Congratulations to Robins U7 who have followed their colleagues in the U9s by winning their Winter Trophy Event. The group's main aim from the start has always been to enjoy and improve their football. Working, as we always do, from the small group of 8 players that arrived at our start-up sessions, and yet again from this humble start we have produced a group we can be surely proud of. Some games, we have been too strong for the opposition; others, we've more than met our match, but most importantly the boys have played good football with a smile on their faces.
Our best team performance so far was the last game of our Trophy event, when we played a hard-fought game against a very good Greenmeadow team, which effectively ended up being the "final", as both teams had won their other encounters, a great team performance was rounded off with a great team counter attack goal and an excellent finish from Anthony De Souza. The whole team played really well, but great credit to both teams playing in a 1-0 match, amazing play and discipline for this age group.
This was the boys' first taste of silverware and they were worthy winners of their Trophy Event group, a real credit to themselves and Robins FC. Fantastic stuff boys!
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