The Under 18s have been working hard since their season was curtailed earlier this year, obviously this was a real disappointment after such a great start and a 5-1 win at Ashton and Backwell, but we can at least say we had 100% league record!

Last season was a real learning curve as we had a large crop of 1st year U18s and after a summer of hard work we looked to have a really promising team and off the back of the great performance against Gloucester City in the FA Youth Cup and the successful start to the league campaign we were really excited about the what the rest of the season would bring.

We did have a group of second year players last year who are no longer in the age category this season for the U18s and whilst it is always sad to see players no longer eligible it seems really disappointing for them as their season didn’t really last that long, however we know that these players will have successful careers in the adult game and we would like to thank James, Reece, Ollie and Ellis Clarke and we look forward to following their progress.

Once restrictions started to lift and we were allowed to train we were back and working hard at the end of last season as preparations started early. We have been able to recruit some really good first year U18s for the season ahead, added to the mixture of second year players we are really excited about the season and what is ahead. We had some really great training sessions at the end of last season and only took a couple of weeks off before we resumed preseason training. We were very lucky that back in June professional Footballer ex-Birmingham and Grimsby player Matt Green took a session with the boys, that was a real bonus and having a fresh voice with so much experience was great.

More about the U18s preparations in the weeks ahead.