A Futsal round up from season 2015-2016.
We are currently in the process of recruiting for September 2016, players who are eligible to join are youngsters who are currently in School year 11/12. If you don’t already know about our programme come along to Nene Park Academy on Saturday 9th July from 11am to 12.30pm to give Futsal a go. The taster session is open to players aged 14-17 however application to join the scholarship is only open to players in school years above.
As we approach the final part of our season, we have finished all our competitive league fixtures in all three divisions. Posh A compete in FLT Futsal league Division 1 South East, Posh B FLT Futsal league Division 2 South East and Posh C FLT Futsal league Division 3 South East. All three sides started their seasons in September 2015, as our futsal seasons run alongside the school year. In each division they have a core group of teams in which each we will play across the leagues.
Over the past two weeks we have played our final fixtures in each league which has seen Posh A qualify for the Nationals and Posh C just miss out.
The way in which the Nationals work, is the top three sides from each division qualify. One of our three sides qualified for this and will play in the Division 1 Nationals on Wednesday 15th June in the Birmingham Arena. We will be taking our side down the day before and staying overnight for the tournament in preparation for the big day. Posh C sadly fell just short of qualification for this however will go again next year.
Posh A have produced many big results as of recent to beat Southampton the 3rd place, Posh A beat Brentford 8-1 and only conceded within the last 10 seconds of the game. Posh were sitting fourth at this point three weeks ago and it looked a very big ask to beat Brentford who were sitting 2nd and the only side who had beat Norwich. After this result Posh A then went on to beat Chelsea 7-1 and this put them into 3rd position with just Crawley to play and Southampton to face Southend. Posh were certain Southampton would beat bottom place Southend which would mean a victory would be needed against Crawley. Posh saw Southend beat Southampton 7-0 and then beat Crawley 5-0 to qualify which made the journey to the Nationals very impressive. For many of the players the Nationals will be their last game in a Posh shirt as they come to the end of their 2 year Scholarship and for most of the side it will be their first trip to the competition.
The squad of the Posh Futsal set up consists of 11 2nd year scholars and 13 1st Year scholars to make a squad of 25. The addition of our 13 1st years has been very much welcomed by coaches as they have been a great addition to the side which remained. Powell was selected to travel to one of the England regional camps in which he done very well and was invited back. Since the opening camp he has been back 5 times and played in some of the friendly fixtures they have held internally. Nassunculo has also made a big impact on the Posh squad, providing the Posh with 23 goals and many class performances. Our 3 gk’s have stepped up to the plate on many occasions this year but we have seen a rapid improvement in their futsal techniques since we have had Jose Lima (GK Coach) involved with the boys regularly.
We recently took a group to England v Finland, the venue was at UEA Norwich. We provided tickets and transport to a group of players who were made from existing and next year’s scholars. The group spent the day in Norwich visiting the city, then made their way to UEA. For many of the group it was their 1st time seeing futsal being played at any level never mind International level. England were the underdogs in this fixture and showed the crowd they certainly entertain. The Lions went 1-0 down however came back to win 2-1, our players then managed to get a photo with goal scorer and Captain Raoni Medina.
Although for our current group of players things are starting to wind down as second years approach their final weeks on board the course, as mentioned above they still have their biggest set of games yet in the Nationals. Following the Nationals which are hosted at the Birmingham Futsal Arena on the 15th June, our scholars will travel to Footgolf for their end of season event. On Friday 24th June we are holding a presentation evening for our group of scholars at the ABAX Stadium in the Sponsors Lounge, this will see all scholars be in the mix for the season’s trophies and could potentially pick up an award. Parents, family and friends are all welcome to attend.
On Friday 15th July we will be hosting a friendly between our first ever set of futsal scholars v our existing scholars. This will be played at Nene Park Academy and see some old faces return to try their old tricks against the current group of players.
Finally we recently held a parents open evening, this was held at Nene Park Academy with tutors from Nene Park Academy and coaches from ourselves. The evening was directed more at parents than the players, we saw 30 people attend the evening which was just shy of the amount of players attending our taster days. The evening went very well with Michael Johnson presenting for Posh, talking about a standard timetabled week for each player and what they can expect from coaches while representing the club meanwhile Matthew Smith (Tutor from NPA) went over the UCAS points that can be gained and many exit routes and career paths following the scholarship.