In the summer of 2008, Swinton Cougars Under 13's manager Dean Wright resigned and joined Fives Athletic A.F.C. His assistant Duncan Trott followed him and on June 1st 2008 they held their first training session as Fives Athletic under 14's. They stood nervously on Bolton Road Playing Fields waiting for people to arrive to a session that was only advertised in the Salford Reporter.
All the old faces arrived one by one as well as a couple of new ones over the following weeks and Fives Athletic had their youngest ever team.
The team entered the North Bury League and were placed in the A Division.
Pre Season went fantastically the team not losing any friendly games at all, so expectations were high for the first league game on the new home ground against Middleton in early September. The day was an anti climax though as Fives Juniors lost their first competitive game 4-3. The first half of the season wasn't the greatest with good performances not being rewarded, such as losing a last minute goal to North Walkden to lose 2-1 or going out of the cup to Bridge Colts in extra time.
However you could sense a breakthrough coming and a turn in fortune. This came in the second match of the new year, away to 2nd placed Bury FC. A great performance against the odds saw a 5-2 away win and fortunately, despite losing the next two games, results went for Fives and thoughts turned from avoiding relegation to gaining promotion in what was a very tight division.
From the end of February the team won 7 out of 9 matches, drawing and losing the other two respectively. This was promotion form and there was a noticeable change in attitude in the lads after Christmas. There was more maturity and everyone was beginning to know there role in the team and what was expected. There was always a positive attitude which was needed sometimes as there always seemed to be someone missing at every match meaning a change in selection or someone playing out of position. In actual fact only once, against Bury Amateurs at home, was every player present.
This was a blessing in disguise in some ways with players changing position they excelled in their new role, most notably Dylan Green moving from centre forward to centre midfield and Chris Wright moving from centre midfield to centre back.
Unfortunately the two games from February Fives lost points were both against Bury FC. This meant Bury finished 1 point higher in the league, grabbing promotion to the Premier Division for themselves and leaving Fives in third.
Third place was very respectable and is a good foundation to build on for next season.
Congratulations to Nathan Riley for his 27 goals, meaning he was top goalscorer at the club.
Dylan Green scooped Managers Player of the Year and Players Player of the Year.
Chris Wright captained the team excellently again and won Most Improved Player of the Year.
Ricky Hilton won Clubman of the Year, partly for the fact he featured in every single game of the season, along with Tom & Joe Jones, Tom playing every minute of every game.
A season to be proud of with good success on the pitch and plenty of things to work on and improve in order to progress even further next season.
Well done to every player who represented Fives Athletic Juniors, including Higgsy, Scott, Jono and Brad who left during the season.