Stuart Dickson Posted April 19, 2015 Report Share Posted April 19, 2015 Gents, Hope your teams all had good seasons. A while back, mentioned about bringing my team up to Paisley/Glasgow and getting a couple of matches against local teams but it never materialised for this year mainly due to most of the team going on school residential trips & asking the parents to pay for a 2nd trip so soon, was thought a bridge too far. Anyways, we are on for next year. I expect to confirm a booking at Lapwing Lodge {can I call it Peesweep} by this weekend for next Easter. I am hoping they have availability Friday 1st April to Tuesday 5th April {which is our preferred dates}. Plan will be to travel up Friday 1st April arrange matches for Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd April in the mornings. go to a football match {preferably St Mirren} on the Saturday afternoon but if they are not playing locally, go to another match. Activity day on the Monday & travel back on the Tuesday. Sounding out prices of Coaches & Minibus hire & then we'll be as good as sorted, all we'll need is teams to play. My teams will be Under 12's next season. The U14's may also join us. Gents, can anyone accommodate us for some matches. Many thanks. G.. Let me know when your dates are confirmed and you know what teams are coming up and I'll speak to the relevant coaches here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shull Posted April 19, 2015 Report Share Posted April 19, 2015 Gents, Hope your teams all had good seasons. A while back, mentioned about bringing my team up to Paisley/Glasgow and getting a couple of matches against local teams but it never materialised for this year mainly due to most of the team going on school residential trips & asking the parents to pay for a 2nd trip so soon, was thought a bridge too far. Anyways, we are on for next year. I expect to confirm a booking at Lapwing Lodge {can I call it Peesweep} by this weekend for next Easter. I am hoping they have availability Friday 1st April to Tuesday 5th April {which is our preferred dates}. Plan will be to travel up Friday 1st April arrange matches for Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd April in the mornings. go to a football match {preferably St Mirren} on the Saturday afternoon but if they are not playing locally, go to another match. Activity day on the Monday & travel back on the Tuesday. Sounding out prices of Coaches & Minibus hire & then we'll be as good as sorted, all we'll need is teams to play. My teams will be Under 12's next season. The U14's may also join us. Gents, can anyone accommodate us for some matches. Many thanks. G.. Probably just the correct time of the Season to witness the Saints clinch the Championship title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted April 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2015 Let me know when your dates are confirmed and you know what teams are coming up and I'll speak to the relevant coaches here Stuart, I am looking at coming up Friday 1st April and going back Monday 4th. I am awaiting a reply from Peesweep on availability & will drop you a PM when dates are confirmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted April 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2015 Probably just the correct time of the Season to witness the Saints clinch the Championship title. Shull, That's a grand plan. Better make sure someone else can drive the minibus in case I am not able :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted April 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Stuart, Dates confirmed. Have booked Peesweep from Friday 1st April to Monday 4th April 2016. Just got to sort out the transport. Looks likely to be minibuses so the itinery will be Friday 1st April - Drive Up, go out in evening & do something with the boys {10 pin bowling or something like that} Saturday 2nd - Match in the morning, Go watch St Mrren {hopefully} in the afternoon Sunday 3rd - Match in the morning. Do something in the afternoon Monday 4th - travel back down to Essex. I contacted Barrhead Youth FC & have had a positive response from them too. Happy days. G.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Stuart, Dates confirmed. Have booked Peesweep from Friday 1st April to Monday 4th April 2016. Just got to sort out the transport. Looks likely to be minibuses so the itinery will be Friday 1st April - Drive Up, go out in evening & do something with the boys {10 pin bowling or something like that} Saturday 2nd - Match in the morning, Go watch St Mrren {hopefully} in the afternoon Sunday 3rd - Match in the morning. Do something in the afternoon Monday 4th - travel back down to Essex. I contacted Barrhead Youth FC & have had a positive response from them too. Happy days. G.. Glad to hear it Kombi. There's some good lads down at Barrhead. I don't really know how to describe them now that my marriage is over but what was then my Brother In Law is a coach with one of the younger sides there and two of what used to be my nephews play there. One might be in the Under 14's, I think the other would be too young for under 12's. I've also had several phone conversations over the years with a David Elliott who was involved in their 98's team. I never did get it confirmed but I am told by others that it was indeed the David Elliott that Shull loves and respects so much as an ex Celtic, Partick Thistle and St Mirren legend I'll let the guys here know as well. Perhaps the best way to do it would be to fit a match in Wishaw on the way home. If it's the Easter week they might even be able to book Ravenscraig. The problem with holidays is always squad numbers but I'll see what I can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Well that's Wishaw Wycombe 98's finished up now. Those who want to continue playing next season will play for our Under 19's team which will be run by our 97's coaches. I've got to say I'm glad my time is over. It's been a tough season. 