55.png){kind=logo}
Recent article from Danny Hall at the Wilts and Glos Standard
By Danny Hall - Sports Editor - 1st June
On the back of the most successful year in the club's history across all age groups, nine new teams have approached the club to play in the Centurions' red and black colours in the 2017/18 season.
That will bring the number of teams representing the club to 30 with an unbroken pathway from the now fully-structured U7s group all the way to the first XI team in the Southern League.
With Cirencester College cutting funding to their football Academy and competing only in a colleges league on a Wednesday, Cirencester Town are launching their own U18s side next season to play in the much more competitive South West Counties League on a Saturday against Football League clubs like Forest Green Rovers and Newport County, as well as potentially taking on the giants of football in the FA Youth Cup.
Two weeks into the redevelopment of the main pitch by land movers McCardle Sport Tec, the Corinium Stadium site looks more suitable for planting potatoes than playing the beautiful game but by mid-July when the £500,000 3G pitch has been completed by the Football Foundation's nominated partners Tiger Turf UK, the club will have a facility that will be the envy of any non-league club.
"We have always had great facilities at Cirencester Town – remember we will still have the 3G pitch inside the Arena – but now it's going to another level," said Alan Lloyd, the director of football.
Lloyd, along with another long-term club stalwart, Tim Arnold, runs the Cirencester Town Development side which finished fifth in the Hellenic League Div One West and concluded their season by beating the first team of runaway champions Fairford Town.
"In a couple of months' time we will have an artificial pitch which can take up to 80 hours use a week," he said. We will be playing Saturday morning and Sunday junior matches on the same pitch that the first XI uses on a Saturday afternoon.
"Obviously other teams are attracted to come her because the facilities are going to be out of this world for a club at our level, but I like to think they are also attracted by the professionalism of the coaching. We have three coaches with UEFA B badges and eight with Level 2 qualifications and that number is growing all the time."
Arsenal legend Robert Pires was able to see the quality of the football being played by the Cirencester Town youngsters first hand when he recently presented trophies to the James Whitlock-managed U15s after they had won the regional ESF Festival Tournament at Butlin's Bognor Regis resort.
That penalty shoot-out success over Oxford side Harwell & Hendred has earned them a place alongside seven other teams at the national grand final to be held at the FA's St George's Park HQ in the middle of July.
This entry was posted on 02 June 2017 at 10:37 and is filed under Miscellaneous | Junior Premier League | Youth Teams. You can leave a response here.
Bookmark with: