and team picture, however I do not have them to hand. I am sure Coach Mike/Dean can provide an update on this.

 

The season is still not over yet. We have a few more tournaments to attend and the all important Chelsea Training / Presentation day. So still lots more football to come before the summer break.

Happy Birthday Coach Lee!!!

Happy Birthday to coach Lee. We look forward to cakes tomorrow and seeing all the boys blasting footballs at you in goal!!!!

Coaches vs Parents

You have watched for the last season while we coach your children, You have cheered them on, You have given them guidance, You have encouraged them and at some stage you would have told them they need to try harder, make a run, shoot, tackle, pass, They would have heard endless tails of "When i use to play" .............

Now it's their turn, We would like to give the children the chance to give some back !!!

After next weeks training we are challenging the parents to a friendly 5 aside game, To be played directly after training.

We know some of the dads have already shown interest but would like to offer this out to everyone, Please let us know of your availability to play in this game so that we can GET IT ON !!!

Confirmed for the Parents.

Tony - Alfies dad

Matt - Jakes dad

Many hands make LIGHT work

As you will all know, the countdown has begun !!

We only have 3 more sleeps until the Forest Glade 5's

While most of us are sleeping easy there is still lots of work going on behind the scenes.

We are looking for some help on Friday afternoon/evening to get us ready for the weekend, Moving goals into position, Checking nets, Putting up the rope barriers, Helping with the marquees, the list goes on.

If you are around or can make yourself available to help out even if only for half and hour it will be much appreciated by us coaches and Forest Glade FC.

And please don't forget we still need help on the Sunday with various tasks for both adults and kids.

Please either email or text one of us to let us know if you can help or leave a message on here.

World Cup Party Pack Arts & Crafts June 7th and 8th

No Training Sat 24th May

Remember training is cancelled for this Saturday 24th May as it is the FG5 tournament.

Player of the Week 17th May 2014

 This week the FG U6's were split onto four groups for the weekly training (red, blue, yellow and green), so fittingly there was a player of the week trophy for each group. Well done to all this weeks winners. Keep up the hard work in training.

 

Player of the Week 17th May 2014 Ryan, Jamie, Kian and Freddie.

Please remember to bring the trophies back for the next training session.

IMPORTANT NEWS Training Saturday 17th May

All, please be aware that due to a baseball match at Forest Glade tomorrow and the white lining of the pitches ahead of the FG5's event, we will not be training in our usual location over the ditch by the far car park. The club have identified that we can use pitch 3 for tomorrow. The coaches will plan to arrive early tomorrow to identify a suitable training area for us to use. We recommend you head towards the club house prior to 9:30 to find out where we will be training. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Coaches Profile : Lee Matthews

Name : Lee Matthews

Age : 40

Birth town : Romford

Family : Wife Lynsey, sons Max and Sam

What football team do you support?: West Ham and Dagenham

Football background: Played from a young age as centre back. Had a football apprenticeship at Southend United. Played 6 & ½ years at Purfleet (now Thurrock FC). Sold to Dagenham & Redbridge for £8,500 where I played for 6 years. Sold to Hornchurch for £15,000 where I spent 11 months. My last 1 & ½ years was at Grays Athletic.

Most memorable football moment: Most memorable and bitter sweet was playing for Dagenham against premiership Charlton at the Valley in the 3^rd round of the FA Cup. We were 4 minutes away from beating them when they sneaked a deflected goal to grab a draw. We lost 1-0 in extra time in the replay.

Who will win in Rio? Germany

Sporting Achievements: 

Senior club honours-

Southend - 90-91’ = Essex senior cup winners

Purfleet – 91-92, = Isthmian div 2 champions, league cup winners. 93-94’ = Isthmian div 1 runners up. 94-95’ = Essex Thameside trophy winners.

Dagenham – 98-99’ = Guinness Book of Records = 12 games/ 1144 minutes of football (more than 19 hours) without conceding a goal. 99-00’ = Ryman Premier Champions. 00-01’ = Essex Senior Cup winners, Ryman Charity Shield Winners, FA cup 3^rd round, Conference 3^rd place. 01-02’ = conference runners up, FA cup 3^rd round. 02-03’ = Conference play-off finalists, FA cup 4^th round, broke Conference record of 11 consecutive wins.

