Donation to Junior Football Club Helps Purchase Lifesaving Equipment
Matthiola Junior Football Club from Warrington, Cheshire, was set up in 1996 as a grassroots football team catering for players from 7 to 18 years of age. The club is located in the Penketh and Great Sankey area of Warrington. Teams play in the Warrington junior football league, which is one of the biggest leagues in the country – covering Runcorn to Irlam, Rainford to Wigan.
The club is FA chartered affiliated, and has a proud record of developing players, caring about kids welfare, and a little bit of silverware along the way. Matthew Pennington a player at Everton, and on loan at Ipswich Town is a former player of the club.
The club plays all its games at school or council pitches, and trains at Sankey hub on 4G pitches. The club is mostly funded through parent subscriptions, so corporate support is vital to making a difference to the kids’ lives.
Andy Foy (Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd Director) and Ian Bennet are the proud coaching team of the current Under 12’s team.
Sheet Piling (UK) Limited’s kind contribution has helped the club invest in new equipment for the club which started with the players parents and coaches raising £1,000 to buy new kit and trophies with the proceeds from a sponsored bike ride and awards presentation evening. These fundraising events lead to the club making the decision to use some of the monies to buy a defibrillator to have on hand at training sessions and all home and away games. The instances of cardio issues that impact young children and young adults deeply worried the teams coaches after a recent FA first aid update. The life expectancy without this equipment on hand is truly frightening, less than 10%. With a defibrillator on standby, the rate rises to around 72%. The club decided that it was vital to keep the kids safe whilst they play the game they love.
The fundraising and investment has continued with strong support from the Matthiola Junior Football Club players’ parents and coach Andy Foy, along with his friend, Ste Weeks, who recently completed a sponsored 10k fun run and a sponsored Half Marathon to help push the fundraising forwards. Team striker Ben, also completed a sponsored junior iron man competition. The club are now in a position where the team has match funded four other club teams in the area to purchase defibrillators, and we have been gifted a further three defibrillators.
In total the team have now raised in excess of £5,000 towards the purchase of this life saving equipment.
Off the pitch, the team has made a huge difference, helped in no small part by the Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd donation. Matthiola Junior Football Club have played that spirit forward, and rightly proud of their achievement. On the pitch, the team sit joint 2nd in the league with 8 points from 12 after two wins and two draws and have just beaten a team three leagues higher in a cup game.
The coaches and the under 12’s team are extremely grateful for the Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd donation and have invited the directors of the company to their next awards night in May 2019 as a personal thank-you. Hopefully the team will be showing off some well-earned silverware at the same time.
- Ends -NOTES TO EDITORS
Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is one of the UK's leading piling contractors. Owning and operating a comprehensive range of specialist piling equipment Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd also carry extensive stocks of new and used piles enabling rapid reaction to any urgent requirements or emergency situations.