Steve Abbott (Bath) goes full time

Another HE player joins the Full time ranks

Welsh assistant Manager and Wrexham Manager Dean Saunders has signed Steve Abbott who has finished his Teaching studies at Bath University. Steve will join the Full Time Conference side in time for Saturday's Trophy tie against Mansfield Town. Steve was part of the England Universities programme from 2005 - 2007. Steve also previously studied at Edge Hill University.

HE Football and Futsal December update

FA Cup - Academics dominate again!

Yesterday saw the replay of Kettering Town and Notts County with four HE students involved. Brett Solkhon (Loughborough), Gareth Strachan (Staffordshire), Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) and Sean Canham (Bath). Kettering eventually ran out 2-1 winners to knock out League 2 Notts County to set up a 3rd Round tie with Non League Eastwood Town and the chance to play a Premiership side in the fourth round.

Kettering were 1-0 down but ex England Universities and Loughborough student Brett Solkhon scored the equaliser to allow Gareth Seddon 90 seconds later to give Kettering the win.
Leon McSweeney (Loughborough) played in Stockport's disappointing defeat of Gillingham to miss out on a tie with Aston Villa.

Regional Tournament - Warwick 15th / 16th December

Next Monday and Tuesday sees the second year of the Regional Tournament take place at Warwick. 62 players from the HE system will battle it out to be the Regional Champions. The defending champions are the South and they will be strong again this year. We are all looking forward to it and hoping that we find more stories like the above.

England Training and selection camp

This will take place again at Warwick on the 5th and 6th January. We will be taking 40 boys forward to assess suitability for the upcoming EU fixture list.

World University Games

As some of you may know I am on the staff group going to World University Games this summer and I have been charged with finding the best 40-50 UK based players. I really want to give them a chance to get on the plane to go to Belgrade so if there is anyone out there that you think I may have missed then please let me know. I am in contact with Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland as well. This will hopefully give our boys a good chance of being considered.

BUCs Domestic

The programme for the Premier Leagues have no come to an end and will recommence after Christmas. Both leagues look very competitive this year and looks very close for the final placings.

Universities in the Non League pyramid

Currently many football programmes are looking outside of the BUCs programme to find the required challenge for the development of their players. Below are a list of Universities that are currently challenging the development of their players in the Non League pyramid:

Bath University
Exeter University
Leed Met Carnegie
Loughborough University
Newcastle University
Northumbria University

It is great to see that Universities are giving the HE programme and the students that extra exposure they require.

England call ups, The FA Cup and staff making the break through

FA CUP WEEKEND

It is that time where clubs are looking for that lucrative win that would maybe allow them to play a Premiership club in Round 3. Yet again HE is well represented in the 2nd Round. Tom Curtis (Loughborough) will captain Alfreton Town as they go to League 1 high flyers Scunthorpe on Saturday. Richard Pell (Loughborough) will be playing in the live game on Setanta Sports for Blyth Spartans as they try to overcome Bournemouth. Michael Symons and Lee Molyneaux (UWE Hartpury) will be playing for Forest Green Rovers as they try and overcome League 2 Rochdale. Leon McSweeney (Loughborough) will be playing for Stockport County away at Gillingham. Mark Nwokeji (London) will be playing for Dagenham & Redbridge and League 1 leaders Leicester City.

Sunday sees Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) play for Kettering Town against League 2 side and Sean Canham (Bath), Notts County.
We wish them all well.

ENGLAND CAPS

Congratulations to Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) who played in the England C game v Italy this month. The game ended in a 2-2 draw and sees England play in the final. It is hoped that this game will be staged at Wembley.
Curtis Holmes (Teeside) wins his first England call up for the 4 Nations Futsal tournament at Loughborough. The tournament takes place from the 19th - 21st December and the teams taking part are England, Rep of Ireland, Lithuania and Libya.
Congratulations to both players

STAFF ON DUTY

England Universities Sport Scientist Dawn Scott has just returned from duty with the Women's U17 side in New Zealand. The squad did very well losing out in the Semi finals to Korea and finishing the tournament in fourth.

