Welcome everybody today for our match against Burton Albion, a day we are really looking forward to as there is plenty going on throughout including a Saturday Club, Birthday Treat, Mascot, Half Time Challenge Match and a couple of Football League Trust Presentations.
MASCOT
Today we welcome Thomas Saile to Spotland for a special day out.
Thomas, aged eight, is from Newton le Willows, where he plays football for Newton Under 8’s Aces in defence.
He is a big Rochdale fan, as are the rest of his family, and is following in the footsteps of his Dad in being a mascot at Spotland. His favourite Dale player is Ian Henderson.
As well as football, Thomas loves swimming and playing the guitar.
BIRTHDAY TREAT
We are entertaining Lucas Watson, who was seven last Thursday and friends for a party and hopefully they will all have a day to remember at Spotland.
Lucas trains every Saturday with his friends at Mark Allott’s Coaching Academy.
He loves football but he hasn’t joined a team yet, he really likes being a defender and loves tackling and scoring with today being his 5th live match
KINGSWAY PARK AT ST GEORGE’S PARK-KINDER + SPORT FUTSAL CUP
Pupils from Kingsway Park High School Year 11 represented Rochdale AFC at the Kinder + Sports Football League Futsal Cup Regional Finals recently at the home of England Training Centre.
They played extremely well, representing School brilliantly but unfortunately lost four games by the odd goal after beating Shrewsbury 1 – 0.
The boys are here today to be presented with Trophy and Medals for winning our Rochdale High Schools tournament last year.
The students will be visiting Spotland for the home game against Burton Albion on Saturday 30th January to receive a trophy and medals for their exploits in winning our own High SchoolFutsal Cup
SOCCER FACTORY JUNIOR CLUBS TOURNAMENT
In conjunction with Soccer Factory, we enjoyed an excellent day out at the Junior Clubs 5-a-side Tournament just before Christmas with loads of exciting football there for everybody to enjoy.
Below is a run-down of the final rounds in the various age groups:
Under 7’s
Semi finals
Crossley 1 v Parkwydnn 3/Bridge Hawks 0 v Manchester Football Dreams 2
Final
Parkwydnn 4 v Manchester Football Dreams 1
Under 8’s
Semi finals
Sala Soccer 4 v Wardle Juniors 1/Pennine Blacks 3 v Milnrow Juniors 1
Final
Sala Soccer 2 v Pennine 0
Under 9’s
Semi finals
Bolton Futsal 3 v All Stars 1/Caldiway 1 v Ryburn Utd 0
Final
Caldiway 0 v Bolton Futsal 0 (Bolton Futsal won on penalties)
Under 10’s
Semi finals
Failsworth Boys 2 v Sala Soccer 1/Allstars 0 v Wallasey Albion 1
Final
Failsworth Boys 4 v Wallasey Albion 2
FEMALE FOOTBALL UPDATE AT THE FOOTBALL IN THE COMMUNITY TRUST
HALF TIME CORPUS ROCS v ROCHDALE AFC LADIES UNDER 9’S
We have a special treat at half time with Siobhan’s Under 9’s Ladies team taking on Corpus ROCS from Oldham, both teams who take part in the North Manchester Girls League.
They meet up regularly on Saturday mornings at Chapel Road Complex, usually in very even games so we are expecting a good encounter today.
ROCHDALE AFC LADIES-NORTH MANCHESTER GIRLS LEAGUE CUP
Our Under 9’s and 13’s competed in the finals of the North Manchester Girls League Cup on the Saturday before Christmas with disappointing results.
The younger team was beaten by Bury Girls 0-1 after overcoming Corpus ROCS 2-0 in their semi-final following on from wins over Heyside Kinders 3-0 and Ashton Pumas 1-0.
Our Under 13’s were beaten 0-1 by Heyside Angels having seen off Curzon Ashton Galaxy 2-1 and a spirited Middleton Athletic 1-0.
We are extremely proud of all our teams, who after only a few months together, are in good positions in their respective Divisions and hopefully more Cup progress at the end of the season.
Last weekend, we played five matches winning everyone with the pick of the lot being the Under 9’s who beat Denton Girls 3-0 following on from a 2-0 win over Ashton Pumas.
There was also wins for the Under 10’s: 3-1 against AFC Manchester, Under 12’s: 7-0 against Heyside Angels Skylarks plus Under 16’s: 7-2 against Chadderton Park.
As I have mentioned in previous notes, this is all down to the joint Female Football Development programme with an investment of over £2.4m over the first two years from Sport England funding, seeing Premier League and Football League Club’s Trust deliver season-long coaching programmes, aiming to reach 40,000 new female players into the sport.
It was hoped that the programme would help drive participation figures for women’s football and enable the sport to become the second largest team sport in the country behind men’s football, a key objective of the FA’s “Game Changer” strategy, a five year plan launched in October 2012.
A total of 88 Club Trusts across the country have delivered sessions through Level “2” qualified coaches with each Club delivering programmes by working in tandem with County FA’s, Schools, Colleges and Universities to engage new participants into the game.
We have five teams operating at under 9’s, 10’s, 12’s 13’s and 16’s, which proves that the money invested at Rochdale AFC has been well utilised with over sixty girls training and playing in structured football every week with hopefully more teams planned for season 2016/7.
FOOTBALL LEAGUE UNDER 13’S GIRLS ONLY CUP
At half time, we will be holding a presentation for the girls from Cardinal Langley, winners of our Rochdale High Schools tournament and who represented us in Regional Finals at Barnsley.
They performed splendidly throughout against much physically stronger opponents in their League beating Bradford City 2-1 but losses against Leeds United 0-1, Hull City 0-2 and Middlesborough 0-2 meant that they didn’t progress to semi final stages however Mr McLaughlin was extremely proud of the way they conducted themselves.
See you all again in a couple of weeks when Millwall visit Spotland.