16 year old lads are a nightmare and trying to keep them focused on football when they've got exams at school, and Saturday night parties to go along to full of expectations only to come crashing back to earth with the scent of disappointment hours before kick off on a Sunday. My Facebook news feed has been interesting these last few days as four more ex Wishaw Wycombe 98's signed professional contracts at their clubs. They join two who were already full time. The names to watch out for are Blair Kidd (Celtic), Robbie Leitch (Motherwell), Adam Livingstone (Motherwell), Rico Quitongo (Hamilton Accies), Joshua Payne (Airdrieonians) and Robbie McCann (Clyde). Two lads are also training with Wishaw Juniors with a view to signing for them for next season. On top of that two lads who came to us as 16 year olds to help out with the coaching are now 21. Both have qualified from their chosen Universities and both are now doing well in their chosen careers. One of the lads specialised in goalkeeping and he's done really well from that. He's coaching at senior level at Airdrie, the other chose a dual role qualifying in football coaching and athletics coaching. He's been working for North Lanarkshire Council coaching disabled kids and youth groups and now he's qualified from University he's landed himself a rather impressive first full time job working as a Graduate Construction Manager for Balfour Beatty. I know what we've done isn't that special. The squad the year below ours has a similar production line of success with a decent sized crop of lads still at pro youth level, they've managed to win their league yet again and they play in the Regional Cup final soon - and a breakaway group of lads - Wishaw Boys Club - that decided to go out on their own from this squad also won their league title and made it to the Regional Cup Semi Finals. I've also had an e-mail this morning telling me that eight of our 2001's squad have been selected for a North Lanarkshire schools select to play in Belfast in the next couple of weeks. It's been alright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted May 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 It's been alright. I reckon that classes as understatement of the year. "Alriight" you say. How many clubs can list achievements like that from one age group {or 2}. In 4 years time, we'll both still be here and I'll revive {or give it a bump} this thread to say how my lads have fared. Enjoy your summer Stuart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I reckon that classes as understatement of the year. "Alriight" you say. How many clubs can list achievements like that from one age group {or 2}. In 4 years time, we'll both still be here and I'll revive {or give it a bump} this thread to say how my lads have fared. Enjoy your summer Stuart. Thanks Kombi, you too. You're on the right track mate and I'm sure you're story will be better than mines, especially since you've taken a start up club and developed it into something that will become your legacy in the Romford community. Just to clear up those six lads I've named all played for Wishaw Wycombe 98's and all but one left directly to go pro youth. Rico Quitongo is the odd one out because he was with us for four years, became ill and when he came back he was struggling. He was born in 99 so I had a chat with his Dad and with the 99's coach and we all came to an agreement that Rico should drop down to the 99's squad. He was there for three months IIRC before he went pro youth at Hamilton so I still feel that it's morally right to claim him as one of ours. I'll be proud of those lads if I ever get to see them play first team football of course and if they all do that will be the best result Wishaw Wycombe have had since inception, but the 99's squad and the 2001's squad are even better than we were and I know both of those squads, like us, have had to rebuild several times over. Maybe we've all just been lucky that there's been a rich run of football talent in the town but it'd be nice to think that the many superb coaches I've worked with have at least had some influence over fate. There's still two lads I think have fallen through the net. One lad didn't get his chance, the other did and rejected a contract at Dunfermline to stay on at school. I'd still love to see them get a chance but I guess everyone knows someone who should have been a footballer but wasn't spotted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted May 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 (edited) Stuart, I played golf yesterday with a fella who used to coach at West Ham & Charlton, his CV is pretty decent He doesn't tell much about any of the players he's scouted or coached, he feel that would be a breach of confidentiality. I was itching to say "tell me about this one" and tell me about that one" but know, I'll get "not saying a word" so won't ask him to compromise his belief in keeping schtuum he did tell me a story of a fella who fell in with the wrong crowd and that put the kaibosh on a football career, reckons he was the best player he ever coached. Not many get that chance & it can be taken away so easily. He's done a couple of coaching sessions with both my teams, the difference in them has been immense, completely different from a nurse who likes football doing the coaching. Edited May 26, 2015 by Kombi Buddie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted May 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 Stuart, Are WWW still wearing Mbro kits? If so How is the quality has it held up to the wear & tear of he season? any supply problems? who is our supplier? Iswithed Romford to Joma last season as Prostar kits in Yellow/Royal were pretty bland. Luckily, it was only for 5 teams. It has not been a good switch. We have had to send 1/2 a dozen of my teams 30 tops to be mended as stitching came loose {on the sleeves}. The U13's manager has had a man about them too but the biggest single issue was supply. If our supplier had told me that it would take 4-5 weeks for an order to be shipped from Spain, I wouldn't have bothered. You live & learn. For the new season, the U8's, U9's, U11's, U12's {2 teams}, U14's {3 teams} and U15's all need new kits. I like the Umbro , looks good in Yellow/Royal. The alternative is Prostar Momentum in yellow/royal. We know Prostar & robust, reliable kits & supply from manufacturer can be overnight but I like the look of the Umbro kit more. cheers for any info you can share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) Stuart, Are WWW still wearing Mbro kits? If so How is the quality has it held up to the wear & tear of he season? any supply problems? who is our supplier? Iswithed Romford to Joma last season as Prostar kits in Yellow/Royal were pretty bland. Luckily, it was only for 5 teams. It has not been a good switch. We have had to send 1/2 a dozen of my teams 30 tops to be mended as stitching came loose {on the sleeves}. The U13's manager has had a man about them too but the biggest single issue was supply. If our supplier had told me that it would take 4-5 weeks for an order to be shipped from Spain, I wouldn't have bothered. You live & learn. For the new season, the U8's, U9's, U11's, U12's {2 teams}, U14's {3 teams} and U15's all need new kits. I like the Umbro , looks good in Yellow/Royal. The alternative is Prostar Momentum in yellow/royal. We know Prostar & robust, reliable kits & supply from manufacturer can be overnight but I like the look of the Umbro kit more. cheers for any info you can share. I could never fault the quality of the Umbro kit we had Kombi. The yellow, green and blue chevron kit was by far the best we've ever had. We had ours for two seasons. There was no issues with colour fading, shrinking or with ripped or torn kits. However in the second season we replaced all of the socks because of severe supply issues. We had gone with a yellow and blue hooped sock but when one or two of them started to go missing we found it impossible to replace so eventually I just opted to buy the plain royal Umbro sock from Sports Direct since they always appeared to have them in stock. Before you go with Umbro though there are issues you'd need to know. When we were with them they were owned in the UK by Nike. Nike were rebuilding the brand after years of being done in by a licencing agreement in the UK that saw the likes of Sports Direct printing their logo onto some of the cheapest, nastiest sportswear products and t-shirts imaginable. Nike were shipping the strips from a factory in Cheadle in Manchester and as I've said the quality was top notch. However Nike were desperate to offload the UK brand and in 2012 - after we'd purchased all our Umbro kit - Nike sold the brand to a company called Iconex for $225m. From that point on getting hold of anything from the Umbro teamwear catalogue was impossible. We were scrambling around on eBay trying to bid for anything that would top up our kit stock. I've no idea who or what are making Umbro's kits now but Iconex is one of those firms that sells on licences to the likes of Sports Direct so it could be that the quality and supply has really been affected since. In 2014 we switched to Uhlsport, supplied through a company we'd had some dealing with before - Kitmania from Livingston. For the first time in a number of years I wasn't involved in the decision making or the negotiations as they were being handled by a new committee member who was a professional buyer and who was clearly better qualified to handle these kind of things. After a number of months of negotiations we were all summoned to a meeting and handed this rather plain and uninspiring Uhlsport top and we were told this was our new kit. He went on to explain that he had negotiated this rather convoluted contract with Kitmania that meant that all of our Wishaw Wycombe age groups would get a free home kit but that we had to ensure going forward that Kitmania were our sole supplier for everything from ball pumps and footballs through to first aid kits, bags, even club ties as we had spending targets to hit. A year on I've no idea how we've done against spending targets but I will say that I've been delighted with the Uhlsport kit. It's worn really well. One shirt faded slightly in colour but we reckon that was down to an over zealous Mother bleaching the top to try to get rid of some mud stains but other than that, and the usual losing of socks we've had no issues at all. Kitmania have also been brilliant to deal with. Their owner runs a side that play in the same colours as us so he always seemed to have plenty of spare stock and they created an online club shop for us where you could buy a Wishaw Wycombe scarf and hat, a onesie, hoodies, jackets, infact with Alan Provan ending his deal with St Mirren I found it incredibly amusing that Wishaw Wycombe had a whole range of apparel and accessories while St Mirren had an almost empty club shop week on week. The strip grew on me too. It didn't look quite so plain once it was numbered and badged. Last year I was sat beside