Developments On And Off The Field At Bacup
Wed 30th September 2009 | Bacup Borough | By Ian Templeman
A series of developments at Bacup Borough over the summer have already begun to bear fruit, with the team making a good start to the season both on and off the field.
The most significant move made on the playing side was the appointment of former Bury, Manchester City and Port Vale defender Andy Hill (pictured left) as the Head of Player Development at the club.
Andy has been running his own Academy, Pro-Vision North West, for a couple of years, which is a "second chance Academy" that nurtures and provides opportunities to young players between the age of 14-18 who in the main have been released by professional clubs.
Andy approached Bacup manager Brent Peters with a view to forming a link between Provision and the club, and as Andy explained, initial discussions subsequently led to him joining Brent's managerial team.
"Provision have an A team and a B team and we were looking for a facility where we could play the A team games, so that's where my initial approach to Brent began. From there we agreed that there was a niche in the market that perhaps Provision was missing out on. We had been working predominantly with 14-18 year olds, and we saw that we could provide opportunities for 18 years old and upwards by establishing a link up between Bacup Borough and Provision.
"The idea is that we produce a conveyor belt of players who are ready to play in the Bacup Borough first team, and already one player, Arron Spencer, has played a few games. The link up means we can give players a platform to perform and give them a chance to get spotted by professional clubs and move on."
"About 90% of the players I work with have been released from a professional club at some point, whether it's from an academy or youth set up. We are a second chance academy, and we get across to them that they are better with us learning their trade.Â
"When they come to Bacup we nurture them to the point where we are ready and they are ready to get a second chance in our team. It's not as intense an environment as it is at a professional club, although we do give professional coaching, but there's not as much demanded of players as there is at a professional club and they seem to accept that a bit better."
Cynics might say that the club are setting themselves up for players to use them as a stepping stone and not show much loyalty, but that is a suggestion that manager Brent Peters (pictured left) vigorously disputes.
"I don't see it as an issue at all", he said. "We are bringing young players on, giving them the opportunity to experience an adult environment and an adult changing room. They are coming out of a mindset where they are told to focus on their technique and now it's all about winning and getting results.
"This is the way I see Bacup Borough moving forward, with the club becoming a development club. Our link with Pro-Vision means we will get the benefit of a continued flow of good young talent coming through from that source, along with attracting good young players at the age of 18-21 who have been released from professional clubs.
"Young players who have been at a professional club have been in situations where people maybe stand off them a bit and let them develop their skills and let them play. But in a non-league environment, they are working with a manager who wants to win at all costs, and they need a different approach and temperament, and they see how things are approached.
"In development, people do talk to them about their game, but it's different to sitting in a dressing room after a game and having a manager doing a post match debrief about the 90 minutes they just played in."
Andy agrees. "It's the next stage of their personal as well as professional development. They are in a men's environment where it's win at all costs, and that is never an issue in a development programme.Â
"I actually think it will give players more commitment to the club. You see non contract players being offered £10 a game more to go down the road and play somewhere else and they will go. These players that we are bringing will hopefully see the bigger picture, see the benefits that are available to them at Bacup, and I think that will make them stay more loyal to the club than many non contract players would be.
"IÂ think with the amount of foreign talent coming into this country and clubs putting a lot of investment into foreign players, I feel that young English players are being pushed down the levels a bit and that in turn means that the standard of player at this level now is very good.Â
"That's why Provision got involved with Bacup Borough, if these players are getting released from academies at 18-19 years old we can bring them here and give them another platform to show their skills.
"Non-league football is a decent option for these players but they need to be careful that they go to the right club. If they are convinced that the club will help to develop them and try to get them moved on then that's fine, but if they are not careful they will go out and get a job, get distracted and end up just moving around from one non-league club to another."
Looking back at the season so far, both Brent and Andy are happy with the way the team has performed, although Brent says that his concerns at the end of last season about losing some key players over the summer have largely not materialised.
"When my assistant last season Loz Greenhalgh went to Trafford in the summer I was worried that a number of players would want to follow Loz, because it was Loz who had brought them here from FC United in the first place", explained Brent.
"But I pinpointed the players I wanted and with the exception of Tommy Turner, who as we know has gone to New Mills, I was pleased that they all stayed and committed their futures to Bacup Borough.
"In addition to that, as well as the players who have come in through the Provision link up, Andy and me have also brought in a few other players who were recommended to us from elsewhere.
"We had difficulty pre-season with some of our key pre-season games being postponed. There are clubs who play loads of pre-season games to have a look at trialists, but when we came to play what we considered to be our serious pre-season game they were called off because of the weather at the end of July.
"So that meant that with new players in defence especially, we had a few teething problems.  We conceded a late goal at home to Atherton LR in the FA Cup that earned them the replay, and then we made another mistake in extra time at Atherton and got punished.