Hornchurch – 03-04’ = promotion to Conference South

Grays – 04-05’ = Conference South Champions, FA Trophy Winners, 05-06’ = Conference play-offs, FA Trophy winners, equalled Conference record of unbeaten start to season, FA cup 2^nd round.

Personal honours: 96-97’ = Purfleet Supporters Player of the Year. 98-99’ = Dagenham Club Player of the Year. 00-01’= Conference League Player of the Year, FA XI selection, Dagenham Supporters Player of the Year, Dagenham Club Player of the Year, Half-way Line Posse Player of the Year. 02-03’ = Non-League Directory merit award, 3^rd place in Dagenham Club Player of the Year. 2014 = Football League poll – 2^nd place Dagenham’s greatest ever captain, 4^th place Dagenham’s greatest ever player.

Hobbies / Interests: Family, football, D.I.Y

Favourite food: Fillet steak and stilton.

Favourite drink: Lager or McDonalds chocolate milkshake

Favourite Movie / TV Program: Gladiator

Favourite music / group / song: anything 80’s

One piece of advice you would give one of the Under 6’s: Try your hardest and don’t give up.

One thing about you that no-one would know: I lost my two front teeth in a collision during a match… the next day they were found embedded in the opposition player’s head!

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PARENTS : Forest Glade FC - 2014/2015 Season

Dear Parent,

Forest Glade FC – 2014/2015 Season   

Further to a recent meeting between the Forest Glade Committee and the Under 6 coaches it has been agreed that we will enter 3 teams into the South East Essex Primary Mini Soccer League for next season.

It has furthermore been agreed that each team should have a maximum of 7 players per squad (5 players and 2 subs) thus bringing the overall number of players to 21 for next season.

As coaches we have decided that we will use the remainder of the month to assess the players at FG and then decide over the weekend of the 31 May/1 June to pick our respective squads for next season.

Therefore the format of the training may be slightly different to normal in that we may have more game based time to help us assess the players.

This though leaves us with a problem in that based upon our current numbers of circa 26 – 28 we are going to have a number of  players for next season that are not going to be included in a squad.  

Therefore we are hoping to be able to launch with the support of the parents a further group which we will be called the Panthers/Training development squad and the idea is to continue to provide access to this group of kids to help them develop their own football skills and to help prepare them to play games at some point in the future.

However based on our current number of coaches is it not going to be possible to provide access to this unless we have a parent step forward and volunteer to coach this group on a full time basis.  The issue we have is that due to work patterns we can only ever guarantee on any one weekend three coaches.

We will of course help support any parents that step forward in the initial stages and they will also need to undertake the relevant CRB and Level 1 coaching badges.

Unfortunately without somebody stepping forward the alternative is to turn people away from Forest Glade and this is something that we really want to avoid.

If you have any questions regarding the above then please do not hesitate to contact one of the coaches to discuss.

Stuart Daltrey

Coaches Profile : Dean Marks

Name : Dean Marks

Age : 33

Birth town : Basildon

Family : Wife Carla & son Reece & Daughters Darcy & beau 

What football team do you support? Chelsea

Football background : Started playing football age 8. Started at Basildon boys who gave me a kit 

and never played me, so I moved on to Berry Boys / Steepleview Fc breaking a goal scoring record in my 1st season which then. I went to play for Wimbledon Fc for 3 years, then I played for Woodham Raders & went to Southend Fc until I was 16 then played for Concord Fc, Gt wakering, Basildon utd and Bowers utd.

Most memorable football moment : Scoring a hat trick against Millwall fc

Who will win in Rio? Brazil

Sporting Achievements :

Won a silver medal at the AAA Nationals 100m.

Played in front of a full Roots Hall Southend Utd ground. 

Played with some top players who have played at the top level.

Boxed for Canvey 

Hobbies / Interests : Football, UFC , Boxing, golf

Favourite food : Liver & Bacon 

Favourite drink : Whisky 

Favourite Movie / TV Program : Braveheart 

Favourite music / group / song : Cold Play 

One piece of advice you would give one of the Under 6’s :

Football is all about opinions, so work hard and play with a smile on your face.

One thing about you that no-one would know :

I'm not sure about this as we have a copper in the club ;)

Stanway Mini Soccer Festival

A week or so late I know, but a very big well done to all the kids from Forest Glade Blues and Forest Glade Reds who played in last weekends Stanway Soccer Tournament. The event was very well organised and run and was a fantastic experience for the players, coaches and the parents. The boys all played 4 x 20 min games over the course of the day, but then continued to knock balls around amongst themselves in between games as well!!! So they pretty much didn't stop for about 5 hours which resulted in some very tired legs by the final match.

 

This event was also our first opportunity to use the new "Kwik Fit" away kit for next season and it looked absolutely stunning. The Reds had a mixed day of results with 2 losses, 1 win and a very close draw, but the most important thing by far is that they all the kids seemed to really enjoy the event and all had a smile on their face at the end of the day. For the coaches it was a great learning curve for the forthcoming FG5's event and has also given us a bit more insight into the potential teams for next seasons entry into the Mini Soccer League.

 

At the start of the event the kids were all full of energy and excited about the matches ahead. Back Row : Owen, Darcy, Alfie and Alex. Front Row : Ethan, Max, Joshua and Ryan.

As the Under 6's are not allowed to play competitive games under FA Guidelines there was no winner/loser and as such no finals or knock-out stages. However all the kids were awarded a medal at the end of the event for their efforts. I think most of the kids also purchased souvenir photo frames and named footballs as well, so some great little memento's from their first ever football tournament.

 

End of the day picture with some very tired legs and some coaches with not much of a voice left. Back Row : Coach Jason, Michael and Dean. Middle Row : Owen, Ryan, Joshua and Alfie. Front Row : Ethan, Darcy, Max and Alex.

All the coaches are very proud of the performance from the kids. We all made some mistakes which we can learn from but there was also some magical bits of play on the field which just goes to show the huge amount of progress that the kids have made over the last year. We are very confident that we are going to have 3 good teams to enter into next season's league and are very excited about the future and the forthcoming FG5's tournament.

June 7th Presentation Day + Chelsea Training Information

Below is the information for the forthcoming Presentation Day and the Chelsea Training scheduled for June 7th. Please confirm whether your child will be attending the Chelsea Training with the next week as we need to confirm numbers to the club to ensure Chelsea have sufficient coaches available.

Non Training Days

All, just to ensure you have plenty of notification we have two non-training days approaching.

Sat May 24th : Training is cancelled as it is the FG5 tournament. The Lions, Tigers and Leopards will all be playing 6 x 15 mins Exhibition matches between 10am and 3pm. All kids will receive a medal at the end of the tournament. More details to follow.

Sat June 7th : Normal training cancelled as it is the clubs presentation day. We would high recommend all players take advantage of the Chelsea Training being offered for this date ahead of the presentation. Everyone should have received an application form already. Cost for the Chelsea training is £10 and we need to know numbers within the next week.

Forest Glade FC Fees for 2014/2015 Season

All, last night we received confirmation from the club regarding the 2014/15 season fees (see jpg below). As most of you are aware the fees for our Under 6's increases this year as we they are now classed as Under 7's / Mini Soccer (as opposed to training only players) and subsequently enter into the league. Therefore the annual fee for our Under 7's will be £135 which is required in July this year to support registration. We believe this fee is still very good value for money and equates to just over £11 a month which is very competitive with against other football clubs. If you have any problems with the fees or need to discuss payment options then please do not hesitate to speak to any of the coaches.

Help Raise Money for Juvenile Diabetes

Coaches Profile : Alan Jelley

Name : Alan Jelley

Age : 38

Birth town : Romford

Family : Wife Sarah and son Lorne

Job :  Insurance Broker

What football team do you support?: West Ham

Football background: Hutton Medway (Junior) / Shenfield AFC / Cherrytree / Forest Glade FC (Vets)

Most memorable football moment: Setting up the winner in Pope & Smith Div 2 League Cup Final

Who will win in Rio? Brazil

Sporting Achievements: Represented Essex at cricket from U13 to U19 level / was playing Senior 2ndXI cricket at the age of 14

Hobbies / Interests: Golf

Favourite food: Chinese

Favourite drink: Traditional Lemonade

Favourite Movie / TV Program: Batman films starring Christian Bale / Castle

Favourite music / group / song: Grunge / Soundgarden / Hunger Strike

One piece of advice you would give the Under 6’s: Believe in yourself

One thing about you that no-one would know: At the age of 15 I was ranked in the top 6 young cricketers in Essex