Southdown Under 8s continue to go from strength to strength - growing in both skill and numbers - and on Saturday 23rd September they sent three teams to the Mid Sussex Youth Football League five-a-side festival hosted at Oakwood FC.

The Blues, Clarets and Rovers all performed brilliantly playing some great football and more importantly having a lot of fun.

Southdown Blue were excellent throughout the tournament. Playing 5 games in total, showing unbelievable confidence and enthusiasm in every game. The team has been working hard in training on their positioning and communication skills, and we could see the fruits of their labour. Some incredible team goals, one in particular was passed onto every teammate, before a superb finish - top bins! The most pleasing thing was seeing the team's encouragement, not only to each other, but to the opposition players. We won a game quite comfortably and one of our players went across to a boy who seemed visibly upset to have lost, and told him, " you should be proud of your performance and forget the result, it's the taking part that counts!" This speaks volumes about this group of players who represent Southdown and the culture we want to encourage as a club.

Southdown Rovers had an excellent tournament, playing 5 matches and doing fantastically in every one of them. Communication and space were the buzz words of the day with the team developing their skills in these areas and showing the benefits in the games. The team worked incredibly hard for each other with fantastic passing, shooting, dribbling, defending and goalkeeping throughout the festival. Some absolutely fantastic team goals too! The most pleasing bit though was seeing the Rovers cheer on the other Southdown teams when not playing.

A super effort from Southdown Clarets who played 4 matches and displayed a wonderful attitude throughout the morning. The team worked hard on positioning and communication, and it was lovely to witness improvement as the games went on. The players showed enthusiasm within the team and the encouraged each other all the way. It was noticeable things the team are working on during training was being applied in the matches and they showed moments of some lovely passing, shooting, tackling and goalkeeping. The movement of players to try and find space from goal kicks and throw ins was wonderful to see. Well done to the kids and lots of positives to take from the tournament.