Hethersett Athletic Football Club  

Founded - 1991

Awarded National FA Charter 2002                 Awarded National FA Community Charter 2003 and 2007

2009/2010 Fixtures  Season 2008/2009  Club History   Site Index    Records Section   Club Information   Sponsorship News  Development Plan

Norwich Sunday League Premier Division 2008/2009 (final table)

Season 2008/2009 News

All club fixtures for the 2008/2009 season have been completed. 

TEAM OF THE YEAR

The club is delighted to announce that at the annual general meeting of the Crown Fire South and Central Norfolk League we were named team of the year after winning Division Four by a landslide 14 point margin and reaching two cup finals. The club received the Ricky Brown Memorial Shield along with a cheque. This was a stunning achievement in our first season of adult Saturday soccer. Meanwhile the draws for three cup competitions involving the team have been made. On 22nd August we are home to Northwold Sports and Social Club in the Benevolent Cup. On 5th September we visit Sporle in the second round of the Ben Smith Memorial Cup and on 12th September are home to Bradenham Wanderers Reserves in the first round of the Mervyn Lambert Plant Hire Pease League Cup.

Players Records Updated

The appearances/goals records have been updated to the end of the 2008/2009 season. Click here to see the names of players who have made more than 100 appearances for the club, scored more than 50 goals and find out who has the best goals per game ratio. To see the full list of appearances and goals for every player that has appeared for the club click here.

Manager Needed for Sunday Side

Hethersett Athletic's highly successful Norwich Sunday League Premier Division side are looking for a new manager. Ross Potter has decided to step down after a number of successful campaigns that have included promotion, finishing runners-up in the Premier Division and reaching the final of the Norfolk Senior Sunday Cup Final at Carrow Road. Ross will be staying with the club in an administrative capacity. Anybody interested in taking on the side should apply in writing via e-mail. Applications can be sent by clicking here. Please mark your e-mail clearly Sunday Team Manager.

The men's Saturday side celebrated winning the Crown Fire Division Four and reaching two cup finals with a four day visit to Amsterdam. The trip included an excellent game against skilful Dutch outfit VCS. Despite losing 4-1 Hethersett played very well on the astroturf surface. We took the lead after 20 minutes through Ryan O'Sullivan but conceded an equaliser before half-time. Inexperience and tiredness set in towards the end of the game and VCS ran in three goals to win the game. To view photos from the trip click here

Closed Season Tournaments

Several of the club's teams will be taking part in five, six and seven a side games over the coming weeks. The Under-11s will be playing in a Football in the Community six-a-side on June 27th and the Girls Under-16 Hearts will be playing in a five-a-side tournament at Bohemians the following day when the Under-18s take part in a five-a-side at Sprowston. July sees the Girls Under-16 Hearts at Bungay on the 5th, the Under-8s at Hellesdon on the same day and the men's Saturday taking part in a seven-a-side at Anglian Windows on July 25th.

The club is already planning for the 2009/2010 season when it hopes to run a record 18 teams. This will include four adult men's teams, two ladies teams, nine youth teams, two girls teams and a new veterans' team. Applications have been made to numerous leagues including the Eastern Region Women's, the Norwich Sunday League, the Crown Fire Central and South Norfolk League, the Norfolk Youth Combination, the Norfolk and Suffolk Youth League, the Norfolk Women's and Girls League and the Norfolk and Suffolk Veterans' League. This web site will keep you up to date on the preparations for the new season as they happen. To read more click here. The club's annual meeting will be held at Park Farm Hotel on July 13th.

The Future is Orange

The club's committee has decided that Hethersett Athletic's future will be orange. At present various teams play in a variety of shirt colours from yellow and amber to orange. In an attempt to standardise shirt colours the committee voted to phase out all other colours and introduce orange as teams need new strips.

Season of Success  A season of success was celebrated when the adult teams held their presentation evening at Park Farm Hotel. A full report and photographs from the evening can be viewed by clicking here.

Respect Trophy for Adele Adele McCrory is the first winner of a special Respect Trophy given to the ladies team by sponsors Megaman Energy Saving Lamps. The John Murphy Trophy will be awarded annually to a member of the Ladies squad who demonstrates the core qualities of respectjng the game with regard to team-mates, opponents, match, league and club officials. John Murphy has been a supporter of grass roots football with Hethersett for a couple of years and Megaman are the main sponsors of our youth funday. We are in good company as Megaman are also the shirt sponsors of Stevenage Borough who this year won the FA Trophy. The award follows on from a club Respect evening presentation from Norfolk FA at Park Farm Hotel. For more coverage of this see our adult presentation section by clicking here.

