2025 Player of the Year Awards
The Annual General Meeting saw the following Falcons named as 2025 player of the year for their respective squads. Pictured is 60s Blues awardee Rob Kenton who received his plaque at a recent training session:
50s -- John George
60s Blue -- Rob Kenton
60s Yellow -- John George
65s Blue -- Steve Wilkinson
65’s Yellow -- Tim Fewster
70s Blue -- Rob Evison
70s Yellow -- Mark Bailey
75s Brian Byford
Ken Howard Memorial Award: Rob Lester
The 2025 recipient of the Ken Howard Award was Rob Lester (above) who was chosen for his commitment to the club both on and off the field
Mark flies Falcons flag for England in Tokyo…
Falcon Mark Hughes picked up a silver medal playing for England Over-75s at the recent World Soccer Festa 70Plus in Tokyo – which featured national squads in groups for 70, 75 and 80+ teams.
Mark’s England squad was grouped with teams representing Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the USA (GoldenState), Taiwan. The group games saw England beat Japan 5-0, Taiwan 5-1 (including a Hughes goal), USA 4-0 (Mark on target again plus an assist); they lost 5-2 to Germany in a group game that was closer than the score suggests to set up a semi-final v Wales which England won on penalties after leading and conceding a late equaliser.
Unfortunately England had to face Germany again in the final and lost 3-0.
Mark commented: “The Germans deserved it. They are all very good, no weak players so they can revolve the whole squad continuously - which we weren’t really able to do. The German team are fully affiliated to the German FA, everything paid for with a professional manager and coach and about 6 ex-pros in the squad. It showed.”
A great achievement for yet another international on the Falcons books.
Irish Falcons: Wonder goal for Gary; debut for John
Falcons Gary Mathews and John Smith pulled on the green of Ireland in late August to represent the country at The Maureen Evans International Memorial Cup walking football tournament held in Neath, Wales.
The tournament featured teams from Wales, England, Ireland and a Caribbean squad with competitions at levels from Over-50s up to Over 70s in a round-robin group format.
Gary had his shooting boots on again and scored against England (“as usual” according to Gary) and Wales as Ireland won the Over-60s division. The Welsh captain described Gary’s goal v Wales as the best he’d seen (video evidence required) .
John made his international debut for the over-70s Irish squad who ended the day with one win and 3 defeats.
A great performance by both our Irish Falcons.
Congratulations.
