Masters Grade.
Season Review..
Masters "Navy" Over 35s.
I would just like to start by thanking the lads for a very enjoyable and very successful season.
We managed to do the double, by winning the Robbies Masters Div 1 league (on the final day of the season) and the Robbies Masters Div 1 league cup.
Starting with quite a large and healthy squad at the start of the season, it was slowly reduced by injuries, holidays and man-flu!! But despite this we had very good strength in squad depth and still kept winning even when we had the bare eleven.
I would like to give a special thanks to Ren, Tony, Clive and Roy who helped me out a lot this year.
We are basically a bunch of mates who enjoy playing football and more importantly, enjoy the beer and post match analysis at Speights Ale House Ferrymead (who look after us very well).
Well done lads, roll on next season. GO THE BAYS.
Jason Devlin, Player/Manager, Ferrymead Bays Masters Navy.
Masters "Originals" Over 45s.
The Originals had a difficult season. We began with a squad of 13 with some new players on the team, but unfortunately that was never going to be enough.
Through the season we had a long list of injuries, some of them extended for key players. We were able [most of the time] to call on players from the other Bays masters teams who were generous in helping out. However for a lot of the games it meant that we were playing in a different team each week and consequently we often lacked cohesiveness.
In all we had 38 different players in the team. Some had ½ a game never to be seen again, others such as Shane and Paulo became great assets when they were available.
On 3 occasions we also needed a player or 2 from the opposition.
Having said all that and acknowledging some poor results we also at times worked hard on the pitch and played some good football. We took points off every team in the league with a highlight being a 2-0 win over the league winners Coastal Classics at the end of the season in one of the cup games. That result showed what we could achieve 11 committed players.
Other team highlights were a 9-0 win over Waimak Vikings after losing the first game against them 0-1 with 10 players and 2 hard fought draws against Nomads.
Individual highlights were Mick Braithwaite’s goalkeeping in the 2nd Nomads match where with increasing confidence he dealt with corner after corner, the return of Roger Turner out of ‘retirement’ for the last game and Ian Goodwin’s energy in lasting 90 minutes in the victory against Coastal.
The team played with a good spirit and humour and hope for more players and fewer injuries next year.
Mark Piercey..
Masters "Winnies" Over 35s
Four games into the season and only 1 win, it felt like it was all going horribly wrong.
After losing a couple of key players from the year before - most notably our former captain – and having no regular goalkeeper, we could be forgiven for believing we were in for a long, hard slog. However once we got the first win under our belt, along with a more settled squad, the only way was up.
Subsequently we lost only once in 12 games for the remainder of season and leading up to the cup final. We surprisingly had very few injuries to contend with, providing the management team with a ‘nice problem to have’ – that of a good weekly turnout with everyone keen and ready for as long a run-out as possible. A bit of positional tinkering and the deployment of the in-vogue 4-2-3-1 formation meant that we became very hard to beat, and the early losses were nothing but a distant memory.
Six new additions to the squad, complementing the ten or so of us left over from the previous season, not only added strength in depth to all areas of the team, but they also fitted in extremely well socially to what was already a friendly and likable group dynamic. This is my third season with Winnies, and it’s been the most enjoyable both on and off the pitch - and thanks to Winnie Bagoes providing free pizza and cheap beers, the post-match debates and endless analysis were always something to look forward to no matter what the result.
The only small blip on an otherwise enjoyable season was losing our 2nd cup final in three years to the same opposition - a record we will endeavour to correct next season
Special mentions go out to Stevie for taking on the keeping role with enthusiasm and to Marty for his deserved player of the year award, and of course to Gerry for organising the rabble and letting me bask in his reflected glory.
Paul White, Assistant Manager..
Masters Grades.
Ferrymead Bays FC run 5 Masters Teams.
Bays "Winnies".. Bays "Speights".. Bays "Navy"..are over 35s teams and currently play in the Mainland Masters Grade Leagues.. Division 1 & 2....
Bays "Originals" and Bays "Diggers" are both over 45s teams.
and currently play in the Mainland Masters Grade Leagues....
Bays "Originals" play in Masters Division 1
Bays "Diggers" play in Masters Division 2
