Learning disability week 09: Grapevine kick it around
June 27, 2009 by Dave Musson
As this year’s learning disability week comes to an end, Dave Musson followed a team of footballers with learning disabilities as they took on a side representing Coventry City in a special showcase match.
“Oh yeah, we’ll definitely win. Bring it on.”
Grapevine’s player-coach Danny Parrot is in a bullish mood with less than two hours to go before kick-off. “I haven’t stopped hearing about this match for the past two months, the guys have been getting really excited in training and this last couple of weeks they’ve been counting down the days.”
The excitement of the Grapevine players is understandable – not only is the team’s first proper match, but they are about to take on a team from Coventry City in a special match to mark learning disability week and for many of Grapevine’s players it is a chance to play against the team they support on the terraces every home match.
The match came about as a result of Grapevine working closely with Paul Reynolds, who is the disability development officer for Coventry City, as well as being a coach with the Great Britain cerebral palsy and blind teams.
Danny explains, “The members here really wanted to do football as a way of having fun and keeping fit, and Paul wanted to set something up aimed at players with a learning disability, so it worked out really well.
“Today’s match is a brilliant opportunity for us to raise awareness that people with a learning disability can play football, do sport or whatever they want to do. Being learning disability week as well, it was a perfect time to show everyone that Grapevine has a football team and that we have been working with Coventry City.”
As yet, the Grapevine side does not play matches against other groups – they only formed midway through the season that has just finished – but there are plans to join a local league next year with Paul’s help.
“To start with we just organised training sessions on a Monday,” says Danny, “but now Paul has said we’ve got enough people coming regularly to justify putting us into a league, which is hopefully what will happen.”
Pre-match press done, Danny, his players and a sizeable number of travelling supporters from Grapevine make their way to the city’s Alan Higgs Centre. On arrival they come face-to-face with the six players with whom they would do battle; joining Paul Reynolds was assistant co-ordinator for the community Shaun Pearce, part-time community coach Nathan Watts, young football ambassador for the FA Callum O’Donnell, former Coventry City goalkeeper Neil Collett and former Nuneaton Borough player Danny Williams, who also played for the England learning disability side in last year’s European Championships.
A tough task, but one that didn’t seem to phase the Grapevine players, who exuded the same sort of confidence that their coach had done in his pre-match interview.
Come kick-off and you could see just why Danny and his players had such a spring in their step; they passed the ball around with confidence and kept their shape, and it was little surprise to see them race into a two-nil lead.
Both goals came courtesy of star striker Callum Carr, twice hitting well-placed low shots beyond the former pro keeper Collett in the Coventry goal – much to the delight of the pom-pom waving Grapevine support.
But the goals seemed to shock Coventry into action and they started to enjoy more possession, before Reynolds headed in from close range to get them back in the match.
They continued to press Grapevine, getting back on level terms just a few minutes before the interval with a bundled finish from England international Williams.
It was a cruel blow for Grapevine, but Danny rallied his troops at half time and whatever he said must have worked, as they came out of the blocks at a frantic pace, again scoring two quick goals.
The first came courtesy of a stunning strike from gigantic defender Gordan Lowe, who was one of the standout performers for his side. Lowe won possession and advanced over halfway. Noticing that Collett was out of position, he unleashed a stinging shot that flew into the goal, much to the astonishment of
the Coventry players.
Grapevine then extended their lead further, this time their coach getting on the scoresheet, sweeping a shot across Collett and into the bottom corner.
But, as in the first half, Coventry managed to get back on level terms with first Pearce and then Williams finishing from very close range.
Undettered, Grapevine came back once more and incredibly scored two more goals – both of them coming from Carr, who seemed to be scoring with every touch.
Having been denied his hat-trick in the first half when he saw his shot come back off the inside of the post, Carr finally bagged his third with a goal that all about thinking on your feet. Having volunteered to have a stint in goal for Coventry, he then decided to switch back to Grapevine just as the ball arrived at his feet with a open goal in front of him, which he blasted it into.
His fourth goal moments later was much less devious as he waltsed through the Coventry team before finishing well.
But Coventry refused to lay down, and Williams completed a hat-trick of his own with five minutes left to play, underlining his international class while
also ensuring a frantic finale.
Coventry pressed and pressed, but Grapevine seemed to deal with everything that was thrown at them – particularly Lowe, who looked unbeatable. But Grapevine hearts were broken with the final kick of the match, as Pearce equalised with a neat volley to ensure a final score of 6-6.
The match ended with loud applause from the fans watching on the sidelines and players from both sides congratulating each other. A draw was probably a fair result and Grapevine’s players didn’t look too disappointed. Their performance also impressed Reynolds, who was full of praise for his opponents.
He said, “What we’ve done today is try to raise the awareness for national LD week. Every week, we work with this group for about an hour on Monday mornings doing football training and it’s really shown today – their teamwork and the enjoyment they got from the match has been absolutely brilliant.”
As for Grapevine, to have victory snatched from them with the final kick was tough, but Danny had nothing but positive things to say about his team’s performance.
“We were aiming for a win,” he said, “so it was a bit of a shame to have to draw, but my team did well and it was really enjoyable.
“They were pumped up before the match so I was never worried about their commitment to the team. The effort they put in was second to none, they did their best and they got a lot out of the game.”
What was most encouraging for Danny and his team was that they showed a clear talent and a real team spirit that will only go to serve them well should they achieve their aim of joining a league next season.
“Now we’ve actually played a match, they’ll all buzzing about the whole thing, so we’re really raring to go next season. Hopefully we’ll be able to get something sorted and get playing regularly.”
For more information about Grapevine, click here.
Photography credit: Dave Musson Photography
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I LOVEE YOU JLS NIAMH&ASTON xxx
Thanks for covering our 1st match the guys are now ready to take on the world if how they were after the match is anything to go by.