From the sideline...

Club Chairman Paul Cartwright gets to spout off about whatever takes his fancy with his new regular column!

13th May 2008

Week Fourteen

Wow! What a weekend! It’s been more then three months in the planning and then in one mad weekend our Football Festival has come and gone.

At one point on Sunday I was able to walk up to the top pitch and turn around and look down the full length of the ground and for just a minute I was speechless (yeah – hard to believe I know!). I am so, so proud of what Team Dynamo achieved this weekend that it really is hard to put into words. The high’s and lows for me:

Good - Sitting in the sun on Saturday afternoon trying (with Mark) to put together a barbeque.

Bad - Feeling a bit down when the toilets didn’t appear, then being lifted by Steve F with a phone call to say he had found some more.

Bad - At 11pm Saturday night still putting the finishing touches to the trophies and managers packs.

Good – Getting up at 4.30am Sunday morning and being at the ground on my own – pure peace and quiet.

Good – Dropping the goals around the ground with some of the younger players screaming in the back of the jeep!

Bad - Being mortified to discover the PA wasn’t working, then realising I had put the leads in the wrong hole!

Good – Watching the sun rise and knowing it was going to be a beautiful day

Bad – Wondering what time the car park was going to open as teams had started to arrive early!

Fantastic – seeing hundreds of kids playing football, eating picnics and enjoying the day and knowing that it had all worked out okay in the end.

Excellent – Falling asleep Sunday night…….

Thank you to all the volunteers, whether you gave an hour or many hours; thanks to the team managers for entering and the kind words of support; thank you to all the sponsors – Elite Foods, Volunteer Bureau, Premier Sports & Leisure, Wisden Packaging; thanks to the parents and supporters for visiting the stalls; Most important of all thank you to the players cos you are the reason we do it.

See you next year…..

8th May 2008

Week Thirteen

With just a few days left to our second Football Festival, I find myself with a few moments spare to reflect on just what we are doing and how we have got here. Whilst there will be lot’s of volunteers helping out on the day of the event – the organisation of this years tournament stretches back many months and I would like to give my thanks to those who have given up an immense amount of time so far.

Firstly our Tournament Secretary Elaine who has been busy dealing with all the paperwork, writing out to potential clubs, handling the registrations and sending out information. Alan has, as always, been a superb with obtaining all kinds of things for the event including the printing of the programme, water, fruit sweets – you name it Alan can get it! Paul M has also played a key part in obtaining “stuff” including the marquee, bins and toilets and finally Steve P has dealt with obtaining our referees and managing the rules and fixtures.

Over the next few days many more people will start to get involved as the whole event comes together and I don’t want to forget anyone here (forgive me if I do!) but thanks to Mandi (trophies, programme folding and putting up with me!); Karen (food, food and more food!), Garry (running around, mainly after Karen!), Sarah (money), Ruth (results, reminding us of everything we forget!), Mark (getting stuff and generally being a rock!), Terry (car parking), Martin (goal storage!!) and all of the Club Committee for the bits and pieces they are helping with.

On the sponsorship side of things we couldn’t get here without the help of Premier Sports & Leisure (too much to mention), The Volunteer Bureau (sponsoring the trophies – a massive bonus), Elite foods (water and fruit) and Wisden Packaging (programme printing).

Thank you everyone!

Editors note: Modest though he is, a lot of the work towards the tournament has been carried out by Paul C and for this, I for one am truly grateful. He always puts his heart and soul into everything concerning the Club and the tournament is no exception. His dedication, commitment and organisational skills have been second to none, so a big THANK YOU to Paul as without you, none of this would be possible.

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31st March 2008

Week Twelve

As our playing season draws to a close, I would like to say a big thank you to our team managers and coaches for putting up with the extreme weather conditions we have been recently suffering with. The Playing Fields have been particularly soggy over the last month or so and this has had an impact both on training and match days.

The decision to cancel training is never an easy one to make – and last week end was a classic example. Because of the heavy rain on Friday, we took an early decision knowing full well that the pitches were already struggling to drain away. Surprise, surprise out came the sun on Saturday morning!! We are promised better weather from now onwards so hopefully the pitches will be in good condition for our Annual Tournament on Sunday 11th May.

As the season draws to a close so our post season activities kick off. As I have just mentioned out big event, and one that requires the most volunteers is our Annual Tournament. More information will be in our next newsletter.

During May our training will move to fun sessions on a Thursday evening, though this may change. These sessions are always enjoyable for the players as we usually do crazy things like football rounders and hopefully beach football.

Finally the big end of season event is the Annual Awards. This is particularly poignant this year as we celebrate 5 years since our formation. A lot of training hours have passed since then and it promised to be a great event.

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26th February 2008

Week Eleven

Joy and Pain

This Sunday I had one of the more enjoyable days as Dynamo Club Chairman. With the U13’s not in action, I donned my civvies and made my way down to Newhaven to watch the U11’s in action. It was a beautiful morning especially when compared to the drizzle we had enjoyed at the previous days training and the girls were in fine form. I only stayed for the first half, but I cast my mind back to this same age group last season and was mightily impressed with the improvement. This coming weekend the girls are in semi final action and I’m sure the best Mothers day present they can give will be a victory.

It was then up to our home ground to enjoy the second half of the U15’s match. I was delighted to see for once that we had a full team and again I was impressed with how well the girls have developed since last year. One of the important factors to remember is that we do have a very young team compared with some of our rivals and whilst we lost the game, there was some great movement and play.

Overall the morning, and in fact the entire weekend reminded me of just how far we have come as a club in the five years since our formation. Whilst we could still do with some new players and helpers, how different it is from the early days. I love seeing all the girls arrive for training, the organisation behind that and then the final commitment of the match itself. I’m highly impressed with the standards of our coaches and the effort put in by all of our volunteers. Well done to everyone.

On a separate note, I’m sure many of you will by now have seen or heard about the horrific injury caused to Eduardo, the Arsenal striker. Whilst I’m sure the intent of the Taylor, the Birmingham defender was not to cause harm, there can never be an excuse for a raised foot in that type of challenge. Whilst Arsenal have said that Eduardo will be back playing in nine months, I find that hard to believe, there is a strong chance that he will never fully recover. Whilst I know our players would never stoop to that kind of challenge, it’s a worthy reminder that the only way to play football is on your feet – not sliding in with your studs raised up. I’m sure all at the our club will join me in wishing Eduardo a speedy recovery.

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22nd January 2008

Week ten

Sportsmanship...

A couple of weeks ago the U13 team were playing Polegate Grasshoppers at home. They turned up with just 10 players and I immediately said to our players “you have a choice – either one of you plays for the opposition so we can have 11 v 11 or we play with just 10”. To me, there was no debate that we would ever play 11 v 10 – I just don’t see it as being a sporting action. When talking to a couple of the U15 parents a day or so later, their reaction was totally different. “Nah, you should have played the 11, better still, put a couple of extra players on!”

I could understand where they where coming from as all season our U15 team have fielded an under strength team – mostly 10, sometimes 9 and once as few as 8 players. Yet routinely (with the exception of East Grinstead) the opposition have played with 11 players – and subs. I think morally that’s disgusting. A strong word – but I could use stronger. Surely the other managers or even the players in the opposition team would rather play a fair game then take advantage of a weaker strength team? I think firstly it’s a shocking way for the clubs to behave, but secondly rather sad that the league haven’t done anything to rectify the situation. A simple rule change would satisfy or how about getting one goal for every player short? A bit radical, but I think that might just make us top of the league…..

Either way, as far as I’m concerned, and I know I’m biased, but I am very, very proud of how we play as a club – whether it be the sporting gestures of our U13’s to the sheer determination of our U15’s – thank you!

