EIS Players attend Preston North End Weekend
Last weekend Eddie Irvine Sports (EIS) travelled to Preston with 15 young players aged between 8 and 15 all hoping to impress on a football coaching weekend with Championship side Preston North End (PNE). Accompanying the players were EIS Development personnel Bobby Murphy and Chris McCall together with numerous parents. This trip was the result of a developing relationship between Eddie Irvine Sports and PNE, the players having been selected from those attending previous PNE coaching sessions at EIS. It is hoped that this trip will be just the first of many.
PNE have just completed their third series of coaching sessions at the Eddie Irvine Sports Centre, sessions which are taken by coaches from Preston's own Centre of Excellence teams and are open to children from any football club. To date the biggest supporters of these sessions have been players from Eddie Irvine Sports FC but the message seems to be gradually filtering through to other clubs that this is a genuine opportunity for players to learn and hopefully impress, with players from Ards Youth and Dungoyne also on the trip.
On Friday night the players were invited to train with the Centre of Excellence teams at their respective age groups at the impressive Preston Sports Arena. A second specially arranged coaching session with PNE Youth Development Officer Darren Finch was held on Saturday morning. The coaches were impressed by the ability and attitude of all the players but 2 players in particular had done a little more than impress and Darren announced that Eddie Irvine Sports FC Goalkeepr Marcel Salatka and Dungoyne FC Striker Dale McKee had been invited to play for the U15 Centre of Excellence team against Wrexham Academy on Sunday morning.
Saturday afternoon saw the entire party of 36 invited to the derby match with Blackpool at the Deepdale Stadium as guests of PNE. On Sunday morning everyone excitedly crowded the touchline to see Dale McKee set up the opening goal and then grab one himself in a performance described by the Preston team coaches as "different class." Marcel Salatka played the second half and contributed to Preston’s clean sheet by making some fine saves.
A trip to the National Football Museum which is described as the best football museum in the world was the final football based activity before a jaunt to Blackpool's Pleasure Beach rounded off a great weekend for all.
When Darren Finch and his coaches arrived at Eddie Irvine Sports on Monday for their latest coaching sessions they felt right at home at the sight of 15 Preston North End shirts amongst those waiting to be coached. Darren Finch said that the weekend trip to PNE and the latest PNE coaching session at Eddie Irvine Sports "has again confirmed that the quality of the players in terms of ability, attitude and behaviour is of a very high standard. Preston already has a strong NI representation within its ranks and with the developing relationship between our club and Eddie Irvine Sports this can only get stronger. I have known Bobby Murphy for a number of years and I know that he has an eye for spotting and developing talented young players."