Football Focus Issue 72 | Page 33

Ashington Rovers local businesses that would be interested in sponsoring the club, either helping out with kit and equipment or match day and training costs. This season for us has been amazing as we won Division 1 North straight after winning Division 2 North last season. All the players have worked very hard this season to keep up the winning ways and are already looking forward to the more difficult challenge that the Premier Division holds for them this coming season. We hope that in the next few years we can become a bigger club and run more teams. The facilities we have, we hire from Ashington Village Centre. They are quite small but fairly adequate although it would be nice if in the future they can be upgraded. Finding the money is always difficult. There is a junior football club in the village but unfortunately, because they only go to the age group of under 16’s we don’t get many of them coming through as most of them prefer to play under 18’s before going on to adult football. We were very lucky that one player this season decided to come and join us at the age of 16, Monty Gravell. He took the time time to tell us more about his experience, saying “The process from going straight to adults football from U16 was a big step but I would recommend it to others. This is because I have learnt a lot in my first season and I felt like I have improved more then I would’ve done if I joined an U18 team. To begin with I was nervous but the players got me instantly involved and I just joined in and felt like a part of the team after the first couple of training sessions. The physical side to the game was a big change but as a younger player you quickly learnt to be more physical and become stronger throughout the training sessions.” www.footballfocusmag.com 33