On Saturday 22 February, DSActive hosted the first Northern Regional Football Festival at the Etihad Campus in Manchester.
74 of players from 12 teams from as far as Newcastle, Cumbria and Nottingham came to the state-of-the-art arena for a fun day to showcase the strength of sessions running in the North. This gave the players a chance to see what they are a part of and provided an opportunity to practice goal celebrations!
As teams arrived, there was some very excited faces as they were getting the chance to see where Manchester City First Team, Women’s team and Academy train.
Teams were divided into three groups, with under 13’s having a chance to take part in a small sided game and do other activities. The teams started off warming up, some in well rehearsed drills and others in bigger groups, taking the opportunity to meet teams from other parts of the country.
After a briefing it was time to kick off, with teams playing six matches in groups with results not being counted. Whilst some teams kept track of their results, games ebbed and flowed in good humour and with great quality on show. Some huge saves were followed by some expertly taken goals, and with the celebrations of a couple of teams involving almost as much coordination and team work as the games themselves.
After the structured six matches had been completed, all teams played a last friendly against a team of similar ability and the day drew to a close. All players were then called up to receive a celebratory pair of #LotsofSocks to thank them for their participation. There was a huge rounds of applause from coaches, parents and other teams alike.
A big thank you from us to all coaches and volunteers who helped run the pitches and did a brilliant job refereeing and making sure teams were in the right place. A big thank you also to coaches for bringing their teams, the players for making their clubs proud and for Manchester City for providing such a brilliant facility.
If you would like to get involved with a DSActive session, a map of where they run around the UK can be found here.
National Festival will take place in Birmingham on June 14th 2020. If you would like to be involved please contact us at dsactive@downs-syndrome.org.uk or call us on 0333 1212 300
