As part of our enhanced coverage of the Aberdeen and District Juvenile Football Association, The Press and Journal is featuring some of our local teams.
This week we speak to Kintore United FC under-16s assistant coach Kevin Watt, who hopes his side will be battling it out at the top end of the table come the end of the ADJFA season.
Name: Kevin Watt
Position: Assistant coach
Team: Kintore United FC under-16s
League: Alba Gaskets ADJFA 16s League C
Home pitch: Midmill
Kit colours: Yellow
How has this season been so far?
It’s been pretty good. We were top of the league after four games, but other teams had games in hand. The main thing is, from last season, we’ve come on leaps and bounds.
We lost a couple boys in the summer, but gained two, so we’ve got a squad of 22 boys and they’ve all really kicked on. We had a change of coaches at the turn of the year, too.
I think even after four games this year, we’re about where we were with our points total from all of last season.
What are your hopes for this season?
We don’t see why we can’t be in the top two or three, but ideally we want to win this league. That would be a real achievement for the boys.
There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be up at the top end of the table come the end of the season if we can keep boys fit and interested in their football – they’re at an age now where they’ll have exams.
How did last season go?
We finished second-bottom of the league and were getting beat by quite heavy scorelines every week.
Last season, the team had some new players from different areas, that it was probably more about getting them gelling as a team.
We changed coaching staff at the turn of the year and now the boys have been together that wee bit longer, so things are looking brighter for us.
Tell us a bit about the players in your squad…
We’ve got a good mix. Some of the boys have been here a while, three or four of them got their five years’ service award at the awards night last season – my son included.
There are a couple who have come in this year, but the nucleus is the boys who have been here for a few years.
We’ve got a squad of 22 but can only take 16 on a matchday, but we say to them every week that there is always an opportunity there for them if they keep working hard.
How can we improve juvenile football to produce better young players?
It’s a tough question. I can only compare it to when I was growing up and the facilities and coaches from then to now are chalk and cheese.
But, what could be done to improve things is more investment. I believe in Iceland, a few years ago now, they had around 500 4G pitches, but in Scotland we had about 50.
So investment is needed, but is there any money to invest these days? It’s difficult.
This weekend’s reports will appear on the Press and Journal website at 5pm on Sunday.
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