Category: Uncategorized

Towards the end of 2020, VPFC announced a competition, challenging all our players to create a new design for our kit. It turns out not only do we have plenty of talent on the fields each weekend but there is equally heaps of creative flair amongst our members when they have a pen and paper to go wild with their imaginations.

The club received over 20 designs submitted to the competition which closed in early 2021 and there was a brilliant array of different styles and design options for the judges to review which made it a tough call from the committee

Like all good matches, there’s only one winner and we were delighted to announce the winning design came from the fair hands of Zach Veal from Year 3, with a design inspired by the St Albans Cross. The committee really liked the clear reference and connection to our home base in St Albans and the way the design flowed through and connected all parts of the kit.
Many congratulations to Zach!

Former VPFC coach Stu Wilson took Zach’s drawing and created a graphic designed interpretation of the design which was shared with the clothing manufacturers to life and we’re really pleased that the final kit has arrived and we’re able to show it off.

Perfect opportunity to do that came in the form of some friendlies for Year 2 and Year 5 teams. Don’t they look great!

VPFC wants to say a big well done to all the players for all their efforts in and around what has been more than an unusual football season and an equally big thank you to all our coaches, Duke of Edinburgh students who support the training sessions each week, the exec team and all those behind the scenes who’ve worked hard to ensure the season was another great one.

We’ve seen some brilliant play and enthusiasm working within the ever changing lockdown restrictions and we’ve added the necessary safeguard measures to ensure play could continue for as much of the year as possible. Therefore the club is super proud of how much each and every player has developed in the past year and we closed the season with a number of trophy and medal presentations to congratulate one and all.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We hope you all have a great Summer, keep practising those skills and look forward to welcoming everyone to the new season in September 2021.

Official club photographer joins the VPFC Exec team

• 

A big and warm ‘Welcome’ to James Marson who joins the VPFC team as our first official club photographer. James’ role is to visually capture all the exciting and wonderful happenings at the club from the weekend training sessions to the friendly tournaments to the new developments within the club season after season. James is often on the side lines too watching his son, Sam play, but you can expect to see him with his official photographer bib on, roaming around each of our locations to capture the brilliant football skills, the coaches hard at work, the team sport and above all, the fun enjoyed from our VPFC weekly sessions across all of the club members – young and old!

As our Year 6 football stars almost come to the close of their season and football journey with VPFC, they recently took up the challenge of a friendly tournament to celebrate all those techniques and goal scoring prowess they’ve developed over their formative years with our club.

• 

• 

• 

There were three VPFC teams – VPFC City coached by Ralph Fernando, VPFC Saints coached by Andy Roughton and VPFC Rovers coached by Dave Buckley – and to complete the line up , a visiting team from Harvesters FC coached by Pearse Broderick for a morning of play in the June sunshine. Great fun and team spirit was had by all including fantastic support from families and friends of all the players, spectating with huge encouragement from the sidelines.

• 

Head coach Tim Pointer commented on the tournament, “Having coached this group for six years, it was wonderful to organise ‘Le Tournoi’ for them as their time with VPFC draws to a close; and to see our girls and boys apply themselves to these matches with skill and purpose.”

• 

All four teams played their three round-robin group games, with Harvesters FC and VPFC Saints then progressing through to the Final as the top two teams. In the final, Akeem scored for VPFC Saints in the first half, with Harvesters FC equalising in the second half.

So then it was onto the usual nail biting penalties just like those fine games in the Euros this Summer. Harvesters took the tournament with a 3-2 win – a dramatic end to a fantastic event staged in some glorious Summer sunshine and much fun was had by all.

• 

• 

The winning team of the ‘Le Tournoi’ tournament was proudly crowned as Harvesters FC with a prize giving ceremony as well as key prizes for star players on the pitch.

In true good sport VPFC would like to congratulate Harvesters FC on their win and a huge thanks to everyone for some great play and spirit on the field.

