Dagenham United
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG
Dagenham United
FOOTBALL CLUB
D
agenham United FC was
first established in 1961
by Joe Appleyard and
Ken Edhouse when they
had just one team playing in a local
park league at Under 11’s. They have
certainly come a long way since then and
we caught up with their Club Secretary
Keith Rothon to find out more about how
they’re getting along in the present day.
Involvement
He told us, “I started much the same as
most grass roots volunteers; having a son
who began playing for a team in 1996, I,
being a lover of football, always tried to
assist as much as possible helping with
training before taking over the team
managers role when the existing manager
66 Issue 54
left. I started helping on the committee
and then took over as secretary. I have
always wanted to do a job to the best
status I can achieve and we are still a work
in progress.”
The Role
“The biggest challenges for me are trying
to maintain a happy medium between
children that cannot afford to pay for
training/matches and those who can.
The rewards for me areall down to just
having ex-players stopping for a chat and
realizing they have had a good rewarding
career and settling down with their own
families and informing us they will bring
their own sons to mini kickers when old
enough.”
Atmosphere
“The mood is very upbeat at the moment.
We are in the process of signing a deal
with a local professional club to be their
feeder club which gives everyone the
opportunity to reach out into the local
community to help those young players
reach the top level their ability allows.
We are also on the brink of having a new
clubhouse starting to be built and an
11aside 3G AstroTurf pitch and a 7aside
3G AstrosTurf pitch. We have grown our
adult section and maintained those teams
this year, whilst also retaining our youth
section so we are particularly buoyant at
the moment.”