Halfway into futsal’s first ever FA National Super League season and east London based side, Genesis FC find themselves bottom of the table.
This may come as a bit of a surprise for some as Genesis had established themselves as one of the best teams in the country, reaching the FA Futsal semi-finals as recently as last season.
Narrowly missing out on becoming the Southern Conference champions last season, Genesis were one of the 12 teams selected to compete in the National Super League as the FA looked to restructure their league formats.
Four months down the line, Genesis’ fortunes appear to have disappeared, as they fall to twelfth in the League, following a 5-2 loss to Tranmere Rovers Futsal Club who moved above them in the league as a result.
The Coach’s View
Genesis founder and coach Trevor Tamatave has faced a lot of difficulties this season: “We’ve struggled this season due to a lot of changes, we lost a lot of our experienced players including England International Max Kilman, and it has left us with a young squad.
“We’ve got three 16 year olds and a young average age to the squad. A lot of the young players have done really well, Liam Hunt has come in and scored a lot, Brandon Hubbard has been working hard and keeps the ball really well and Sonny White is starting to gain confidence but it has also meant we’ve lost a lot of close games where we’ve probably needed a bit more experience.”
Big Losses
It hasn’t just been the loss of key players that has hurt Genesis though, as Carlos Codinha stepped down from his role as Head Coach just after Christmas, meaning Tamatave has had to step into a more hands-on role with the help of assistant coach Manuel Sarmento.
“Carlos decided he had to leave due to ill health so Manuel and myself decided to try and stabalise the team and since the new year we have started off well.
“We won our first game, we were unlucky against the top team Escolla, but then we lost to Tranmere which wasn’t the greatest game” added Tamatave.
The Great Escape?
Despite their struggles, Tamatave has tried to remain positive in his quest to keep Genesis in the top flight:
“At the moment we’re just trying to get the team together, get them re-focused and carry on giving the young English talent a chance. We’re only halfway through the season, and we’ve got plenty of teams who are only just above us coming up. If we can get a good run of 3 or 4 wins then we’ll be out of the bottom two and back in mid table.”
Tamatave believes there’s still lots to play for before the season ends:
“It’s just a matter of staying focused and performing how I know we can. We’ve got some of the more experienced players returning such as Claudio Ribeiro which will hopefully give us a better balance of youth and experience and we’re hoping to really push on in the second half of the season and get some good results.”
Genesis have a game in hand on the two teams directly above them, which they’ll be desperate to win in a bid to start climbing the table and escape relegation. After half a season of upheaval, changes and adjustment Genesis will be hoping to now find some consistency and save their season.
