St Matthew's Project
@smpbrixton
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The St. Matthew’s Project is a registered charity offering free, structured football sessions and development opportunities to young people aged from 3 to 25.
Lambeth, London
Joined January 2014
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‘We came into the world like brother and brother, And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.’
#ShakespeareSunday
💙🖤
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Dear
@FA
and
@premierleague
- in light of today’s events in Denmark, how about you make sure every grassroots club has a free defibrillator instead of asking them to stump up £800?
127
3K
18K
If you watched the
#sainsburysadvert
and saw a black family instead of just a family, then you are the problem.
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1K
Officers from
@LambethMPS
rounded up some youths in Tulse Hill at 08.30 this morning.... And drove them out to West Wickham for the
@KickOffAt3
tournament. Thank you! ⚽️💙🖤😀
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136
997
Fantastic day out today at Stamford Bridge for two of our Saturday Club stars and dad, all huge Chelsea fans. Massive thank you to
@JustJohnJones
and
@LondonYouth
for facilitating. 💙👍
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SMP would like to apologise unreservedly to members of the public who've complained about being deprived of their 'picnic area' in Brockwell Park for 2 hours a day during the holidays whilst we provided free football, meals, boots and Take & Make boxes to local children.
#2Cities
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Dear
@Uber
- when 15 year-olds get in your cars in Brixton for a £150 round trip to Kent or Sussex, can you ask the drivers to report any possible concerns please?
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310
Summer Holiday Scheme, Brockwell Park. ⚽️☀️😀
Week Two in numbers -
Lowest attendance: 90
Highest attendance: 121
Average attendance: 104
Meals served: 650
Take & Make Boxes: 120
Smoothies: 60
Boots: 10
10
30
274
SMFC U12s on the road today out in Croydon bumped into Stormzy, who kindly posed for a photo! (He’s at the back...) 😀💙🖤
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Four young men were stopped and searched in Brockwell Park today and found to be in possession of fantastic attitude, effort and commitment.
#StarPlayers
⚽️😃👏
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Terrible sadness at the loss of SMFC U15s coach, Ricky Jordan. A Brixton boy through and through, Ricky had developed the team since U10s and was loved and respected by one and all. Fittingly, he took the last SMFC match before the lockdown. Our thoughts go out to his family 💙🖤
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Very sad to say that one of them did not stick to our agreement.
Shook hands in agreement today with 3 of our 16 year-old boys that they will attend my funeral and not vice versa. Please God they stick to it.
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‘The members of the board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folk would never have discovered - the poor people like it!’ - Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
#ToryFoodTips
💙
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Never been about ‘getting scouted’ at SMP but it’s always nice to have played a part in a young footballer’s journey. And especially so with
@Alexcolin_
who is now both a gentleman and a scholar. 💙🖤⚽️🤍💙
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SMFC star player last Saturday, U15s Tashane, cycled from Brixton to Kingston Vale for a 10.00 KO, played 2 double bankers then stopped off at Wandsworth Common on the way home to support the U12s. His reward was 3 West Ham tickets v Everton, kindly donated on the Sunday morning!
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Our player of the week, Saturday Club regular, Amadou, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday. ⚽️🎂😀
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The trouble with Old Etonians running the country is that despite their parents forking out 40-odd grand a year for them to learn Latin, it takes a 23 year-old state-school kid from south Manchester to educate them about child poverty.
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Massive thank you to
@CPFC
and Wilfred Zaha for the signed shirt and message, and to big Palace fan
@earlyyearscop
for sorting! A real tonic for a young man recovering from a recent unprovoked assault. ❤️💙🦅⚽️👍😀
#Champs
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Was at Millwall once when a plastic bottle bounced off a steward’s head. He fetched a policeman and shouted at the fans ‘Who threw that?’ A bloke stood up and shouted back
#ImSpartacus
followed, one by one, by about another 100-odd blokes. 🦁🙈
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Another 88 free meals served today in Brockwell Park at our half term football session. Unprecedented for a February and numbers we would only expect to see in the summer holiday. Food for thought.
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Massive well done to Farah today on his very first game as a referee. Farah, a Sudanese refugee, came to us via his mentor Ella at Lambeth Council. He’d been a ref in Sudan and wanted to get his FA qualification through us. Many thanks, too, to Dave at
@lcsyfl
for taking him on.
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In August we welcomed a young boy from Ukraine. On Saturday he played in goal for SMFC, saved a penalty and was mobbed by his team mates in a spontaneous outburst of joy and empathy. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, he will carry this memory back to a pitch in Ukraine 🇺🇦
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Very sad news. An old mate came back to Brixton to have a look round the old manor but unfortunately, whilst reminiscing, he stood in the same spot for a little too long and was turned into a luxury flat. Thoughts and prayers to his family. And Brixton.🙏 Have a great weekend.
