This team meets up every week at Villa Park and is part of the National Ability League. They are run by Nigel Macrow and their captain Connor Sherry has a podcast on our site. We are proud to say, he will be a regular contributor to Small Talk Sport.
My mum wanted him to 'give it a go...' in 2007/8 he made his debut playing Sunday matches at Villa park for the Ability Counts team. 'I used to be a striker, the coach said try right back, basically, I'm right-footed ..not so good on my left! I had a good go at it and it suited me more...I remember when I scored a goal once in a very important match I couldn't help myself feeling all kinds of different emotions.
“ I have been playing disability football since the age of 5 and now I'm 21 so that's about 16 years and it's really helped me a lot."
It's really helped me a lot...football...mentally to try and learn new things.... growing up I have autism and other needs and it was very hard to try and socialise with new people or get involved a lot, it was a bit of a struggle at first but I had loads of support from the staff, in particular Nigel, a Villa disability coach, runs disability sessions for younger groups to adults. He does a fantastic job and has worked at the Villa for over 30 years.
To hear Connors' full interview click on the podcast section of our website.
