Hendon FC's Youth section had another successful season to celebrate yesterday afternoon at their presentation ceremony.

Club Chairman Mr Ivor Arbiter noted the three-figure audience and remarked, "I would like to see this number of people attending first team matches. All the players, as club members, receive free admission to all Hendon FC Ryman League Premier Division fixtures during the season and it would be great to your parents attending with you.

"Our teams have had another very good season with two league champions, a runners-up and a third place for the four teams. My dream at Hendon FC is to have the best 'Academy-style' youth set-up in North London. Maybe we can get another player to be like Junior Lewis who was at Hendon two years ago and is now in the Premier League (at Leicester)."

Each of the four team managers spoke about their season and made presentations in four categories: Manager's Player of the Year, Players' Player of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year and Clubman of the Year.

Under-16s manager Steve Neville was delighted to report that his team had followed up 2000's Harrow Youth League Division One title, with the Premier Division title in 2001. "After we won the league last season," he said, "a number of managers told me they reckoned we had been lucky to win our division. Well I think we proved them wrong. The boys were absolutely brilliant and we put together a great run from January which effectively clinched the title for us. We won the league by two points. I must thank my assistant James Smith and my other helpers. Without them I don't know where I would be."

Under-15s manager Dave Merrilees knew he was going to have a hard time and so it turned out. He said, "This was the hardest season I have ever had to deal with in youth football. The players suffered terribly in the bad weather and at the age of 15, a lot of them find other things to do and new interests. I would have been happy to finish third from bottom at the end of the season and so I am delighted to report that we finished third in the Harrow Youth League Premier Division, after winning promotion in each of the last two seasons, and with a little bit of luck could have ended up second."

A special memento was awarded to Mr Jeff Salmon, who paid for the Under-15s squad to have a weekend away at the start of the season, a bonding exercise Mr Merrilees recognised as the making of his squad.

It will be a new regime for the current Under-14s squad next season as current manager Dragan Jenic has decided to stand down after two seasons. His replacement is Richard Llewellyn. Mr Jenic took last season's under 13s Harrow Youth League Division Three champions into the Premier Division and they did magnificently to finish second. He said, "We needed only a point from our last game of the season to win the title, but we played very badly and lost. However, the biggest disappointment I have had in football - either here in England or in Yugoslavia (he played in the national 2nd division) was in the Middlesex County Youth Cup. We won our quarter-final, but the other team appealed and we were expelled." On a more positive note, Mr Jenic was pleased to announce that one of his squad, Andre Daley, would be joining Arsenal next season.

Hendon Under-13s manager Phil Neville emulated his brother Steve by winning the Harrow Youth League Division Two title in his first season. "After the success the club had in Division Three the Under-13s last year," he said, "the Harrow Youth League decided to make it harder for us by putting us in Division Two. We won the league without losing a game - although the first match after clinching the title saw us lose for the first time as we took our feet of the pedal. Our defence was brilliant. In the first 10 games we scored 53 goals and conceded just 8. The most memorable day was our double-header against Wealdstone. We won the first game 4-1 and were far too relaxed in the second game, going 3-0 down inside 10 minutes. It was 4-1 with 7 minutes to go, but we scored 4 times to win 5-4."