Ability Counts (season recap)
Ability Counts League Teams (Age 16+) for players with a disability who want to play regular football. The League aims to provide a positive experience and opportunities into the disability player pathway.
It has been a remarkably successful 1st season for the Workington Pan Disability team.
The season ended on Tuesday 24th October at Harraby where we saw 3 teams entered for the 1st time in their respective levels in the Denton Memorials trophy.
The “Hoppers” played in the Premier Cup, but sadly came up short against Spartans losing 2-1 and a new team in Border City Greens losing 4-0 who went on to win the cup later in the evening in their 1st appearance.
The Hoppers have had a decent 1st season finishing runners up in the League and the League Cup to Spartans, who are their bogie team, so they will be looking to go one better next season.
The league season was disrupted when 2 teams dropped out, but there will be some newcomers next season to compete against.
In the Championship Cup, the “Marras” won all their games beating a new Spartans Assassins team 2-0 then Windscale 3-0 and then beating Windscale again 3-1 in the final to complete an amazing treble for the season.
Back in August they won the League Cup and then in September they went on to win the League title losing only 1 game in the process. This is an amazing effort from the team and winning games the right way, playing excellent football.
Nobody was expected anything at the start of the season, just hoping to be competitive, but things just clicked for the Marras all season long.
A new team the “Vulcans” was introduced in the 3rd level of Ability Counts – Super league and they went out and beat Carlisle Reivers Lions 7-1, then Carlisle Utd 8-2 after going behind, Then, incredibly won 13-0 in the final game against Carlisle to take home a trophy at their very 1st attempt which was a fantastic effort from the lads who played.
So overall the team has grown in a just a year, from an initial 8 players to well over 20 playing now at various levels.
Winning 4 trophies altogether, it has been an astonishing effort as there are a lot of established teams in Ability Counts football.
Many of the players have felt immensely proud and honoured to be playing in the red shirts representing the town.
As head coach, I am extremely humbled, honoured and proud to lead these teams to do what they have achieved so far. The aim is for the team to keep growing and promoting disability football ready for 2024.
Mark Thompson (Coach Workington Pan Disability teams)
