Manchester Welcomes DB Sports Tours Once Again

12 Nov Manchester Welcomes DB Sports Tours Once Again

MANCHESTER is one of the world’s biggest and best football cities: so where better for DB Sports Tours to take a pre-Christmas trip in advance of an exciting year of events in 2013.

We recently paid a visit to some of our closest friends in football across the water and over the festive period we will be posting a number of must-see blogs all related to our trip.

Since the very start we have always had a fantastic relationship with Manchester’s two biggest clubs in particular – United and City – and a host of big-name English outfits from the North of England.

Once the Christmas period is over all eyes turn to the Easter break – a massive period in the DB Sporst Tours calendar – and another of our great domestic friends, St Francis FC, will headline a host of clubs we are taking to Manchester.

Francis know City’s academy Platt Lane as well as any Irish side after we took their current Under-13s over to train with the Eastland outfit’s top coaches – CHECK OUT the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR1o7cBL3Ac&list=UU_GuMfNaLcoBbRzybf8ZcXQ&index=6.

During our pop in to say hello recently we were delighted to see City’s current Under-13 side – one of, if not the best side at their age group in England – are still going strong under the tutelage of former Blackburn Rovers star Jason Wilcox.



Francis know all about these guys after following up their Easter Cup success – CHECK OUT the video below- over a City select side and Stockport County with a mammoth test game against the full-timers last year.




Of course, the Francis U13 boys are one of five high-profile schoolboy sides competing in the historic DB Sports Tours Champions Cup in Dundalk’s Oriel Park on Saturday January 5.

We hope to see you all there on the day to cheer on our top DDSL sides against their northern counterparts and as part of our series of team previews we will be looking at the Saints in depth over the weekend with a blog.

Another fascinating blog to look forward to next week is our exclusive interview with Simon Cooper – the Head of Recruitment at Accrington Stanley and a coach with Manchester City’s academy.

In particular Cooper has a fascinating take on the use of psychology in football – and his incredible 30-minute session with the North Dublin Schoolboy Academy’s Kennedy Cup squad spurred the Dublin league on to victory over Manchester United’s U-12s when we took them over last year.

Even more significantly, the experience with Cooper and the win over United in their own backyard was a preview to the NDSL’s incredible Kennedy Cup win that summer.

Keep an eye out in the coming days for the blog – it a must for any football fan’s Christmas reading.
Of course, any football trip to Manchester wouldn’t be complete with a stop-by at Manchester United’s famous Carrington training complex.

Home to not only the United kids but Alex Ferguson and his superstar team, the impressiveness of the club’s indoor astro-turf facility never fades for us and it brought back memories of another great DB Sports Tours trip.

Two year’s ago we brought Crumlin United’s Under-12s to Carrington, where they took on Oldham Athletic on the fabulous indoor astro-turf pitch, before playing a round-robin series of games against United’s U-8s, U-9s and U-10s at Littleton Road.

We even managed to pick up a few coaching tips and exclusive drills for your benefit during our visit so make sure to keep our blog page open on your desktop and smartphone over the Christmas and well in the New Year.