One day. Three members of the household. Seven football matches.
The picnic was made, the kits were packed and the boys were excited. We bundled them into the car and set off to the first of two venues for the day. Our football schedule isn’t usually this busy but yesterday we had a full day of it.
Louis, our seven year old, had the first three matches of his summer season this morning. His team did themselves proud and finished with a 1-0 win, a 1-1 draw and finally a 4-0 win, with Louis scoring all four goals in the last match.
This is how he felt about that …

High on the morning’s results, we headed over to the home of Radcliffe Borough Football Club, Stainton Park, where our youngest son Rowan was due to do a sponsored dribble around the pitch and Louis was taking part in a tournament. The children are involved with Radcliffe Borough Juniors, with Louis playing his first competitive season with the under sevens and Rowan being part of their Development Group. The main event of the fun day though was to watch the Radcliffe Borough first team play against The Mean Machine.
The Mean Machine is a team made up of the kids team coaches. My husband, Ted, hasn’t played competitive football for more years than I think he’d care to remember, but nonetheless he signed up and joined in. It didn’t matter that the friendly he’d played a week earlier left him unable to walk properly for three days, he was determined to do his bit for the fundraiser. So I adopted my dutiful wife role, bought muscle soak and said encouraging things.
A little surprise on the day was that Rowan played in his own little match! Watching 10 four year old children chasing a football around a pitch is quite endearing. It’s actually quite good to be reminded of how far the older boys have come when you look at kids a couple of years younger.
Rowan tried super hard and showed some real promise, I thought!
I’m not entirely sure what he was doing here, but he certainly enjoyed himself!
As three o’clock rolled around, Ted and his team mates disappeared into the changing rooms to prepare for their game.
I don’t think that for the first ten minutes our lads even touched the ball, and I braced myself for them getting thrashed. I was pleasantly surprised though – they played well and ultimately lost 6-3. I think that considering the majority of the Mean Machine players are 30+ years old and carrying a little more around the midriff than their semi-professional counterparts, they did exceptionally well! One thing was for certain – the cheers around the ground when they scored were akin to having seen a favourite team win the league.

We had a really brilliant day at the fundraiser and hopefully we raised a fair amount for the kids, though we’re just waiting on a final figure. Both of the children live and breathe football and Radcliffe Borough Juniors have provided not just an opportunity for them, but also we have all become part of a really positive and encouraging community.
We’ve had a wonderful first season with RB Juniors, and we’re looking forward to many more.
how lovely that the club get so involved in the community and give something back.
As you say watching the wee one play and compare to the older one does let you see how they come on, one day maybe you will be the mum of a rich player instead of a WAG.
Football is a better hobby than playing on their computer.
Over ( late as usual) from last weeks country kids