Mel Wins Lee Thompson Award Club founder and current secretary Mel Perkins is the 2009 winner of the prestigious Lee Thompson Memorial Shield, awarded each season for the person or persons making an outstanding contribution to Hethersett Athletic. For full reports on the the winners of the trophies since 1999 click here.

Ladies Retain Cup

Our ladies team retained the Eastern Region League Cup with a tense 2-1 victory over Cambridge University at Soham FC. They fell behind after 15 minutes before Emily Coates equalised after 26 minutes. The winner came seconds before the interval when the Cambridge goalkeeper dropped the ball over her own line. The second half was close with chances for both sides but the cup came back to Hethersett. For a full report and photographs click here. A report and slide show from the match also appears on the Pink Un and Wymondham and Attleborough Mercury web sites and can be viewed by clicking here.

 

Annual Plate Match

This year's annual Lee Thompson Memorial Plate saw our successful Saturday' men's team with a few guest players take on Lyng on the Memorial Field. A strong wind made conditions difficult but we managed to take the trophy with a 3-1 win thanks to two goals from guest player Scott Allen and one from Danny Gray. The picture shows Lee's mother Mary presenting the trophy to Hethersett skipper Matt Steward. There was coverage of the game in the local press. This can be viewed by clicking here.

Under 10 set for 11 A-side 

The Under 10s said farewell to mini soccer by beating Wymondham Town 3–0 away from home in their final game of the season. The win secured a 4^th place finish and prevented  local rivals Wymondham from winning the league. The lads have made a massive improvement this season and were unlucky not to finish higher. Already, the team have started to prepare for next season and will be playing as many friendly matches as possible before the new season gets underway. The squad for next season is expected to be 23 strong of which all of the players have taken part in mini soccer matches. After a very successful season the lads along with coaches Sham, Richard and Stewart  are ready for their next challenge and so are their coaches. 

Danny is a record-breaker
Men's Saturday and Sunday team player Danny Gray (Pictured opposite) has broken the club's individual scoring record for a single season. Danny ibagged 79 goals during the past season to beat the previous record of 70 set by youth team player Peter Wiltshire last season.

Bag Packing Fund-raiser
THE club's women's and girls teams combined for a club event with a difference on Easter Saturday. Club members gave up their time to pack bags for shoppers at Waitrose supermarket at Wymondham and raised over £518 towards the development of the female side of the club. For more pictures from the event click here.

Playing Field Improvements

The club is working alongside members of the Hethersett Memorial Playing Field committee to draw up and implement plans for improvements to the facilities on the field. We will keep you up to date on developments on this web site.

 

More Sponsorship

We are very grateful to our latest sponsors Hangman Curtains who have provided our Under-16 Girls team with a set of wet jackets. To read about this click here.

 

National Recognition for Michael

Sunday Reserve team player Michael Bates is a very special footballer. For not only is Michael the team's top scorer this season, but he is profoundly deaf and has won his way through trials for the Great Britain Deaf Team. You can read about Michael in a special newspaper article which is available by clicking here. Hethersett Athletic was also one of England's first deaf friendly football clubs when we signed up to the National Deaf Children’s Society Deaf Friendly Football Club Pledge. By signing the pledge the Club has committed to opening up the sport to deaf people. To read about this click here

 

Mel Honoured for Decades of Service  Hethersett Athletic founder and current club secretary Mel Perkins has been honoured in another sport. Mel has been presented with a national award to mark his four decades of involvement in cycle speedway. He founded the Hethersett Hawks Club and is still secretary and manager. To read about his award visit the Hethersett Village web site by clicking here.

 

Development Evening Success

The club would like to thank everyone who attended the development evening at Park Farm Hotel on 2nd March. Over 100 players, parents, guardians and friends attended to hear about the club's plans for the future of the women's and girls game. Major articles on the future of the girls and women's game will appear on this site in the near future. Thanks also to Park Farm Hotel for sponsoring the evening. The women's and girls teams now have their own section on the web site. Visit this by clicking here. Meanwhile two of our ladies players - Emily Coates and Lisa Ferdani - have been picked to represent Norfolk in their match against Essex on March 4th at Fakenham FC