“Always train hard, work harder, never give up, never give in and believe in yourself.”
Marcus Rashford
This month we are relaunching our club newsletter to keep you up to date with all things NUFC. This month’s letter is jam packed so I will keep my own message short. I would like to extend my thanks to all those involved in NUFC for a brilliant season so far. Let’s keep up the hard work and enjoy the remainder of the season.
Chris Webb-Butler
Delivery content Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022
At the beginning of the season we introduced a compulsory ball mastery activity at the start of training giving each player a chance to become comfortable with the ball. Over the course of the season we aim to empower our players to be more confident on the ball and in possession.
Key Objectives – Autumn:
- Staying on the ball
- Using the body to protect the ball from an opponent
- Individuality, creativity and expression on the ball in order to beat an opponent
- How to effectively use your body when defending 1v1
- When to be patient and hold position
- Recognising counter-attacking opportunities when possession has been regained
Key Objectives – Spring:
- Positional sense and tactical awareness
- Scanning the pitch
- Range of passing
- Passing and shooting when running at speed
- Identify a specific target or challenge once the ball has been won (run forward, long pass, short pass)
- Recognising opportunities to counter-attack
Kick-off times and challenging weather
As a club we firmly believe in the power of training. We are privileged to see and proud of the improvements our young players have made and know this is a combination of hard work in training, match time and encouragement from adults. Even so, we have to put players’ safety first and so we are sure you understand that there may be occasions, especially in the colder and wetter months of the year where we take the decision to cancel training. We do this to protect the players and the pitches. We will endeavour to let you all know as early as possible where this is the case. To combat this further we often extend the season into May (it should finish in April) to compensate for any lost training or match time.
A couple of families have raised questions over the kick off times of matches. Of course we are bound by the league rules and work hard to ensure all home matches can be played according to the times specified by the league. Whilst we appreciate later kick off times or times that vary week by week can present a frustration for some, we hope you understand that this is often beyond our control.
New second home ground
We have secured a second home ground for the remainder of the season at Isleworth and Syon School Sports Ground, next to Syon Park train station. Currently we are playing all U16, U12 and U11 home fixtures there due to the current condition of Blondin. This may be a permanent fixture moving into next season, whilst our pitches at Blondin Park undergo maintenance. There will however, be regular weekly games at Blondin Park and this will just help with over using our pitches on a Sunday during the colder months.
Meet the Committee
In case you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to help run the club, the committee is a mix of coaches and parents covering a variety of roles:
Chair – Chris Webb-Butler
Vice Chair – Andy Rainbow
Club Secretary – Chris Brooks
Welfare & Safeguarding Officer – Lara Webb-Butler
Treasurer – Alok Vyavaharkar
Operations Manager – Jorge Arrulo
Parent Rep Chair – Kamal Bal
Social Sec & Events Manager – Jonny Odell
Social Media & Comms Manager – Terry Brown
Referee Secretary – Terry Brown
We’d like to thank Pete Hughes, Nick Jackson, Daniela Sadlakova and Dominic Bone for all their efforts on the committee over the last couple of years. As NUFC grows, we want to make sure that the communication within the club works best for everybody. With this in mind, we are introducing new parent rep coordinators for different age groups, who will work with Kamal (Parent Rep Chair):
Parent Rep Co-ordinator U7/U8 – Seamus Sloyan (U7 White Rep)
Parent Rep Co-ordinator U9/10 – Colin Lacey (U9 Yellow Rep)
Parent Rep Co-ordinator U11/12 – Mike Dunn (U11 Rep)
Welcome Seamus, Colin and Mike!
Coach Development Update
This month has seen Coach Joel, Will, Tyrell, Andy and Ciaran enrol onto an FA coaching qualification funded by NUFC. This shows our commitment to develop and progress our coaches. It also ensures our players are coached to a high standard and our club is operating at charter standard status which we received last season. Tyrell received funding from the Middlesex FA through their Innovation Fund to get more black coaches into the game.
Player Awards
This season we are introducing monthly awards. For the players there will be three awards per team. Each award is based on our club values, which are detailed below:
Believe Award: For a player who is determined and committed to better themselves.
Aspire Award: For a player who embodies the club’s ethos through actions on and off the pitch.
Achieve Award: For a player who is delivering technically, understanding tactically and producing end results.
We are delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural NUFC club awards are:
| Believe | Aspire | Achieve | |
| U7 Yellow | Cole K | Patrick S | Ethan B |
| U7 White | James A | Samuel S | Myles M |
| U7 Red | Jamie R | Reuben T | Simon W |
| U8 Blue | Joseph L | Euan M | James B |
| U8 Red | Joseph W | Lucas DC | Alfredo BC |
| U8 Yellow | Hari H | Henri S | Leo J |
| U9 White | Felix O | Ethan S | Aidan B |
| U9 Blue | Joe B | Albie P | Matt W |
| U9 Yellow | Freddie PW | Max L | Oscar R |
| U9 Red | Lewis S | Cosmas C | Henry P |
| U10 Blue | Tom BR | Joshua M | Zach J |
| U10 Yellow | Oliver BC | Luke T | Omar B |
| U10 Red | Ethan B | Maxwell C | Gioele M |
| U11 | Toby B | Noemi H | Harry D |
| U12 | Akhil V | William V | Joshua I |
| U16 | Charlie K | Ibby R | Ben R |
Many congratulations to all of our winners. These awards are recognition of your hard work and commitment in training and in matches and we’re very proud of your efforts. Really well done.
Remember that there are new nominations each month, so we hope all the players are inspired to put in maximum effort to win an award in the future.
Coach of the Month
We are extremely grateful to all of our coaches for their hard work, dedication and commitment. They work hard to plan engaging and productive training sessions and are undoubtedly helping each and every player to improve and importantly to enjoy their football. Each month the coaches vote for the coach of month.We are delighted to announce that this month’s coach of the month is:
Coach Will
Many congratulations to Will – well deserved.
And finally…
Please remember that the NUFC hats and snoods remain on sale. They can be purchased at training on a Saturday morning with all proceeds going to the club.
Many thanks once again for all of your support this season and a big thank you to our sponsors!
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The Northfields Utd Committee.