Ahead of our end of season presentations, every coach has summarised their season:
U8
What an unbelievable first season we’ve had this year! Firstly, I would like to thank Darren for his help every Wednesday in training, secondly Kellen, for helping out on matchdays and driving me to most games. Thirdly Rob, for accepting the request of being my assistant and also thank you to Scott for helping me out along the way, I couldn’t have done it without them.
I am so proud to call myself the manager to this group of players. They are truly something special and we’ve all created a really special bond. It’s like a family and the players constantly demonstrate this with how much they support each other, whether they are winning or losing.
Our best moment of the year has to be winning our home tournament on penalties. Freddie saved all 3 penalties to claim us the victory.
Our best result would be when we travelled to March and came back with a 3-2 win in our first ever cup match.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the parents for their support over the season. It has been immense and it I understand it’s no fun travelling to away games and standing in the rain on Wednesdays at training, so a huge thanks to them.
U9
Having completed their second season since the teams inception in 2020, the U9s have had another really enjoyable year.
Whilst there have been both ups and downs within the league throughout the year, the team has seen a considerable level of development. Not only in the boys individual & collective abilities to play football but also in their personalities, resilience & determination to win games.
In the spring of 2022 the teams coaching structure underwent change and this meant the team had to adjust. In the weeks following this change the boys went on to win 2 of their remaining 3 league games back to back, on both occasions coming back to win from behind. This is a real testament to the boys fighting spirit and was a great way to close off the season.
They’re a great group & on a good day, the energy within the team is fantastic. We’re really interested to see what the 2022/2023 season has in store for them.
U10 Girls
This was our first season as a team and it was a season of two halves. Until Christmas we were establishing & understanding positions, formations and ourselves as a team having only had 3 training sessions before our first game and we experienced mixed results along the way.
After Christmas we were more settled and better results came our way, winning 9 out of 14 games, including winning 7 of the last 8. (Should have been 8/8!) Ending the season with 14 wins in total, more than we lost across the season, great for our first year. W14 L13 D2.
Along the way we’ve experienced all the highs and lows, big wins & defeats, penalty shoot out wins & defeats, tough physical games, questionable ref decisions and best of all last minute winners!
All this set us up nicely for our tournament, where we only lost 1 game and we reached the final which we eventually won on penalties, beating the only team that prevented us from winning all our last 8 league games.
U10 Orange
This was my first season as U10’s Oranges manager and I have to say it’s been fantastic.
We started the season with 3 new players who had never played games before and in our 2 pre season tournaments and our first 5 league games we got absolutely battered, not winning a single game.
From this point on though things changed with us winning half of our next 18 league games and making the semi final in the Tigers tournament. This is testament to a great set of boys and Sean and Mike, who have assisted me over the season. I know we are not team of the year, but in my eyes this set of boys are and I honestly could not be more proud of them.
U10 Red
Once again, the reds played up a year this season, with only 2 out of the 12 boy squad actually playing at the right year group.
The big question again would be “did we make the right decision to play up a year”. It was evident early on that this was the right decision. The team thrived and stepped up to the challenge.
With the reds playing non competitive football, the measure would not be on what we win but how we play and the improvements we made.
In our first section of fixtures, we won all 6 games, playing some very nice football. To be able to put sanctions on the boys that they must pass the ball 3 times before they can shoot is always a nice measure. To have opposition coaches congratulate the team on their passing is always nice.
During this time we played a team from Luton that we had never beaten. On this occassion we came out as winners showing their improvement.
Our next two blocks of fixtures saw us placed in the top section, equivalent to the top league. This meant that the reds were playing physically bigger, mentally stronger and more developed; in some cases playing against boys up to 16 months older.
The boys didnt let us down. They learnt how to battle in a game and win individial 1 v 1 battle; they learnt the pressing game and how to play out from the back; all against teams that were very strong.
Yes we did loose games, but never by a margin that you would call “a beating”.
To show the success of the squad, two of the players made the Stevenage development set up with one now about to embark on an academy trial and one was in the MK Dons pre academy team before getting injured.
In conclusion myself and Simon would like our team to be nominated for team of the year as they have shown that they can compete with some very good teams and have proven that when it is hard and things do not come easy they rise to the challenge. Yes they did not win a trophy or a medal but their football certainly won for us!
