Good Afternoon, please give a warm welcome to today’s visitors, Newport Pagnell Town their players, committee and supporters, we hope you enjoy your visit to the David Wilson Homes Ground.
Goddy currently field One Senior side (1st team taking part in the Uhlsport United counties Premier South League, and Under 18's in the Thurlow Nunn Youth League, Also playing under the Godmanchester Town FC banner sides with Junior sides (Under 7 to Under 17).
Your support today and through the season is appreciated by all at the club. Enjoy the game and a safe journey home to all C'mon you Rovers!
WHO’S WHO?
Role
Life President
Staff Member
Keith Gabb & Karly Hurst
Directors Richard Cosbey, Chris Allan, Paul France
Chairman Richard Cosbey
Vice Chairman Wez Clark
Finance
Chris Allan
Club Secretary Tracy Cosbey
Fixture Secretary Vacant
Committee Member
Programme Editor
Keith Lawson, Laura Clark
Steve Bengree
Functions Manager Jon Pickford
Bar & Catering Team
Groundsman
Media
Gate Steward
Jon Pickford - Lindsay Bowgett - Tracy Cosbey - Pat Thompson
Mark Aspinall
Connor Aspinall
Neil Cosbey
Match Day Hospitality Vacant
Child Welfare Officer
Richard Cosbey
Pitch Booking Manager Richard Cosbey
First Team
Head Coach Seb Hayes
Assistant Coach Gary Marheineke
Fitness Coach Errol McGammon
Head Coach Paul France
Kit Man Richard Cosbey
Physio Mark Swan
Reserves
Manager Trafford Hudson
Assistant Manager Gary Baillie
Under 18's
Manager Ian Roper
Assistant Manager Chris Bull
Head Coach Steve Smith
1. Instructions from any Club Official or Steward must be complied with at all times.
2. Spectators are not allowed on the pitch and its surrounds.
3. Spectators shall not climb on any building ,wall or fence.
4. Obscene, Racist or Indecent language at any player or official and usage of offensive gestures will not be tolerated.
5. Throwing of any objects (coins or other missiles) is forbidden.
6. Minors shall be the sole responsibility of the accompanying adult.
7. Entrance to the ground is granted with payment of the appropriate entry fee (or approved official pass).
All spectators shall be given temporary membership to the clubhouse and its facilities at the discretion of the club.
Any drinks brought outside the clubhouse MUST be in plastic containers. NO GLASSWARE OF ANY KIND TO BE TAKEN OUTSIDE PERMITTED AREAS.
For FA Competitions additional special requirements may apply to comply with regulations and FA Rules.
Godmanchester Rovers FC accepts no responsibility for vehicles using the premises/car parks. Godmanchester Rovers FC accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to any articles on the clubs premises.
Any person in breach of these regulations will be refused admission/ removed from the premises.
The Club Committee Thanks You for your co operation - Enjoy the game
THE SWANS
The first recorded football team in Newport Pagnell dates back to 1874 and the town has had many different teams since then. The modern club that we know today was formed in 1963 by a few young lads because they wanted a regular game of football. From such humble beginnings to contesting two consecutive FA Vase finals at Wembley Stadium it is fair to say that it has been an eventful and exciting journey.
Newport Pagnell Wanderers entered a team in the North Bucks Minor League in their first season, playing home games on Bury Field Common. The following year saw the formation of a Senior team, they entered the North Bucks League and won Division 3 in their second season. Soon after that they won Division 2 and Division 1 (three times) in consecutive years. In the 1971-72 season they joined the South Midlands League, temporari-
ly playing home matches at the Youth Club. Then in 1972 the club moved to the new facilities at the Willen Road Sports Ground, changing their name to Newport Pagnell Town the following season. In 1973-74 Newport Pagnell Town joined Division 2 of the United Counties League and won promotion to Division 1 in 1974-75. They won the Division 1 Championship in 1981-82 and were promoted to the Premier Division. They were relegated in 1985-86, promoted back to the Premier Division in 1991-92 and then relegated again in 1996-97. The club won the Division 1 Championship in 2001-02 and remained in the Premier Division until the FA moved the club into the Premier Division ofthe SpartanSouth Midlands League in 2019-20. Following two curtailed seasons the FA moved Newport back into the United Counties League Premier Division South in2021-22.
