pinkeye

The biggest issue I can see with girls football is for clubs to have enough players to make a team. They can all start at U6 level but, every club I have ever had any association with has always been desperate to get more players in. Wallsend Boys Club have a great set up for the girls, I think they even call it Wallsend Girls Club but, I couldn't tell you what age groups they have. I can direct you to one of the coaches who is specifically involved with the girls coaching there if you are really interested.

Haha, the parents of the next Lionel Messi.... they can be awful. I have seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears... More than anything I am genuinely embarrassed for them for making such a scene or for their astonishing lack of knowledge on all matters relating to football or even - in some cases - life itself. I also mentioned that now that my weekends are free again I am giving some consideration to giving it a try myself to volunteer to coach or maybe even do the referee course. I have a thick enough skin to put up with the insults and comments from people who are nothing short of idiots and I really feel that I want to give something back to Grassroots as it has given me so much joy for so long! I just need to assess how much spare time I have to play with.

Heaton Hawks are a one of the better clubs in the area, a couple of my sons friends played there in this last U16 season. Sadly the U16 team this year was not as successful as they have been previous years and looked poor by their former standards. Many factors can be brought into play here but, the main one is by the time the lads are 16 they usually have some, let's call them, outside interests and consequently girls / drinking seems to be more of a priority. Heaton lost a couple of their better players through this loss of interest and that hurt them. To your point though, at 8 years old it is absolutely fabulous to watch the kids. They develop so quickly and it is possible to pick out the ones who are slightly stronger, slightly quicker and more "aware" even that that young age. Not that I am a fan of this academy system of plucking kids out at that age group. Football should be first and last a game that the kids love, no way should they be put under pressure so young. Or for that matter any age really.

You should track down Tyneside Futsal, my son spend 6 years with one of their coaches and I can personally vouch for their professionalism, integrity and putting the child first.

That is such a great point. Wallsend Boys Club attracted tons of private ventures offering football "academy" type experiences which they would align with Newcastle College to offer a B-Tech in Sport. My son did B-Tech in sport between year 10 and 11.... this is not a great start to their adult life post education. Hence my son chose the school because he can sit A Levels albeit it will be tough for him as all of the spare time he would usually have to work in the common room will now be spent training and playing football, he will have to work really hard to be successful at both the school and the sport but, he recognised that already!

True enough but, they are not all bad. Just some of them! :-)

We live in Gateshead, they had a couple of open sessions to try to attract footballers (and rugby, Cricket, girls teams as well as boys). Their approach is fantastic and if they live up to the promises they make I am certain my son will have an excellent experience there. Edit - the reason I said we live in Gateshead was that they also arrange transport for the sports students so they can gather the best ability kids from all across the region, from Berwick to Middlesbrough.

That is decent advice - we tried the Soccer Tots and it was a decent experience for us I can see where you are coming from in terms of the "avoid" message. Tyneside Futsal is brilliant if you can track down a session near to where you are. They are a private venture but, a cut above the rest in terms of what they want to do for the kids.

Most clubs start around 5 years old but, you can find clubs like Soccer Tots that take much younger, they make it more about fun and team work rather than out and out football. Felling Magpies - for example - have their cubs set up but, I don't know what age group they start at. Girls football is becoming huge by the way!!

As I was saying before now, my son is now finished his grassroots journey having played his last season at U16 level for both Felling Magpies (Saturday) and Wallsend Boys Club (Sunday). He has decided to leave those clubs to focus on his next steps which will be to tackle three A Levels at Park View School in Chester Le Street. We looked at a few places; Newcastle United Foundation, Gateshead College, Tyne Met College to name just three but, was most impressed by the standards set at Park View. They even have a fleet of min buses that pick the kids up from dedicated collection points around the NE. I would love to give commentary on his progress if anyone is interested and even if you are not it should make decent reading. I am sure many of us here have got kids playing football, tell us about it...

Following some discussion in the Sun'lun thread about our kids that play football at the Grassroots level it seems there is some interest in having a dedicated area to talk about this very interesting topic. Even if you dont have kids playing football yet or you are coaching a team, maybe thinking about refereeing or anything to do with the grassroots level of football this should be the place to discuss. Hope it doesn't flop....

Park View right? Yes, they seem to have a huge focus on Sport and have training facilities at Durham Cricket. I am going to start a Grassroots thread because I think there is interest in talking about our kids or our own projects into coaching etc...

