Football Focus Issue 81 | Page 30

Chamberlayne FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG Chamberlayne ATHLETIC FOOTBALL CLUB Having made the decision to move to Saturday football in 2011 Chamberlayne Athletic FC has experienced plenty of success. Football Focus Magazine recently caught up with Club Representative Adam Smith to gain an insight into what has been behind their success. Involvement He told us, “I’ve been involved for over thirteen years now as I joined at 21 to skipper a new men’s Sunday team (the only team in the club at the time) and we quickly came up through the leagues before reaching the Southampton Sunday Premier League. When I was 25 I cut my teeth at management, taking over our under 18’s half way through the season when there manager left, at which point I was playing Hampshire Prem Saturdays (elsewhere) and was captain for the Sunday prem team and then managing the under 18’s on Sunday afternoons.” Progression “In 2011, I decided to start the Saturday team with Chamberlayne and we have risen from Southampton Junior 4 to runners up in the 30 Issue 81 Southampton Premier last season and winning two cups the previous season including an impressive 4-0 win against Nursling at Eastleigh FC’s ground. Then I also became Player/manager for the 15/16 season for the Sunday team from club founder and now president Mick Colborne. We have retained the league title for the last two seasons along with winning the Southampton Senior Cup and The Sunday Hampshire Cup last season. After two years as Adult Director on the committee, last year I became the Chairman and with long standing club treasurer Barry Taylor and also having youth director Kerry Crook take the role as vice chairman the clubs committee has never been stronger. We now boast five men’s teams (Two Saturday and three Sunday), an under 16’s Sat and Sun, two under 7’s, 8’s, 9’s and under 13’s girls. Amongst lots of success at youth level there are several players who are now with