"In the Ramsbottom game when they beat us at home, again there were individual mistakes in the back four that I wasn't happy about and got punished.
"At New Mills we played well in the first half, almost as well as we played at Squires Gate when we won 6-1, but the different was at New Mills we couldn't finish, and lo and behold Tommy Turner pops up with two goals against us in the second half.
"But now, although we are not the finished product, we are not far off from where I want us to be.  We've got Tommy Allen back in goal, we've got our skipper Davey Luker back now after he was injured in the first game of the season against Squires Gate, and if you look at our form in terms of results I am fairly pleased. I think we are steadily going in the right direction, but there is room for improvement yet."
For Andy, after a career in the professional game with more than 400 league appearances, non-league football has been a new experience but he says he has been pleasantly surprised so far at what he has seen.
"I have been very impressed with the standard and the ability of players in the league. Without getting carried away, here at Bacup we have players who I believe have the ability to play in the Football League. They need a lot of work doing on them, but the likes of Warren Collier, Davey Luker and Martin Cosgrove definitely have the ability to play at a higher level.
"From a team point of view, I think we need to improve our consistency. Overall I'm fairly happy with how we are doing but my main concern is that we have gone from some very good performances to low key ones.Â
"A good example of that was going to Squires Gate and winning 6-1 in the league and then on the Saturday struggling to beat Holker in the Vase. That is something we need to eradicate and we will be working on that. If we can get that right, we have the makings of a successful side."
Off the field, the team can look forward to support from the younger members of the community, as a new junior membership scheme has been set up at the club.
Catering Executive Debra O'Connor (pictured left) explained:Â "In the summer we were discussing ways in which we could get more people into the ground, and we came up with the idea of a junior membership scheme for 4 to 11 year olds.
"Brent suggested we called it the Bacup Borough Bears Club and it all developed from there. Myself and Sarah Fitton, who is also on the committee, spent time leaflet dropping and contacting all the schools in Bacup, and we signed up more than 20 kids in the summer alone, and we are going to push it again soon. We are hoping that eventually we will have as many as 100 members.
"The kids get a goodie bag when they join, they get training sessions organised by Brent, free admission to home games, a birthday party hosted free of charge at the club, all for £5. Â
"We are looking at doing lots more things, such as organising trips for them, and the aim is to make the scheme into a proper children's club for all local children in the town."
Developments On And Off The Field At Bacup
Wed 30th September 2009 | Bacup Borough
By Ian Templeman
A series of developments at Bacup Borough over the summer have already begun to bear fruit, with the team making a good start to the season both on and off the field.
The most significant move made on the playing side was the appointment of former Bury, Manchester City and Port Vale defender Andy Hill (pictured left) as the Head of Player Development at the club.
Andy has been running his own Academy, Pro-Vision North West, for a couple of years, which is a "second chance Academy" that nurtures and provides opportunities to young players between the age of 14-18 who in the main have been released by professional clubs.
Andy approached Bacup manager Brent Peters with a view to forming a link between Provision and the club, and as Andy explained, initial discussions subsequently led to him joining Brent's managerial team.
"Provision have an A team and a B team and we were looking for a facility where we could play the A team games, so that's where my initial approach to Brent began. From there we agreed that there was a niche in the market that perhaps Provision was missing out on. We had been working predominantly with 14-18 year olds, and we saw that we could provide opportunities for 18 years old and upwards by establishing a link up between Bacup Borough and Provision.
"The idea is that we produce a conveyor belt of players who are ready to play in the Bacup Borough first team, and already one player, Arron Spencer, has played a few games. The link up means we can give players a platform to perform and give them a chance to get spotted by professional clubs and move on."
"About 90% of the players I work with have been released from a professional club at some point, whether it's from an academy or youth set up. We are a second chance academy, and we get across to them that they are better with us learning their trade.Â
"When they come to Bacup we nurture them to the point where we are ready and they are ready to get a second chance in our team. It's not as intense an environment as it is at a professional club, although we do give professional coaching, but there's not as much demanded of players as there is at a professional club and they seem to accept that a bit better."
Cynics might say that the club are setting themselves up for players to use them as a stepping stone and not show much loyalty, but that is a suggestion that manager Brent Peters (pictured left) vigorously disputes.
"I don't see it as an issue at all", he said. "We are bringing young players on, giving them the opportunity to experience an adult environment and an adult changing room. They are coming out of a mindset where they are told to focus on their technique and now it's all about winning and getting results.
"This is the way I see Bacup Borough moving forward, with the club becoming a development club. Our link with Pro-Vision means we will get the benefit of a continued flow of good young talent coming through from that source, along with attracting good young players at the age of 18-21 who have been released from professional clubs.
