Mercian to start up an Under-21 League
Shropshire is to have its first dedicated football league for Under-21 teams.
The Mercian Under-21s Football League is to kick off in September with seven clubs – and more are being invited.
Oswestry Town, Market Drayton Town, Wellington Amateurs, Wrockwardine Wood Juniors, Whitchurch Alport Juniors, AFC Bridgnorth and Allscott have registered in the competition.
A condition of entry is that games must be played under floodlights – but they can be arranged for any evening from Monday to Friday.
There will also be five rolling substitutes allowed per team to encourage greater player participation and two over-age players will be permitted on each side.
The plan is for each team to play everybody else three or four times. League secretary Phil Davies said: "One of our projects to get Charter status was to say what we're going to do to develop football.
"Through Carl Jones, who has joined our committee, we discovered we lose a lot of players after Under-18s level because they find it difficult, physically, playing against players in their late 20s.
"We want to bridge that gap to get people to participate in football and we want to make it as user-friendly as possible."
Anyone interested should call Davies on 07792 048 044 or 01743 466 535.