Kitmania owner Kenny Taylor at the clubs Sportsmans Dinner. He'd brought along one of his young staff members and inbetween watching the speakers I introduced him to everyone on our table which included the young goalkeeping coach I talked about in my post the other day. I was proud of the fact that the club had managed to get a group of responsible older players into coaching younger teams and I detailed the progress this lad had made and all the positive influences he'd had on a number of goalkeepers within the Wishaw Wycombe squad. Kenny Taylor listened very closely and then wandered over to talk to the lad. It transpired that he had offered him the kind of sponsorship deal that he normally reserves for senior goalkeepers who help promote their products. All our coach needed to do was to look at the Uhlsport range of products and to phone Kenny and Kenny would supply it to him free of charge. As far as I understand it there was an annual limit but according to Kenny it was the kind of package that only gets offered to high profile SPL goalkeepers. I've no idea if he came to the evening looking for an opportunity to do something like that or if it was as a direct consequence of me detailing this lads progress but as you can imagine it's left me with a very strong opinion on Kitmania and I would recommend them to absolutely anyone. Kombi, one thing I've found over the years is that the kit business can be pretty murky and I honestly wish it would clean up it's act. When I was involve in trying to source a supplier for the Umbro kit I had two reps offer me a range of gifts from free tickets to hospitality at Scottish Football matches, corporate golf days and one even offered me a holiday in Ireland for my whole family "so I could see their Irish factory" so long as I didn't question the price too closely. One of the reps involved was a guy whose phone number had been given to me by a local SFA Coach, who it transpired was getting a commission payment for each club he put the reps way. Obviously I'd have absolutely nothing to do with any of that and I would repeatedly tell them I was not interested in backhanders - I just wanted the best possible price for my club. The result of my experience left me very suspicious of anyone giving me any recommendations for suppliers though, and of their motives. In the interests of full disclosure if you were to contact Kenny from Kitmania and you did mention me or Wishaw Wycombe as far as I am aware the only benefit would be that your sales would count towards the annual spend that Wishaw Wycombe are expected to make on kit as part of the kit deal. It's a market I'd love to see being cleaned up though and it was something I mentioned that senior clubs should get involved in when we were talking about 10000Hours. I know the kit deal that St Mirren negotiated with Alan Provan and then with JD Sports wouldn't have worked in this way, but one of the benefits I could see to a senior club affiliating to juvenile clubs was that the sales of the juvenile club could be added into the figures for the senior club therefore enhancing the profitability of any sponsorship deal with the senior club, and reducing the cost per unit for a kit for the juvenile club. Unfortunately I don't think it will ever happen because club directors are far too short sighted to see the bigger picture. Edited May 30, 2015 by Stuart Dickson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted May 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Cheers Stuart. I popped into our usual supplier, Prokituk. Turns out they have an account with Umbro so would be able to get the kit through them. They did tell me about stock issues & showed Ubro's stock levels of the top I liked. They only had about 80, whereas Prostar keep 000's on their shelves ready for despatch. The amount of business we put through Prokituk get's us a decent discount {25%} on prostar whereas they said they don't get as good deal out of Umbro and might be able to squeeze 10%but that would be dependent upon the volume of kits bought. Think we will stick with Prostar for now & hope next year, the yellow/royal kits are a bit more imaginative. Prostar are also doing some loyalty scheme, where for every £2000 spent, you can get £200 worth of prostar gear. Direct soccer do something similar where you get £100 in goods {any make} for every £2000 spent. I've set up the "Club Shop" with Direct Soccer and whenever The £100 is available for us, we will buy equipment for the soccer school. I expect we will do the same with Prokituk. I had a look at Kitmania & the Uhlsport kits. I'd buy Uhlsport on the back of I liked the Uhlsport strip they done for St Mirren {decent black stripes, front & back with a red'n'black collar. Unfortunately, it's not a well known kit down here & convincing others would be quite a task. Thanks for the advice & info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Cheers Stuart. I popped into our usual supplier, Prokituk. Turns out they have an account with Umbro so would be able to get the kit through them. They did tell me about stock issues & showed Ubro's stock levels of the top I liked. They only had about 80, whereas Prostar keep 000's on their shelves ready for despatch. The amount of business we put through Prokituk get's us a decent discount {25%} on prostar whereas they said they don't get as good deal out of Umbro and might be able to squeeze 10%but that would be dependent upon the volume of kits bought. Think we will stick with Prostar for now & hope next year, the yellow/royal kits are a bit more imaginative. Prostar are also doing some loyalty scheme, where for every £2000 spent, you can get £200 worth of