Football Focus Issue 65 | Page 24

Wilberfoss FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG young family across from Hull. As a keen footballer, who played in the old Yorkshire League, I wanted to continue playing and it seemed the correct thing to do to play for your local village team.” “In my current role as first team manager the biggest challenge is making sure the players want to play for the club and the rewards come from their passion to succeed, which was evident when we went the 2015/2016 league season undefeated, winning 17 and drawing 1 of our league games. “The club is obviously on a high after a successful season on the pitch and with the second team also finishing their league campaign strongly, we feel that we are in a good position to challenge for further honours next year. “Youth football is massive to our club. The junior section is paramount to the 24 Issue 65 recent success of the club. The Wilberfoss Mavericks were formed by Alex Mathie - former Ipswich/Newcastle and Celtic player, with the help of Bill Carter. Many of the youngsters have come through to the senior ranks during the last couple of years. We play a couple of them at a time in the second team to get them accustomed to men’s football then play them in the first team. Currently 8 players have made that transition from junior section to senior teams. We are very much a community club with all the junior sides we have and the majority of players being from the village or within a five mile radius. “Moving forward, our biggest challenges will be keeping the players interested at junior levels and being able to bring them on to the senior sides. Our ambition is to continue to improve not only the facilities and the playing surfaces but the standard of football the whole club plays.”