My child came home from school a few weeks ago telling me he wanted to go to Newtown Football Academy trials.

I was unsure, I wasn’t comfortable with the word ‘trials’ but his friends were going – so we agreed. In the days leading up to the ‘trials’ I became aware of a number of children, including my own, who were suffering with mild anxiety, noted not only by parents, but by teachers also.

I know trials have been run before, but perhaps after the 18 months we’ve all been living children are suffering a little more than usual having not played football all season?

What’s wrong with the old school approach of coaches going around the local clubs, watching kids in training and picking them up there, seeing them at their best in a more relaxed environment?

Anyway, that is not really the point of this letter.

I just wanted to call out Newtown AFC for their shocking treatment and disrespect to the young boys and girls who attended the ‘trials’ on two consecutive Wednesday evenings last month.

Parents were asked to enrol their children prior to attending, all email addresses submitted.

Successful boys and girls were notified by email that they had been accepted into the squad, the unsuccessful boys and girls received nothing.

Children learned that they had not been successful by hearing from their friends in the school playground.

A week on, still nothing. No message from the coach to show our children saying “Well done, tough competition this year but keep practicing and we’d love to see you come to our next trials” Would that have been too difficult? Just some small words of encouragement, or an acknowledgement that they even attended?

Children aged just seven or eight are left with a horrible feeling of not being good enough, teased and embarrassed in school but also left wondering if maybe the coach lost their email and begging their mums and dads to just ‘ring and check’.

If a child isn’t deemed good enough to be in the squad, they are not good enough, that’s fine, but every child is good enough to be treated with respect and consideration. Children deserve better than this from their local club.

Shame on you Newtown AFC. I’m not sure you’ll have many children returning the next time you call for trials if you continue to treat children like this.

Name and address supplied

We contacted Newtown for a response to this letter. Here is what the club said:

“The trials process, for which parents put forward their children on a completely voluntary basis, is just one strand of our overall recruitment philosophy at Newtown AFC.

We do have a number of scouts and coaches who watch local games and we also have players put forward by local clubs and schools etc. These methods alone do not always give everyone the opportunity to trial for our academy, this is where the trials process (which is a common recruitment tool for all academies) provides that equal opportunity for young local players.

The academy trials as a whole were a great success for all of those that participated, we are grateful for the levels of support from the all the players and parents.

However we do regret any communication issues that may of occurred and apologise for any anguish this may have caused.

Regards

Newtown AFC