Saturday, 20 December 2008

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.

Friday, 5 December 2008

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.