• 

• 

The club would like to give special thanks to our coaches of Year 6 – head coach Tim Pointer, Andy Roughton, Ralph Fernando alongside Dave Buckley, a former VPFC coach from previous years who came to lead one of the teams and another returner in Craig Learoyd who rejoined as a referee and our Duke of Edinburgh Award student, Erin who all made the day so special.

• 

Dedicated Storage facilities at the Normandy Road site          

We’re delighted to announce the official unveiling of our enhanced facilities at our third training location on Normandy Road. The site now has a dedicated storage unit to house our training equipment and high-quality metal-framed goals permanently located on site. The new facilities were recently officially opened by our club chairman Gordon Baisley and one of our head coaches Tim Pointer. Also in attendance was District and County councillor, Roma Mills who was instrumental in getting support from Hertfordshire County Council.

Not only is this an enormous help to our volunteer coaches as part of our Saturday morning training sessions but it is also a great example of the community spirit at the heart of our football club, as this was only made possible in collaboration with local primary school Aboyne Lodge, who kindly allow VPFC to use their facilities each weekend. In addition, the club received the generous and much appreciated support and contributions of the Football Foundation (which comprises The Football Association, Premier League and the Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), Hertfordshire County Council and The 948 Sports Foundation.

We look forward to club members enjoying the Normandy Road site for years to come.

VPFC have started a weekly collection for the St Albans District Foodbank.

Massive thanks to everyone that has brought along donations already.

The St Albans District Foodbank runs 5 distribution centres across the district demonstrating that there is many locally experiencing food poverty. As a community club we’re keen to keep trying to contribute.

We hope it will become part of the routine, for members who are able, to add a can or packet to the children’s drink and snack bags on the mornings of our training.

We also invite others in the local community to drop off donations with us from 9:30-11:00 on Saturday mornings, during term time, at Victoria Playing Fields and The Brickie. We’ll make sure they are delivered to the foodbank warehouse.

VPFC go support St Albans City FC

• 

• 

• 

• 

As St Albans City FC faced Bath at their home ground this weekend, some of our VPFC players formed the Guard of Honour to welcome the players onto the pitch. At half time the young players were also given the chance to put their skills to the test in front of the local crowds, taking penalties in front of the main stand. Despite the result for 1-0 defeat for SAFC, it was a great match day outing for the club – the first of the 2019/2020 season. Great feedback from our members and clearly appreciated by SAFC too with a shout out on their Twitter following the game on Saturday 19th October. 

Look out for the next VPFC club outing scheduled for 23rd November where St Albans City FC has their FA Trophy 3rd Round game – you’ll find more info on the game and tickets on our Pitchero app NB: Tickets must be booked by 14th November so don’t delay to join the local match day fun!

VPFC were out in force for a tournament at Panshanger last weekend. Teams were fielded from the U6s and U7s groups with some great results. Despite the beautiful English ‘typical’ Summertime weather, the team spirit was not dampened and there were more medals for the cabinet cupboards at home for our younger boys! Well done all and another big thanks to our coaches for all their hard work to encourage the teams to do their best and most importantly of all for our club, to have lots of football fun.

VPFC is delighted to announce that this week we were awarded the Mayor’s Inclusive Communities Award 2019. A few big thank you’s (just like in the big Oscar speeches) to all those who nominated the club to the judges, everyone who volunteers their time each week to coach and last by no means least to all our players – all of which make the club as great as it is and so now it’s great to get this recognition in the Mayor’s Pride Awards 2019. Whoop whoop!

True to VPFC’s team spirit and sportsmanship, our Year 4 team braved the wet, cold and windy weather to enjoy two friendlies played simultaneously against Harpenden Colts over at Roundwood School in Harpenden. Not only did 16 young players play an excellent game, their parents gave a huge cheer from the sidelines despite the less than desirable spectator conditions. Big thanks once again to our coaches for setting up another fine friendly