Kentish Football 
Dartford invite goalkeepers to Keeper Wars competition with £200 up for grabs
This year’s event, which takes place on the Community Pitch at Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium, Darenth Road, is in aid of local charity Ellenor Hospice, and has £200 in prize money up for grabs for the winners.
“Ellenor Hospice is the charity this year that we’re promoting, it’s based in Dartford, so we’re looking forward to it,” said Macrae.
“We’re looking at forty to fifty keepers again with a prize of £200 for the winning team and that’s a first for us. There will be a family day at the club, barbeque, music and we’re trying to make a whole event of it.”
Last year’s tournament was won by Billy Lumley and Jay Beasant – the nephew of former Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave – who came from Glen Hoddle’s Academy in Spain.
“What do they get out of it? They meet all of the other goalkeepers, which they rarely do, team up with other keeper’s showcasing their talents.
“You’ve got to remember everyone wants to get started again and this is time enough before pre-season and there will be managers and coaches for other clubs who are looking for goalkeepers.”
Macrae is now preparing for his seventh season at Dartford and he reflected on the club’s first Blue Square Bet South campaign, which saw them climb out of the drop zone in January to finish in tenth place and a 4-1 win over Bromley at the end of the season sealed the Kent Senior Cup for the tenth time in the club’s history.
He said: “Obviously the season’s over and we’re all really looking forward to our second season in the Conference South – it hasn’t been a sad season has it?”
“It was a roller-coaster season with our FA Cup and FA Trophy runs, not doing so well in the league until January and then off a sudden we found our consistency and we ended our season with three great results.
“And the Kent Senior Cup game against Bromley was a great game. It was a great atmosphere – it was what the Kent Cup used to be.
“It was really good and we paid Bromley back for Good Friday when they spanked our backsides (by the same score).
“You couldn’t believe it was such a turnaround. We’re obviously well pleased with that. Silverware at the end of the day.”
Macrae welcomed Kent rivals Tonbridge Angels into Blue Square Bet South next season, after Tommy Warrilow’s side defeated Harrow Borough and Lowestoft Town in the Ryman Premier League play-offs.
And he gave Warrilow some advice as he prepares for the club’s first season in that league.
“If you make a mistake, they score a goal,” he warned. “The quality of the players is a couple of steps above and you make an error it’s a goal.
“They’re much more clinical in the Conference South, as we found out in our regret earlier on in the season - until we got our act together.
“They’re physically stronger, there so much fitter and I keep coming back to that word, clinical. They’re more tactically aware and they perform game after game.
“Eastleigh are full-time next season and what a difference that makes!
“It’s so much more tense in the Conference South then it is in the Ryman. There’s lulls etc in every game but in the Conference South somebody’s going to do something and it happens so quickly. The tactics of the teams in the Conference South, we’ve had to learn that aspect quickly, which we have. It took us a wee while but we did in the end.”
Macrae added: “It’s great. It really is good. It’s good for the teams like Tonbridge Angels to come back. Tommy Warrilow and Alex O’Brien, who love their football and are characters, you want these people to do well and obviously both are Dartford players at various times, so that’s nice.”
Macrae is delighted that two players from the Dartford Academy, goalkeeper Deren Ibrahim and striker Jack Pallen have put pen to paper on new deals for the first team for next season as they continue their progression.
When asked how difficult it is to progress from the Conference Youth League into the first team at Conference South level, Macrae said, “Very difficult but from our first intake, last year was our second intake, from our first intake we’ve had two from the Academy team playing first team this season just gone.
“Jack Pallen and Deren Ibrahim have both been signed on for next season. If you look at professional teams how many of their academy players make their first team? If they get two they’re very lucky but we’ve got two.”
Both players have gone away and played Ryman League football to gain experience with Chatham Town and Sittingbourne respectively – Ibrahim won a Kent Senior Cup winners medal with Sittingbourne last May and they both came back from a spell in Malta to fight for a first team place at Dartford.
“It’s natural wastage. They go away and they come back, if their good enough, their ours. We want them to play for us. We haven’t got a reserve team, which is well known, but there’s a few teams in Kent who haven’t got reserve teams.
“There is a gap between youth and Academy and Conference South. The Kent League (reserve divisions) doesn’t fill it, it really doesn’t. It’s a shame, you would think it would. If you go back to the 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s teams used to have their reserve teams in the Kent League or they had a feeder team. Arsenal used Margate, Tottenham used Gravesend & Northfleet. It has been done but it doesn’t seem to be encouraged.”
Since the turn of the year, Dartford’s Academy players have been sent to Sittingbourne to gain experience in the Ryman League Division One South – Richard Brady plays a key role at both clubs.
“I spoke to him so maybe you’ll see more Dartford Academy players playing for Sittingbourne as he’s the manager. It’s not an issue as it helps both sides and hopefully they’ll do very well.”
Macrae declined to name the goalkeepers that have been snapped up by professional clubs after finishing their first year at the Dartford Goalkeeper School.
“We’ve just finished their first year, finishing off with 35 goalkeepers. The coaches are Andrew Young, Deren Ibrahim, Jamie Turner and myself. It’s been a really great year for us, something that we haven’t done before, and five goalkeepers are with League sides.
“They’re all local boys, which is great. It just shows there’s a lot of talented goalkeepers out there. We’ve been really pleased and we start again on the third Saturday in July at Princes Park.”
Club coaches Paul Sawyer, Steve Mosely and Macrae have all updated their coaching badges and the goalkeeper coach is looking forward to the Academy trip to Malta.
“I’ve got a nice little break in Malta – I’ll been working hard with it as well as socialising,” added Macrae.
“The Academy really look after their players. We went to Barcelona last season and the season before that we were up in the mountains in Italy. It’s great for the kids and the coaches.
“Guess what I passed last week? My UEFA B Goalkeeping Badge so I’ve gone up to the top level now. The next one’s Pro Licence, so I can’t do that, but I’m well proud about that. This one covers me up to pro academy teams. I’m really chuffed.
“I had to go down to Swansea City to do it and it took a year to complete the course. It’s not easy.”
Macrae revealed goalkeeper Simon Overland (who played for Faversham Town last season) is going down for pre-season training with Margate, as Jamie Turner will be out for three months as he recovers from a double hernia operation.
For more details about KEEPER WARS and the Dartford Goalkeeping School please call John Macrae on 07729 170 687.
Visit Dartford’s websites: www.dartfordonline.com & www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk
For more details about the Ellenor Hospice visit www.ellenorfoundation.org
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