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2004, a kickabout in Brockwell Park for kids off St. Matthew’s Estate becomes a twice-weekly summer holiday scheme, an award ceremony at the end a chance for everyone to say goodbye and go back to whatever they were doing. 20 years later, here we are. God moves in mysterious ways
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After a young man is murdered and all the noise has died down, the self-promoters and the chancers have disappeared and the flowers at the scene have turned to mush; you go back and see a Christmas card left by the victim’s mum, and then you fully understand the tragedy.
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Summer Holiday Scheme, Brockwell Park. ⚽️☀️😀
Week One in numbers -
Lowest attendance: 96
Highest attendance: 120
Average attendance: 105
Meals served: 575
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174
Brockwell Park Summer stats:
Total throughput of participants: 2,418
Unique number of participants: 185
Average daily attendance: 97
Highest attendance: 122
86% of participants from Lambeth
51% of participants from SW2
Number of free meals: 2,270
Take & Make Recipe boxes: 320
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One of our boys yesterday - 16, black, dressed all in black, puffer coat with hood up in hot weather.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Waterloo.’
‘Why?’
‘To take pictures of reflections on the Thames for my GCSE course.’
Stop and search for different perspectives. 👍📸
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The phone calls about our summer scheme where the last, hesitant question is always ‘How much does it cost…?’, followed by the palpable relief and disbelief that it is all free, are the best forms of validation that you are doing something right. 👍
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Extremely proud of our coaches helping out at the Lambeth food distribution centre at Brixton Rec. We hope to have a team of 6 in place by next week.
#Community
👍
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Crackheads using the netting as a hammock; grass littered with dog mess; litre canisters of nitrous oxide; gang-bangers, skunk and Uncle Wray; 2 memorials to murdered former participants; paranoia at every moped and hatchback. But 1.5 hours of innocence and fun every week.⚽️👍
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A child not a statistic. ⚽️💙🖤
#FootballUnitedAgainstKnifeCrime
(With the consent of John’s family.)
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To any potential youth workers with a long criminal record worried or embarrassed about a DBS check. Remind yourself that without your past you probably wouldn’t have the desire to help young people in the present. 👍
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Big day today, SMP’s first ever day trip to the seaside. 45 family members off to Brighton and free wristbands for the Palace Pier! ☀️🌊🎪😀
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A very special day yesterday at Brockwell Park when one of the very first kids off St. Matthew’s Estate to take part in the early SMP kick-abouts brought his 6 year-old son to the Saturday Club.
#Family
⚽️😀
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Congratulations to SMP Saturday Club regular Tyrell on joining Fulham FC’s Academy. As ever though, feet firmly on the floor. 👍
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55 parents and children all aboard for a day trip to Brighton with free lunch and unlimited wristbands for the Palace Pier! Big thank you to Lambeth HAF for facilitating. Hoping the sun puts in an appearance. 🌊🌤️🎡🍦😀
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Great to have our old friend ‘PC Ray’ (now DS) don his old uniform and pop down to Brockwell Park today. Played in goal, got soaked, ruined his uniform and handed out meals. Top man. 😀⚽️
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‘I grew up in poverty and never resorted to crime or violence...’ is, understandably, a common refrain; but material poverty is one thing, poverty of hope, opportunity and aspiration is something else entirely.
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When the only girl in the team scores her first goal. ⚽️💙🖤😀
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SMFC teams training tonight at Ferndale Sports Centre, Brixton. 61 kids off the streets. 👍⚽️💙🖤
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First batch of 36 laptops that will be going out to young people in genuine need. No more having to rely on libraries, other spaces and mobile phones to do their studies! Massive thank you to
@lambeth_council
and the Digital Inclusion Fund. 👍
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Yesterday we saw 98 young people attend our Saturday Club in Brockwell Park, unprecedented numbers outside of a holiday scheme and further evidence of children and young people’s reaction to lockdown. 👍
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A year in cage football: 45 kids; 2,140 after-school snacks; 8 months chasing council about dog mess; 3 months to get floodlights fixed; a summer of skunk and nitrous oxide; 3 gang-related closures; 8 firearm incidents; a day trip to Margate. It’s always more than football… ⚽️👍
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One of our
#StephenLawrenceDay
award winners, who wrote: ‘I would like for people to stop being racist and anybody can be what they want...’ Well said. 👍
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Seeing 6 former SMFC players jailed on Friday was a real negative. Today, seeing 14 young men, many of whom have been through the CJS themselves, turning out for the first official SMFC men’s match was a real positive. ✅⚽️💙🖤😀
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Established June 1st 2004. Only meant to run for 6 weeks. God moves in mysterious ways.