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9th January 2008

Week nine

Last Sunday was a very special day for me as my elder brother came to Telscombe Cliffs to watch the teams in action. Chris, who lives in Marseille, was at the very first training session way back in 2003 and he was blown away with how far we have come as a club. The quality of football on show was superb and I for one was particularly impressed with Chloe in the U11 team. Given that she is one of the youngest (and certainly smallest) players at the club, her abilities have developed so much since she joined and she was taking on and beating players who were almost twice the size of her!

It has been great having a couple of weeks off from work and football, but I am relieved that January is now upon us and we can get back to training and matches. Saturday was a battle against the elements and Sarah did a superb job to get the pitch ready for Sunday's match. It was a worthy reminder that we have hardly seen any bad weather yet this season, so parents and players please make sure your contact details up up-to-date with your relevant manager in case we have to make any cancellations.

I hope you all got what you desired for Christmas – I did, a 2-nil win over West Ham! I hope the New Year brings all you desire.

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26th November 2007

Week eight

This weekend I was reminded again how frustrating it can be when matches are poorly managed – particularly as I am deep in the process of planning for our own “Keep it shut” day! The problem I find as a coach is when you witness a poor decision and the players question it and you then have to either (a) criticise the referee (which is wrong) or (b) defend the referee for a decision that you can’t explain! At our level of football there are two types of matches being played and both require different skills to referee.

For mini soccer, the objective of the referee is to “manage” the game and to encourage fair play from both sets of players. Whilst there is no need to penalise players if they perform an incorrect throw-in, the player should have it explained to them what they did wrong and then re-take the throw correctly – that is how they will learn to improve. It is the same with handballs, fouls etc. If a player commits a foul (deliberately or not) they won’t develop as a player unless the action they took is highlighted to them.

For youth football we are blessed with having to play the matches to the full laws of the game. Why? The problem with this is we simply do not have enough qualified referees and so are often reduced to either having a parent or coach referee - quite often incorrectly interpreting the laws. Are we not better to play simplified versions of the laws as we do at mini soccer level? Why are we playing the offside rule when so few officials let alone players fully understand it? Some people will argue that the players are not being coached correctly, but I disagree. The problem is that we are trying to treat children as adults – yet another reason why we need to completely overhaul the game in this country.

And finally we say goodbye to yet another England manager. Whilst I feel some sympathy for Steve McClaran (£2 million pounds worth of sympathy) his tactics and decisions for last Wednesdays match were truly horrifying. However, it’s not just him at fault, the fault lies squarely with the people who appointed him and who are making such a hash of our beautiful game at every level – the FA. Until there is a radical overview of what goes on at Soho Square then the problems we face at every level of the game will continue. Enough said.

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14th November 2007

Week seven

Commitment...

This week’s rambling is about the club coach’s favourite topic – commitment. As the weather changes and the cold and rain begin to form part of the weekly training session and matches, we all begin to notice a drop out from our older players. At Dynamo’s the U10 and U11 players are happy to continue whatever the conditions throw at them – in fact I am fairly certain the girls are wishing it would rain so that can get even more covered in mud! However, our with our U13’s and U15’s we start to get the excuses – “I was on a sleepover”, “I wasn’t feeling well”, “My alarm didn’t go off”….

Mmmmm, more likely “I opened the curtain, saw it was raining and got back into bed!”

Those girls that do put the effort in under these conditions should get even more praise then perhaps they currently do. It was a testament of character that Eastbourne Colts and Dynamo GFC U15s continued their match this last weekend despite the heavens opening and by God it was bitter up the Playing Fields too. I guess my only comment to those girls that don’t turn up is that they really need to think about the sport they are playing. The bottom line is that this is a team game and to play the full version of the game you need 11 players on the pitch and preferably 3 subs on the sideline. So – the manager needs 14 players. Lose one or two of those before the start of the game and you are already under pressure. Lose another during the game to injury and you are down to the bare bones.

