Year six boys from Woodlands Primary School, Bradwell, travelled to Watford Football Club’s training ground at London Colney for the ESFA Tesco Cup Under 11 mixed finals.

At the start of the competition, 1500 school teams entered before the competition was whittled down to the final eight teams from across the country, inclduing sides from Stoke, Essex, Jersey and Southampton.

Kane Hacon, Ollie Saunders, Andreas Christophi, Charlie Mansfield, Josh Ford, Ray Urry, Kyle Richardson, Harley Cover and Finlay Barnes had all been vital to Woodlands’ success.

The finals consisted of two groups of four teams. Woodlands’ first game was against Victoria College.

The boys were solid and took a relatively easy lead but resiliently, the opposition pulled back for a 2-2 draw.

Woodlands then lost 1-0 to Glebe House junior school from Amber Valley, Derbyshire. This left them bottom of the table but other results meant that the boys needed to win their last game by two goals to proceed into the semi-finals.

Against Heyhouse Primary from Blackpool, Woodlands applied early pressure and caused the goalkeeper to make a number of saves. Woodlands broke through just before the half ended and added a second to go through to the semi-finals where they met Group B winners, Gladstone Primary from Stoke. Woodlands went close but conceded a goal against the run of play.

Woodlands were desperately unlucky not to get back on terms as they lost to the eventual winners of the competition. The players can be proud of themselves. Thanks go to all of supporters and coaches and the benefactor who paid for the majority of the coach cost to Watford.