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This year we are running our 17th consecutive summer football scheme in Brockwell Park. Our record attendance of 98 young people was set in the summer of 2008. Today we saw 100 young people take part. The 100th young person turned up over an hour late but we let him off. ⚽️🍽️☀️😀
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The housing crisis isn't just about people sleeping in doorways. It's a 15 year-old travelling to Brockwell Park from Dagenham to train with his football team and keep in touch with his mates.
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When SMP first started up, young people from St. Matthew’s Estate and Tulse Hill Estate would only stick to certain parts of Brockwell Park to avoid each other. Lovely to see two fine representatives from both estates on their journey today. ⚽️😀
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Dad works night shift, 10.00pm-6.00am. Grabs an hour’s sleep then drops off son to us by bus for 8.30am meet for an away match. Grabs a couple more hours sleep then collects son at 1.00pm. Not all parents absent from the touch line are disinterested in their kids’ lives.
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Our hat-trick hero Ivanildo yesterday. Newly-arrived from Guinea-Bissau last year with no English and no friends, this young man’s progression both on and off the pitch has left everyone smiling. 🇬🇼⚽️🇬🇧💙🖤😀
#FootballFamily
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To 'Anonymous', who made a generous donation today with the message 'In memory of John Ogunjobi. Much missed.' - thank you very, very much, from all at SMP.
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At the request of his mum, tomorrow we celebrate what would have been John's 20th birthday. After 4 years, people's outlooks on life can change a great deal, allegiances and loyalties can shift. If that's you and you know something, please call 101 anonymously.
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So proud of and grateful to our artist, Bethany for our new logo for Brockwell Park. Bethany was one of our first ever Girls-Only Club players back in 2008, and recently returned to transform an old wooden table into a wonderful sign! ⚽️🎨😀
#Family
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Another 80 free meals and educational resource packs handed out yesterday at our first half-term session. 👍 Thanks to
@mayorsfund
and Kitchen Social.
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Bit of culture before the tournament at Salisbury Cathedral. ⚽️💙🖤👍
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10 lessons in life for young people:
Honesty
Integrity
Empathy
Good manners
Respect for one another
Win and lose gracefully
Take responsibility for your actions
Don’t take anything for granted
Be true to yourself
Don’t buy the Sun
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Extremely proud of SMFC U16s, runners-up in the end at
@KickOffAt3
- congratulations to Kingswood FC (from up the road!). Huge thank you to Sgt. Lucy Burrows and PC Joe Seddon from
@LambethMPS
and
@MW_kickoffat3
for a great day. Hope to have many more.
⚽️👮♂️💙🖤🥈👍
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Difficult to capture on film but we set a new record today at our Saturday Club scheme in Brockwell Park, with 108 young people in attendance. ⚽️
#15Years
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Football is back, but not as we know it! 3 zones x 5 players per zone x 3 time slots x 3 nights. First steps back after 3-month break and great to see our young people meeting up again. Big thank you to
@YellowQube
for facilitating.
⚽️💙🖤😀
#StaySafe
🌈
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Young man who's experienced multiple traumas, including watching 2 close friends breathe their last, and who'd steadfastly refused any counselling, announces one day at an SMFC Seniors' match: 'This is my therapy'. Support comes in many guises, just being there is a start. 💙🖤⚽️
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Yesterday over 60 young men came out in pouring rain to play football in memory of their friend & raise funds. Don't tell Evening Standard.
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Yesterday a young girl with autism presented one of our coaches with a picture she’d drawn by way of a thank you for our summer holiday club. These are the only awards that really matter, from the people that really matter. 🏅👍
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We won! 😀 Sincere thank you to every single person who voted for us - very much appreciated. 🔵⚽️👍
Vote in Tesco in Brixton and the Oval during March and April to help us secure a Tesco
#BagsofHelp
grant for our summer holiday scheme, which provides free football & food for local kids!
Thank you! 😀👍 Blue tokens 🔵
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Not ones to sell ‘The Dream’ but well done Ivan. From Guinea-Bissau aged 6 without a word of English, mentored by our Portuguese coach
@GaffaMaz
from day one. A long journey that has seen the best and worst in youth football. And whatever the final outcome, we’ll be here for him.
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Over 160 young men turned up yesterday in memory of their friend in a fantastic show of loyalty and affection. You can try and replace communities with luxury flats but you can never replace a community in people’s hearts.
👍⚽️💙🖤
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6 months ago, during a difficult period at SMP, a rival league club reached out and offered support. They then made us joint beneficiaries of their annual charity event. That club is
@BroomwoodFC
- a special club run by special people. Thank you from the bottom of our 💙🖤💚⚽️
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Youth football is fast becoming a lucrative industry, with £500+ signing-on fees plus monthly fees at some clubs. And yet one of the saddest conversations that still remains for us is when a mum asks if she can pay our £10 fee in two instalments. ⚽️💰
#GrassRoots
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There is no greater honour or recognition in youth work, coaching, etc. than when a young person you once worked with comes back to introduce you to their first child. (Nothing makes you feel older either.)