So, when you are just about to pull the covers back over your head – think about your mates. Your mates, who regardless of the weather are putting the effort in, not just because they want to win, but because they want to have the opportunity to play and to play to the best of their ability. Rant over….

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5th November 2007

Week six

Friendships...

One of the great pleasures of being involved in football is the friendships you develop with your opposition over the years and this weekend's fixtures summed that up nicely. With it being Challenge Cup weekend I decided on a trip to watch the U11's in action against Eastbourne Borough, the two teams having met the previous weekend in a closely fought league match. On hand as always was Stuart whom I seem to meet several times a year through the youngest age groups at various tournaments and meetings. It was a thrilling match and I rather exuberantly celebrated our third goal on which the match turned. The end result was 6-3 to Dynamos and the reason behind my celebration was that this was the first time as a club we have beaten Eastbourne. Afterwards I apologised to Stuart who was gracious in defeat, in fact, I can’t think of a more sporting coach in our sport.

In the afternoon it was a further renewing of friendships as our U13’s met Horsham Sparrows – also in the Challenge Cup. George and Bob are well known to me through work, and it’s always a pleasure to meet up with them competitively. Last season in the same fixture we were knocked out on penalties, but this season Sparrows completely dominated the game. Again there was a great sporting gesture from George and despite the result, our friendship will I’m sure continue to grow over the coming years.

Well done to all our girls especially the U15’s who despite having their match cancelled stayed and supported the U13’s with both Sharni and Harriet running the line – impressive!

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29th October 2007

Week five

Lady Luck certainly is not playing for Dynamos at the moment and this last weekend emphasised just how much luck can impact on a teams result.

Let’s take the U11’s. I thought they played magnificently but ended up losing 1-3. At one stage they were just the one goal down and I felt dominating possession. Little Chloe had put in some amazing runs and turns yet, as luck would have it, she kept coming up against players twice the size of her. I also think had we had the missing players on the bench (typical bad luck that players are on holiday!) we could have turned the result around.

For the U13’s bad luck really played its part with yet another injury – this time to Emma. It meant the team were without a sub and without a recognised striker. In fact bad luck has really played its part with injuries to key players since the start of the season (Gen, Harriet, Zoe, Elle and now Emma). I believe with a full squad this team can beat any team on the day and I can’t wait to see it.

For the U15’s injuries have also started to ruin what could be a promising season. Their bad luck started before the season kicked off as we were unable to register players in time for the start of the season and had to forfeit the first fixture. Once again injuries have continued to hamper the team (Harriet, Jade and Sharni) and now we have more bad luck in the form of the FA who are holding up the registration of our first foreign signing – Magda.

All of this may sound like I’m moaning, but I don’t mean to. We really could do with each of the teams having their full squads available come the start of November and the Challenge Cup. I hope that all the players who have injuries will try to rest them and recover in time for the weekend and hopefully we can have a November that is full of good luck for us all.

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15th October 2007

Week four

This weeks is more like from the centre as at this weeks U13’s match I was called upon to referee. It’s always a valuable experience as your view of how the girls play is totally different from that which is seen on the sideline. Furthermore, you also get to here all the comments made from the sideline and I have to be honest and say I wasn’t impressed with some of our own parents this week.

Putting the negative issues aside, the U13's team played fantastically as yet again they found themselves without any substitutes and down to 10 players at half time. I’m sure that the situation is reflective of the U15’s who are also struggling with injuries and missing key players. Luckily we all have two weeks off until our next fixtures – time in which we can get a couple of players registered and more importantly to get players fit. If you are carrying an injury, please take this time to rest and recover so that we can all be that bit stronger when we return.

Next weekend will be the first training session I have missed since the club formed. Apart from the fact that I do need a break occasionally, it is superb that we now have other coaches willing and able to step in and cover fun sessions as will happen next week. Thank you guys!