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Our best FA Cup achievement was to reach the Second Qualifying Round in 2008-09. Newport have performed well in the Berks & Bucks FA county cups winning the Senior Trophy In 2009-10 and 201011, Intermediate Cup in 2001-02 and the Reserve Team won the JuniorCupin 1982-83.The club’s major achievement to date is, without doubt, winning the Buildbase FA Vase in 2022. Following a club record crowd of 1,858 at Willen Road for the exciting semi-final victory over Hamworthy United, more than 7,500 Newport Pagnell Town supporters travelled to Wembley to see the impressive 3-0 win over Littlehampton Town in the final. Then the following season this achievement was almost repeated when the Swans once again got to the FA Vase final. Newport once again sold their entire allocation of tickets, although this time a very well organised Ascot United side went on to lift the cup winning 1 Reaching twoconsecutiveWembley finals is something we never thought would happen in our wildest dreams.
As far back as 1936 Newport Pagnell has had a Women and there has been various teams over the years since. In the last couple of years, the Women been re-established and in 2022
they were Champions of the Thames Valley Counties League Division 3. They have been promoted to the East Midlands Regional League Division 1 South for the 2023-24 season and will also enter the Women’s FA Cup for the first time.
Newport run Bobicat & Bearcat Disability Teams and also has around 30 youth teams for boys and girls.
Theclubis passionate aboutproviding a continuous pathway from youth to senior teams and many of this season’s Senior players have progressed from our Youth Section. OnceaSwan, always aSwan.
We have spent the last 20 years inundated with Greatests of All Time. Tennis, Formula 1, American Football, Gymnastics, Sprinting and of course football, where two players have vied for that particular moniker for longer than some of their fans have been alive. It’s become such a commonplace argument that sometimes people forget just how rare it is to find a player of such exceptional ability, let alone two. Deep into the twilight of their careers, they have both moved into semiretirement in less prestigious leagues, and the footballing world must begin to come to terms with a future lacking Messi and Ronaldo. But just what kind of hole do these greatest ever players leave when they move on?
By 1991, Napoli had enjoyed the most successful period in their history. Two Scudetti, a UEFA Cup, and two domestic trophies is a spell that hasn’t since been repeated in Southern Italy. Spearheading
this success was the last footballer to unambiguously earn the title of ‘greatest ever’, Diego Maradona. Among footballing mortals, he was Napoli’s Mars, the God of War. So when he failed a drugs test, and a year later left for Spain, the whole city was thrown into turmoil. What followed was a decline that could have been a Roman tragedy, with heroes falling from the heights of Vesuvius into the Tartarus of Serie C.
Building the entire club around Maradona was not just cultural. Napoli had taken out a massive loan to pay a world record fee for the Argentinian in 1984, and their transfer business throughout the 1980s, while successful on the pitch, had loaded the club with debt. The loss of their talisman was masked in the short-term by the emergence of a talented crop of youngsters, among them Gianfranco Zola who admirably filled the number 10 shirt. They were competitive for a couple of years, but the Tangentopoli Scandal, which tore Italian politics apart, claimed club president Corrado Ferlaino and the cracks were exposed. When he returned a year later to try to save the club, without the questionable resources he had called upon before, there was a fire sale.
Zola and Fabio Cannavaro went to the new project at Parma, Ciro Ferrara went with head coach Marcello Lippi to Juventus, Benito Carbone to Inter. Power in Italian football was, once more, decidedly in the north. In the 1996/97 season, Napoli finished just four points above the relegation zone. But they were far from their nadir.
Maradona Napoli
The following season, more players were sold, and Napoli were disastrously ill-equipped for the fight they were about to undertake. Four managers, and the emergence of a new talisman in Roberto Ayala, weren’t enough to stop the club conceding a disastrous two goals per game. They finished the season with just two wins, and their three-decade stay in the top flight was over.
