Well, it’s been a few months since we spoke, and I find myself at the end of our first season in the FA Staffordshire Ability Counts League. This league has been a big step up for us, not just in terms of facilities, pitches & organisation, but playing levels too. The quality of teams is much better and it has really tested us this season.
At the start of the season, we had enough players to create two teams where previously we had one. In our previous team we’d been playing together for a while and understood our roles. Once we split the team into two (Wolves Gold and Wolves Black) it took us a few games to gel and get to know our roles again. We had some new faces, as well as some lads come up from the under-16’s team.
For me this shows how much work the Foundation and their coaches have put into making Wolves Disability a success, and we can see how popular it now is! Every week at training there were new faces, each bringing their own quality to the team. We didn’t just have two teams now, but we also had depth within each squad. This brings it’s own challenges as everybody wants game time, so I’m sure coaches Gav, Carl & Mark had some tough decisions to make. Thankfully I kept my position in the team!
I was very impressed with the lads that came up from the under-16’s, they had bags of energy and were all very good footballers, and they quickly slotted into their given roles. In training I could see that the new additions had made us much stronger and I was really looking forward to the new season. Playing at St George’s Park & Sir Stanley Mathews Academy in Stoke was very exciting and the venues again were a massive step up to what we were used too.
Soon our first games of the season came around and it was down to business. I found myself in the Gold team along with a few of the new lads and some familiar faces.
Our first four games didn’t go too well. We drew the first game, won the second and lost the last two. I didn’t play too badly but was gutted about coinciding five goals over the four games. However, it was clear we were a new team and needed time to gel together.
Our next set of fixtures were pretty much the same with three losses and one win. Not good, and we were all getting very frustrated as the games we lost were by one goal and usually in the last few minutes of the game. We were not doing much wrong and the performances were good, it was just the last few minutes of full-on pressure that was letting us down.
Gav and Carl could see all our frustrations and we got to work in training. The coaches got us working on being overloaded in defence, ensuring the attacking players worked back and pressing from the front. As a defender it was hard work, but I kind of liked being up against it!
As the third set of fixtures came round, I felt we were more prepared as a team. We started well, a 0-0 draw. Brilliant clean sheet and we should have won with the number of chances we created. Next game wasn’t so good, a 3-1 loss, but again the performance was much better. Then unfortunately our midfield player Jack was involved in a challenge which resulted in a head injury and the fixtures were called off. Everyone acted very fast and soon Jack was taken to hospital. He was back up and running in no time and only missed one training session. It was good to have him back!
Our fourth set of fixtures was a different story. We had five games to play due to the injury to Jack the month before. We started strong with a 0-0 draw against top of the league – clean sheet again! We followed this with one loss and three wins. All the hard work in training was finally paying off, and as a team we all felt it.
Our fifth lot of fixtures again was very strong, 0-0 draw with top of the league again and three more wins! We should have won the game against the league leaders too, how we didn’t score I don’t know. But we were all happy, clean sheets and scoring goals, and more importantly having fun.
As we entered the last games of the season, we were all hoping for a good finish and to improve our position in the league. If results fell our way and we won our games we could finish second, even top, but that was a long shot.
Well, I hate to leave this on a sore note, but we didn’t win our games. We lost the first two, drew the third, lost again and won the last game. We didn’t play well at all in the first two games. Silly mistakes led to their goals and from then on we lost a bit of confidence. But hey, that’s what makes me keep coming back, the challenge of it all.
In the end we finished fourth in the league, which all in all wasn’t too bad for a new team put together and considering the poor start we made to the season. I’ve been carrying a knee injury for about a month now, so I’m looking forward to resting it for a couple of weeks and then getting back to it. I’m really confident that we can push on next season now we’ve gelled as a group of players into a proper team.
I’m sure I’ll be able to update you next time on the close and pre-season training I’ve been up too.
Until then
Peace & Love
Daz James
