Grassroots Youth Football

[Heathblue]

I was wondering if anyone else on this message board coached kids football.
This season I've started coaching the under 8's side that my son plays for.

My question is, how do you decide who gets how much match time?
The ability varies so much between my players, there are some who would hold their own 1-2 age groups higher and others who can barely kick the ball. In an ideal world I'd play my strongest side and bring on the weaker players for a few minutes here and there. I have a large squad of 13 (under 8's play 5 vs 5, 4 x 10 min quarters) which means to give each player an equal amount of game time (as stipulated by the FA) I'm changing the whole team for each quarter. I've tried mixing the able kids with the less able but that is just like having less players on the pitch. I've also tried playing the best players together and the 'developing' players together but then any lead the better players have, gets squandered.
Has anyone else had any experience in this, and if so, how did you manage it?

Thanks in advance.

I kept a spreadsheet and ensured all the lads had more or less the same time on the pitch, teams picked depending on opposition but over each month period, all had same time which, was documented if any of the parents thought otherwise.

[Glos Blue]

I kept a spreadsheet and ensured all the lads had more or less the same time on the pitch, teams picked depending on opposition but over each month period, all had same time which, was documented if any of the parents thought otherwise.

I use an app on my iPad which records playing time and you can log events like goals, assists, saves etc. At the end of the season I can give the parents all of the info.