Hucknall Sports Under 11’s (Sun) ended their highly successful season with an excellent performance in the invitation only 6-A-Side Champions Cup hosted by Rushden & Diamonds FC.
With some of the best under 11 sides from the Midlands and the South of the country in attendance, Sports more than held their own, in fact they did themselves proud.
Their opening group game against Cambridgeshire outfit Premier Soccer was a one sided affair with Joe Wells netting twice for a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Game 2 put Sports up against an impressive Essex side, Colebrook Royals who were the eventual runners up. In fact they didn’t concede a goal until the final, when they were eventually edged out by Cambridge City 1-0. But Sports put up a good performance and despite conceding an early goal they were unlucky not draw level late on after an excellent move involving Anthony Timmins and Joe Wells ended with Jervel Foster’s effort being well saved.
Game 3 against unbeaten Abington Athletic started poorly with Sports conceding a goal in the opening minute but they worked extremely hard and drew level when Chris Goodacre headed home Anthony Timmins throw before Joe Wells capitalized on a defensive mix up to slot home to claim the 3 points.
A long wait until the next game seemed to affect the lads as they went down 1-0 to Worcestershire side Evesham Utd, who had lost their first 3 games. So with 2 wins and 2 defeats Sports knew they had to win their final group game against Aylesbury Town to qualify for the Q/F’s, and this they did with their best performance of the day.
Aylesbury started well and Sports had to thank the defensive pairing of Jack Mosedale and Anthony Timmins for some fine early tackles and ‘keeper Niall Page for an excellent save to keep the score 0-0. But that was the last time Sports’ goal was threatened as they started passing the ball around confidently and scored 2 fine goals through Goodacre and Wells and were unlucky not to grab a third when Jervel Foster’s shot was very well saved by the ‘keeper.
The quarter final saw Sports face Winscombe AFC from
Somerset who had just won their group, but it was Sports who started the game on
top, and they took the lead with a fine individual goal from Jervel Foster who
flicked the ball over his marker before drilling the ball home. Winscombe though
were starting to threaten at the other end with some long throws into the
goalmouth, and duly equalized when their striker eventually got his head to one
of them and found the back of the net. With seconds remaining Sports fell 2-1
behind with a carbon copy move that proved to be the last move of the game and
so ended Sports involvement in the tournament.
The lads can be very proud of their achievements this season culminating with this good showing against some very good opposition. The management team and all of the parents certainly are. Well Done!!