"Young players who have been at a professional club have been in situations where people maybe stand off them a bit and let them develop their skills and let them play. But in a non-league environment, they are working with a manager who wants to win at all costs, and they need a different approach and temperament, and they see how things are approached.
"In development, people do talk to them about their game, but it's different to sitting in a dressing room after a game and having a manager doing a post match debrief about the 90 minutes they just played in."
Andy agrees. "It's the next stage of their personal as well as professional development. They are in a men's environment where it's win at all costs, and that is never an issue in a development programme.Â
"I actually think it will give players more commitment to the club. You see non contract players being offered £10 a game more to go down the road and play somewhere else and they will go. These players that we are bringing will hopefully see the bigger picture, see the benefits that are available to them at Bacup, and I think that will make them stay more loyal to the club than many non contract players would be.
"IÂ think with the amount of foreign talent coming into this country and clubs putting a lot of investment into foreign players, I feel that young English players are being pushed down the levels a bit and that in turn means that the standard of player at this level now is very good.Â
"That's why Provision got involved with Bacup Borough, if these players are getting released from academies at 18-19 years old we can bring them here and give them another platform to show their skills.
"Non-league football is a decent option for these players but they need to be careful that they go to the right club. If they are convinced that the club will help to develop them and try to get them moved on then that's fine, but if they are not careful they will go out and get a job, get distracted and end up just moving around from one non-league club to another."
Looking back at the season so far, both Brent and Andy are happy with the way the team has performed, although Brent says that his concerns at the end of last season about losing some key players over the summer have largely not materialised.
"When my assistant last season Loz Greenhalgh went to Trafford in the summer I was worried that a number of players would want to follow Loz, because it was Loz who had brought them here from FC United in the first place", explained Brent.
"But I pinpointed the players I wanted and with the exception of Tommy Turner, who as we know has gone to New Mills, I was pleased that they all stayed and committed their futures to Bacup Borough.
"In addition to that, as well as the players who have come in through the Provision link up, Andy and me have also brought in a few other players who were recommended to us from elsewhere.
"We had difficulty pre-season with some of our key pre-season games being postponed. There are clubs who play loads of pre-season games to have a look at trialists, but when we came to play what we considered to be our serious pre-season game they were called off because of the weather at the end of July.
"So that meant that with new players in defence especially, we had a few teething problems.  We conceded a late goal at home to Atherton LR in the FA Cup that earned them the replay, and then we made another mistake in extra time at Atherton and got punished.
"In the Ramsbottom game when they beat us at home, again there were individual mistakes in the back four that I wasn't happy about and got punished.
"At New Mills we played well in the first half, almost as well as we played at Squires Gate when we won 6-1, but the different was at New Mills we couldn't finish, and lo and behold Tommy Turner pops up with two goals against us in the second half.
"But now, although we are not the finished product, we are not far off from where I want us to be.  We've got Tommy Allen back in goal, we've got our skipper Davey Luker back now after he was injured in the first game of the season against Squires Gate, and if you look at our form in terms of results I am fairly pleased. I think we are steadily going in the right direction, but there is room for improvement yet."
For Andy, after a career in the professional game with more than 400 league appearances, non-league football has been a new experience but he says he has been pleasantly surprised so far at what he has seen.
"I have been very impressed with the standard and the ability of players in the league. Without getting carried away, here at Bacup we have players who I believe have the ability to play in the Football League. They need a lot of work doing on them, but the likes of Warren Collier, Davey Luker and Martin Cosgrove definitely have the ability to play at a higher level.
"From a team point of view, I think we need to improve our consistency. Overall I'm fairly happy with how we are doing but my main concern is that we have gone from some very good performances to low key ones.Â
"A good example of that was going to Squires Gate and winning 6-1 in the league and then on the Saturday struggling to beat Holker in the Vase. That is something we need to eradicate and we will be working on that. If we can get that right, we have the makings of a successful side."
Off the field, the team can look forward to support from the younger members of the community, as a new junior membership scheme has been set up at the club.
Catering Executive Debra O'Connor (pictured left) explained:Â "In the summer we were discussing ways in which we could get more people into the ground, and we came up with the idea of a junior membership scheme for 4 to 11 year olds.
"Brent suggested we called it the Bacup Borough Bears Club and it all developed from there. Myself and Sarah Fitton, who is also on the committee, spent time leaflet dropping and contacting all the schools in Bacup, and we signed up more than 20 kids in the summer alone, and we are going to push it again soon. We are hoping that eventually we will have as many as 100 members.
"The kids get a goodie bag when they join, they get training sessions organised by Brent, free admission to home games, a birthday party hosted free of charge at the club, all for £5. Â
"We are looking at doing lots more things, such as organising trips for them, and the aim is to make the scheme into a proper children's club for all local children in the town."
