Congratulations to Robins U9 who have followed up on a successful Autumn Trophy Event campaign by also winning the Winter Trophy Event, making it a 100% 2 out of 2 this season.
Coaches Trevor and Jake commented "A big shout out to the under 9s who have had a fantastic season so far, winning two of their trophy events, and keeping their concentration and focus on the game. Continuing to play as a team from the defence to the strikers working as one team, with midfielders setting up our strikers our to score goals, to our defence who kept strong and calm when needed. Under 9s Captain Jacob would also like to thank the team, the coaches and all the parents for their continuing support in the future."
The idea of the "Trophy Events" is an FA initiative to allow younger age groups to gradually get used to playing competitive football. Previously, teams would go from playing two years of development/friendly games where no results or League tables were published, straight into a 20+ week season-long league competition. The aim of the Trophy Events is to introduce the competitive element gradually and intersperse competitive fixtures with development league fixtures.
So this season the U11s will play 3 Trophy Events of approx 6 weeks each, making around 18 weeks of competitive football across the whole season; the U10s and U9s age groups will play 3 Trophy Events each consisting of 3-4 weeks of competitive football, making between 9-12 weeks of competitive football in total; while the U7s and U8s will also take part in 3 Trophy Events, but shorter in duration. The aim is to give the younger age groups a taste of competitive football, but without the pressure a full season-long competition can somtimes exert on what are still very young players and then gradually increase the length of the competitions year on year until finally the players take on a full season-long league at U12.
Further information on the FA's Youth Development review is available on the FA's main Youth Development Review page and locally on the Wilts FA website