A new owner - Giorgio Corbelli - saw the club as a proving ground for his own footballing ideas. Despite Walter Novelino performing heroics to haul the club back into Serie A at the second attempt, he was jettisoned for the entertaining Zdenek Zeman. Zeman is something of an antithesis in Italian football, and would later get a Pescara side to Serie A with some of the most swashbuckling football ever seen. In Naples, he lasted six games. His outrageously attacking side was entrusted to Emiliano Mondonico, a man who seemed to think Fabio Capello was a gung-ho enthusiast. He got the side playing admirably, and with a bit of a transfer gamble in January, Napoli fought until the final day of the season, when they suffered relegation. Unfortunately, those gambling debts came due too.
The ancients were big believers that nature rewarded and punished, so when heavy rain caused the near-collapse of the San Paolo, Neapolitans could be forgiven for thinking they were being seriously punished. They spent the 2001/02 season playing at various smaller grounds across the south. Corbelli was arrested at the end of that season in another corrup-
tion scandal, and while Napoli stayed up in 2003, but 2004 they had reached the very depths of Italian professional football, Serie C.
With debts of €79 million, there was a very real chance that the club would disappear forever. To the fans credit, even in the third tier, 50,000 of them continued to fill the stadium. That enthusiasm would be the spark that saved them, convincing film producer Aurelio de Laurentis to part with €39 million to rescue the former giants.
De Laurentis’ time in charge took a while to get going. It took two attempts to get out of Serie C, before a return to the top flight. But in 2022/23, three decades after Maradona’s departure, the Scudetto returned to Naples. Maybe the fall and rise of the iconic club isn’t just down to the loss of the GOAT, but it’s amazing how the trajectory of a story can change around one man.
Enjoy the game.
Martyn Green The Untold Game
Find
Maradona Mural
Seb Hayes – Manager
Waiting
Errol McGammon - Fitness Coach
Errol is the beast of the engine room within the dressing room, combining his understanding of sports fitness with his understanding of the game. Errol has been around the non-league game for years and brings a wealth of knowledge to the coaching team.
Richard Cosbey – Kit Man
Rich is exactly the sort of person who makes a non-league club run. If there is a job that Rich hasn’t done, we are yet to find it (and if we do, he will no doubt have a go). A top bloke and someone you want fighting for you not against you! Will not be in the dug -out next season as he steps up to his new role within the club.
Mark Swan – Physio
Mark joined our club in 2022-23 season as our club physio, Mark is a great guy to have around the club and a good laugh with the other coaches. Mark is very experienced in his line of work and has a great relationship with
the squad, great guy to have at Bearscroft lane.
Simon Dalton (GK)
Simon is New to Godmanchester Rovers this season after we have tried a couple of people to fill this number 1 spot, Simon is an experienced keeper with great distribution of the ball out of his hands and a great shot stopper, Simon will fast become a fans favourite at Bearscroft lane.
Ben Newton (GK)
New to Godmanchester this season after we have tried a couple of people to fill this number 1 spot, Ben is just what we have been looking for and we wish we have found him sooner. Ben has immediately showed his quality. we wish Ben all the best for the season and look forwarded to working with over the coming seasons.
Tom Spark
Another who played in a variety of positions last season but will be aiming to make a central role his own for the coming season. Sparky has great quality in possession and an ability to glide past players at speed. Will be looking to add more goals and assists to his game.
Ricki Goodale
Bob the builder, jack of all trades but what a centre back, great lad to have
around the changing room, likes to see how far he can kick a ball out of the ground. Ricki is a old school centre back – head & kick it, do the simple things correct. Ricki joins us halfway through the season and has already made a big difference to the squad.
Ben Arnold
Ben has joined us from just up the A1 and Yaxley Fc, Ben can play either centre back or holding midfield and is a very talented footballer, Ben does not mind a tackle and likes to get stuck in. He is a great talker throughout the game and is great to support the young guns of the squad.
Matt Green (Captain)
Matt is the most experienced player in our squad this season and is the club captain, Matt is a solid player and can play centre back or holding midfield. Matt is very good with the younger ones and is a real leader on and off the pitch. we look forward to seeing Matt lead our team this season and many more to come.
