I am going through the results after this weekend and am totally dismayed that Adults permitted results to reach a score of 19-0 at some under 8 matches. Granted there were not many that reached this level but there are quite a few that reached 10 - 0, 11 -1, 12 - 0, 13 - 2 etc.
This is a development league - not one to see who can totally bring a team to rock bottom. Most of these teams are just starting off and were packed with little children who couldn't wait to put on their new boots and club gear for the first time. What reason would a manager of a team have to totally destroy a child's little buzz of his first match. Surely some sort of sense could have been brought to these matches and a decision to let the weaker team put on an extra player or two should have been made. The stronger team could have lost a player for a while, without the children really realising what was done. There are lots of things that should have been done, but certainly it was WRONG to let a game continue to reach the levels they did over the weekend. One thing for sure is that the Managers of the 'successful' teams on the day, may have had a great evening celebrating but I do hope they eventually realise that this is not what the under 8 divisions are about. Shame on you for possibly sending children away from their first match feeling low and sad and possibly not wanting to ever play again.
Nobody learned anything from a match with scores like this. We try to keep teams as local as possible until they can be graded at Christmas.
The other side of things is that Clubs are putting children who are too young into their squads. The under 8 divisions should be made up of children born in 2005. Children born in 2006 should be in club academies where they can learn skills, have fun and take part in academy v academy little tournaments.
As we go forward, please think about the children, they should be enjoying their matches, they should be having fun whilst learning how to play properly. Yes the first weekend can be tough but hopefully we can all learn something from this.