Juniors renamed as Kirkcaldy YM and Dysart merge to form community football partnership

Over 100 young footballers descended on Denfield Park on Monday night for the official launch of the Kirkcaldy Community Football Partnership.
Ltr rear Cllr Ian Cameron Cllr Alastair Cameron and Cllr Rod Kavanagh. Front Ltr, Lee Rough (Kirkcaldy YM), John Anderson (Kirkcaldy FC, Craig Simpson (Templehall Utd), Scott Jackson (Dysart AFC).Ltr rear Cllr Ian Cameron Cllr Alastair Cameron and Cllr Rod Kavanagh. Front Ltr, Lee Rough (Kirkcaldy YM), John Anderson (Kirkcaldy FC, Craig Simpson (Templehall Utd), Scott Jackson (Dysart AFC).
Ltr rear Cllr Ian Cameron Cllr Alastair Cameron and Cllr Rod Kavanagh. Front Ltr, Lee Rough (Kirkcaldy YM), John Anderson (Kirkcaldy FC, Craig Simpson (Templehall Utd), Scott Jackson (Dysart AFC).

The gathering brought together representatives from Kirkcaldy YM Juniors, Dysart AFC, Kirkcaldy FC and Templehall United, who have joined forces to create a pathway from the age of five all the way up to semi-professional senior level.

The move has also resulted in a merger between YM and Dysart, creating a newly named Kirkcaldy & Dysart FC, who will compete in the East Region Junior set-up next season.

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Kirkcaldy Central councillor Alistair Cameron, vice-chairman at YM and a driving force behind the Kirkcaldy Community Football Partnership, explained: “It’s taken three years to get here.

“A lot of credit has to go to Paul Armour, who had the vision to start it off but for various reasons, including ill-health, it got disbanded. Myself and Neil Crooks have taken it forward since then.

“We always knew it was a good idea, but we had a problem coming up with a formula that suited, in particular, the junior development age groups. Now we’ve done it.”

At the top of the pyramid, the merger between YM and Dysart has created a stronger club committee, allowing YM chairman Lee Rough to step aside to take on a lead officer role overseeing the new football partnership.

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Also crucial to pathway was the involvement of Templehall United, a thriving youth club with eight teams and around 150 players competing at various age groups from age five up to under 17 level.

“We had discussions with Templehall two or three months ago, and from a YM point of view, we met partners who just totally gelled with what we want to do,” Cllr Cameron said.

“We were just able to speak the same language.

“They were desperate to have a pathway for their children, and we were desperate to have a pathway backwards to put the hub together. It just seemed a perfect fit.”

Kirkcaldy FC have also come on board with teams at older age groups, and Cllr Cameron believes the collaboration is a breakthrough for the town, bringing the local junior club into line with similar feeder set-ups elsewhere in the Kingdom, such as at Kelty Hearts and Glenrothes Strollers.

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“We’re playing catch-up with other junior teams in Fife who’ve all got their pathways,” he said.

“We want a place where Kirkcaldy kids, boys and girls, can progress in football and they don’t feel they have to go to Glenrothes, Kelty or Dunfermline.

“We’ll be using Denfield as our hub and giving the kids in Kirkcaldy somewhere that they can aspire to play their football as they move through the age groups.

“We’re virtually the biggest town in Fife and we haven’t had this before. We’re a long way behind everyone else but we have made huge strides.”

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Part of the plans involve redevelopment of Denfield Park, with the newly formed Kirkcaldy & Dysart FC committee hoping to secure the ground they currently rent from Fife Council on a lease basis.

“We hope to spend quite a bit of money improving the grounds and that will start next week regardless of whether we get lease or not,” Cllr Cameron added.

“We’ll hopefully be able to enclose the park, give it more of a stadium feel to it, and try to take greater control of it.

“Those are ambitions and whether they come off or not is another matter, but we won’t be short on adventure and trying to make things better for people playing football in Kirkcaldy.”

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After an improved season on the pitch last year, the new Kirkcaldy & Dysart FC – who will retain the YM nickname – are aiming to continue their comeback from near extinction under the guidance of manager Craig Ness.

“YM made huge improvements last year,” Cllr Cameron added. “We went from one point in the league the year before to 23 points, which is fantastic.

“The plans are to push on again next season with the same management team.

“Things are looking good, but we needed to get this starting pont, and we can see from the turn-out tonight what enthusiaum there is from Templehall and Kirkcaldy FC to this partnership.

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“Dysart are also key to this because without those five committee members coming in we would have struggled to have enough people to do all the jobs that we want to be done.”

Cllr Cameron also stated that Kirkcaldy & Dysart FC have no immediate plans to follow the recent mass exodus of junior clubs into the East of Scotland League.

“We’re happy at the moment to stay junior,” he said.

“We’ll look at in year on year, but we’ll definitely be junior next year – it suits us.

“One or two East of Scotland clubs may well come back to the juniors because it’s not been what they wanted.

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“The problem is they now need floodlights to get their SFA licence and clubs have no chance of progressing because they’re never going to have the finances to do these things.

“Until we get a bit more competitive and maybe outgrow the league we’re in, we’re happy to stay where we are.”