Mani Gbejuade
Mani rejoins us after having started with us at the beginning of the season, then departing to play step 4 football, after 2 months he is now back where he belongs, good strong forward player. Mani is big and powerful and has full backs running scared
all day long.
Ron Sosoli
Ron joins us from local step 3 outfit St Ives Town Fc, Ron is a great lad who can play either side full back, likes to attack as well but is a sloid defender first. Ron is a quite lad off the field but comes out of his shell on the field.
Louis Aftersmith
Louis is from our last season U16 and now in our U18 set up, he is a young strong centre back and has already had 5 run outs in the first team squad. Louis will only get better and better while training and playing with the senior squad. We are super proud to have brought so many of the U18's into the senior side.
Ed Watson
Ed is another young gun from the Royston U18 set up. Ed can play anywhere across the forward line who likes to get in and around the defence of any team we are playing against. Ed is learning every time he steps onto the pitch and is becoming a key member of the senior squad.
Tommy Dear
Tommy is another from our U18 squad from a couple of seasons ago, left halfway through last season but has come back for the new season to get his head down and let his feet do the talking, great lad with bags of en-
ergy that carries him all day long around the pitch, Tommy is one that will become a Goddy legend.
Jamal Shenille
Jamal is new to Godmanchester rover’s fc this season, showed great promise in pre-season, now needs to kick on and cement his place week in week out in the starting 11, Jamal is a left back / left wingback.
Dan Brown
Dan is an experienced striker at step 5 football around this area, fox in the box, has great presence in the air and has a deadly left foot. Dan is a great person to have in the team after we have tried to sign him for the last 3 seasons.
Tom Wakley
Tom is another experienced striker who was in out youth & U18 set up a few years ago and has come back to join the club, been away and gained adult football elsewhere and has now come back to join the mighty Rovers, Tom wins 99% of all balls in the air and has plenty of power behind his strike.
Harry Brookes
Harry plays the number 10 role and is calm and steady on the ball, has a
sweet left foot and is just a machine running and running all day long, Harry has joined us this season from Ely City Fc. We look forward to seeing Harry week in week out on the pitch.
Josh Hales
Josh is a winger who can play anywhere across the front line, Josh is a great lad to have in the changing rooms and he is great with the younger lads on the pitch, you could easily see Josh as a coach or manager of a senior team in years to come.
Will Jolly
Will is from our youth & U18 set up, been with them club for many years and is great to see him progress into the first team, great lad who wants to learn and will give you 100% when he is on the pitch, doesn’t mind getting stuck in and will let people know he is there.
Tak Chijota
M Tak has rejoined us this season after leaving us for a season thinking the grass was greener at Daventry Town, we are pleased to see Tak back at Bearscroft lane, lets hope he picks up the form he had when he left the club before.
United Counties Football League Upcoming matches
23-Nov 15:00 Sat Northam' Sileby Rangers Histon
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23-Nov 15:00 Sat St Neots Town Leicester Nirvana Premier Division
00-Jan 0:00 Sat Godmanchester Rovers Deeping Rangers Hinchingbrooke Cup
30-Nov 14:00 Sat Histon Aylestone Park Premier Division
30-Nov 14:00 Sat Northam 'O.N.Chenecks Hinckley AFC Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat Coventry United St Neots Town Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat Eynesbury Rovers Easington Sports
30-Nov 15:00 Sat G.N.G Oadby Town Newport Pagnell Town Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat Leicester Nirvana Rugby Borough Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat March Town United Bugbrooke St.Michaels Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat Northam' Sileby Rangers Lutterworth Town Premier Division
30-Nov 15:00 Sat Yaxley Daventry Town Premier Division
It’s sometimes difficult to imagine, but there was a time when Brazil were not the powerhouses of global football. There was a time when, even in South America, they were overshadowed by their hated neighbours in Argentina, and Uruguay, who won the first World Cup (and the two recognised World Championships that came before it). But before the success came, before Ronaldo, and Socrates, and Pele, there was still the tragedy of the quest for victory. And nobody embodied that tragedy more perfectly that the good-looking, fleet-footed, champagne-swilling playboy of Rio, Heleno de Freitas.
