Chairmans Update: Farsley Celtic Veteran’s Team

Firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the players, supporters and staff who joined us for the Football Festival on Sunday! I hope you all had a great day and enjoyed the matches and “talent” on show!

I am delighted to announce that we will be launching our own “Farsley Celtic Veteran’s Team” to represent the club.

This team will be led by our two Legends team captains Lee Connor and Mark Bett.

Both Lee and Mark are without doubt Farsley legends in their own right, both enjoying successful playing and assistant managerial roles, with Lee assisting Pars and John Deacey and more recently Mark being Adam Lakeland’s assistant.

I am delighted that we are bringing back a number of our ex players back home to the club. Their passion, winning mentality and love for the club is a hugely positive influence that we can all benefit from. Many of the players I have had the pleasure of getting to know are Farsley through and through and have enjoyed being back at the club and pulling on the shirt again, and will be more competitive than ever in representing the club once more!

When asked about his time at Farsley, Lee said: “I’ve had 3 spells with the club! I first signed from BPA when Martin Haresine was gaffer, I stayed for 3 seasons winning the players player, supporters player and managers player of the year.

“I returned to Farsley a second time when Lee Sinnott was in charge after a spell with Ashton FC. I then returned to Farsley a third time after appearing for Stalybridge Celtic when the club won promotion to the Evostik league.

“I stayed on as a player and myself and Mark Jackson performed a good partnership in defence. After having retired Clive freeman who I was mates with persuaded me to return to playing at 41 years old and i returned to Farsley for a final time as assistant to Pars and John Deacey.

“I’ve had some great memories with Farsley and still in touch with a lot of the ex players and fans, and have really enjoyed turning out in the colours on the last two legends events.”

Mark added: “My time at Farsley was an unbelievable time for me, I started as a 20 year old lad new to semi-pro level, but I was a raw player and relished the challenge.

“I was lucky to have a good manager n a good set of lad too! Throughout my time at the club we went on to win leagues and cups, I can’t remember how many but I was happy to add another one last weekend! As my playing career wound down I joined the managerial staff as Adam Lakeland’s assistant where we enjoyed further success and promotion! It’s great to be back here playing again, and I’m looking forward to representing the club again competitively!”

I will update you further as this team progresses, please join me in wishing all of our “veterans” every success back in the Farsley Green and white!

See you all soon!

Paul Barthorpe