safc.com catch up with the Academy of Light to look at what has been going on over the last week and what’s to come over the weekend…
Sunderland under-9s took part in the Premier League Welcome Festival last weekend, and we spoke to Paul Midgley, who is the club’s lead recruitment officer for the foundation phase, about how the event went.
“It was down at Warwick and held at the university camp. We stayed overnight and the kids were away from their parents for the first time. We took two teams of seven down there and one of the teams didn’t have a goalkeeper because he broke his toe on the Thursday night. We played clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City without a goalkeeper and to do as well as the lads did was good. The festival itself had plenty of short games and they were played over a period of 10am-3pm.
“The standard of play was excellent and it was great for the lads to experience being away from their parents for the night. I wouldn’t say any club was superior to us and I thought we more than held our own with every club we faced to be honest. I was really impressed with the standard of play we have at the under-9 age group – they are all developing well. We played 19 games and we had eight draws, five wins and six defeats. The games were all tight apart from our 4-0 win over Wolves. That was the biggest result over the weekend. All in all, it was pleasing. We commented afterwards about the behaviour, the manner and how professional the boys were throughout the festival. They were a tribute to the club.”
UPCOMING
This weekend sees the under-16s and under-18s begin their Premier League Cup venture at home to West Ham United at the Academy of Light, kick-off 11am.
The under-15s are at Manchester City on Saturday in an International Cup qualifier while youngsters Jack Newman and Liam Miller are on international duty with Scotland this weekend.
