MILBORNE SPORTS FOOTBALL CLUB

At a recent meeting of the Milborne St Andrew Sports Football Club a decision was made that for the 2008/2009 season a second Saturday team would be entered into Dorset Division 1V. This is believed to be the first time in the history of Milborne Sports Football Club that two Saturday teams have been run at the same time.

Chairman, Mike Lathbury, commented that with the adults who have now moved into second place of the Dorset Division III League looking that once again they would gain promotion, there was a need to run a reserve side.

The basis of the Committee’s reasoning is that Dorset Division II Football in which the first team are likely to be playing next season is an extremely competitive league played at a very high standard. It was felt that there was a need to give opportunity to the youth of Milborne along with others by operating a reserve team. It was felt that it would be unfair to ask youngsters who are currently playing youth football or others who are not playing football at all to step into a squad playing at division II level. Therefore, a reserve team playing in Dorset Division 1V will serve the purpose of both giving current members of the squad who are not playing regularly and youngsters coming up through the youth system and others who are not currently playing football at all the opportunity to participate.

If you are interested in playing or helping with the running of this new reserve team then please contact Club Secretary, Paul Morgan on 01258 837619. Alternatively, speak to the Chairman, Mike Lathbury or any other member of the Milborne Football Club Committee.

Other contact numbers for some of the committee:

John Kane  837108   Malcolm Aplin  837335  John Sanderson  837049   Mike Torfitt  6 Hopsfield

What A Summer

With the new football season fast approaching time to reflect upon the summer’s activities.  What a series of events have taken place.  In addition to the summer soccer schools held through the school holidays, entry to the six-a-side tournaments for both the youth and adult teams, we have congratulations to Grant Taylor who has achieved his Level 2 coaching badge.  We welcome Glen Chadwick who is a Level 1 coach to the club.  Wayne Gifford has also attained his Level 1 coaching badge and Dave Smith also is currently attending a course.  Simon Harrison achieved his Level 2 coaching badge.  We then learnt that Grant Taylor had been awarded Dorset Youth Manager of the Year.  What a great achievement this was for Grant in his first full year as the Under-12 Team Manager.  Congratulations to Malcolm Applin, our Groundsman, who was nominated as Dorset Groundsman of the Year and currently announced as the winner of that title.  Malcolm is now anxiously waiting the results of his nomination as Regional Groundsman of the Year. 

The club itself’s work and development over the last year has also been recognised at Dorset level when we won the FA Dorset Standard Chartered Club of the Year Award.  An even bigger feather in our cap was however to follow when we recently received notification that following our nomination of the Dorset FA Standard Chartered Club of the Year we had been nominated as Regional FA Chartered Club of the Year which we can proudly announce we have won.  This is a tremendous reflection on the whole of Milborne Sports and its volunteers and supporters.  The whole community can be proud of these achievements. 

New members to the club are always welcome.  We are particularly keen to attract youngsters within the local community who can attend structured coaching with fully qualified coaches in a safe environment.  Please feel free to contact any member of the sports club committee for details on how you can become involved.

Further news we received in the summer is that the adult team had been promoted from Division 4 to Dorset Division 3.  Perhaps the most exciting news, certainly in connection with the adult side of football, is the announcement that Paul Hammond ex-Crystal Palace player and Bridport Manager, along with Tom Kirk, have been appointed Joint Managers of the Milborne Sports FC Adult Team.  This is a tremendous coup for Milborne Sports as both Paul and Tom have been courted by clubs from much higher leagues than ours but they have been so impressed with the set-up here at Milborne that they have elected to commit themselves to taking this club to a higher level.

Paul and Tom are particularly keen to offer opportunities to locals to join the Milborne football family.  Their coaching and training sessions are conducted to the highest professional level and any player showing commitment, loyalty and enthusiasm could only have his game skills enhanced by these two highly qualified managers.  Paul is a European FIFA qualified coach. 

Anyone interested in becoming a part of this exciting and ambitious club should in the first instance contact Club Captain, Andy Draper, on 07824 394436.