Selston
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year, we know there were teams playing
on the ground well before 1968.
“Trying to ensure there is a pathway
for players to move from junior football
into men’s football is very difficult.
We’ve had three separate attempts at
reserve team football to try and cater for
this cohort, with mixed results.
“There are some players who have
come through the juniors into the
reserves and are now firm fixtures in the
first team playing at Step 6. However, for
every one of those there are probably 5
or 6 who drift off for various reasons.
“The reasons include college/work
pressures/disinterest/not quite being
up to the standard or physicality of
men’s football and a host of other reasons
cause this drop out. We are looking at
the possibility of entering teams in either
under 19 or under 21 midweek floodlit
leagues in the future.
“These seem to be gaining in
popularity as I think more leagues and
County FA’s are realising the difficulties
with keeping this age range interested in
playing the game. Any of these moves
are a challenge for us though, we have
only one floodlit pitch, we don’t own the
ground and don’t really have anywhere
at present to develop more playing area.
“I think we’re really providing a
community base for Selston and the
surrounding areas. As mentioned earlier
we provide for a wide age range; for the
last four seasons we’ve started a new
team at under 7 with children from our
54 Issue 83
soccer school – and by press ganging a
parent to coach the team!
“We also put on several events each
year, a free Halloween night, this year
for the first time in conjunction with local
youth group Selston YouthTogether, a
free Christmas Party and the jewel in our
events crown, the annual Chairman’s
Day. We have several junior games on
and the first team play in the afternoon,
we have a bar, BBQ, bouncy castles,
slides, football games and more. We
regularly get over 1,000 visitors on the
day.
“We’ve come a long way under the
leadership of Mark – when he took on the
chair we had, I think, three junior teams
and no men’s football! We now have
fourteen teams, two stands, floodlights
and a host of other improvements to
the surroundings. This success is also
attributable to the many volunteers who
have helped realise our ambitions over
the years through their pure hard graft.
“I personally think the challenge
we’ll have in the next few years is one
of capacity to entertain teams with the
restrictions we have with playing area
and the changing rooms and clubhouse.
However, we do have plans to raise
money for a new building incorporating
changing rooms and clubhouse –
increasing in size all round.
“We’re also in discussions with
the high school next to our site to see
if we can join forces to install a 3g/4g
pitch, which would benefit the whole
community – the school during school
time and the local community outside of
school.
“Both of these ambitions are long
term projects and, of course, require
significant funding. I hope to be here in
ten years with both of those ambitions
realised and be watching hundreds of
people playing football each weekend
and similar numbers watching and
socialising.”