Roots
Knebworth Youth Football Club was formed in the
late 70's by Doug Dilley. The club initially started with just an U12
team, and approx. 12 players, but after some advertising the club began to grow and
quickly had teams at U9 and U10 for that coming season. The football club has rapidly
expanded since those early days to be the established club it is today, with squads from
U6 through to U18. The club emblem is the face of a cat, and each age group adopt the name
of a big cat (Lion, Tiger, Puma etc.) as a nickname which they maintain through each
season.
The U8's through to U10's all partake in 'mini-football', whilst the older squads all play 11-a-side football. The football club now has in excess of 150 registered players and has begun to enjoy some regular success through the various teams.
Through some hard work by the committee members, the club attained the FA's 'Charter Standard' award in 2004 and is one of only a handful of local clubs to hold this coveted award. In the summer of 2006 everybody working at the club was justifiably proud to discover that Knebworth Youth F.C. was awarded the 'Charter Standard Club of the Year' by the Hertfordshire Football Association for the 2005-2006 season. This achievement was matched for a second time in three years when Chairman James Borrie was presented with the same award for 'Club of the Year' at the end of the 2007-2008 season after another year of continued effort behind the scenes by the committee and a great season on the pitch. Credit also to club secretary Richard Thom has been very instrumental in the club receiving this recognition twice in three years.
Recent Successes
2002-2003
The Wildcats
(U7's) under Kevin Rees triumphed in the Royston Crow League Cup final against Letchworth
Garden City Eagles, and in the same season Steve Cox's
Leopards
(U8's) also picked up the Royston Crow League Cup for their age group.
The Jaguars (U11's) enjoyed their inaugural
year as an 11-a-side outfit and, under the guiding influence of both Dave Eaton and Bob
Taylor, they also went on to pick up their respective League Cup in the Royston Crow to
complete a fantastic season for Knebworth Youth.
2003-2004
The club added to the successes in the 2003-2004
season, as the teams continued to grow and improve at all levels. In an attempt to prove
they were no one-hit wonders, Kevin Rees'
Wildcats
(now U8's) had another monumental year with the 'A' team going unbeaten throughout the
season and retaining the Royston Crow League Cup on penalties in a nail-biting final
against Letchworth Blues. Not to be over-shadowed by the younger teams,
The Pumas (U13's) were providing some magical
moments for coaches Trevor Blake and Ian Mulcahy as they went on to pick up the
league title and promotion to the top division of the Royston Crow.
2004-2005
The first piece of silverware was captured by Phil Kirkby's
Panthers
(U11's) who were crowned Royston Crow Division Two Champions on Sunday 20th March. A
fantastic achievement in their first season as an 11-a-side team. And another great effort
by Steve Cox's Leopards (U10's) saw
them lead the 'A' Division of the Royston Crow League after winning their final game of
the season. But after a long wait for the final game to conclude, they were pipped by a
single point to finish in a respectable Runners-Up spot.
2005-2006
This
season saw plenty of great efforts from the various Knebworth Youth teams but once again
it was Kevin Rees'
Wildcats
that led the way, with the 'Black' team winning the U10 'A' Division of the Royston Crow
League by an impressive margin. The 'Gold' team almost completed the double in the U10 'B'
Division, only to miss out by two points after a fine season.
The mini-football teams enhanced the growing reputation of the club during the summer of 2006 at various tournaments. The Wildcats went very close to winning the 'Diamond Cup', a prestigious tournament with 60 participating teams from all over the UK, but went out on penalties in the semi-final. The following day they made it to the final of the Royston Crow League Cup Final but once again they were thwarted by penalties. In their first-ever tournament, Steve Cook's Cheetahs (U6's) brought home an impressive cup after winning the Panshanger U6 Tournament on 27th May 2006 after a dramatic penalty shoot-out with Letchworth Garden City Eagles and the following week the Cougars (U9's), also coached by Steve Cook, triumphed in the Fairlands Youth tournament with a fine 2-1 victory over a tough Broadhall Youth team. They were also runners-up in the Knebworth tournament a few weeks later after a narrow 1-0 defeat in the final by Buckhurst Hill.
2006-2007
The season had not even started when
the first titles were won, as the U11
Wildcats
and U13
Panthers both
entered teams into the Luton Town F.C. 11-a-side tournament in early September.
