Vision and background to Youth Development

Pocklington Town FC is a thriving local amateur football club that has been in its current existence since 1968. The playing side of the club comprises 16 senior, veterans and junior teams, starting at Under 9’s through to Over 45’s.

The club is built on an excellent reputation and ethos towards the development of grass roots football, and playing a larger role within the local community. At its heart is the development of young players, driving a long-term association with Pocklington Football Club. It has always been the vision of our chairman Ian Daniels, “to have a local club where players could come and play football, regardless of age, ability and background”.

One of the ongoing challenges the club face was how to bridge the gap between junior and senior football as over the years, the club had come to recognise they were losing good players due to limited opportunities for 16-19 year olds trying to establish themselves in the senior teams, before they were physically and in some cases, mentally ready to take that step up.

In order to address this, in 2009, the club started a development programme and set up the U19’s, who’s objective was to:

• Provide the best possible youth development coaching
• Provide opportunities for players between the ages of 16-19
• Retention of local talent at Pocklington town
• Help support and guide players through to one of the four senior teams, ultimately our first team?

The Under 19’s set up as a rolling project, reinforced by the newly formed Under 18’s team page which over the next few years will see a steady stream of young, talented players playing at a higher level and ultimately staying within Pocklington Town FC. The aim of the management team is to provide a solid structure based on discipline and respect, but more importantly to have fun.

Taking the next step

In 2009 we entered The Northern U19 Alliance league, previously Northern Youth Academy.

The NYA had been set up to accommodate young players released from professional clubs. This would provide a real challenge for our players, as it required a major step up in quality and a robust development plan across the club.

Although the league is a higher standard than we were used to, including many clubs playing at non-league level, just under the football league, it provides a great opportunity for players to improve individually, develop their skills and enjoy football at the next level. They also get the opportunity to play on great pitches, under lights in small stadia with plenty of spectators supporting their team.

As a club, we benefit as it provides an excellent shop window for Pocklington Town FC, as we play against semi-professional clubs across North & South Yorkshire and into Lincolnshire.

In order to make this transition we recognised three things:

• Firstly, it would take time, this would be an ongoing rolling programme with milestones,
• Secondly, we would need improve our standard of football both collectively and individually, and
• Thirdly, it would require a level of commitment from all concerned across our club.

This will be our fourth season in the U19 Alliance League, during which time we have seen a steady improvement in the standard of play. This has not gone unnoticed from the wider professional and local clubs and as a consequence, we have been attracting new players from York and other surrounding areas. This has allowed us to set up a partnership with the York City Centre of Excellence and Youth Training scheme to attract players released from contracts, as well as loan opportunities to boost a players fitness levels.

This has been a great success with good long-term relationship being formed with both players and mangers alike. Today 10 of our 2012 U19 squad have come through the Academy system, not only from York City but Leeds United and Hull City. This association can only strengthen our team, improve the standard of play and ultimately benefit the local home grown players at Pocklington Town. As all managers know: “Players improve when playing with better players”

Training Ethos

As a management team, we focus on the individual development of the players based on free flowing passing football, in formations that force the player to think and adapt to the demands of senior level football. We also work on the capability of the individual, trying out new positions looking for the best fit for both player and team. Just as important is the communication and continuity with our senior team managers. During the season we try to assess a player’s readiness and make recommendations to the relevant team manager, if and when we feel they are ready to make the transition. This has been a great success with over 20 players in the last four years successfully making the step up and in a lot of cases, establishing regular places in our first and second teams.

What we are doing at Pocklington U19’s is a great thing for local football, the community as a whole and gives us the opportunity to promote the club outside the area. As our reputation grows and becomes more widespread, it will continue to attract new talent that potentially, may have gone elsewhere. The U19’s is clearly a real challenge for players, manager and coaches but is showing a clear and measurable benefit. We look forward to its continued success for many years to come”.

TEAM – TOGETHER – EVERYONE - ACHIEVES - MORE