History of MVC Kings
04 Nov 2009

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History Of MVC Kings.

Early Years
MVC Kings as it is now known, began as a twinkle in the eye of MVC player and now King’s manager Rob Sanders, back in early 2005. Disillusioned with life on the bench and feeling his skills were not being utilised at MVC he plotted. After discussion with then MVC Manager Weefy, a new team was born. This ‘MVC B’ started with one player, Rob, but soon MVC player Dave Capon, and former players, Alex Tudge, Craig Light and Rick Spaven joined the club. Soon after this it was discovered that Solent Church League team Bishop’s Waltham Kings were disbanding due to lack of players, so an amalgamation of players and team was proposed, with players such as Matt Plucknett, Steve Prince, Martin Booth and Alex Masterman forming a core group of players, which would make up the newly named MVC Kings.

It was clear more players were needed, and Rob used his contacts and asked around, with players such as Matt Knowles, Paul Weston joining in preparation for MVC King’s first game, a friendly against MVC. Rob also found a sponsor, in his Brother Chris Gage, who kindly paid for a shiny new purple kit, with everything in place a date was set for the friendly and the new team waited in eager anticipation.

The game, which was going to be a tough one, as it was against the new Solent Church League Division 2 champions, got underway with Kings playing some nice football and keeping their more experienced counterparts at bay, after a fairly even affair, Kings managed to take the lead with Matthew Knowles finishing after a MVC mistake, giving the new team a deserved 1-0 lead at half time. The second half started badly for Kings, and got worse, without keeper John, who had left at half time, and with inexperienced Terry in goal the defence lost confidence, and started to commit mistakes, which the ruthless MVC, who had been scoring for fun in the league took advantage, and the frail Kings defence crumbled at set pieces allowing MVC six effortless goals, with only a few efforts on the counter attack as fitness and injuries added to Kings’ downfall. The game ended with a 6-1 defeat, but Kings had shown in the first half there was potential in the team, which was acknowledged by MVC manager Weefy who reminded us MVCs first ever game was a heavy loss.

After the promise shown in the inaugural game, a second friendly against the less formidable St James was organised, with a slightly different team and a borrowed Goal Keeper, MVC kings managed to pull off an exciting 5 all draw, with goals from Tudge, R. Sanders and M. Knowles, with defensive frailties letting St James in for 5 straightforward goals including a last minute penalty, to give them a draw, after Kings had had much of the play. Kings also took a team to the leagues annual 6-a-side tournament played at the end of the competitive season. A Kings team including Tudge, R. Spaven, M. Knowles, R. Sanders, and C. Light, finished and impressive third in the group narrowly missing out on reaching the next round, with a 6-1 victory in one game.

Kings finished 3rd in their first season in Division 2 and then 4th place in the following season. However it was the 2007/08 season that would prove the most challenging in young manager Rob Sanders’ career.

Tough Times
With Goalkeeper Joe Greentree moving to MVC and a career threatening injury to the formidable rock in defence Craig Light it was always going to be a struggle to replace the quality lost and it didn’t help being 2 of the back 5!

Kings opened the season with little to no pre-season due to the disastrous weather. A heavy defeat to a normally beatable Hedge End team left the gaffer disillusioned with a long hard season. New faces had come in with Ritchie Sewell and Jarrath Cush. However injury to skipper Ernie left holes in the Kings defence and with the gaffer in goal (due to an unsuccessful hunt for a new keeper) it was easy for teams put the ball in King’s net. As it was, Kings had the worst season in their three year history finishing bottom in Division 2. Disillusioned with the season’s poor performance the Gaffer new radical changes had to be made.

A New Era
An early date of June 21st was set for pre-season with all players interested in playing having to report for duty. The squad was opened up for the first time in 3 years with EVERY position up for grabs. As it was Kings had over 28 players interested in playing. The key words used were Commitment and hard work through training. Kings had only been getting 6 or 7 along to training the previous year but now had 16 a week turning up.

New faces came and old faces went. Tireless Midfielder Dave Capon left for the capital city life. Nigel decided to call it a day with the years catching up on him. Alex decided his injury prone body could no longer hold out a long gruelling campaign, and with Matt Plucknett deciding he had to dedicate all his spare time to bringing up his family new windows of opportunity immerged.

Then...
A new colour for MVC Kings has arrived. New players from the local area signed on and made an impression and a new system was tried and tested along with a new Goalkeeper. Training attendance improved 100% and Kings returned to their glory days finishing 5th in Division 2 having been Top at Christmas.

And Now
After a good season in 08/09 gaffer Rob decided we needed some extra help to maximise the full potential of the team. So after talking with Shane (Goalkeeper) we found out his dad – Nick was an experienced coach with a lot of success. He joined us at the start of Pre-Season, new faces came in and some old ones left but the core of the team was still there. Established players Tudge, Ernie and Richie stayed on and the new players of the 08/09 season Justin, Sprack & Puckett continued their love affair with MVC Kings.

Nick has instilled some much needed discipline into the team and worked on the fitness and organisation. New strikers have arrived in Nathan & James to capitalise on Kings weak form in front of goal last season. Gaffer Rob has since got married and now takes up more of a coaching role rather than playing and things are looking good in what will be the most competitive season in the Solent Churches League Division 2. Not to mention the return of the MVC Derby!