Trust on board for EFL Day of Disabilities
ACCRINGTON Stanley Community Trust engaged with children as young as four and adults up to the age of 75 on Monday as part of the EFL Day of Disabilities.
The Trust has been working with local mainstream schools such as Peel Park Primary School as well as specialist schools such as Broadfield Specialist School carrying out specialist PE lessons for those that have special educational needs.
Jack Walsh (PE Coordinator at Peel Park) was full of praise for the initiative: “Accrington Stanley’s sessions have been amazing. Our Key Stage 2 children have increased in confidence, shown improved social skills as well as making a significant progress in their fundamental skills.
“This positive impact has been noticed throughout school life and this is a result of their enjoyment and participation in all the activities delivered by the Accrington Stanley coaches. The coaches have worked alongside our own staff and have showed enthusiasm throughout the sessions. The sessions are well planned and provide a structure for those children with extra needs, who sometimes struggle.”
It has also been a successful year for the Trust’s weekly adult disability football sessions that are held at Hyndburn Leisure Centre which has seen numbers increase rapidly over the last few months.
These sessions are open to all abilities and impairments, the aim of the session is to give people the opportunity to play football and socialise in a safe and fun environment.
With an increase in weekly adult sessions, the Trust is launching a new disability team in the new year that will play once a month against other North West clubs in the Lancashire FA Ability Counts League in Preston.
Head of Sport Lee Walsh said: “This will be our first ever disability football team and we can’t wait to get it started, it will provide a unique opportunity for people with disabilities to play semi-competitive football in a safe and fully inclusive environment. I know the players themselves can’t wait to get started.”
“This year we have shown more participants that having a disability isn’t a barrier to play sport’ said Sarah Hunt, Marketing and Communication Administrator.
“We are excited to launch the disability football team in the New Year and give the participants a chance to represent Accrington Stanley.”
For more information please visit www. stanleytrust.co.uk or call 01254 304071
VIEW FROM THE CLAYTON END
BIT of a mad one, that! I was enjoying the game so much up until it had to be abandoned, I thought it had everything.
Record crowd, cracking atmosphere behind the goals (one that could rival any the Clayton End has produced in its illustrious history), and an exciting game with not too much quality.
What more could you want?
One thing it also had was rain like I’ve never seen before during the second half. Truly incredible.
The amount of water that came down would have stopped any game in the League and I pity the away fans to have to stand in it all that time.
Hats off to Buzzer and his team for getting the game on at all. I feared when I saw the videos emerging online at about half past one.
We’ve been there before and put up with large amounts of angry away fans, the fact the pitch played excellently for an hour is testament to the hard work put in.
It would have been a sickener if McConville had put his chance in one minute following our goal.
Being 15 minutes away from a famous win only to have it snatched away by the weather would have been a new level of Stanley luck to add to a long list over the years.
That said, it was unplayable. The ball couldn’t really move, despite what we’d have enjoyed in the final minutes of the game.
My heart goes out to Connor Hall, who put in a great performance in the second period only to have his first Football League goal chalked out of the history books.
He deserves that goal and with Kee out of the picture he deserves to start on Saturday.
I think that him and Zanzala could offer fresh, unknown problems for sides. Let’s hope he gets that