Under 12's - The History of the Squad

1998/1999 U8 - The Early Years

Several friendlies were arranged throughout the winter. Under the leadership of Paul McCune as manager with Paul Gibbons assisting, the squad made its first competitive appearances. Our first outing was at the Barham Boys Summer Tournament. Unfortunately we never progressed past the group stage but did snatch second place in the Penalty Shoot-out Competition. The team also competed at the South Cave Invitational Tournament. However with most of the squad away on holiday, we scraped a team together that included two 7-year olds, Michael Gibbons (in goal) and Daniel Daley (up front). Against all the odds we managed to get ourselves to the final. Unfortunately winning it was just beyond us and we were beaten 4-0 by Springhead. It is often the early days that provide the best memories and it was in this final, at 4-0 down that Michael and Daniel, our 2 young guests swapped positions. Unfortunately when Michael Gibbons received the ball, he lost his bearings, dribbled back towards his own goal, rounded their centre forward and crashed a shot against his own crossbar leaving Dan Daley in goal helpless and those on the sidelines
helpless with laughter!

1999/ 2000 U9 - The First Trophy

Our first full season of fixtures. The boys played in the Hull Sunday Boy's League Mini Soccer section. Games were organised every 2nd Sunday, usually playing 3 fixtures per day. No specific records were kept and the games were played on a friendly, non-competitive basis. Half way through the season also saw a change in the coaching set up. Paul Gibbons had to step down & Gary Mortimer accepted the offer to replace Paul. The squad also competed in several summer tournaments. A first trophy for the squad came in the South Cave Millennium Football tournament For more details click here. The boys also competed in 2 more tournaments: The Willerby & Westella tournament, losing out in the semi-final stage to Cottingham Rangers, and the Parkside Tournament in Goole. This time the 1/4 final was where our run ended against a side from Moorends.

2000/2001 U10 - Success repeated!!

Once again we played in the Hull Sunday Boy's League Mini Soccer section. This time it was a touch more competitive as league tables were published at both the mid season break and at the end. The squad also competed in several summer tournaments. We returned to South Cave to compete in the U10 tournament. Again triumphing in the final. We also returned to the Willerby & Westella tournament and once again came unstuck at the semi-final stage, this time to the hosts, Willerby Wanderers. The Elloughton Juniors Club also staged its first mini tournament at Ionians. We entered 2 teams but unfortunately for us it was Cottingham Rangers who took the spoils.

2001/2002 U11 - Big Boys Football!!

The team pose with sponsor Steve Domney of The Yorkshire Bed Company following their first competitive 11-a-side fixture

Our first season playing 11-a-side football and a change of colours! The orange kit had been relegated to the change colours and a brand new white & blue sponsored kit was the fashion. It started with a bang. We began with a pre-season fixture for the Red Hawk Trophy, beating Cottingham Rangers by 6 goals to 2 and followed that up with a second place at the Hessle Rangers Tournament. League wise, we found ourselves in the Drypool Division of the Hull Sunday Boy's League finally finishing in third place out of nine teams. Click here to view the full results & league table. In the cup we crashed out in  the second round, beaten by the eventual winners, Willerby Wanderers. Season end saw us visit both the Bridlington Town and Cottingham Rangers tournaments. Unfortunately success evaded us in both although the "Orange" team did win the Fair Play Award at Cottingham. Silver wear was once again added though, as we completed a hat-trick of victories at South Cave.

2002/2003 U12 - All change at the top!

Remembered as the season that promised so much then just faded away. The first big change was we moved. Leaving our spiritual home of Brantingham Park we shifted down the hill to Blackburn's Sports & Social Club. Pre-season gave us tear a good platform to work from  then we continued conquering all that crossed our path. The cracks started to show in early December when we narrowly lost in the 3rd Round of the cup at Cottingham Rangers. Little did we know that they would prove to be a major thorn in our side! Almost 2 months later we returned to Cottingham with our 100% record in the league to protect. Yet again we came away defeated. Once again by the same scoreline of 2 goals to 1 although this game will always go down in our history as the "Crampton's Law Match". Surely it was never a goal, was it? From there the season faded away. Despite the next two fixtures heralding a last minute victory at Springhead followed by our best performance ever. 16th March and Hutton Cranswick came to Blackies with their own 100% record. We took the lead, increased it, conceded, held on for grim death then killed them off at the last. What a day, what a game! Sadly that was it. A scrappy win at Hessle Sporting 'B', then a disastrous run of 4 defeats in our last 5 games. Among those defeats: Revenge for Cranswick, 2 maulings by East Ella Colts and a third loss to Cottingham. Our solitary win was a 10 man, Easter Sunday trip to Fairbank. Just 1 point in any of those game would have been enough to go up. As it was the last game defeat at East Ella meant they clinched promotion to the Myton League, pipping us by 3 points. Third place yet again. Click here to view the full results & league table. Summer came and our first ever Tournament hosted in conjunction with BAE SYSTEMS. Unfortunately we couldn't get out of the group stage. 1 win, 1 draw & 2 defeats sadly not enough. Seven days later and a return to South Cave hoping for 4-in-a-row. Again not to be missing out on a final place as we were pipped by East Riding Rangers & our hosts South Cave Tigers (+ guests!)

2 days later & the biggest change of all. Paul McCune announced his decision to retire as Team Manager. Paul needed to devote more time to his studies,  could not give the team the commitment required and decided to step down. With Gary Mortimer unable to step up from Assistant Manager due to his personal commitments, the search for a new manager began!