UKAF Men's Football Team Start New Regime With Training Ahead Of Kentish Cup

The UK Armed Forces men's football team have trained under new head coach Flight Sergeant Dyfan Pierce for the first time – 18 months after his appointment.

It's been 20 months since the team lifted the Kentish Cup for the fourth successive tournament with then-head coach Flight Sergeant Nick De-Long leaving after the triumph.

Since then, due to COVID-19, the players have been unable to train or play a match but have now returned to the pitch in Portsmouth.

The team is very different from the one that won in December 2019.

A number of key players have left, including Rob Perkins and Danny Stoneman, with Ryan Paddock also missing due to injury.

It's allowed a number of new players to make the step up to UKAF level while one former player has returned.

Warrant Officer Class 2 Keith Emmerson took time away from the team to coach the Army men's squad but is back in the UKAF fold.

"I got promoted and started a new job so I was busy with that," he said. "I took the assistant manager's job with the Army team so I was quite busy with that as well.

"I had to concentrate on one or the other so UKAF had to take the sideline for a couple of years while I did that.

"Now, that's all done and dusted now, so I'm back with the gaffer and the rest of the boys," he added.

WO2 Emmerson believes the change of head coach is a positive move for the future of the team.

WATCH: How the UK Armed Forces team won the 2019 Kentish Cup.

He explained: "I think there's always going to be that renewed energy.

"I think what Nick did and what Dyfan's doing is modernising it, which is probably needed.

"Eighteen years I've been involved with service football and, this year and the previous year, we've kind of been getting better and better with the squad, the players that are involved now, the coaches and everyone seems to be developing a lot more.

"I think that's only good for the sport in general," he added.

Also in the squad was the new RAF Men's captain Sergeant Lewis Brownhill, brother to Premier League footballer Josh, who can't wait to get stuck into the action again.

"We've got to hit the ground running," he said. "It's a quick turnaround. There's no messing about, there's no going off to single services and playing Inter Services first.

"We're all in it together as we always are and that's how we move forward.

"That's the only way we are going to carry on this successful period of UK Armed Forces – by sticking together.

"I think that's what we're going to do. We start from now really," he said.

The Kentish Cup is set to take place in late November with the Draper Tools Community Stadium, home of Havant and Waterlooville FC, chosen as the host stadium.

UKAF have also pencilled in potential warm-up fixtures against Loughborough University and the Irish Defence Forces.