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Philippine United F.C. Manchester, win 14-0

Posted on November 20, 2012 | Categories : Archives | 0 Comment

Yes!!! that was the correct score line, in last Sunday’s game between PUFC Manchester and St.George.
As all you followers of PUFC know already, we started PUFC down in London, in 2009, and we were very successful, finishing runners-up the first year, and also won the Asian cup the following year too…

Leo Jensen is the founder of our club, and myself, the Head Coach, with Steve Conroy my assistant coach, and now we also have an edition to the physio side of things, Shaun Rycroft.

With the team being so far away in London, and all of us living up north, in Sheffield, and Manchester, every game was a 600 kilometre journey, so Leo decided that we should have a PUFC up north where we could run it a lot better etc, and less travel time too.

Once again Leo did his magic at getting us in a league very quickly, and I am glad to say that we are once again, at this present moment, the top of the “City-Central-league” Div 2.

As most people also know that we cannot field a team, full of Filipino players, because it is stated in the league’s rules and regulations, that every team has to have so many foreign players etc. etc….but the vast majority of our players are Filipinos.

I don’t want to signal out any individuals who stared in our emphatic win, last week, but I will give praise to the new boys, who came in and did a great job, and with it being such a landslide, it gave them the room and time to express themselves a little better.

Regarding the team, in general…I think we have great potential, just like we did in London, but the advantage being here, is that we can keep a closer eye on things, without too many problems.

We had a couple of players in London, Jason Arroyo, Rob Gier who have played with the Philippine national team, “The Azkals” and also the Azkals goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, of Fullham FC (now on loan to Bristol Rovers), was at our grand opening of the club at the Philippine Embassy in 2009, when Leo got everybody together and started the ball rolling for PUFC.

I also think we have a special talent in our Manchester team……who has the potential to be an “Azkals” player of the future. His name is Mervin Evangelista, and he is still only seventeen years old, but looks thirteen LOL….Steve and myself call him, the “Little Messi”…..His feet are so quick, with great dribbling skills, frightening pace, and a great eye for goals too, being our present top score, with seven goals in four games. With hard training and building up his strength, there is no limit for what he can achieve in football. He is very critical of himself, and strives to get better and better, watch out for him in the very near future.

Also, I would like to mention about how our players are improving with every game and I would like to point out the vast improvement of our left-back, Andy Benzon. He improves every game and listens to everything I tell him, and that is why players like Andy will keep on improving, because they want to get better, and this lad is now a totally different player, than when we first saw him…

On a sad note..I have to mention my dear old friend, ex-President of the PFF (Philippine Football Federation), Mr. Mari Martinez, who backed Leo and myself with the team, right from the start, sending us new uniforms etc. and unfortunately, over a year ago, he had a very bad stroke, and is semi-paralysed but we hope sometime in the future also that he will come and see us play, just as he saw our PUFC London team play, when he hopefully fully recovers.

Maybe it would be fitting to arrange a friendly game with our neighbours in London somewhere down the line…That would be a great day for PUFC fans and members everywhere.

Unfortunately, I will not be here for the next game, as I will be coaching in Manila (Philippines) for three weeks, but I will be leaving the team in the steady hands of Steve Conroy, my assistant.

Well hope you enjoyed the first instalment of the new northern version of “PARKIN SPACE” and till we meet again, always remember guys, KEEP THE FAITH!!!

Yours in Football,

Norm Parkin
Head Coach

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