Pennine Juniors Under 16 Whites

Yesterday in an evenly contested cup match the lads took Pennine reds from two leagues above right down to the wire. The game was 1-1 with a couple of minutes left, and looking to go to penalties but goals in the 79 and 80th minutes seen the reds run out 3-1 winners and into the next round. Superb performance and shows how far these lads have come the lads should be proud of themselves

on Saturday Pennine made it 6 wins from 6 and stay on top of the league with A 3-2 win over Radcliffe juniors tigers, M.Greenwood with a penalty and goals from S.Irfan & A.Merrick saw Pennine over the line in a tight match. R.mills was awarded man of the match

Result
Pennine 3-2 Radcliffe juniors tigers

Goals
M.Greenwood
S.irfan
A.Merrick

Mom
R.Mills

A message on behalf of the North Bury Junior Football League committee volunteers.
Coaching in junior football is a lot of hard work. Most of us fall into volunteering to run a team by accident. Cajoled into it by the club your kid’s trained with since they were 5 or 6 years old, filling a gap left by a previous coach, or just because we love the game and want to give something back.
We register on the Whole Game System, get our FA number, pay our tenner to be DBS checked, complete the FA level 1 coaching course, tick off the on-line safeguarding course, get an FA First Aid certificate etc. then off we go – let loose with a bag of balls, some plastic goals, and not enough metal pegs.
I’m sure that the overwhelming majority of us set out with the sole intention of helping our kids (and their teammates) fall in love with football the way we did. Whether you’re on the pitch, or on the side-lines coaching or supporting - there’s nothing like the thrill of a goal, a great save, or a last-ditch tackle.
Unfortunately, just a month into the new season and we’re already dealing with abandoned matches, threatening behaviour, teams not wanting to play a particular team without ‘a strong ref’, teams not wanting play if ‘that ref’ has been allocated to their game etc. You name it, we’re seeing it (again!).
As I’m sure most of you will be aware, these issues as not restricted to our league. It’s already so bad in the Merseyside Youth League that they’ve suspended all matches this weekend and are holding an emergency managers’ meeting instead. The Bolton, Bury & District League sent out a statement at the end of last season about ‘toxic behaviour’, and last week the East Manchester Junior League sent out a strong warning to all teams regarding conduct following the expulsion of an U7’s team (yes U7’s!!) from their league for a ‘serious incident’.
So what’s going wrong? Why is it that for 60 to 90 minutes on a Saturday morning when things ‘aren’t going our way’, we can’t control ourselves? Why does shouting and screaming at the coach, the ref, the kids, become acceptable? How does this spill over into pitch encroachment, threats of physical violence, car park altercations?
We’ve all seen it, many of us have been victims of it – particularly those crazy enough to put themselves through the hell of refereeing (many of whom are just kids, like the players).
We warned clubs at our Annual General Meeting in June that although County FA is responsible for disciplinary matters, as a league we would also be taking the strongest possible action against any team, coach, parent / carer, or player found guilty of misconduct.
Therefore, please take this notice on board, consider your behaviour carefully on match days, remind yourself why you want your child to play the beautiful game, and conduct yourselves in a manner that your kids can be proud of.
So go out on Saturday morning, expect things to go for and against your team, accept that mistakes will be made by players and referees, and count to ten before you do something you might regret. Above all else, support the kids on the pitch and enjoy the game.
Please be assured that if you cannot control yourself, we will be more than happy to take you out of the environment that’s causing you so much stress. You will be removed from our league.

Today’s game was at Firgrove playing fields against Watergrove fc. Pennine came into the game in good form after winning their previous 3 league games however Watergrove proved to be a very good and strong side and made things very difficult for Pennine from the kick off! Winning first and second balls, and working hard for each other meaning Pennine could not get a foothold in the game, there were opportunities however with players going through one on one with the goalkeeper several times for Pennine but the finishing let them down and as half time came watergrove led 1-0.

The second half was pretty much the same as the first half but despite this Pennine kept going and trying to make things happen they got rewarded on 54 minutes when an A.Merrick corner was deflected into the net by the watergrove goalkeeper, the game remained tight until the 76th minute when S.irfan was put through on goal by K.Day and he put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 to Pennine, who then held on to their lead until the final whistle went!

Not the best performance and lots to improve on, Watergrove didn’t deserve to lose the match but that’s 4 wins from 4 in the league

Final score
Watergrove FC 1 - 2 Pennine Whites

Goals
A.Merrick
S.Irfan

Assist
K.Day

Man of the match
K.Day

Another great performance by Pennine whites on Saturday as they took on Ramsbottom United for the second week in a row. It was real team performance and we can see things really coming together nicely! All the lads supported and worked hard for each other and the passing at times was as good as we have seen from this team!

