As we came to the end of the 2014-15 season, the Ormskirk & District Sunday League are already looking ahead to the new season and have started their recruitment drive for new team. As part of this, they are asking the questions – Where have all the pub teams gone?

At around the same time, a couple of internet searches would have probably thrown up almost identical results. Those searches would have been “local pubs” and “local Sunday football teams”.
Over the decades there has been an intrinsic link between the local pub and Sunday morning football – until recently. A glance at the make-up of the Ormskirk and District Sunday league gives a perfect example of the decline of this sporting tradition.

As recently as the last decade this league consisted of teams operated from hostelries in Ormskirk, Maghull, Lydiate, Crosby, Netherton and Kirkby. The league’s Stanley Bowl was awarded to Melling Victoria recently – it’s 40th winner. Looking at the engravings of previous winners you can see The Alt, The Everest, Hare and Hounds, Harrock, The Mogul Coach and Horses, Mariners, Greyhound, The Cockbeck, Eden Vale and many more local “boozers”.

The Ormskirk league now only has 3 teams from the Maghull (MCA), Crosby (The Liver) and Ormskirk (Eureka) areas. The only area bucking the trend is Kirkby. Chris Bull, League Secretary comments, “Kirkby is the one area where the pubs seem to still support local football. I’m pretty sure every pub there has a team, some two. The Mariners, The Falcon, The Fantail, the Railway, The Windmill and others all have strong links with their football teams. For some reason this no longer seems to be the case in Ormskirk, Maghull, Lydiate and the other areas where we traditionally had teams playing in league. We’d like that to change and encourage teams to form, re-form or in some cases return to the league.”

So, why the decline? Is discipline a problem? Not according to Chris. “This year has seen the lowest number of cautions and red cards for many years and this number has been on a steady decline for the last 5 years. Granted, there have been some issues with certain clubs, but they are no longer with the league and discipline is good – indeed at a recent league meeting club secretaries asked for referees to be even tougher with players!”.
Is the standard poor? Eddie Pope, Chairman of the Ormskirk league answers “The top teams of our league consist of players that play to a good standard on Saturday so that’s not an issue. Our second division though also caters for teams just looking for a competitive game of football of a Sunday morning”

The challenge has therefore been set to footballers in those areas mentioned above – get your boots back on, form a team and play Sunday football.

Teams interested in joining the league can contact Chris Bull on chrissybull6@gmail.com or Eddie Pope on eddiegpope@hotmail.com
Story courtesy of the Liverpool FA Read more at http://www.liverpoolfa.com