De Freitas came from a wealthy family and like so many in Brazil, his passion lay in the sand, surf, and the Seleção. Outside of school, all of his free time was spent at the Copacabana beach, practising his impressive ball control with whatever he could find, or joining games with others. Already something of a local celebrity, it was here that a scout for Botafogo would spot him at the age of 15. Just two years later, he was making waves - and enemiesin the first team.
His ability was unquestioned, and he was adored in the stands. Skillful,
tricky, and with a joy to his game, he embodied the Brazilian way. With his movie star good looks, he was especially popular with somefemale - fans. A stable home life with a wife and child was just a veneer of respectability, as a slew of Mistresses came and went.
Back at Botafogo, however, all was not well. After 1945, the club went in search of their first championship in a decade, and de Freitas would be key to that search. Or, as he saw it, the club would be a hindrance to his own dreams of glory. Two second place finishes increased his frustration, not helped by the cancellation of the 1946 World Cup, where he had e.xpected to be crowned the greatest player on the planet. Additionally, Brazil were runners up at the South American Championship in 1945 and 1946, and Botafogo continued to fall short domestically.
In 1948, de Freitas was tasked with giving his players a boost before the final, all-important game. Instead, he gave them a tirade for not having secured the championship already. If only they could raise their game to his level, he told them, they would be champions. Botafogo lost once more - de Freitas missing a
27 crucial penalty - and finally the magic between club and player broke. He took his bonus money, stuffed it into his teammates pockets, and tore the dressing room apart. He was sold on to Boca Juniors in the off-season.
His time in Argentina was short lived, but his personal life was worse. With his wife and son still in Rio, de Freitas’ days of partying caught up with him, and he was diagnosed with syphilis. He refused treatment, fearing it would ruin his game, and returned home. He signed for Vasco, where he would finally win the championship and, he believed, secure his place in the Seleção for the home World Cup in 1950.
Unfortunately, he once again fell out with his coach, Flavio de Costa. Although, as ever, ‘falling out’ doesn’t quite cut it. After one particularly intense argument he stormed into the training ground, put a gun to Costa’s head, and pulled the trigger. The chamber was empty, but his time in Brazil was done. He left for the newly professionalised Colombian league - without his wife, who had left him for a teammate - and, in an ironic twist of
Brazil would lose the 1950 World Cup final to Uruguay, a defeat seared into the Brazilian consciousness. But for de Freitas, there was no chance of making a difference. At his peak, he may have been a superstar, but in Colombia his syphilis was starting to get worse, and his self-medication was having less and less effect. He returned home and began treatment, but it was too late. The disease had taken hold, and perhaps Brazil’s greatest ever star to that point would end his career at just 31.
As the disease ravaged his brain, de Freitas was cared for by his brother
fate, Costa left to become the national team coach.
De Freitas juggling the ball
for six years. When that was no longer possible, he was checked into a sanatorium, his looks, his talent, and his cognisance all deserting him. When Brazil won the World Cup in 1958, with Pele taking on the mantle de Freitas had once believed was his, the sad, isolated figure saw what might have been. As patients and staff celebrated the greatest day in Brazilian football history, he filled his mouth with cigarettes, lit them all, and tried to smoke himself to death. He failed, but just a year later, the disease took him.
Brazilian legends have come to dominate the football consciousness, but de Freitas couldn’t be one of them. He could have been the spark to give Brazil the greatest of victories but instead, as one journalist put it, he was the man who forgot he was a footballer.
Enjoy the game.
Martyn Green
De Freitas
FOUL LANGUAGE
To increase attendances at our grounds, the UHL Sport United Counties League, in conjunction with its clubs and its sponsor, KitmanUK & UHLSport , are promoting the need to turn matches into a more family-orientated entertainment in a family friendly environment.
The League understands that football is a game of intensity and passion. In the heat of the moment, frustrations grow, tempers can be lost and there is an urgent need to share your feelings with others.
The League also understands that, in that moment, you may use language that others may not feet is appropriate in a family setting.
Nothing will send parents and/or grandparents heading quickly for the exits with their youngsters, never to return, than a constant stream of foul Language. All we ask is that you keep it down for the kids.