The first half saw some great football played by both sides with Pennine 3-1 up as the half time whistle went, the first half goalscorers for Pennine- 2 goals from S.irfan and 1 from A.Merrick.

Ramsbottom had to replace there keeper after an injury in the first half which didn’t help there cause and the eventual score line ended with a Pennine 6-1 win S.Irfan bagged another 2 to make it 4 for him on the day and K.Day wrapped up the scoring.

T. Woodhouse was superb in the Pennine goal making 2 match winning saves at times when Ramsbottom where on top in the game J.Saores with his dominant performance in centre midfield rightly picked up the Man of the match award

Final score
Ramsbottom 1 - 6 Pennine whites

Goals
S.Irfan 4
A.Merrick
K.Day

Assist
J.Soares 3
M.Greenwood
A.Merrick
K.Day

Man of the match
J.Soares

The lads took on Roach dynamo whites as The Season got underway in the North Bury Junior U16 Div 3 today, The first half was a very evenly matched contest with both teams going close to opening the scoring on numerous occasions despite this the half ended 0-0, the second half was just as the first half with both teams squandering chances to go ahead, it took a clever through ball from Pennine’s Majiec Sankowski who played in Sami irfan he then lifted the ball over the keeper and into the net to put Pennine 1-0 up. With 10 minutes to go Roach pilled on the pressure however they couldn’t find the equaliser and the final whistle blew

FINAL SCORE
Roach whites 0
Pennine Whites 1 (s.irfan)

Man of the match for Pennine
Aaron waddington

On Saturday we had our seasons presentation. We finished 5th in the league beating top of the league twice the lads have improved massively and the coaching team are really looking forward to pushing the lads next season to improve again and see how far we can go

The awards
Most improved… Lewis Whiteside
Leading Goalscorer… Sami irfan
Managers Player….Alfie Merrick
Players player….Robbie Mills

Pennine faced a Prestwich team just above us in the league this morning and Another fantastic defensive display saw the lads run out 4-1 winners, and send us above them in the table. Goals from Alfie Merrick and Harris Jamshed gave pennine a 2-0 lead at half time. A dominant display saw The lads reduce their opponents to just 1 shot on target in the first half which was spectacularly tipped onto the post from a great save by pennine keeper Darragh Brigham

The second half started as the first half finished l, pennine dominating thier host and two more goals from Mason Greenwood and Kian Day gave the lads a comfortable 4-0 lead in the last minute the Pennines defence switched off for the first time in the game and prestwich capitalised with a great finish and the game ended 4-1.

Sami Irfan impressed again with his pace and power giving the prestwich defenders real problems all game. It was a difficult decision to pick a man of the match but this was eventually awarded to Mason Greenwood, Mason was switched between centre half and centre midfield a couple of times throughout the game and he looked like he was back to his best his attitude throughout was superb. There was also a dominant display from Aaron Waddington and a fine performance from Alfie Merrick both could have easily been awarded the man of the match. Every single player did their bit today and they should all be proud of themselves

For the second week in a row the desire to work for each other, defend as a team and play to our strengths has again given the lads a well deserved win. Next week sees a cup match at home against The same opponents

We ( myself George Brigham & Azhaar Rashid ) have coached these lads from the u10 age group, at the start of this journey we got battered every Saturday morning in all weathers but still they came off the pitch every week smiling despite the 20-0 drubbings 🤦‍♂️

Roll on 6 years to u15 age group, still more or less the same set of lads and on Saturday we played a very strong Bury tigers team who had beaten top of the league Middleton lads the previous week.

The weather was horrendous with a very strong wind which made it difficult conditions to play football in, the first half was evenly matched, however despite a solid defensive display from pennine they went 1-0 down just before half time, a free kick from just outside the box hit with the wind behind it, give Darragh Brigham in the pennine goal no chance of saving it as it sailed into the net to give Bury the lead as the half time whistle went

The second half showed us how far we have come the lads did not let their heads go down they fought back in tough conditions and won the game 2-1. With both goals coming from Sami irfan ⚽️⚽️

🏆Alfie Coleman was named as man of the match another no nonsense performance from the right back

When we Defend as a team, work hard for each other and play to our strengths we are a very strong team who have come a very long way since u10s football ⚽️🏆❤️