HE PLAYERS MOVING ON

Steve Abbott (Bath) is currently on trial at Conference Premier side Wrexham in the hope of gaining a contract with Wales Assistant Manager Dean Saunders.

REGIONAL TRIALS

Year 2 of the new system and we are really pleased with how the North and Midlands trials have gone and look forward to the completion this weekend of the trial in the South to see who the 60 players will be representing their region at Warwick on the 15th and 16th December.

BUCS DOMESTIC PROGRAMME

The season is well into flow and it looks like at the top it is going to be close in both the North and South. With there two relegation spots this year it is looking like there is real competition and pressure on teams to do well each week.

2008 Preview and its all go!!!!

Wolverhampton and EU player selected for National game XI

Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) who completed his studies last year and moved to Kettering Town in the Football Conference is not only sitting at the top of the league but this week has been selected by Paul Fairclough to play Italy for England C. We would all like to wish Exodus all the best for the upcoming fixture.

John Hall - Leeds Met

John has played a huge role in HE football over the past 2 decades and has helped myself and Steve especially move the new representative programme on. John has now stepped down at Northern Regional Manager but will remain in a position of support to the programme and will be ever present at Regional and National events. I would just like to personally thank John for his support of HE football and support of programme over the last 2.5 years. It is without doubt where it is because of people like John. Thanks John.

FA Cup

Many of our students will be involved in the 1st round proper this season below is a snap shot:
Sean Canham (Bath) - Sutton United v NOTTS COUNTY
Stephen Luckket & Andy Jones (Worcester) - Torquay United v EVESHAM UNITED
Michael Symons & Lee Molyneaux (UWE Hartputy) - TEAM BATH v Ashford Town / FOREST GREEN ROVERS
Leon McSweeney (Loughborough) - Yeovil Town v STOCKPORT COUNTY
Rob Taylor (Worcester) - Huddersfield Town v PORT VALE
Tom Curtis (Loughborough) - ALFRETON TOWN v Bury Town
Marcus Garnham (Anglia Ruskin) - Alfreton Town v BURY TOWN
Peter Vincenti (Liverpool Hope) - Leicester City v STEVENAGE / Horsham
Johnny McClaughlin (Leeds Met) - MK Dons v BRADFORD CITY
Andy Rushbury (Nottingham Trent) - Darlington v Droylesden / BELPER TOWN
Andy Brown (Loughborough) - Northwich Victoria/AFC TELFORD v Southend United
Tom Birch (Manchester) - HINCKLEY UNITED / Curzon Ashton v Exeter City
Matt Taylor (Bath) - Hinckley United / Curzon Ashton v EXETER CITY
Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) Brett Solkhon(Loughborough)- KETTERING TOWN v Lincoln City
Mark Nwokeji (London) - Hereford v DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE
Daniel Sleath (Loughborough) - Wrexham / EASTWOOD TOWN v Brackley Town
Matthew Towns (Derby) - Harlow Town v MACCLESFIELD TOWN

Regional Trials 2008 - Sunday 23rd November

Can you please ensure that your nomination forms for the players within your squads are now on their way to the office so that we can start to sort out the trial process. It is really important that we keep the profile of this programme up so if you have not already done so can you please ensure that this is complete.

Players released from football league clubs going into HE
Attached is a list of players that have been released from football league clubs and have gone into HE/FE both in the UK and the USA. Could you please have a scan through and see if any are at your institutions that you may have missed.

BUCS domestic programme

The season has started and Birmingham are leading the way in PLN and Hartpury and Bath are doing so in in PLS. Over the past few weeks we have had issues with officials, team sheets etc. Hopefully you all understand that the reason for doing all of these things (or at least going some way to delivering them) is to raise the standards in HE football. We know we are not going to get them right in the first instance but the commitment to do this will ensure that the experience players, staff and institutions have will improve. Thank you all for supporting this.

England Universities programme

This year will be kicked off by the regional trials and tournament (December 15th and 16th at Warwick). After Christmas we will deliver a 2 day camp as a training and selection camp that will allow us to assess the players this year. It is hoped that we will go on tour to Ireland and play the Irish Universities side plus an Eircom Premier league team.

