A Very Busy Last Home Match of the Season!

Russell Delaney and FCUth Player of the Season trophy presentations and drink with the players this Saturday

After the final whistle on Saturday there will be a presentation on the pitch of the Russell Delaney Player of Season and FCUth Player of the Season trophies so please hang on after the game for a short while.

As it’s the last Saturday home league game of the season the supporters are invited to share a drink with the players and coaching staff after the game, and this year it will be in Bury’s Social Club. Everyone is welcome.

Match Sponsor available for play off Semi Final

For possibly the most important game of the season at Gigg Lane the match sponsorship for Tuesday’s promotion play off semi final is still available. The package includes:-

- 6 tickets and lounge passes
- free food and drink
- signed football presentation on the pitch
- man of the match nomination
- half page advert in the programme.

The match ball and programme have already been sponsored by KitAid and Manchester Confidential respectively, so please contact either the office on 0161 273 8590 or Mike Burtonwood on 07966 265353 as soon as possible. The price is at the reduced rate of £325 + VAT.

FC United are delighted to announce that our 3 under 19 community teams will be joining us on Saturday to watch our final home game of the season. They have also been invited into the Social club after the game for an awards ceremony where they will be presented with their trophies.

We invite the fans in there to celebrate this. The first team players will also be in there, presenting them with their trophies. Hope you can join us.

A bit of background

At our final home match of the season we are bringing members of our three under 19’s community teams onto the pitch to present them to members and fans.

This time last year, Manchester FA and Manchester Council Sports Development Department told us they were trying to establish a new under 19’s league based in Manchester and did we have any teams we could enter into the league? At the same time young people at a number of our community projects were telling us they wanted to play for teams. The end result was a new 8 team league run by the Manchester Amateur Sunday Football League at Turn Moss in Stretford. Three of those teams were coached by FC United community coaches. Their names, FC Harpurhey, FC Abraham Moss and FC Trinity betray where the teams train. It is probably fair to say that without our teams the new league would have struggled to get off the ground.

The league has had its fair share of teething problems, but most Saturdays, all that a casual bystander would see down at Turn Moss would be a lot of young players enjoying their football, playing the game in the right spirit, learning how a football team is run, making friends and developing skills. Now that the season is over, we are making plans for next season. There are proposals for open age teams as well as under 19’s teams. At the moment it looks like the number of teams will grow from 3 to 6. The national trend is for players to drop out of the game at this age, especially in inner city areas where the expense involved in participating in a league can be prohibitive.

FC United can be very proud of the role it has played this season in helping to reverse that trend. Make sure the players know you support them when they come onto the pitch in the traditional FC United way.