Coach aims to move college academy forward
It’s been a busy summer for Michael Hamilton as he puts the finishing touches to his AFC Wimbledon College Academy squad for 2014/15 and his new crop started with a bang on Wednesday.
Michael, who is Head of the College Academy, has whittled his squad down to 17 after a series of well attended trials, but there was still a chance for trialist Lewis Boakye to make an impression as he scored in a 5-3 win against Hanworth Villa on Wednesday.
Dan Ano, who also plays for the Under-18s in the Football League Youth Alliance, and Jaszime Johnson shared the other two goals in a first pre-season match for the college squad. Laurien Katumba is one of the new boys in this season’s squad and he is pictured in match action above.
.Dons AcademyThe AFC Wimbledon College Academy provides an opportunity to combine education with competitive football in the Football Conference Youth League Premier Division. More information is available by clicking on
In the past few seasons, plenty of players have progressed from the college academy to play in the Football League Youth Alliance against Under-18 squads from professional academies. The most recent player to do this was defender Ian Smith, who has started the season with Mark Robinson’s Under-18s.
Michael Hamilton said: “We have a group for this season made up of 95 per cent first years and it’s good to finally see the new squad in a game. We consider the players who join us as late developers, and I’m confident that at this stage of their development there is no better place for them.
“There are lots of positives from our first game and it’s good to see the boys trying to replicate what we’ve worked on in training. We tired towards the end, which was always going to be the case against a side who had been back in training a month longer than us. It was good for morale to get a victory and we can start increasing work load for the squad.”
Giordana Zabotti, Daniel Adebola; Ridol Nassirou, Michael Boateng, Ian Smith, James Smith, Derrick Danso, Jamie Hardwick, Elias Hilali, Noam Wolf Quenum, Jay Jaskolski, Fabio Finetti, Redon Gashi, Duane Williams, Jazsime Johnson, Daniel Hildebrandt, Laurien Katumba. The new 2014/15 college squad is as follows: