A round-up of the latest news from the Posh Futsal programme including league success!

Our first Goalkeeping Futsal session took place on Monday 9th January. We had six young and enthusiastic goalkeepers present, eager and ready to learn how to be a good Futsal goalkeeper. The session was taken by our Goalkeeping coach Jose Lima. Jose currently plays in the Futsal National League and has made appearances at international level for England.

He works with our goalkeepers to teach them Futsal specific goalkeeping techniques and different methods which they may use in 11-aside and how they can alter this to become more effective as a Futsal GK. The techniques that are Futsal specific are the block and the split save. These are the two saves you will make most often in a Futsal game.

The feedback from the boys who took part in the session was very good and positive. Most of them had never played Futsal before but are looking to join our scholarship or just looking to take part and try something different. These sessions will be taking place once a month, and there is still plenty of space for any player wanting an opportunity to get involved. The session is at no cost to any players participating. If this is of interest and you would like to participate in our goalkeeping training (under 15’s or 16’s) then please email Futsal@theposh.com to register interest and for further details.

In addition to our recent positive start to the GK coaching, our scholars have been performing well on the court. Posh B went into the final game week in 3rd place, needing Norwich and Cambridge to draw to have a chance of winning the league. Norwich scored early on to make it 1-0, but Cambridge equalised very late on in the game and the game ended as a draw, meaning Posh needed to win to seal the trophy.

The Posh took a 1-0 lead at the start of the first half, after Findley’s shot was rebounded and he finished second time around. Birmingham equalised shortly after and the half finished 1-1. Birmingham took the lead at the start of the second half but with five minutes to go Posh managed to find an equaliser through a Mureza rebound off the post!

With three minutes to go, Taylor secured Posh the league title after finishing in fine style from a corner set piece. This is the Posh’s first taste of league victory, and Assistant Manager Callum Avent was overwhelmed with the victory. “The boys thoroughly deserve the win today for the endless amounts of effort and energy that they put into all of their games, not just this close encounter. They deserve the triumph, and I’m 100% sure that we can get the same kind of success on the road to the nationals next year!”

Posh ‘C’ went into the final round of fixtures top of the table but the Development league is different where you play two or three times every game day with games just 20 minutes long and instead of three points for a win you can get between 300- 500 points for a win this is all determined by goals scored and conceded and of course the result. Posh ‘C’ knew going into the last round three wins out of three would give them the league title with games against Brighton ‘C’, Southampton ‘F’ and Cheltenham ‘C’.

The first game was against Brighton ‘C’, Posh started really well and took an early 2-0 lead Brighton then got back into the game and had a few chances Posh then scored two goals in two minutes which increased their lead to 4-0. Brighton then scored but Posh then scored two more goals to make it 6-1. A good performance and a good result.

Posh then took on Southampton ‘F’ who were 2nd in the league so this was a massive chance to effectively win the league if they tasted success. Posh again started positively and took an early lead through Powell, who finished nicely after a good positive run. The Saints then got back into the game after a deflected shot luckily found its way to the one of their players who tapped into an empty net. Then both teams had chances to win the game but neither team was able to take them. The game looked like it was heading towards a draw, but Posh won the ball in the Saints half and Taylor drove forward and won the game with eight seconds to go. Taylor, who scored the winning goal for the ‘B’ team to win their league, had basically won the league for the ‘C’ team and barring an extraordinary result in their last game they had just sealed the league.

In Posh’s last game they came up against Cheltenham ‘C’, knowing as long as they weren’t beaten heavily they would win the league. This time Posh didn’t start quickly and in fact Cheltenham started the brightest and took the lead after 39 seconds. Cheltenham had chances to increase their lead but wasted great opportunities. With five minutes left on the clock Posh then stepped it up and scored three goals in quick succession meaning Posh C had won the league title. Futsal Manager Michael Johnson said: “All the boys who have played for the C team in this season have been brilliant all season and deserved the league title, even when they didn’t play well they found out a way to still get points out of the game and this is a great sign of champions and that is what we are.”

Posh have now won two league titles already this season which is a tremendous achievement. Posh have had a great opening season but now need to push on and try and qualify for the nationals across all teams.

The Posh are currently recruiting for new scholars to join the club in September 2017, with recent successful open evenings and taster sessions that saw over 40 potential new scholars coming in to see what they would be doing on the course. There are more taster sessions coming in the New Year, with two dates announced being the following;

• Saturday 28th Jan 2017

• Saturday 25th Feb 2017

“We have seen a vast amount of applications come through over the past month, we will be interviewing applicants starting in February with Nene Park Academy therefore players will receive conditional offers shortly after their interviews. I have been very pleased with my existing group of scholars who in the opening season have managed to achieve two titles and topped the group stages in the EFL Cup,” Michael Johnson added.