2015/16 Unicorn Athletic Football Club Matchday Programme
Saturday 14th November 2015 2:00pm Cheshire League 2 ÂŁ1.00
ISSUE
ISSUE 04 Unicorn Athletic FC Valley Road, Flixton Manchester, M41 8RQ CLUB CONTACT UnicornAthleticFC.co.uk Email: unicorn athleticfc@outlook.com CLUB STAFF Chairman: Darren Storey Vice-Chariman: Chris Leigh Secretary: Steve MacKinnon FOOTBALL STAFF 1st XI Manager: Dave Potter Assistants: Gary Brown Coach: Wayne Richardson GK Coach: Damon Carroll Physio: Lauren Quigley Captain: William Aldred Vice-Captain: Jon Kirwin 2nd XI Manager: Darren Storey PROGRAMME: Design: KickOffMedia Photography: Michael Ripley / James Lobley / Elaine Lowe ——————————————————Welcome to Valley Road for today’s league fixture against Mersey Valley, which has another important 3 Cheshire League 2 points up for grabs. We look to get a positive result against a tough side in the form of Mersey Valley and good performance is required. Get behind the team, grab a drink and some food and we hope you enjoy the game. ——————————————————-
04 I Manager’s Notes 05 I Today’s Visitors 06 I Gary Brown Views 07 I 2015/16 Fixtures 08 I News Article 09 I In Town Today 10 I Sponsor Unicorn 11 I Next Match 12 I The Line-Ups
UNICORN ATHLETIC FOOTBALL CLUB ‘Pride of The Community’
Unicorn Athletic History…. Unicorn Athletic were formed in 1977 and have predominately been running as a Junior football club for the past 38 years having many successes up to youth football.
In the last few seasons the club has expanded in to adult football seeing the adult’s side coming runners-up 2 years on the bounce in the Broadheath Central Cup, being beat in extra time in both finals and finishing 3rd in the Altrincham & District League before we made the step up to The Hallmark Security Cheshire League. The move to the Cheshire League saw a move in stadia for Unicorn. Smiths Field was the home for the 1st XI but now first team games are played at Valley Road stadium as we look to work ourselves up the non-league pyramid. The club has over 400 players and 40+ coaches with many teams and success in the junior and youth squads.
Cheshire League 2
‘Pride Of The Community’
Credit: Elaine Lowe
DAVE POTTER Welcome everyone to Valley Road for today’s game against Mersey Valley in Cheshire League 2. I hope everyone has had a safe journey to join us here today. Straight onto today’s game, we welcome local side Mersey Valley and they are a very tough test for us. They are well organised and a tough tackling team who play the percentage game, back to front football and have had a lot of success with it since our game with them back in August and they riding high now in the table. I have been to see them a few times and each time they have scored a few goals Nathan Steele the Manager was my strike partner for about 8 years so I know him and a lot of his team very well and Nathan like me is a very ambitious manager. In order to beat Mersey Valley we will need to be at our best and work hard for 90+ minutes as they will press right tell the death of the game we will need to focus and win our individual battles all over the pitch. Lets hope its an entertaining football match that results in 3pts for Unicorn and I hope you enjoy your day with us at Valley Road.
Matchday Programme 2015/16
Mersey Valley have made the short trip from Sale to Flixton today. HOME GROUND: Banky Lane FORMED: 2014 FORM: LLWWL
2014/15 LEAGUE FINISH: 3rd Manager: Nathan Steele
Mersey Valley FC evolved from Sale Town FC in the summer of 2014 and is a community club run by the volunteers. The 1st XI are playing in their second season in the Cheshire League, having finished third in their debut campaign.
The club also fields a Development team in the Cheshire League, a team in the Bolton Sports Federation Over-35s Veterans' Football League and runs several junior teams.
The vision for the club, is for football to bring people together 'from the cradle to the grave' in an inclusive and social environment. They can boast some decent facilities at their Banky Lane, a high standard set along with other clubs at this level. They are growing constantly their volunteers, coaches and teams. The future looks bright at the Valley.
Matchday Programme 2015/16
Date
Match
Competition
15/08/15
Cuddington 6-2 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
19/08/15
Cheadle Town Reserves 0-3 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
22/08/15
Lostock Gralam 6-4 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
25/08/15
Mersey Valley 2-2 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
29/08/15
Unicorn 4-3 Cheadle Town Reserves
J A Walton Challenge Cup
05/09/15
Litherland REMYCA 1-3 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
12/09/15
Knutsford 11-1 Unicorn
Cheshire Amateur Cup
19/09/15
Cheshire League 2
26/09/15
AFC Macclesfield 6-1 Unicorn Unicorn 1-3 West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves
10/10/15
Unicorn 0-3 FC St Helens
Cheshire League 2
17/10/15
Halebank 3-1 Unicorn
Cheshire League 2
24/10/15
Altrincham FA Senior Cup
07/11/15
Wythenshawe Town 5-1 Unicorn West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves v Unicorn
14/11/15
Unicorn v Mersey Valley
Cheshire League 2
21/11/15
Halebank v Unicorn Unicorn v West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves
J A Walton Challenge Cup
28/11/15
Cheshire League 2
Cheshire League 2
J A Walton Challenge Cup
Matchday Programme 2015/16
Assistant Manager Gary Brown answered a few question about all things Unicorn. So Gary tell us why you chose to get involved with the first team? I wanted to stay involved at Unicorn and it was the natural progression to manage an open age team from the youth team last year. I was delighted to be asked to help Dave Potter with the first team. Are you enjoying being involved in the set up? yes I enjoy being involved as there is a different challenge with a new set of players. It is more difficult when all the relationships are new as you have to build the mutual respect on which the player/coach relationship is based.
