Courtesy: Sheffield Telegraph


Cup delight as young Blades prove a cut above

08 July 2010

It was pain and glory for the region's teams at the National Futsal Youth Festival.
Sheffield United Academy Under-10s grabbed the glory when they won their boys age group tournament at the English Institute of Sport while the heartache was shared between High Storrs, Sheffield United Girls COE and Barnsley Academy's Under-14 girls team.

The Blades Academy youngsters beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 and 1-0 and Charlton Athletic 3-1 and 3-0 to clinch a place in the semi-finals where they gained a 2-1 win over Hull City. In the final they again faced a head-to-head with Wycombe and confirmed their superiority with an excellent 3-1 victory.

High Storrs, having won the Sheffield and South Yorkshire qualifying competitions, qualified for the Under-12s boys semi-finals before the final group game after a 2-2 draw against Wolfreton School followed by 3-2 and 1-0 victories over Wright Robinson Sports College and Dane Court Grammar respectively. They went down 5-0 to Griffstars Bushloe School to finish runners-up behind Griffstars and then dipped to an agonising 3-2 defeat to Eastlea Community School in the semi-final.

Squad: Andrea Ciravegna, