Football Club

The Manager of Milborne Sports has just received notification that following last year’s successful season Milborne Sports have been promoted from Division 4 to Division 3 of the Dorset Football League.

This is great news and is tribute to the hard work of the whole management team senior section.

Welcome to Milborne St. Andrew Football Club. We are an affiliated member of the Dorset Football Association and an FA Charter Standard Club. We have both an Adult and Youth section.

We are very much a local community club which can only thrive on the involvement and enthusiasm of players, parents and other supporters of the club who want to and enjoy ‘getting involved’. We consider anyone actively associated with the club (playing or non-playing) to be a ‘member’ of our club. We hope you enjoy being part of a Community based, friendly and sociable organisation.

Over the past few seasons we have seen significant growth in our Youth section. Our priorities are focussing on developing exercise, skills and most of all FUN for boys and girls of all ages and abilities whether at training or in Dorset FA League matches.

Being FA Chartered means we have achieved (and must sustain) defined FA standards for coaching, child welfare, administration, standards of conduct and sportsmanship. Ensuring the club provides an enjoyable experience and exhibits good sportsmanship is very important to us. We have a Code of Conduct for everyone associated with our club. Please read it carefully.

All that is left to say is enjoy your football and make the most of being part of Milborne St. Andrew FC.

THE MILBORNE WAY - OUR APPROACH

Our aim is to ensure everyone who wants to take part can; whether training, playing matches, coaching, helping out and fundraising. Boys and girls of all ages and abilities are welcome at our club and we will do our very best to ensure they have a great time.

We celebrate every player and team’s achievements, whether that is as League Champions or County Cup winners, improving on the performances of the previous season or scoring the team’s first goal. They all matter.

Our coaches are primarily enthusiastic parents and volunteers. A number of our coaches have attained FA Coaching badges (at Level 1 and Level 2). The club will sponsor adults wishing to become coaches to attain their coaching badges. All you need is a donation of enthusiasm for the game and some time you can spare. fun day

In addition to training and matches, we regularly try to run additional social events for players and parents.

Through our FA Chartered status, we have benefited from complimentary tickets to see England matches.

Last year we took two mini-buses to White Hart Lane to see England U21’s play France in the European qualifiers and we recently lucky enough to be able to take 50 boys / girls and parents to the England v Poland U19 International (held a Bournemouth’s ground) for no charge!

In 2006, to celebrate the start of the World Cup and for our end of season, we ran a Soccer fun day for, including a Soccer Academy run for us by Weymouth Town FC on the day. The event included an opportunity for some of the ‘older’ boys and girls to show off their skills with subsequent aches and injuries still being lived out long after England exited the cup!

During the last Easter and summer holiday we ran our first Soccer School with Weymouth FC with discounted prices for Milborne Club members. We had over 40 enthusiastic children take part at each event and the feedback from the children was fantastic. Tim Davies, Weymouth’s Youth Development Manager said ‘We were delighted to do another soccer school in partnership with our great friends at Milborne St Andrew. They have great facilities and the people and children associated with their club are always a pleasure to deal with’

We hope to run Soccer Schools with Weymouth FC in the future and through this relationship, in January 2008, we will be travelling to see Weymouth play Woking courtesy of complimentary tickets from Weymouth FC.

We are always keen to welcome new players or volunteers to help with the running of the club (on or off the pitch!). If you or your child/children are interested in joining Milborne St. Andrew (for training or matches) please let us know. We would be delighted to hear from you.

CLUB HISTORY

Milborne has a long and successful history at senior level within the Dorset League.

There has been an Adults team playing in Milborne since 1977. During 2000 discussions took place to form a Youth section. A committee was formed to provide competitive football for the children of Milborne and the surrounding villages.

In 2002, we were successful in winning funding from The Football Foundation and were able to move to our current ground and superb clubhouse facilities at ‘The Pavilion’, Lane End. Malcolm Applin, our Groundsman has done a superb job at developing a playing surface that is literally fit for cup finals with Dorset County cups being hosted by the club over the past few seasons. We have a 15-acre site with significant space for developing additional pitches and sports facilities for football and potentially other sports. We are exited at the prospect of seeing this come alive for the club over the next few months.