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An ex-SMFC U10s player, now 16, recently got a scholarship at a Premier League club. In the same month, one of his old U10s team mates was arrested for supplying Class A. Not everyone can be a footballer and not everyone will end up in a gang. Somewhere in the middle is OK by us.
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Huge well done and congratulations to Saturday Club regular, Ishmael. After always helping to pack equipment away without ever being asked, he is now an official SMP volunteer, and received a £50 JD voucher by way of a thank you for all is efforts to date! 👍
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Boot rack in Brockwell Park neat and tidy again after looking like Primark on a Bank Holiday this week. An unprecedented 31 pairs of boots handed out in just 9 days over the holidays. Big thank you to everyone who’s donated boots. 👍
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Super proud of the SMP summer-holiday coaching team, including 7 former participants, who managed an unprecedented 122 young people in Brockwell Park today.
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Four men, average age 22, steal an Audi Q5, carry out a recce, arm themselves and lie in wait to kill a 16 year-old over nothing. You are not protecting gangsters, you are protecting child killers.
Detectives offer a #£20k
#reward
for information leading to a conviction in the
#murder
of John Ogunjobi, 16, in
#TulseHill
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SMP summer scheme in numbers:
Total throughput of young people: 2,453
Average weekly attendance: 491
Average daily attendance: 98
Meals: 3,160
Take & Make boxes: 300
Smoothies: 160
Boots: 40
Star Players: 8
USA soccer teams: 3
USA authors: 1
☀️⚽️😀
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Huge well done and congratulations to SMP coach, Megan on completing the London Marathon in a time of 4.34.09! A massive thank you too to everyone who sponsored her. 🥇👏
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SMP Easter Holiday staff team today in Brockwell Park. 11 of the 15 coaches are former participants, average age 21. Their average age when first attending SMP - 9 years old. ⚽️😀
#Family
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'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...'
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Day 1 summer scheme in Brockwell Park - 2 hours of free football and over 60 meals served! SMP: it does what it says on the tin. ⚽️☀️🌯🍏😀👍
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A lovely gesture from SMFC U14s opponents, Sporting Duet, in Brockwell Park today, bringing flowers for John O. ⚽️💙🖤💙❤️
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Congratulations to SMFC U11s on winning the London County Saturday Youth League Shield today! Our very own kings. ⚽️💙🖤👑😀
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Message to all young people: No matter what career path you take in life, what goals you set out to achieve; if you try to just blag your way through it all, you will always get found out in the end. Always.
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We don't provide free Sky TV subscriptions for those in need, but we do offer free second-hand football boots in good conditions. All donations welcome. 👍
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This year we have handed out over 150 pairs of second-hand football boots. A huge thank you to everyone who donated. If you have any old boots still in good condition you’d like to donate, please see our website for contact details. ⚽️👍
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Our very own
@coach_DSB
will be stepping up to a full-time position thanks to
@peterMinetTrust
. We are delighted to have a former participant now playing a key role in shaping the future of SMP.
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93
Never know who you’re going to bump into in Brockwell Park -
@munyachawawa
with some of the SMFC U13s today. Top geezer. 💙🖤👍
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Young man, 18, charged with attempted murder. Known him since he was 6. Not overlooking his victim, but if some people lived to be 200, they wouldn’t have as many obstacles placed in front of them as this kid had. We tried but what he really needed was long-term psychiatric help.
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Yesterday we celebrated our 20th anniversary where it all began, St. Matthew’s Estate, Brixton. 400 free meals, 100 free ice creams, 200 free smoothies, face painting, Brixton Fire Brigade & Police
@GrooveSchoolUK
@BrixChamber
- and above all, a real coming together! 2️⃣0️⃣🎉😀
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Travelling to away games together seems a lifetime ago. As we take steps to slowly re-emerge, we might all have to accept that things will never be the same again. 💙🖤
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3 weeks ago all these crates were full of football boots. If you’ve got any old boots in good condition lying around under a bed or in a cupboard somewhere, we’d be very happy to have them. Especially sizes 6 and up. (*Happy to collect too.) ⚽️👍
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Just a few hundred yards from all the braying and guffawing outside Brixton’s new fashionable bars and restaurants today, a longstanding community came together in unity.
#SW2
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122 young people today at our first half-term holiday session in Brockwell Park; unprecedented numbers for February, even with the nice weather.
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Park life. 120 young people in attendance at our half-term session in Brockwell Park yesterday. ⚽️🍂😀
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