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Recovering Well Between Weekend Fixtures

Most players at a club like ES Raiders spend their week doing something other than football. There is a job to hold down, a commute to survive, maybe children to feed and a garden that refuses to look after itself.…

Coaching Set Pieces at Amateur Level

At the amateur level, matches are rarely decided by beautiful flowing football. They are decided by mistakes, by moments of quality, and — more often than most managers admit — by set pieces. Corners, free kicks and long throws account…

Life Between the Posts in Amateur Football

Every amateur squad has the same quiet drama at the start of a season: who is going in goal. It is the position nobody grows up dreaming of, the one that gets blamed loudest for defeats and thanked least for…

Holding a Squad Together Across a Long Season

Recruiting players for an amateur team is hard. Keeping them, week after week, from a bright August kick-off to a cold, muddy fixture in February, is much harder. Every grassroots manager knows the pattern: a full squad and a buzzing…