A squad of twenty Lads, together with their Coaches and League Officials, as well as Physios and a Chef left Carlow .

on Tuesday morning to embark on a journey that they have been in intensive preparation for, over the past three years.

On Saturday 22nd October Crettyard UTD AFC Juvenile club "Showed Racism the red card!"

Our small club is located off the N78 in rural county Laois , situated close to the borders of both Kilkenny and Carlow.

Our engagement with the campaign was simple but effective . Both our Under 13 and Under 12 teams were playing their league games against Hanover Harps and Vale wanderers . Both Cretty yard team managers Ramon Buggy and Martin Rice gave full support by allowing pre match preparation to be interrupted by Aine Geoghegan (Club Secretary)

Last year we established a Carlow girls soccer academy for the first time ever. Our u12 and u14 academies competed in the u12 Gaynor Cup (a one day blitz in Sligo) and the u14 Gaynor Cup (a 4 day tournament held in University Limerick). Due to the success of our academies last year we will also have an u16 academy this year that will participate in the u16 Gaynor Cup also held in University Limerick over 4/5 days.

player development plan u8.9

The format for the u8 and u9 is going to be two teams playing dual games so there will be two matches going on at the same time on a full pitch. The example below shows what happens if you play on a full pitch. With the u8 and u9 everybody will play four 12 minute quarters.

Blitz procedure

This year the format for u11 and u10 is dual games as above in the diagram so there is two games going on at the same time across a big pitch. There will be one official ref and the clubs take it in turn to officiate the other game. The ref swaps pitches at half time so all kids get equal time with ref. There will be four teams at most grounds every week unless a club ask for the day off. If two of the teams are from the same club then we play two 40 minute matches (20mins a half) to avoid the club playing against itself.

The draws for the SFAI Cups were made this week. All draws are on www.sfai.ie. There is a new addition to this years competitions with the regional competitions being finished to a Final in each section. This does not affect the round of 32 draw which will take place after the December SFAI Council Meeting. Good luck to all teams taking part.

Following on from the trials conducted over the past two weekends the following squads have been selected to take part in this year's Gaynor Cup competitions.

We would like to thank all the girls who turned up and took part in these trials. Any girls who may have missed the trials for any reason can still be looked at and assessed by the coaches just by contacting us and letting us know and we will arrange for this to happen.

U12 Squad

Niamh Lawlor - Burrin Celtic

Siofra O'Neill - N/A

Olwyn Lawlor - N/A

Sinead Thomson - St Joseph's

Kate McDonald - St Joseph's

Sarah Nolan - St Joseph's

Cariosa Morahan - Hanover Harps

Wicktoria Gorczyca - Bagenalstown

Emma Walker - Hanover Harps

Sarah Timmons - Hanover Harps

Niamh Graham - Crettyard United

Holly Wall - Bagenalstown

Katie C Byrne - Hanover Harps

Kerrie Smith - Hanover Harps

U14 Squad

Tara Long - Milltown United

Kelly O'Neill - St Joseph's

Kayleigh Shannon - Hanover Harps

Abby Phelan - Hanover Harps

Laura Kearney - Vale Wanderers

Sara Jane Doran - Milltown United

Blessing Kingsley - Hanover Harps

Grace Cullen - St Joseph's

Sara Kerfah - Hanover Harps

Beth Evesson - Hanover Harps

Michaela Delaney - Hanover Harps

Shauna O'Neill - Bagenalstown

Rachel O'Brien - Nurney Villa

Jean Bride - St Anne's

Aoibhan Kelly - N/A

Rachel Doyle - Hanover Harps

Emer Cawley - Hanover Harps