The U18s have new Manager - "Fulham have announced the appointment of Kevin Keen as the Club’s new Head of Coaching and Under-18s Manager. The 47-year-old replaces Steve Wigley as Under-18s boss. Wigley left the Whites in May to join Nottingham Forest as assistant manager. Keen made 502 league appearances in a 20-year playing career. Born in Amersham, he began his career with Wycombe Wanderers before joining West Ham United in 1993. After 10 years with the Hammers, in which they tasted promotion twice, he moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers before spells at Stoke City and Macclesfield Town. During his time with the Silkmen he tasted managerial life for the first time during a spell as caretaker boss. After hanging up his boots, Keen rejoined West Ham’s academy as their Under-17s coach. He later had spells as reserve team coach and first team coach. He had brief stints as West Ham’s caretaker manager on three separate occasions following the departures of Alan Pardew in 2006, Alan Curbishley in 2008 and Avram Grant in 2011. In July 2011, he left Upton Park to join Liverpool as first team coach under Kenny Dalglish. He departed Anfield a year later to join West Bromwich Albion as joint-assistant head coach. He left the Baggies last December. Fulham Academy Director Huw Jennings said: "We’re delighted that Kevin is joining us in this key role as Head of Coaching and Under-18s Manager. Kevin brings with him a wealth of experience at academy and senior level and I’m certain he’ll help us to move forward from the solid foundations that we’ve built in the last five years."
Would have loved to have Steve Wigley stay, when I watched his training sessions at MP he brought so much out of the lads with his firm knowledge and fun approach, so different from the Dutch muppet we endured for so long.
Millwall 1 Fulham 4 (U18s) (Friendly) Our scorers were: Steve Humphries, Josh Walker x 2 and Elijah Adebayo.
AFC Wimbledon 2 Fulham 4 (U18s) (Friendly) No details as yet except that Stevie Humphrys was again on the score sheet with 2 goals.
FAB Academy 0 Fulham 3 (U18s ??) (Friendly) Again I hesitate to call this an U18 game and although a few of our recognised team did play so far as I can make out it was mainly younger members of our Academy. Aaron Redford scored twice but not sure who got the other. FAB Academy is a sport oriented college based in Marlow and would be 16/17 year olds playing for them. Next up for the ‘real’ U18s is a tour in Switzerland
The U18s off to the FC Aesch U19 tournament in Switzerland - please log in to view this image Weâve been drawn in Group B alongside Borussia Dortmund, FC Servette and Red Bull Salzburg. The Group A teams are; Juventus, PSV, Basle and FC Aesch.
The youngsters lost their opening game 2-0 to Salzburg; the first goal being a very disputed penalty. Next up Dortmund!
The lads won their third game 2-1 against FC Servette. That a lot of football in an afternoon. They obviously don't qualify for the knock-outs and play tomorrow for 5/6th position but got to be good experience for such a young and new (in the sense of playing together) team.
The team had an emphatic 5-0 win over FC Aesch in their final game. So that's 2 wins and 2 defeats in a tournament for U19s where nobody in our squad was over 17. Not too bad and the new boss, Kevin Keen, must be quite pleased. The youngsters can certainly be proud of their peformance - especially since there were dodgy penalty decisions in each of the games they narrowly lost. Next up is Japan.
Confirmation from the Club of the results in the Aesch tournament and the goal scorers: "Each match was an hour long with two halves of 30 minutes. The Whites lost their first game 2-0 to Salzburg, before going down to a 2-1 defeat to Dortmund. Tayo Edun scored Fulhamâs goal. Aaron Redford and Stevie Humphrys were then on target in their final group game as the Whites defeated Servette 2-0. In the Fifth/Sixth-Place Play-Off on Sunday, the Whites thumped hosts FC Aesch 5-0. Ravin Shamsi bagged a brace, with Josh Walker, Aaron Redford and Stevie Humphrys also finding the net. Fulham took home the Fair Play Trophy, while the tournament was won by Salzburg."
The U18's League fixtures have been published. The first match is on Saturday 23rd August against Brighton. Highlight time looks to be at the the end of October, beginning of November with some tasty derby games. Here is a link to the full list: http://www.fulhamfc.com/under-18s/2014_2015/fixtures
The U18s beat Marseille 2-1 in their Japanese tournament. This in fact was the second match but haven't been able to find out details of the earlier one. Hopefully the Club will get their act together sometime soon with an update!
The lads lost their next game 2-1 to FC Hiroshima. With one game to go, against another Japanese team, they are still in with a chance.
Still trying to catch up having lost my broadband for a week. Unfortunately the U18s suffered a rather heavy defeat in their final game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Pity after such a good start against Marseille - let's just assume that they got a tad leg weary. Anyway here's some of the youngsters warming up: please log in to view this image
Just out of interest, why are the words Starting Line Up written in English when everything else is in Japanese?
Fulham 0 Brighton 1 (U18s) The team was: Norman, Elworthy, Adebayo, Sheckleford, Edun, Nobay, Adeniran, Buffonge, De La Torre, Walker, Redford ”The Whites started brightly, with Aaron Redford blazing an early chance high and wide before Brighton took the lead in the 25th minute against the run of play. It was all Fulham after that. A sublime interchange between DJ Buffonge and Lucas De La Torre worked an opportunity for Redford who shot straight at the keeper. Dennis Adeniran then cut in from the right and saw his shot deflected wide, before Elijah Adebayo missed a decent chance after good work from Buffonge. One magnificent dribble by De La Torre saw him beating five players before seeing his shot come back off the post. Tayo Edun then fired wide after meeting a cross. In the second half, Buffonge saw an effort saved, Redford fired wide and Ryheem Sheckleford had a shot cleared off the line as Brighton somehow held on for the win.”