World Student Games 2009

This year the games are in Belgrade and hopefully the programme for selection and training will be available soon. There are undoubted players that will be playing at a level to push for places for this years squad.

World University Futsal Championships 2010 (Serbia)

I have attempted already to start to develop a player development programme for players in HE for the next tournament. Although there is not much resource available I am determined for us to deliver a programme that may in 18 months be able to challenge the FA National team programme. I will be sending out details on this when we have moved it on.

Exodus goes full time

Wolverhampton University student Exodus Geohaghan and winning goal-scorer in the British University Championships this year playing for England Universities has finished his studies and turned full time signing for Kettering Town in the Blue Square Conference.

Team Bath striker turns pro

Congratulations to Sean Canham who after being on trial at Charlton Athletic has now signed a two year deal with League 2 side Notts County. Sean has been prolific for Team Bath in both the BUSA competition and the Southern League.

Worcester students prepare for Para-olympics

Keryn Seal, Lee Greatbach, and Ajmal Ahmed will be taking part in the B1 squads bid for an medal in Beijing this summer. Congratulations to all at Worcester and a great example of the diversity of the programmes we are providing in the HE sector.

England Universities v Ipswich Town FC

On Friday a squad of 17 players played the Championship side at Loughborough. Ipswich played all of their first team squad of 24. The England lads did really well and were a credit to their institutions and themselves. The scoreline ended up being 4-1 with Bradley Pritchard (Loughborough) scoring a goal in the second period to bring the score back to 2-1. The goal came from an excellent diagonal pass from Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) and some good work from Alex Rodman (Nottingham Trent) on the right. Steve Foley, Assistant Manager at Ipswich Town said that the lads were a credit to the shirt and that they would be very happy to play them throughout the season as we play good football.

Special thanks to Dawn Scott, Tom Curtis and Graham Potter who staffed the game.

This was the last game of the 2007 - 2008 representative programme and was a fitting end to a successful year where England were crowned British Champions, 7 players went back in to the professional game, the regional set up has increased in staff numbers and the interest in the programme has increased tremendously.

University Student selected as FIFA official for the Beijing Olympics 2008

Una Hong, a PhD student at Loughborough University has been given one of the most important honours in football as an official. Una has been selected to be a referee for women's football in Beijing this summer.

HE Student goes to Wembley

Leon McSweeney who was at Loughborough from 2003-2006 and was in last seasons EU squad will be playing for Stockport County against Rochdale in the League Two play off final at Wembley Stadium.

England Universities student signs professional forms with Bradford city

Congratulations to Leeds Met student Jonathon McLaughlin who has just completed a move to Bradford City. Jon was an integral part of the England team that won the British University Championship this year in Scotland.

UWE Hartpury win the double

Goals from Steve Davies and England captain Marc Richards saw Hartpury to their second BUSA Championship win at Loftus Road beating the University of Bath 2-1. The game was very evenly contested but Hartpury had the edge in the second half and managed to take the trophy home to the South West.

London based student turns professional

Mark Nwokeji who is a Law student at the University of London, was one of the heroes in Staines Town recent FA Cup run and was top scorer in the Ryman Premier Division.

Mark has just put his studies on hold and has now signed a 2 year deal with League Two side Dagenham & Redbridge.

Staff moving institutions - Graham Potter

Current England Universities Assistant Coach Graham Potter has left his position as Sport Development Officer at Hull University and taken up a new coaching role at Leeds Met University working with John Hall and Chris Welburn.

We wish Graham all the best in his new post and glad that he has remained in the system

News staff additions to HE football - Alan Thomson and Matt Greig

New to the system we have to very valuable members of staff at Edge Hill University. Alan Thomson will hopefully help the programme in many ways but we will use his expertise in goalkeeping coaching for the regional and national squads. Joining Alan at Edge Hill is Matt Greig who has many things to offer the programme. Matt is a Loughborough graduate who has completed a PhD and has worked as Exercise Scientist with many of the England age group squads, last year went to World University Games as Exercise Scientist and is a Goalkeeping coach. I would like to welcome them and Edge Hill both on board and we look forward to working with you.

