Ashton Town football level ; we are a small group of volunteers who spend a lot of personal time trying to keep the club going . There are concerns after a certain age group coming to their natural end , due to age , as volunteers are hard to come by , especially the right kind of volunteers . The most rewarding is when you see the smiles on the little faces of the kids when they are involved in playing football .”
Atmosphere
“ The current general mood is somewhat sombre as our first team have finished bottom of the North West Counties League Division One and so are in a relegation position . Our club has never in its history been in this position before .”
This Season
“ To be truthful , this has been the worst season of the club ’ s history . Partly because , as we are a club of volunteers , we have no playing budget and so we have had a very young side this season which has also not been helped by only having the same team out once all season as constant changes for a variety of reasons were encountered . Towards the end we have even been playing four or five under 18s squad players in the first team who have acquitted themselves very well .”
The Offseason
“ Our first team manager left the club after the last league fixture on Saturday 29th April and so we need to channel all our energies into finding the appropriate replacement which is critical to our club and its future where ever we end up with regards to new league if relegated . We also need to make sure our junior teams are looked after for the next season .”
Youth
“ Youth is vital to our club and we assume most clubs , especially when you do not have playing budgets to cover
your first team playing squad and so it ’ s the local involvement of parents and their children that over time have an affinity with their local club and assuming you treat them right go on to your under 18s team and then on into your first team . We pride ourselves on being a Community club and have the FA Community club standard award .”
Integration
“ Our under 18s team have , sometimes , an opportunity of playing for two years in the under 18s league and as such we try to play the most improving players in their second year in the first team squad , initially giving them a taste of the power and pace of the game at the adult level on the bench and then blooding them in certain matches as opportunities develop over the season .”
Challenges / Ambitions
“ One of our biggest challenges is raising enough funds to be able to meet the ever improving and exacting standard requirements of the FA which are a significant burden to grass roots clubs from a volunteering club perspective .
We have been trying for some years to move location of our ground as we only have enough room for one grass pitch at our current location . Some years ago the house building contractor Redrow offered to buy our land , we agreed , they would relocate us to a position within the town that we were happy to move too ; however , to date this has not happened .
Nothing to do with Redrow I hasten to add but a number of locations have been identified that we would as a club be happy to relocate too only to be exacerbated at the various eleventh hours by Wigan council .
This relocation would be the saving of our club financially as we would have a grass main pitch and an artificial 3 / 4 G pitch which would be a revenue earner for the club . Also all of our kid ’ s teams can train and play at their club and not be scattered all around the town .”
Wall and Flor Tiling Specialist Complete Bathroom Re-furbishment
01942 717529 • 07958 656696 www . facebook . com / tilestyle mike-tilestyle @ hotmail . co . uk www . footballfocusmag . com 37