The February Soccer School was a big hit - especially as two Accrington Stanley players turned up to present the prizes.
Luke Joyce and Alan Burton were the surprise guests at the final day’s presentation after the five-to-12-year-olds had been put through their paces all week at Rhyddings Business and Enterprise College.
The players enjoyed seeing the youngsters in action and were also impressed with the number of Stanley shirts on show and they stayed to sign autographs and pass tips onto the youngsters.
Both girls and boys seems to be enjoying our community activities but we want more children from Hyndburn to get involved.
Girls football is increasingly popular, the Ladies FA¿Cup final was held at Rochdale FC this month, and we have enjoyed a bumper turnout at our Girls Development Centre which runs every Friday evening from 6-7pm at the New Era - but we want more.
We’re really proud as a club to have this opportunity of a development centre purely aimed at girls in the local community and it’s a big thing for Accrington Stanley to run it.
But we do need more girls to attend so that we can put on special sessions where those there will have the maximum fun while also developing their football skills.
It is for all girls of any ability aged between five and 12 so please come down and see how much enjoyment you can have.
Another Community scheme which has come on in leaps and bounds is our Match-Day club on Saturday afternoons.
It was our busiest Match-Day club of the season on Saturday with 34 children enjoying an hour of playing football before watching Luke Joyce and his team-mates play fantastically well to beat Bradford City at a packed Crown Ground.
It was a really good atmosphere with more than 3000 at the ground and the children were having fun, singing Stanley onto victory and having the whole football experience, in a safe environment.
We are hoping to go from strength to strength with the club and are excited with the amount of new children that are attending.
We hope to see an even bigger turn-out for the next home match against Notts County on 6 March.
We are also working on Accrington producing some great goalkeepers in the future with our Goalkeeper Academy.
It has only been running a short while but it is going well and gives all of the children a chance to learn some new skills and techniques in a fun environment with expert coaches.
All the Development Centres are really taking off and just a reminder that all sessions are held at New Era on Monday and the times are 5-6pm for five-seven-year-olds; 6-7pm for Goalkeeper Academy for five-14- year-olds and 7-8pm for eight-12-year olds.
Our Exclusive ASFC Redz Club on Tuesday evenings is in its fourth week now and this is also a club not to be missed.
It did start slowly but has gone on to be one of our most popular activities for all with not only football but table tennis, Nintendo Wii and general fun games on offer.
The coaches are really excited about this club and to see 21 children there this Tuesday was a massive achievement in only a few weeks of the club starting.
Next week we have the end of February prize giveaway which will be a massive event and the first one since the club started.
There will be ASFC players, staff, the mascot Winstanley and some fabulous prizes to give away including mascot packages, signed items, ASFC kits and Soccer School places.
The club runs at New Era, Accrington from 4.15-6.15pm every Tuesday for ASFC Redz Members.
And, if your not already a Redz member, it's free to join so contact us for more details. Don’t miss out on this event as it plans to be superb and photos will be in next week’s column.
Looking ahead, there will be an April Soccer School taking place on April 6 at King Georges Playing Fields (Outdoor) in Baxenden with bookings already being taken.
For more details on any of these please look at the Community pages on the Official website, call 01254 356950, email fitc@accringtonstanley.co.uk or come into our office at the Crown Ground.
