It was good to enter February this past weekend with The New Saints FC Academy, writes Jason Brindley.

Before that, our U10s played against ProSoccer Hungary at Park Hall Stadium on Thursday evening. We have a good relationship with ProSoccer. They have some fantastic teams and are a joy to host and play against.

We got the players walking out of the tunnel before the game, to the applause of their parents, and you could see on both sets of players’ faces that they loved it.

It was a really good game, with both teams playing some great attacking, entertaining football. It was the first time some of our lads have played against foreign opposition, so it was a good experience for them as well.

We thank ProSoccer for again coming across to play us and look forward to games in the future.

On Saturday morning, we hosted Flint Town Academy with our U8-11 age groups. It was nice to see the sun shining down over Park Hall Stadium and the pitch full of youngsters enjoying the game, learning in the process.

Our Foundation Phase are coming on really well, and I think the level of detail in their technical programme is definitely starting to show. It’s not just the technical side but the decision making process in those moments too.

It’s good to have first team players involved as well, helping our aspiring youngsters. Both Simon Spender and Connor Roberts were helping with groups.

The games were very entertaining, with all teams playing with freedom. Good also to catch up with former TNS Academy coach, Danny Bell, who now heads up Flint Town Academy.

On Sunday morning, our U12/14/16s continued their FAW Academy Cup Super6 campaigns with tricky away games.

It was back to normal formats for our U12s and U14s, who have played Futsal over December and January. They had trips to Newtown and Airbus, while our U16s travelled over to play Connah’s Quay Nomads.

Our U12s had an early morning KO against Newtown at Latham Park. Newtown are always a good organised team that are hard to break down. They are always up for games and their work rate and togetherness is top draw. It was a really good fixture and challenge for the players.

Our U14s travelled to a windy Airfield, to play a good Airbus team. The boys took on info from training topics really well and some of our build-up play was fantastic to see.

Our U16s finished Super6 action for the weekend with a game against a very good Connah’s Quay team. Our U16s have put in some excellent performances over the past couple of months and have developed a real steel and grit to them. It was a really good contest and we thank Nomads for hosting us.

Our U13s travelled to Flint Town, playing at Holywell High on their 3G pitch. Our U13s are doing really well at the moment. They’re only a small group but they are strong socially, and are a real fun group.

They are starting to understand concepts of play  and positional understanding. It’s a joy to do question and answer sessions after games or contacts and hear their answers. They’re always extremely receptive and intelligent, with all players contributing.

To finish the weekend, our U15s hosted Port Vale Academy. We have a good relationship with Port Vale. They’re always tough, but even games, and this was no different. Both teams were looking to play the right way, doing the right things, and it was an extremely entertaining game.

It’s good to see how the new players have come into the group and adapted so quickly, fitting in really well.

As we conclude, it was a positive weekend full of football – exactly what weekends are for. There were some really entertaining fixtures, full of challenges and learning opportunities.

We look forward to a busy week ahead and to fixtures this weekend against Telford, Newtown, Connah’s Quay, and Cefn Druids.