prostar gear. Direct soccer do something similar where you get £100 in goods {any make} for every £2000 spent. I've set up the "Club Shop" with Direct Soccer and whenever The £100 is available for us, we will buy equipment for the soccer school. I expect we will do the same with Prokituk. I had a look at Kitmania & the Uhlsport kits. I'd buy Uhlsport on the back of I liked the Uhlsport strip they done for St Mirren {decent black stripes, front & back with a red'n'black collar. Unfortunately, it's not a well known kit down here & convincing others would be quite a task. Thanks for the advice & info. No worries Kombi. It's not a well known brand here either - or at least it wasn't till last summer. It's German made and there must have been a fair bit of money put into marketing the brand because over the course of the season I'd reckon around half of the clubs we played in our age group were wearing them. If I had my way and money was no object it would be Adidas every time for me, unfortunately our committee were never that generous with the budget. The Umbro kit was great but the stock issues and the change of brand owner would worry me to be honest. Anyway the only other advice I can give is to stay away from Pendle kits - which look great to start with but always end up looking like you stole them from a homeless person - and Sturridge Sports kits which were by far the worst brand we used in my time running the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted June 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Stuart, a wee update on the kit situation. Managed to speak to Kenny at Kitmania today, explained what I was looking for in terms of kit {which is similar to WWW by the sounds of things}. He's asked me to put together a list of sample items and he'll send them on to me. I intend to present at our AGM on 1st July, Home & Away kits, Rainwear, Tracksuit/presentation suits, bags etc, where, if the quality is good {& I expect it to be acceptable to us}, we will then look to order at least 100 full kits {some teams had new kits last year}. I expect Romford Borough Youth FC to go with Kitmania next season & if all works out well, will invite them down to the tournament I intend to host at the end of the season & see if they can get some business from clubs down here through that. I'll let you know how it all goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Stuart, a wee update on the kit situation. Managed to speak to Kenny at Kitmania today, explained what I was looking for in terms of kit {which is similar to WWW by the sounds of things}. He's asked me to put together a list of sample items and he'll send them on to me. I intend to present at our AGM on 1st July, Home & Away kits, Rainwear, Tracksuit/presentation suits, bags etc, where, if the quality is good {& I expect it to be acceptable to us}, we will then look to order at least 100 full kits {some teams had new kits last year}. I expect Romford Borough Youth FC to go with Kitmania next season & if all works out well, will invite them down to the tournament I intend to host at the end of the season & see if they can get some business from clubs down here through that. I'll let you know how it all goes. Oh cool. Well I hope Kenny can sort you out a good deal. He created a club shop for us with a range of items. It'll maybe give you an idea of the kind of range of items that can be done. http://kitmania.co.uk/product-category/wishaw-wycombe-wanderers-team-shop/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted June 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 Saturday 2nd April 2016 St Mirren v Hibernian. Phew! I had booked this & gambled that St Mirren would have a home game. Result that it's Hibs as a good friend of mine who I met when I worked in Saudi Arabia is a Hibee {& coaches a team in Leith} will hopefully make the game too. I know it's 9 months away but looking forward to this even more now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 once the award gates are open, there is a flood. said our club secretary in an email to me today. not only have you won both, The Echo League Fair Play award for your U11 Greens team, you've won the Essex County F.A. Fair Play award for your U11 Greens Team for last season but you will also be taken to Colchester United game next season. There will be a pitch side presentation at half time of the game you attend. I am really delighted for the boys on the U11 Greens & their parents, it was a tough season for the team but they came back week after week and finished every game having enjoyed the game. Their conduct through the season has been exemplary. I cannot feel ought else but pride in the group of lads & for them to receive recognition from The League & The County F.A.is testament to their will to have a crack at football. Off to Essex F.A for their awards on Tuesday night. Need to convince the wife to drive me there as it's out in the sticks of Chelmsford and there's no point going to a do & not enjoying a beverage or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted July 17, 2015 Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 said our club secretary in an email to me today. I am really delighted for the boys on the U11 Greens & their parents, it was a tough season for the team but they came back week after week and finished every game having enjoyed the game. Their conduct through the season has been exemplary. I cannot feel ought else but pride in the group of lads & for them to receive recognition from The League & The County F.A.is testament to their will to have a crack at football. Off to Essex F.A for their awards on Tuesday night. Need to convince the