Well Done Aidan.

Good afternoon troops!

Despite England's World Cup capitulation, I must say it's been a fine week, the highlight being my son, Aidan, winning the 'Players' player of the season' prize, at his club's end of season awards on Wednesday evening.

Myself and his family are so happy for him.

As a goalkeeper, you can often stand by watching the outfield players taking all the accolades but in a tough season, that saw the side unfortunately relegated right at the death, Aidan had a lot coming at him and he eventually shone, going on to win this prize for the second time in three seasons.

I say 'eventually shone' because after half a dozen games or so of the twenty game league season, the lad was out of form, bemoaning his luck and was, perhaps, weighing up jacking it all in.

A quiet word from management, the 'threat' of being dropped and me taking up the responsibility of training him one on one at the team's weekly sessions bore results immediately. He improved, was back to his best inside three or four games and towards the end of the campaign he was in the best form of his young life.

This end of season award is testament to a turn around brought about by a good attitude and hard work. Both Aidan and I are very thankful to the team mates and parents who selected him as their player of the season and to the team management, who kept faith in him and have continued to give him plenty of encouragement.

Aidan sometimes finds it difficult to differentiate between Dad and Paul, the bloke who knows a bit about goalkeeping but he's getting there. He thoroughly deserves the recognition and I am very pleased to have played a small part in helping him forward and I'm looking forward to continuing to help him, ongoing.

His Mum and myself are rightly proud of him, not least in the fact that he does not get too big for his boots. There is no talk of leaving to play for a 'better team'. He is very much of the attitude that 'we've been relegated as a team so let's get back up as a team'. That's an attitude I, the management and many of the parents thankfully share.

The team, Evergreen Juniors, based in Abbots Langley (Near Watford) are moving up from 9 a side to 11 a side in the Under 13 age group this coming season (starting end of August) and are therefore looking for a few new players. Any interested boys must be going into year 8 at school this coming September. Training is generally on a Wednesday evening with matches on a Sunday morning, in the West Herts Youth League.

It is a decent team, with great lads and some real characters and it's really well run by Corey and Dean. The club has good facilities and is a real part of the community. All the parents are welcoming and friendly, which is always a bonus when someone new comes along.

If you want the contact details to arrange a trial for your lad, please email me at paulyhogan@hotmail.com and I can relay the info to you.

I wish you all a fantastic weekend.

I'll, no doubt, be immersed in football!

Cheers.

Paul.

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