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1st October 2007

Week three

Two record breaking matches this weekend makes this one very happy chairman!

Whilst I’m not a great fan of “cricket score” matches, I am delighted that the U11’s continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 12-0 victory over local rivals Seahaven Harriers. I am pleased that the team manager changed the team around at half time to give our defenders and goalkeeper a bit of experience up front. Perhaps of more pleasure was the result for the U15s against newcomers Eastbourne United Colts. Whilst an 8-0 win is the highest scoring match they have played, it is more remarkable given that they only started with 10 players and were reduced to 9 with an injury.

My topic of debate this week is referees. Having been told off in no uncertain terms by Steve Phythian for criticising a decision in the U15s first match of the season – a point that he is right to make as we have a duty to abide by the decisions made – it is so frustrating witnessing poor refereeing at many of the matches.

I have a proposal for the FA to consider. Very few clubs at our level can obtain qualified officials so rather then putting pressure on the officials (or more often parents) as well as frustrating coaches and players – why doesn’t the FA modify the rules for youth soccer? We already do this for mini soccer, so perhaps some basic modifications such as goal kicks can be taken from anywhere in the penalty box (I have yet to see one decent clearance) and the off side rule can only be applied in the penalty area. Your views are welcome….

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27th September 2007

Week two

What a strange weekend. Saturday it was up to Highbury (yeah, I know the name has changed but I’m to old to change!) to watch Arsenal demolish Derby 5-0. Then Sunday was one of those days I really enjoy when I can watch all of our teams in action.

First up it was the U15’s and whilst disappointing to lose the first home fixture, there were a lot of positives and new signing Lydia played extremely well. It was also good to see Abi back, even if she lacked a bit of match fitness. Then down the road for the U13’s against local rivals Seahaven Harriers. Having beaten them twice last year, I have a feeling our girls were a bit too optimistic and it was a shame to lose the game in such a way.

The weekend was then finished with another local derby, this time the U11’s against Newhaven. This was an extremely one sided match (our way for a change) and a devastating attacking spell by Katie saw the girls romp home 10-0 – our biggest ever win at any level.

However, all the goodness of the weekend was wiped out following a phone call on Monday when I learnt that Harriet our new U13 signing this season had broken her collarbone in the match against Seahaven. At the time I thought the challenge made on her was over the top and the awkward way in which Harriet fell caused the break.

Luckily she has a positive attitude and great support from her parents so can’t wait to get healed and back in the game. That said, both myself and other coaches have noticed the increased physical nature of games and I for one would rather see us play quality football then stoop down to resorting to over the top physical challenges. Get well soon Harriet, we will miss you over the coming weeks.

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17th September 2007

Week one

A new season dawns....

First weekend of the season. Can you believe it, I’m awake at 3am. A mixture of being worried about my girlfriend’s sore throat and who should play up front for the U13’s. Fast forward 6 hours and I’m on the road to Lindfield. I have a new theory about keeping my stress levels down so I am listening to classical music rather then the usual heavy rock – I think its working….

Great Walstead School is one of my favourite grounds. Easy to find, sensible sized pitches and usually only the one game in play. I am nervous as always as I want the girls to do themselves proud. I’m also a little frustrated at missing the U11’s first game of the season – I either have to cut myself into three or ensure that all the matches kick off at different times!!

Half time – the U13’s are drawing 1-1 and I have just heard that the U11’s are leading four nil. The girls have played okay, but their lack of experience of the 11-a-side game has shown itself. The new girls have slotted in well as did Charlie for the first goal – blinding.

12.30pm – am on my way home. The U13s won 4-3 in a fantastic up and down game. The U11’s won 6-2, and with Arsenal winning yesterday 3-1 against rivals Spurs, this for me is pretty much as perfect as life can be. Its gonna be a busy week again at work, but for now I can relax….

More next week.

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