Thank you

Steve Sharman and James Ellis would like to thank all of you who have made this year possible. Hopefully the players have got a huge amount out of it and that it is played a role in your development as a member of staff. Next year is a real challenge as we have to surpass this years developments - With fixtures against Ipswich Town, Partick Thistle, Colchester United and the RAF already looking confirmed we have a great programme to look forward to.

Staff departing the programme - Jason Atkins

Jason Atkins who runs the football programme at Bournemouth University will be departing us this summer. He will however stay in HE and stay in football where he will be working at Stirling University. I would on behalf of the group that Jason for his efforts and support over the last 18 months and wish him well in his new role. Bournemouth University have been a credit to HE football and we hope that Barry Squires can take on where Jason has left off.

HE Coach gets coaching role with Manchester United

Dave Thorpe who was Head Coach at Premier League Lincoln University and Regional Coach for the Midlands has just taken a job working for Manchester United in South Africa. We all wish Dave well and thank him for his hard work to helping develop this new programme.

Next fixture: Guernsey 23rd and 24th April

Next week sees a squad of 15 players travel to Guernsey to play against the National side in preparation for their game against Jersey. This will give us another chance to see some of the players who did not get on the pitch at BUGs. We are very grateful to the Guernsey FA who have virtually paid for the trip across for us.

British University Games 2008 – England are Champions

After four days away at Edinburgh University and Heriot Watt University the England Men's Football squad came away Champions of the 2008 Tournament. The four days was a hugely different experience for most of the players having not been in a tournament environment before this. Their attention to detail both on and off the pitch was crucial in seeing us through two difficult games.

The first game was against Wales who put up a stubborn defensive display to earn a 0-0 draw in a game that the lads did not fulfil their potential. With Scotland having beaten Wales in the first game we knew that we had to beat them to win the tournament. In a very pleasing first half performance we dominated play but just could not apply the finish. The second half was muct the same, it took a pass from Bradley Pritchard to find Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton) to win the game for England 1-0.

English Universities v Guernsey FA

On Wednesday a squad of 15 travelled to Guernsey to play their FA XI at St Martins FC. The trip was funded by the Guernsey FA and was a chance for us to take away another group of players after the results in Edinburgh. Roy Sandeman from Leeds Uni was captain for the trip as Marc Richards was unavailable and Liam Hopkins was not selected.

After arriving in the morning we held a light training session and then went to check in to the hotel. The players were then given free time until we met for our pre match meal in the afternoon. The game was a learning curve for everybody. The first half the players did not fulfil their potential and went in 2-0 down against a purposeful Guernsey side. With some reorganising the second was very pleasing as the players reacted in the correct way and Andy Brown scored twice to bring the final score 2-2. The England side did enough to win the game in the end but just did not take enough chances created to make it happen.

Man of the Match - Liam Green (Loughborough)

British University Games preparation day

Yesterday the squad players for the up coming England trips to British University Games and Guernsey met up at Loughborough for a preparation day.

This was the last chance for the players to get together and fine tune preparations for the up coming trips. The players were yet again a credit to their institutions and applied themselves through a tough scheduled day which included fitness testing with Dawn Scott, the Football Association's Exercise Scientist who is travelling with the team next week.

British University Games

The squad depart today to compete in the British University Games at Heriot Watt. The players will play against Wales and Scotland on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. England have named Roy Sandeman of Leeds University and Liam Hopkins of Loughborough as Vice Captains to Marc Richards of UWE Hartpury.

England Universities student signs professional forms with Port Vale

University of Worcester student and England Universities player Rob Taylor has just signed a two year professional contract with Part Vale. This is great news for the Rob and the programme. We would all like to wish him well and every success for the future.

New EU staff structure announced for 2008 / 2009

England Universities is delighted to announce the new staff structure for next season and to welcome all of those who are now playing an active part in the set up.

