Hat-trick! Ten Em Bee win London Junior Cup for third successive season

Ten Em Bee, who hail from Bermondsey, created history on Saturday afternoon by becoming the first team to lift the London Junior Cup for the third year in a row.

The semi-professional side, who play in the Kent County Premier League, beat FC Petrocub 3-1 at Barking’s Mayesbrook Park.

The mastermind behind the hat-trick of triumphs is Lloyd Davis, the 33-year-old coach who was asked to take over the team in 2019.

“The first team was on the brink of extinction when I was asked if I would be interested in taking a look and rebuilding the team,” Davis told the South London Press. “I brought eight to 10 players in with me – players who needed football and needed a focus to occupy their minds.

“It’s been an incredible journey to win it three times. London and South London, in particular, is extremely competitive, so to win it with such a young team – mainly comprised of U23s – is a massive achievement. I am so proud of them.”

Ten Em Bee’s origins stem from an academy set-up. They have age groups running from the age of seven to 16. Former Charlton defender Joe Gomez, Crystal Palace icon Ian Wright, ex-Chelsea winger Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dickson Etuhu are just a few to come through the ranks.

The first team was built as a pathway for Ten Em Bee’s academy players, who previously would either leave football altogether once they reached a certain age or find themselves stagnating in the non-league circuit.

When Ten Em Bee originally set up their first team, it was built around a group aged between 15 and 18.

“The group at that time were very good for their age category,” said Adrian Francis, a club representative.

“We had this core group of players for a while, and we thought that if we decided to bring players from outside the club into Ten Em Bee, they would have their own way of playing and their own mentality, which might not have worked.

“We decided to risk building this project with our youngsters, with the primary factor being that we could have a team grow up with us and learn our way of playing.

“Off the pitch, it’s hard work, it’s respect and it’s appreciation – you have to look the part.

“It’s about greeting people and shaking their hands. We want to teach them life skills and how to be young men. On the pitch, it’s about having fun and playing football in an attractive and stylish manner.

“It’s important to remember, and this is why we work so hard on teaching every one of our players this mentality, that people switch on their TVs and immediately have a reaction about what happens in South London and think that people, and especially young people, are of a certain way. So it’s nice to show people our team – it’s essential for us to implement it.”

When Davis inherited the first-team squad, the Ten Em Bee way was a critical characteristic which he noticed immediately.

“I love it,” he said. “That ethos is instilled right through the DNA of Ten Em Bee. It’s taught to the players, and it’s something that allows those within the club to stay focused and achieve everything that we have so far.

For Danny Fairman, who has been the chairman of Ten Em Bee for more than four decades, watching his side lift the cup for the third time on Saturday was “massively important” to him.

“We have gone down in history, and these young boys are history makers,” said Fairman.

“We pushed these boys right into the semi-professional leagues and it was either sink or swim. They are excellent footballers.

“I remember in the first London Junior Cup final we had, I wanted everyone to dress smart and proper, but three of them didn’t own any smart shirts or smart shoes. So, we had to get the older squad members to lend them clothes.

“This is what we’re up against. A lot of these boys are from one-parent families, and they haven’t got the money. And when I started this team, who are now history makers, I decided to sponsor the team myself and made sure none of them paid anything – I wanted to give them a chance, and they have done so well. I am really proud of them.”

With the academy yielding some of the finest talent south of the river – and the first team rapidly making a name for itself on the non-league stage – Fairman believes Ten Em Bee have the ability to provide a safe haven for young people from the local community.

“It’s so important because we’re the ones who try to set the trend in the area. Trying to get these boys away from the streets is so important,” says Fairman.

And having the aforementioned stars such as Wright, Gomez, Nigel Reo-Coker, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kasey Palmer come back to Ten Em Bee regularly to talk with the young academy players and teach them that there is a pathway back into the professional game is “more valuable than money”, says Fairman.

“It shows the kids what they can aim for – it inspires them to look forward and to do better.”