Sunday 5th April 2009

Raiders Retain Kent Disability League Title

Maidstone United Raiders - Under 16 PAN Disability Championship team have retained the Kent Disability League for the third year in row. The Kent Disability league was formed in 2006 and the raiders have won the league from the beginning. In 2006, they won the league by the smallest of margins, just one point. The following season they retained their title, which was hard to do, but for the team to win the league for a third consecutive year is amazing. Especially, considering that the team was rebuilt this season, with as many as five of the previous squad moving into the newly formed adult disability team.

The season has been up and down for the raiders, who have been feeling the pressure of being the team to beat in Kent for the last two seasons, and we have no doubt that the crop of players coming into the Under 16 team next year will get the same treatment. It was a big learning curve for some of the players, as many were not used to this level of pressure being placed on them. This had to be controlled carefully by the management team.

The raiders did not have a recognised goalkeeper this year, and had to start the campaign with last season's top scorer Pete Hewett in between the posts. This would remain the case until Liam Jefferies (the current top scorer) was hit with illness, which forced a massive re-jig in the team. Hewett was replaced in goal by Dan Hatch, which allowed Pete to go back to scoring goals. In the meantime, Chris White had to form a good defensive partnership with Conner Szalajko, who joined the team from the Under 13s, along with Dougie Franks.

Andrew Mowatt, Kasey Bryan, and Glen Lewis then backed up the squad. The final pieces of this season's jigsaw came when The Raiders found two new deaf players in Josh Jhas and Michael Watson, who in the last two set of fixtures have been solid and have chipped in with some important goals.

Sadly, for the Raiders, Jefferies, White and Hewett will be leaving the squad this season after the Kent Champions Cup, a competition that they have also won 2 years in a row, as they will be joining the adult team.

Tyke Harvey comments

"When John asked if I would stay down and manage the under 16s again, rather than following the team I had develop for the last 4 years, I had a massive decision to make, but I knew I would leave them in capable hands. However, what John was requesting was a big task; could I retain the title for a third season?

I knew that I had the players, but with so many of them coming up from the Under 13s age group I was unsure if this season would be the time to push on. I sat down and explained to the boys it was going to be hard. The team that had won the league for the last two years has now gone, but the other teams in the league wouldn't care about that, they would want to beat Maidstone, and that was the case. In all our games this season, I have had teams that have been at the bottom of the league, turn into world beaters when they came up against the boys.

All my boys this season have been a credit to Maidstone United; they have had to deal with abuse from the sidelines, and from other players. They have also had to deal with a lot of teams that have tried to bully them into not playing football. I would like to go on record of saying how proud I am of them. I would like also like to thank the following coaches that coach the team; Steve Blackett along with Adam Porter and Dave Jacobs, who due to other football commitments can't make the games on Sundays, but have played a major role in retaining our title."

Final Comments from the head of the Raiders John Harvey

Well done to the players, coaching and Administration staff who have been behind this team.

As Tyke mentioned to win this league three seasons on the bounce is a great achievement and not many team can boast this never mind what level you play at.

We now look forward to the Champions Cup and see if we can make the double.

Very proud of you guy's