With their end of season club awards

Old Meads signed off their first season in the Southern Amateur League with their end of season club awards last weekend. The fourth team picked up team of the year having gained promotion by securing second place in Junior Division 3 South. 

The full list of winners were:

Player of the Year 

1st team - Xav Mackney
2nd team - Will Chadwick 
3rd team - James Clemens
4th team - Dom Stables
5th team - Colin Kaljee
6th team - Danish Ali Syed
7th team - Lawrie Pointer
Sat Vets - Noel Pollock

Club Awards

Golden Boot - Danish Ali Syed (22 goals)
Golden Glove - Tim Castle 
Young Player of the Year - Muzamel Ghafiri
Clubman of the Year - Rob Tanner 
Team of the Year - 4th team

Off the pitch the club continued to thrive growing both its playing and non playing membership this season. 

In February the club hosted the second in its “Time to Talk” series with legendary BB5 5 Live commentator John Murray as guest speaker. The series is part of a larger club initiative called The Ok Project which aims to support its membership from a mental health perspective.

John shared his unique insight into the sport we love and talked about the importance of mental health.

The club finally opened its new changing rooms on Riverside Lands after a lengthy delay due to having to wait for the Thames Water connection to be made. They now have six new changing rooms with showers plus separate toilets and two officials changing rooms:

They launched a Walking Football team at the start of the year aimed at the over 50s and for anyone who hasn’t played walking football it’s not the slow paced game you might imagine. If you think your playing days are over you should reconsider as it’s a decent workout, great fun and really good socially. Having spent many weeks training they played their first match beating the Brentford Emperor Penguins lead by ex professional Allan Cockram 5-1! Come on you Meads!

Meads will also be launching an adult Women’s football team this summer with the aim to attract players initially for training with a view to building a competitive team over the next year. If anyone is interested in getting involved to help run and organise an adult women’s team please get in touch with Chairman Ed Glover - ed@omfc.co.uk . The club has funding to launch a team but they are looking for a key person to help drive the initiative forward.

Now the season has finished, repair work on all the grass pitches begins. The club has been successful in obtaining a large grant fund to help improve the playing surface at Riverside Lands over the next five years. The club is also taking out an entire pitch for a season in order to create a new first team pitch closer to the changing rooms. The new pitch should set the standard in amateur football and will be ready in Sept 2024.

If you’re interested in playing for the most decorated amateur football club in London please visit our website - www.omfc.co.uk for further information.

June 9, 2023