I went to the match as my son got some tickets from his school and he really wanted to go. It was an amazing atmosphere and crowd, yes the football is not the same standard as the Premier League but it was still entertaining to watch. It was such a great achievement and no doubt inspired many of the kids who were there. My son really enjoyed it and seems to have made him love football more.
People who moan about the "standard" don't understand football. It is not about the quality of the game! I'd suggest going to watch a set of junior fixtures. Watch an U10's team all chase the ball like pigeons at feeding time - it's about enjoying the game and I promise you people get as irate, delighted and passionate, screaming at the ref's, shouting instructions at a 9 y/o who's picking daisy's or doing cartwheels and celebrating goals while watching the little league teams as they do an EPL game. Great stuff for the girls team considering they are in, what, the 3rd/4th division of the national game to get 22,000 people there! Women's football is not men's football, never will be so stop comparing the two... It's like complaining about the standard of football in the pub leagues, it is what it is, people play and support it for the love of the game and it is everyone's game!
I coach u9's and agree with this totally. Understand why people do it but its frustrating as hell trying to tell the kids to listen to us rather than their parents. Then having to explain why we can only play 1 kid at a time as a striker and all the kids need to learn different positions to the parents
Coaching kids is amazing and so rewarding but the parents are the only draw back to it! I've been with my group from U10's going into U15's next season and got the parents acting right now. Do you ever do silent weekends? Really really recommended! Helps the parents understand why their screaming instructions is not helpful to the players and is really good for encouraging the players to get use to doing the talking on the pitch.
Silent weekends are amazing! Was a big push for it in 2019 and 2020 but we do it every year in surrey, works so well and the players love it: https://www.northumberlandgazette.c...ll-as-kids-call-time-on-noisy-parents-1995594