it's been a tough start to the season so far, why do you think this is? it has been a tough start but I am not surprised. It is our first season in this division and it is a higher division than most of the players are used to. They need to raise their total game to match that of all the opposition. I believe the players are capable but they have to be prepared to match the work rate of the competition. As the youth coach you was known for your teams fitness do you think the current squad are fit enough? No. As a squad we are definitely not fit enough. It is evident at training and more importantly in games where we have repeatedly lost momentum after good starts. A few players are close to the fitness required but they can always get fitter. The squad as a whole would benefit from significantly improving their fitness. What do you think the team needs to do to move on? Easy. Train together and train hard. There's a couple of old adages in life that nobody has ever disputed or disproved. "Practice makes perfect" and "you get out of life what you're prepared to put in". We currently don't train together often enough or hard enough. Our results reflect that. This isn't Sunday league. In this division, you can't just throw it together on a Saturday and expect good results. As a squad if we are prepared to work harder, then the results will come. We have the talent. Simple!
Matchday Programme 2015/16
PLD PTS
GS GC
GD +15
1st
Lostock Gralam
13
29
36 21
2nd
Warrington Town Reserves
10
25
43 18 +25
3rd
AFC Macclesfield
9
25
34 12 +22
4th
Mersey Valley
14
25
50 29 +21
5th
Halebank
9
22
37 23 +14
6th
FC St Helens
9
15
19 25
-6
7th
West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves
13
10
21 31
-10
8th
Cheadle Town Reserves
7
7
13
18
-5
9th
Unicorn Athletic
10
7
18 35
-17
10th
Moore United
7
4
9
27
-18
11th
Cuddington
10
3
18 37
-19
12th
Litherland REMYCA
9
3
14 38 -22
Today’s Fixtures Cheshire League 2: FC St Helens v Lostock Gralam Unicorn Athletic v Mersey Valley West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves v Moore United AFC Macclesfield v Cuddington Warrington Town Reserves v Litherland REMYCA Stockport Georgians v Cheadle Town Reserves (Cheshire Amateur Cup)
Matchday Programme 2015/16
Unicorn Athletic has recently started working with Wayne Richardson of ‘Richardson Sport’ Unicorn Athletic has recently started working with Wayne Richardson of ‘Richardson Sport’ Manager Dave Potter spoke about the link up. “It's an exciting time at the club as we try to step up the professionalism and working with Wayne at Richardson sport is an amazing step as a club we get to train weekly with professional coaches in a world class environment. Wayne's knowledge is invaluable. He gives the lads lots to think about it's not all about kicking a ball it's also about body mechanics and movement. I think we will see the benefits of working with Richardson sport in the next few months.
Wayne Richardson also spoke about the link. “It's been nearly three weeks working with the team we have implemented to players the importance of athletic development which includes preparation/ intro to strength and conditioning and prehab .
We want the players to be in a professional environment and get the best out of the sessions that are provide but this requires more first team players to attend also players taking responsibility for their own conditioning away from the training sessions.
The attitude of the players has been fantastic but we understand getting the players to adapt to the new training sessions takes time and also better planning .
Better preparation within a professional environment gets better results I am hounored to support Unicorn Athletic FC many thanks to Dave Potter and the team .
Over the past few weeks we have had more reserves and youth team players and four first team players which is difficult due to work and family life .
Follow Unicorn Athletic on Twitter: @UnicornAthFC
- Player Sponsorship - Pitch Side Advertising - Programme Advertising - Match Sponsorship - Kit Sponsorship -
Next Up Halebank v Unicorn Ath November 21st Admission: Free Blackburn Avenue Next up for Unicorn Athletic is the trip to Widnes to take on the high-flying Halebank in the J A Walton Challenge Cup What must be said is that it should be an entertaining affair as Halebank’s games have seen 60 goals in just 9 games. Manager Dave Potter had his say on the game, “An extremely tough game against a side who have already beaten us this season but that gives us an
Not many teams would lose 1-10 one week and win 7-2 the next. Halebank will be up there this season but cup takes the focus now, we still have an eye on getting out of our J A Walton group and this would be a great chance to put ourselves one step nearer” There will be some build up on the club’s Twitter and Facebook pages so make sure you’re keeping updated with the latest Unicorn news.
Manager: Nathan Steele
Matt Aikenhead William Aldred James Arnold Erion Bajro Peter Cloran Obi Ezah James Ginder Lee Hendley Tommy Hendley Kurt Hill Jon Kirwan Daniel Long Ian Lowe Jamie MacKenzie Andy Massey Joe McCann Shae Mills Anthony Newby James Phillips Jordan Powell Marcus Queeley Ryan Stewart Chris Sussex Kieran Swann Oliver Tharett Ray Warburton Sam Williamson Tom Woodier Match Official Referee - David Smith
Chris Akpan Andrew Barlow Kyle Denton Martin Flanagan Thomas Hopkins Niko Kwiatkowsi James Liversedge Jonathan Matthews Aarron Minshall Oliver Riley Stephen Taylor Ryan Tolan Sean Walsh Daniel Watling Kyle Watson Kieran Whitehead Gary Wood
Next Match v Halebank / Away Saturday 21st November 2015 / 14:00
UnicornAthletifcFC.co.uk
Manager: Dave Potter Assistant: Gary Brown
/UnicornAthleticJFC
MERSEY VALLEY
@UniCornAthFC
UNICORN ATHLETIC