*BS*The club’s Academy enjoyed another successful season, with Mike Sandmann providing an end of season report here – including details of one player who has accepted a scholarship to play in the United States.*BF*

The Academy finished the Conference Youth League in 2nd place a point behind Bromley and losing the least amount of games in the division.

Mike Sandmann, the Academy Manager, said: “It has been another extremely successful season in terms of development as individual players and as a team. As an Academy we never set out to win leagues as our season’s goal but to improve and learn from each game and we have certainly done that.

“Performance is something I always judge the players on which 9 times out of 10 comes hand in hand with results which keeps the players happy.

“The work ethic from the group of players has been excellent and a real pleasure to work with this year. We make sure that our hard work on the training pitch is implemented in the matches and players have the freedom to express themselves within a philosophy the Academy has installed.

“The Academy has seen 7 players involved with the first team in Kent Senior Cup matches which has resulted in a number of them being invited into pre-season by the Manager. I am hoping they can prove their worth and earn themselves a contract with it.

“Joshua Donnelly has also been offered a full scholarship to The University of Florida which is excellent news and credit to his hard work. We have also had players representing Kent on a regular basis which once again shows the talent we have within our Academy.

“We have a good group of players coming into the Academy in August to join up with our current 1st years, which I am looking forward to working with and monitoring their progress over the 2 years. The interest for the Academy gets stronger and stronger each year, showing that we have a great track record for developing players.

“The first team’s success this year has shown once again proved Dover Athletic is a massive club and I am pleased young players want to be a part of that.

The Academy plays their matches on Wednesday afternoons at Crabble and would love to see as many of you come and support them. All details for matches are posted via their twitter page – @DoverFCAcademy