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Rod Christopher, of Oakwood Owls, said: "We've managed to involve a number of different communities in our events too,most of which also turned out to be very positive link work for our groups.

"Our 11-14s & 15-17s groups have too been spending plenty of our time together on the multi use football pitch, playing small sided competetive matches in tiny areas. We have again been focussing our game on short passing into feet as quickly as possible, while using a maximum of only 4 or 5 touches."

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"Good stuff to observe as a coach & certainly very rewarding to see first hand, as these youths grow into young sporting adults while under my guidance. Really enjoyed the recent experiences, which has also been a great learning curve for me, as football fan in general , as a youth worker & as an FA qualified coach.

"Let's face it - at the end of the day, we all like to see others blossom under our very eyes. Trying to further improve them from your own personal experiences in sport. If youre lucky enough to be able to play even a small part in that development, then great stuff i say!"

He added: "Our groups ran a 'Let's Kick racism out of football' awareness week during October. Good stuff, that 12 of our youngsters will recieve a recognised accreditation for. They will soon all gain a 'Leeds Youth Award' certificate in recognition of their overall inputs to the project. It took us the best part of 4 months to plan, then actually deliver! In total there were 6 other youth football groups involved with us on the days. Boston Spa, Carr Manor YC, Ebor Gardens YC, Bangladeshi Centre & the David Young academy brought sides over & we all made plenty of new & interesting relationships at the 4 day festival of beautiful game''

"This was followed up with two 8-a-side match victories over Primrose High U17s. Carr bagged 5 in one of the games & Martin bagged a couple. Carr is a participant that i feel has come on absolute leaps & bounds over the past 2 years. His awareness & team work ethic is so much better more recently & it seems to be paying dividens both on & off the field'' Griffin has quickly matured too. A lot stronger into his defensive tackles. In fact the only real downside to our efforts came in losing a few of our older participants due to educational reasons ''We must always allow these boys to attend groups on their own terms & turn up only when they want to. We are not in a position to insist they attend & this is for me, is exactly how it should be. We are only supporting our participants in a youth work capacity here & this must be remembered at all times. We must also accept that education must always be on top of the agenda at such tender ages. Football & informal learning at our groups - i think, can only further improve that youngsters self confidence & their personal desire to achieve greater things in sport & while coming into adulthood. Football for me, is a perfect tool to aid a young persons lifeskills, but i'm more than happy to take a back seat in place of a better education at the end of it all''

"I know that better things will happen both on & off the pitch for a few of the lads that we are losing"

Look out for them over the coming years - Rodley, Temple, Coldwell & Owino have all dropped away over the last 6 months, but we will hear of them again, of this im certain. Our coach/participant relationship is that they also know that they are more than welcome at our sessions. So that will do for me!

Coldwell joined in on our anti racism events & Rodley turned up for our second match,a 10-0 win over Primrose High U17s, towards the end of December! Primrose beat us 4-2 in the first match, which quickly awoke our lads to the harsh realities of the task ahead, but there was no mistake in game two! That 8 man squad showed a genuine team spirit, in which everyone playing seemed to play to each others strengths ''The result was our groups biggest EVER win in U17s football, over our 4 years operating. Carr, Martin, Menchi & Rodley showed particular promise, but a genuine team effort is what won that second U17s game by such a massive margin''

The agreement with Primrose High U17s is that we will play them over a possible five 8 v 8 matches at our home base. We are competing each week for a 'champions trophy' & whichever squad wins it 3 times first, will get to keep it forever. And so currently the score stands at 1-1 in won matches,so watch this space to see how we get on over the coming few weeks! We will soon be working towards a few youth football tournaments too. So that should be good fun!

"Well done to all of the guys for an excellent group effort. Well worthwhile & fantastic attitudes & commitment all round!
Thanks also to roundhay today & the Leeds City council youth service for continually supporting our good work."