U10 Yellow
The Sandy Tiger Yellows U10s started the season in strong form; with 5 wins and 1 draw in the first 2 months. Giving us two undefeated months. This had followed on from our strong form from end of the season previous season. We had made some changes to how we played, in the first couple of months of the season and made the decision to award Jacob Gaskin our team captain, due to his positivity and energy on the pitch.
The good early form resulted in promotion up a division going into the winter league against some good sides; unfortunately we were one goal the wrong side of a number of results in the winter league which was disappointing, however our football continued to improve playing a good passing game however our inability to take our chances cost us in these games.
As we progressed in to the spring fixtures, we had a number of changes to our squad; part of this was important planning for our next season as a team. Although we had a lot of mixed results, the new players have fitted in and our football has continued to improve.
Our coaching team of 3 offer our team to have small group training sessions mixed with game scenarios to ensure every player has the opportunity to practice the areas where they need to develop their skills The team are really looking forward to new rules and challenges of next season; with our new players complementing our existing squad members making for a happy squad.
U11
We had a good season and as statistics can get boring I’ll just say that we won a lot more games than we lost. We started the season well but definitely suffered a bit of a mid season wobble. This ensured that the team focussed on the areas that needed improvement- passing and the movement required to ensure that team mates always have options to pass to. “You have to earn the pass” is a motto of ours.
All this hard and enjoyable work resulted in some great games at the end of the season – one that springs to mind is a game where we scored eight goals with seven different players on the scoresheet.
There has been a collective improvement this year – particularly towards the end of the season.
The behaviour of our team at match days and training is of a high standard that is often remarked upon by other coaches. That reflects the high standards we expect from the boys and the importance we place on welfare and respect. We’ll be introducing some new faces to train this season this season to ensure the new boys will be prepared for becoming an 11 a side team in the season after next.
U12
In season 2021-22, STFC U12s trained 41 times and played 27 matches. We won 5, drew 4 and lost 18, scoring 54 goals and conceding 89. Results-wise it’s been a tough season, but George and I have been incredibly proud of the hard work and spirit the team have shown.
With one eye on stepping up to 11-a-side we recruited 3 new players last Summer, welcoming Jake, Luca, and Thomas, who have all settled in brilliantly, but sadly we said goodbye to Tyler after his best season with us.
We’re pleased and proud that everybody is finishing the season a better player than when they started it. That wouldn’t be possible without the brilliant support of families and friends cheering on the team home and away, and without the fantastic help of volunteers who have helped officiate matches.
We’ve already started preparing for next season, will be training through the Summer and hope to squeeze some friendlies in too. Roll-on September.”
U13
We’ve been together since under 8s in 2016. I had a core group of players that over the years have welcomed new people into the team.
Now at U13s with a squad of sixteen, I’m proud to say I still have the original players involved week after week.
They have all grown (literally!) into a great bunch of boys. Many friendships have been made which I hope continue for years to come.
This season has been a mixed bag of results, and form, with us finishing mid ish table in division three.
The boys gave their all in each game, worked hard for each other and dug deep when they needed to.
We will go again next year and work hard to improve in all areas.
U15 Sat
The U15s were promoted last year from division 2 in the hunts youth league to division 1. After winning the previous division, the boys adapted well to the new league and challenge in front of us. This saw us finish the league 3rd out of a possible 6 teams.
We also had one player, Charlie Morris, that within 20 games contributed to 28 goals this season (13 goals and 15 assists).
Further to this, we have just won the 2022 Sandy Tigers Tournament for the first time after reaching the semi final multiple times.
Overall, the group are making considerable improvements together and we are becoming a strong team and continue to build for next season.
U16 Girls
Sandy Tigers U16 girls have had a fantastic season, with new players coming in, and a few departures the team had a new determination and desire about them; this was proven by going on a twelve game winning streak in the league.
The accumulated point tally at the end of the season meant we were joint top, with goal difference not taken into consideration we had one more league game to play, a play off where winner takes all. We fell short to a very good opposition taking the runners up medal.
Our final game of the season was in the junior shield final, where this time we faced a team that finished fourth in the league above, we lost the final by one goal this is where we picked up our second runners up medal of the season. Beaten but honoured to be involved.
The team have really stuck together in the later months of the season with a few leaving due to GCSE’s our low numbers meant that every single player had to dig in, and with the importance of games their commitment had to be 100%.
The coaches have fully enjoyed coaching this wonderful group of players, that never fail to disappoint and never fail to make us laugh. We look forward to next season going into U18’s level.