Both triumphed in their respective finals to make it a double celebration
for Knebworth Youth. Another great season for the U11
Wildcats
saw them
lift the Royston Crow U11 League Cup as well as finish the season as Division
One runners-up and in one of the biggest and most competitive tournaments in the
UK (the 'Diamonds Cup' at Rushden & Diamonds) the club sent teams to contest the
U10, U11 and U12 competitions over the 5th/6th May and ended up with one team in
the Quarter-finals (U10 Cougars) and two beaten
finalists (U11
Wildcats
and U12 Leopards) - not bad
for a village team!
In fact the Wildcats had a terrific summer capturing the champions trophies at Luton Town (Hatters Cup), the West Ham United Charity Tournament at Upton Park, the St Albans City Youth Tournament and the Bedford Park Rangers event all within the space of three weeks! They further went on to lift the winners cup at Bishop's Stortford, Letchworth and in their most-successful summer yet they also won the Biggleswade United tournament. Meanwhile the U7 Cheetahs were runners-up in their age group contesting the Norfolk Cup at North Walsham over the two days of the Whitsun weekend where they faced teams from Kent, Sheffield and Chesterfield as well as some local Norfolk clubs. Two weeks later they lifted the Hatfield Youth 'Open' at U7 age group to add another title to their growing list and also finished as runners-up in the strongly contested Letchworth Tournament in July. Also lifting their first title this summer were the U8 Bobcats, who went unbeaten through the day as they lifted the 'Fairlands Youth' title after a dramatic final penalty shootout against Sawbridgeworth Juniors.
And on what was the last day of the season the U13 Panthers finished how they had started the year, with a tournament victory - this time in the Shefford Saints 9-a-side tournament held in July.
2007-2008
In their first pre-season event of the year, Steve Cook's U8
Cheetahs travelled across to Chigwell in Essex in August and played some
excellent football to lift the Tottenham Hotspur Challenge Cup. And, in what was
a fantastic day for the club, Phil Wheeler's U9 Bobcats
made it a double celebration after they remained unbeaten all day to lift the U9
Challenge Cup at the same event. The 11-a-side teams had a fantastic season,
arguably one of our best ever with the U12
Wildcats in contention for the
Division One title for a long while before finishing as runners-up. They also
made it to the semi-finals of the County Cup and in a repeat of last season they
clinched the League Cup after coming from behind to beat Letchworth Eagles by
2-1. The U16 Jaguars also had a
fantastic season and topped the Division One table for a while before also
finishing as runners-up in a very competitive league. The U14
Panthers had their best-ever
season, making it to the semi-final of the County Cup and then beating
Biggleswade United by 2-1 to clinch the League Cup on a memorable day for the
boys. And after winning their last four league games they finished as
joint-champions with Pin Green Juniors in Division One. During the summer the
U14 Panthers entered two teams
into the Hatfield Youth 'Open' tournament and they met each other in the final
to bring home the winners and the runners-up medals. At the end of June the U8
Cheetahs took two teams to the
Sandy 5-a-side tournament and they progressed to meet each other in the semi-finals. The
'Yellows' team finally emerged victorious and then beat Bedford Panthers 3-0 in
the final to take the silverware home to Hertfordshire. To round off a
successful season the Cheetahs
then went on to lift the Knebworth Youth U8 trophy in July to become the
first-ever Knebworth Youth side to win on home soil in our own competition since
it started back in the mid 90's.
2008-2009
In their first tournament as an
Under 9 team, the Cheetahs
travelled to Chigwell for the second year running to contest the Hotspur Junior
U9 Cup which they had won previously as under 8's. In a much-expanded
competition with 22 teams taking part, they once again triumphed and only
conceded a single goal all day as they survived two tense penalty shoot-outs
to make it to the final where they won by 1-0 against Tuddenham Youth from
Suffolk. They played some exceptional football along the way to this title.
Structure
Knebworth Youth is run by a committee of volunteers
(Chairman, Vice Chairmen, Secretary, Fixtures Secretary, Treasurer etc.) and, along with
the individual Team managers, they meet once a month to discuss club affairs. There is
also an AGM held in the summer.
Affiliation
The club is affiliated to the Herts FA and each age group,
from U8's, are entered into the
Royston Crow Youth
Football League. The U6's and U7's form the clubs academy and they train on Saturday
mornings, whilst the U8's and U9's play friendly fixtures on Saturday mornings as
scheduled by the Royston Crow League. The U10's play on Sunday mornings, which is when all
clubs first compete for points and league positions.
The U11's up to U18's migrate from mini-football to 11-a-side football, and additionally compete in the Herts FA County Cup as well as the Royston Crow League Cup. These teams also have the option to compete in the East Anglia Cup.