Is there a Grassroots Football topic in the chat section? It would be really interesting to share experiences with other dads whose kids play at this wonderful level of football. I have been around it for more than 10 years with my son and I have to say it is really hard to leave it all behind. I said in my earlier message that if I had the chance to do it all again I absolutely would without any hesitation, so much in fact.... I am even considering whether I have time to volunteer to help a local club as a coach in some capacity, clearly need to be DBS checked and do some FA courses ahead of that.... Actually as it is a football related topic a Grassroots thread would fit nicely in this forum... thoughts?

Massively off topic but, I have to say it. Saturday was the final football presentation event for my son, he is now 16 and his Grassroots journey is over. He played at a nice level for Felling Magpies on a Saturday in the Russell Foster Premier League and for Wallsend Boys Club on a Sunday in the league that used to be called Pinpoint (also in the Premier League), no idea what they call it now! He has a shelf full of trophies as memories - which is great - and I no longer have to get up on both weekend days to take him to his match but, if I could, I would wind the clock back and do it all again because it is fuckin brilliant!!! Enjoy every moment of watching your son play, do not be ashamed to be proud of him in front of other people. My boy is going on to do A Levels at a school in Chester Le Street which has a very strong Men's Football Academy, linked with Huddesfield Town for some reason.... He has been accepted onto the football academy as well as the academic courses. He will now be playing in National Leagues, albeit the weekly games seems to be mostly in the North (Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool etc) although the team from this current year group have won at least one National Cup and recently toured in Italy playing against the year up 18/19 National Team and drawing 1 - 1.. So hopefully some excellent coaching ahead.

High end opposition, they are testing themselves to the absolute limit.

Does this mean they pissed the league (leyugh)?

Option 1 but, unfair to say I am not bothered. I am very lucky to to have had a season ticket for >20 years throw it in when Rafa left and spent 2 years not missing it one bit but, for some reason decided to get it back at the start of this current season. I even was able to get the same 3 seats together (me, my dad and my son) that we had previously had..... My reasoning to get my seats back this year was that I just had a feeling that was hard to explain that something was going to happen but, even if it didn't it would only be one year. The season start made me question my decision but, now I am so relieved I cannot explain. Good luck to the lads on here who are going to try to get their ticket out for the coming season!!

Maybe they plan to have a piss through his letterbox in revenge.

Clearly the law is the correct way to deal with this act and not some mindless hoofing, the kid is clearly a clown and will have thought it was hilarious at the time. doubtless regretting it at his leisure today.

Just renewed mine, no price increases but, I was not on any fixed price arrangement.

It is the most hilarious situation to see Everton close to relegation. My vote would be to see these relegated and judging from their run of games remaining it looks very likely. Sunderland... promotion.... meh... if they come up to the "Champo" they will struggle like hell, probably go down in a season or two and yoyo for several seasons. The Championship is seriously competitive at the top end and pretty much like League 1 at the bottom end. I have never come across a more "entitled" set of fans than Everton... Truly the Merseyside mackems.

I had a chat with a bloke I know quite well on Saturday morning, he is a Sunderland fan from Washington, the chat was about the fact he was going to their match that afternoon and looking forward to it, all good so far.... he brought up crowds and how wonderful it was that Sunderland get 30k+ each week for a low league team to which I agreed but, questioned whether it really was 30k because whenever I see clips of their matches on teevee the stands look full of gaps and it was hard to imagine that 30k are actually there, maybe they are counting the free tickets that are given away but, not used....... whoops!!! that was like lighting some sort of firework under him. They absolutely do not under any circumstances give away any free tickets, sometimes there are a few given to schools for children but, they must be accompanied by a paying adult.... then the best bit.... Newcastle give away 10k free tickets..... I said, yes, an offer was made by our former owner to existing season ticket holders to have a free additional ticket for a family member of friend for around half of that specific season, if the tickets were to be retained for the following season the standard cost of said ticket must be paid..... NOOO, they are 10k free tickets every week and that is why our ground is full.... he would not accept that Ashley made that gesture out of desperation as the ground was becoming more empty by the week as fans left under protest but, at the same time hundreds or even thousands of free tickets find their way into people pockets for SOL every home game. The misinformation circulating is horrific and it is no surprise that each it is practically impossible to have a grown up conversation about football between Sunderland and Newcastle fans no matter how level headed both parties are. What was also funny was that he could barely name a current Sunderland player and said that he didn't even recognise the faces of the players whose names that he had heard of.

Basil was a Syberian hamster.

Yeah, we already hate the rat invested racists....

Surely he has blocked you by now?