With a new development plan in place, the Club will introduce 3 new teams from 2016/17.
The Committee has alway been very keen to rebuild the club after the setbacks it has suffered over recent years and they have been working hard behind the scenes in anticipation of the move to the new 3G pitch early next season.
Vice Chairman, Barry Meadows announced “The Reserve team will be re-introduced after it was disbanded at the beginning of this season, whilst we will also be introducing a new under 18’s team and a Vets team.”
“Pilkington FC has always been a Club with a number of teams and it was very sad that we started the season with only one team. Ever since then we have been focused on ensuring that everything was in place for us to re-introduce the Reserve team and bring back Youth football to the Club. The bonus of the Vets team will only add to the rebuilding of the Club.”
The Under 18s will be first Youth Team at the club since 1992. Youth has been a big part of the Pilkington FC ethos since the 60’s when, under the guidance of Sammy Cottington, Ernie Swift and Ted Forshaw, the club successfully ran under 18’s and teams. Over the years the focus of the club has been to develop players so that they not only play for the senior sides at Pilkington but progress up the football pyramid. It is a tradition that the club is proud of and many links still exist with clubs at higher levels.
The ambition of the club is to bring back the vision and philosophy shown early on in the club’s history that was so successful in developing players for the senior sides right up to the early 2000’s.
Peter Edwards, a club stalwart, will be managing the Under 18’s. With his proud history at the club through winning the title with the reserve team in 2008, Peter shows great promise in creating success for the new team. Bringing a team that he is already familiar with from Bleak Hill, his level 2 coaching with Youth Modules 1,2 and 3 and experience with Northern Ireland Elite Under 14’s squad it can only be expected that the Youth team at Pilkington will be an example of success.
For the first time ever, we will also have a Vets team and it will be managed by Ashton Athletic Development Team Manager, Paul Piert. The club believes it will be a great success and a way of keeping the characters and ex-players at Pilkington playing football.
The Reserve team will be playing in the Cheshire Reserve Division and the process of appointing a management team has already begun.