wife to drive me there as it's out in the sticks of Chelmsford and there's no point going to a do & not enjoying a beverage or two. Well done Kombi. Remember to get these awards boasted about all over social media and use it round local businesses to help get sponsorship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted October 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 got notified by the Essex FA the other day. the boys are off to Colchester United v Coventry City on 14th November to receive their Essex FA Fair Play award during the 1/2 time. Boys & their parents are looking forward to it. Me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 I've got to boast about this. This lad came to me when he was 16. He's a friend of my eldest son and he'd become somewhat disillusioned with football as the team in his age group had disbanded and he was struggling to get game time in our Under 21 squad - the next squad up. We got him involved in coaching and put him through the various coaching courses. He said he wanted to specialise so I got him a gig at the club working with Roddy McKenzie who was training all our club goalkeepers. The feedback from the parents and from the goalkeepers themselves was excellent and Roddy McKenzie clearly rated him too so I made the case to the club committee that we put him through all his specialist goalkeeper coaching courses and at the same time the lad got himself on a Sports Coaching Course at Stirling University. One of our young goalkeepers was then signed up by Airdrie at Pro Youth level and when he heard that Airdrie were looking for a goalkeeping coach they recommended ours. He was 19 years old. A fantastic lad who was determined simply to stay involved in the game and to help others to make it to the very top level. Well done David, and well done Airdrie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordie Saint Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 There was 2 'Southern' coaches from Barrhead parked up outside St James' yesterday at the Newcastle v Liverpool game. A friend in Paisley said it was Barrhead boys clubs' day out. Hope they enjoyed the day and given the result can they come again please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombi Buddie Posted December 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 12244566_10207023399717114_6525135163277349694_o.jpg I've got to boast about this. This lad came to me when he was 16. He's a friend of my eldest son and he'd become somewhat disillusioned with football as the team in his age group had disbanded and he was struggling to get game time in our Under 21 squad - the next squad up. We got him involved in coaching and put him through the various coaching courses. He said he wanted to specialise so I got him a gig at the club working with Roddy McKenzie who was training all our club goalkeepers. The feedback from the parents and from the goalkeepers themselves was excellent and Roddy McKenzie clearly rated him too so I made the case to the club committee that we put him through all his specialist goalkeeper coaching courses and at the same time the lad got himself on a Sports Coaching Course at Stirling University. One of our young goalkeepers was then signed up by Airdrie at Pro Youth level and when he heard that Airdrie were looking for a goalkeeping coach they recommended ours. He was 19 years old. A fantastic lad who was determined simply to stay involved in the game and to help others to make it to the very top level. Well done David, and well done Airdrie. Great stuff SD. Too many people think that "player development" is about creating a winning team. I expect the support David got from WWW will affect many more keepers in the future & that can only be a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted April 28, 2016 Report Share Posted April 28, 2016 Wasn't sure where to post this and then I remembered this thread. Last night I had the pleasure of watching one of my former charges playing a blinder for Motherwell Under 20's in the Youth Cup Final. Robbie Leitch came on as a 70th minute substitute for Motherwell playing in central midfield and within a matter of minutes he'd taken a pass on the left wing, dribbled past two and curled the ball beautifully into the bottom corner of the goal just inside the back post to make it 4-2 to the Well. Then before full time he took the ball in midfield, carried it forward beating a man before floating an inch perfect pass to their striker who ran in on goal and chipped the ball over the advancing Hearts keeper. One goal and one assist for a 17 year old playing in an Under 20's Cup Final at Hampden Park in probably the biggest game of his life so far in just 20 minutes. My chest was bursting with pride. Even more so when I saw that on the winners podium with him was Adam Livingstone - another one of the kids that came through Wishaw Wycombe 98's squad - he was an unused sub on the night. Chuffed as hell for both of them. It almost makes all those years of standing in the freezing cold at training sessions and matches worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Dickson Posted June 20, 2016 Report Share Posted June 20, 2016 Great stuff SD. Too many people think that "player development" is about creating a winning team. I expect the support David got from WWW will affect many more keepers in the future & that can only be a good thing. David Earl has signed a new contract at Airdrie today and will be coaching their first team and under 20s goalkeepers this season. He's still only 22. Proud of this lad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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