Tom Curtis and Graham Potter are now the assistant coaches in the England set up. Bryn Clark has been appointed as Regional Administrator who will link up the work of the regions. IN the regions we welcome new regional coaching staff. Anthony White from Liverpool, Mark Woodhall from Newcastle and Ian Birchall from Leeds. In the Midlands congratulations to Glyn Harding from Worcester who is now Regional Manager. The Midlands regional coaches coming in are Idafe Perez from Loughborough, Andy Coyles from MMU Cheshire and Shaun Burke from Nottingham Trent. In the South we welcome Scott Dollner from Brighton, Neil Cumming from Brunel and Jason Atkins from Bournemouth to the new set up. England are looking to get everyone together at the end of May for a review of the 2007/8 programme and look forward to developing the programme for 2008/9.

British University Games squad announced

British University Games 2008 (7th - 10th April)
The squad for the Games this year has been selected and is attached for your information. We are delighted that we have had buy in and support from the FA, especially Dawn Scott who is an FA Exercise Scientist. This trip to Scotland will be hopefully a 'new' tournament experience for many of the players and we hope that they learn about themselves and the demands of tournament football.

The players for both trips are reporting to Loughborough on 2nd April for a training and testing day.

1 Jordan Yorath (Northumbria)
2 Johnny McCloughlin (Leeds Met)
3 Rob Taylor (Worcester)
4 Liam Green (Loughborough)
5 Liam Hopkins (Loughborough)
6 Luke Wildman (Leeds Met)
7 Matt Shaxton (UWE Hartpury)
8 Chibuzor Chilaka (Hull)
9 Andy Russel (Manchester)
10 Lee Molyneaux (UWE Hartpury)
11 Exodus Geohaghan (Wolverhampton)
12 Roy Sanderman (Leeds)
13 Bradley Pritchard (Loughborough)
14 Marc Richards (UWE Hartpury)
15 Bruce Hogg (Northumbria)
16 Michael Symons (UWE Hartpury)
17 Andy Brown (Loughborough)
18 Will Morford (UWE Hartpury)

Standby Players
1 John Scarborough (Canterbury)
2 Andy Rushbury (Notts Trent)
3 Alex Rodman (Notts Trent)
4 Ashley Allanson (Hull)
5 Paul Casey (Hartpury)

Derby student goes into the professional game

Matthew Towns a Goalkeeper currently studying at Derby University has been offered non contract terms at Macclesfield Town until the end of the season.

First England fixture is a win against the RAF

On Monday 18 of the squad of 28 meet to play the RAF. The day was very successful and the players did the system proud. Goals from Michael Symons (UWE Hartpury), Andy Rushbury (Nottingham Trent), Ashley Allanson (Hull) and Will Morford (UWE Hartpury) ensured a 4-2 victory.

The next step now is the selection of 18 players to go to the British University Games in Scotland in April.

Regional programme

The game scheduled to be played on Wednesday the 13th February between Northern Universities and British Colleges feel foul to the weather. We hope to resurrect a game for those lads in the very near future. On the 13th a joint team from the Midlands and Southern Universities played British Police at Nuneaton Borough. The lads played well against a very competitive Police side narrowly loosing 2-1. I would like to thank Tom Curtis for working so hard to making the game possible. To Idafe Perez, Dave Thorpe and Lauren Bradshaw for again making the product on the day very professional.

Another HE student joins the professional game

Liverpool Hope student Peter Vincenti signed full time terms for Millwall in the Summer of 2007. Peter is now full time with Stevenage Borough in the Football Conference. Peter joins the ever growing list over the past two years of students going into the full time game.

January 2008 - English Universities training and selection camp

The last two days saw 35 players and, 5 staff from the FA and 10 staff from HE deliver the EU training camp at Warwick University. The programme we delivered gave the players and the staff to interact both on and off the field and also educate the players into the different requirements needed to be successful at EU level and to put themselves in contention for a ticket to WUGs in 2009.

The English Universities squad will be announced on Thursday of this week.
The squad will contain 28 players and a standby list who represent their country this year.
The first English Universities fixture will be against the RAF at Uxbridge on Monday 18th February KO 7.30pm.

Hull student is selected to represent England in Kuala Lumpar

Ashley Allanson has been selected as a member of the England Futsal for the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. We wish Ashley very well.