We’ve done it again! Our U13 1st Team has won the IAPS National Football Final, retaining the title we won last year.
On Sunday the U13 squad travelled to King’s College, Somerset for the IAPS National 6-a-side Tournament as defending regional and national champions. Seventy nine schools from all across the country took part in this tournament with just 14 qualifying for Finals. This was the school’s ninth National football Final in the past 5 years.
The victory was nowhere near as comfortable as last year’s. We struggled to find our form in the opening two games of the group stage and actually lost one game to Farleigh from Hampshire. We then stepped up and played some high quality football beating Felsted and Parkside, with Archie FitzGerald and Josh Mullins hitting their strides. Positive results against both Lochinver and Foremarke Hall guaranteed us second place in the group and what was really evident was the calmness on the ball that we were showing. Elliot Scott and Harry Tannett gave us a great base to play from and Will Conroy was lively up front. Captain Elliot left his mark on the tournament with a thunderous goal from 25 yards, which cannoned in off the cross bar, in the penultimate group game. The semi-final saw us take on Ludgrove, from Berkshire. We scored early on through Josh Mullins and a fantastic save from Joss Howard saw us through to the final with a 1-0 victory. Foremarke Hall, from Derbyshire, were our opponents in what was a very tense final. Both teams had one chance to win it but couldn’t take it so it was left to sudden-death penalties to decide the result. Ibrahim Busari, our go-to player for so many years, stepped up and dispatched his with aplomb leaving Joss Howard, in goal, to be our hero with a great save and the cup was ours! An amazing achievement!
View the photos of the tournament here