It was a busy weekend with lots of learning opportunities for everyone involved at The New Saints Academy, writes Jason Brindley.

Over the weekend, a number of our coaching team attended the FAW National Coaches Conference. This year, due to the pandemic, it was hosted and presented virtually, with coaches from all around the world attending from the comfort of their home. 

The variety of content was superb, informative and thought-provoking. The way it was presented was great and I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from the staff that attended. It was also great for our Academy and Football Club to be a part of the Conference itself, with our Head of Coaching, Chris Seargeant, delivering a session on skill acquisition to our Under 11s.

It was great to have the club considered and, if you look at the club’s the other deliverers are at, it shows that our club and Academy is well thought of. 

In terms of actual football played, we were happy to have the opportunity over the weekend to play three CAT1 English Academies with our Development Phase age groups.

We travelled to face Wolves, hosted Stoke City, and travelled on Sunday to play Liverpool, which were three excellent opportunities and experiences for our Young Saints.

You really see where you are at when you face players and teams of that calibre. All our players have aspirations and rightfully so. To have that challenge and come up against the best players can only help develop yourself further. 

It’s great that we are able to provide our players with these opportunities on a frequent basis. The fact that they are always good games means that we can further develop relationships with these clubs, and provide our players with these amazing experiences.

We thank all three clubs for the games and look forward to further games in the near future. 

The coming week is also action-packed with football for our youngsters, as we face NFA, Llandudno, Solihull Moors, Connah’s Quay Nomads, Airbus UK, Brookhouse College, Fowler Academy and Liverpool once more. What a week ahead it’s going to be. 

As we conclude, it’s been a really positive week with lots of learning. It’s important that we as coaches continue to learn and develop ourselves, such will only help us support our players further.