Our approach has seen the club thrive over the past few years. We now have 50-60 children attending training sessions from age 5 upwards.

From our initial one youth team in 2000, over the past 3 seasons we have expanded and currently have for the 2007/8 Season teams entered in the Dorset County Youth Leagues at:

U9 7 a-side Mini Soccer (for boys and girls)

U11 11 a-side

U12 11 a-side

U14 11 a-side

This season the U11’s from Milborne and Bere Regis have joined forces under the Milborne banner to establish an 11 a-side team. We have been really encouraged by the positive start and spirit shown by the team under Marc Miller's management.

This is our first attempt at collaborating with local village clubs, but we believe represents a potentially really positive way of developing first class facilities, coaching and playing opportunities across our local area.

TRAINING, MATCHES AND FEES

Training

We train through the football season. Training is held either at The Pavilion, Milborne St.Andrew or if whether conditions dictate (and subject to permission) at the Milton Abbey School on their fantastic all-weather astro-turf surface on Saturday mornings. Refreshments (hot-dogs and hot / cold drinks) are normally available after training at the Pavilion and are very popular with the children and parents!

The U11’s also train on Tuesday evening at Bere Regis Sports Filed (including under floodlights through the winter).

At Milborne Sports our training sessions incorporate individual skills, team skills as well as strength, agility, flexibility and co-ordination.

An important fact to note is that 99.999% of children are not obviously the next David Beckham or Wayne Rooney. They may develop to be good footballers or sportspersons, but most develop gradually. We aim to nurture their enthusiasm for football as well as skills. However, patience is a virtue!

Our aim is to provide the best possible enjoyable training experience for all members of the club.

Matches

League matches for our youth teams are on Sundays. Details and fixture lists will be provided by the Team Manager.

The Clubs’ reputation is built on the behaviour of both players and supporters on match days. Please help to keep our reputation as a fair and sportsmanlike club.

You can also follow the success of the teams on web-sites (www.full-time.thefa.com for Mini Soccer and www.football.mitoo.com for 11-a-side). Additionally results are printed in the local newspapers.

Fees

We charge £1.50 per training session (or £15 per term). The cost to register and play for a team is £15 per season.

KIT

Milborne St. Andrew has a range of training equipment to help make training varied and stimulating. As funds provide we will always seek to invest more into equipment and club facilities for the benefit of all our members and players.

The club provides playing kit for each team. The kit is retained by the player for the duration of the season. This season we are aiming to extend kit to include the provision of Training tops to all players and coaches (a nominal deposit will be required).

For training and matches, players are expected to wear shin pads at all times along with appropriate footwear for the conditions.

Players should also bring their own drinks and refreshments for training and matches.

THE ‘F’ WORD …………FUNDRAISING

kit2 We are a voluntary organisation. We have to cover the significant costs of the facilities, ground maintenance, team registration, kit and equipment.

All money we raise (or secure through grants) is ploughed back into the club for the benefit of the members (including better equipment, trips etc).

Fundraising is a lifeline for local clubs like Milborne St.Andrew FC. A substantial amount of money is raised each year through various fund raising events such as the well established annual Golf day and the Summer Ball.

We have been very successful and grateful in securing funding from the FA (via the Football Foundation) who have been extremely supportive of developments at the club.

Additionally we are very grateful for local business sponsorship (from Firebiz.com, The Hambro Arms and Dorset Paintball) in providing team kit and from Milton Abbey School in allowing us to use their facilities.

However, the reality is that fundraising, whilst vitally important in no way covers the running costs of the club. We are therefore reliant on each playing member paying training and registration fees. Your support in ensuring prompt payment of these really helps us keep the club on a financial even keel.

Over the next season and subject to funds, we would like to extend club kit to track suit tops for players at concessionary rates.

If you have ideas for fundraising and / or would like to get involved in helping or running an initiative, please let us know.