Club History

A brief history by Mick Wattam

I have been asked to provide a plotted history of Shepshed Dynamo Youth and Junior Football Club. I am not quite sure why I have been asked, probably because I am the longest serving member. Rather like Pete Bull at the Dovecote, if you cut my arm, I bleed Shepshed junior football, with Pete; it's Shepshed Dynamo or Charterhouse.

The Club was founded on the 6 January 1991, so we have been going for just over 10 years, a young club really. At that time, there was only one junior football club in Shepshed and that was Shepshed Amateurs Youth FC. They had a couple of  teams at differing age levels. The new Club wanted to provide the lads of Shepshed with a further opportunity to play football on a year-by-year basis and provide competition within the Town. They decided to call the newly formed club Shepshed Dynamo Y.F.C. It is interesting that we have now gone full circle and reverted back to the name Shepshed Dynamo. The intention was to start with two teams, one at under 11 level and the other at under 12 age group level and build up from there.

On the 16 June 1991, a special meeting was convened and the Club name was altered to Shepshed Albion 91 FC Juniors. The name was chosen to reflect the historical heritage links between the name Albion and the town of Shepshed.

The first game was played in July of 1991. The first goal I recall was scored against Keyworth in a 16-1 trashing of the Club. Still we had scored a goal. An Under 11 and 12 team played in the Leicester and District Under 11 and 12 League during the 1991/1992 season. An Under 9's team played friendly matches as at that time the Mutual League, which accommodates Under 8's to Under 10's, had not started. They all played 11 a side football.

Trips to Wembley, Villa Park, the City ground and Filbert Street all helped to develop the minds and skills of the young lads over the years. The first trip abroad for the Club was to Domont near Paris in April of 1996. The Under 12's team played teams from Germany and France in a fun packed weekend.

In the summer of 1997, the club started two girls teams, under the name of Shepshed Albion Girls. Regrettably after a couple of seasons the two clubs drifted apart but at the start of this current season, we have started again with an Under 12's girls team. So if you see the name Shepshed Dynamo Girls being banned about, give them a wave and your support.

It took until season 1999 /2000 for the Club to graduate one team into the first division of the Leicestershire Youth League. Although that team ultimately struggled to compete at that level, the club has now had division one representation for four years running. This is a very high level of football to play at and an honour to compete with some of the top clubs in Leicester.

The juniors have always had strong ties with the senior club in Shepshed. This year, Shepshed Albion changed their name back to Shepshed Dynamo Youth and Juniors with a hope of even closer ties with the senior club. The hope is that next season, we can start an Under 18's team with Shepshed Dynamo and the season after that, you should see some youngsters from Shepshed and around forcing their way into the reserve and first team.

Many of our youngsters have been scouted by the bigger clubs such as Forest, Derby and Leicester. We have had twelve lads through our books and played at the academies. Currently there are five Shepshed lads playing at the academies and hopefully the number playing in the first team at the Dynamo will increase.

Since 2000 the committee and coaches / managers have been working to the F.A Charter Standard, guidelines, codes, and procedures. This has helped focus our club and make it a safe environment for our youngsters to enjoy their sport.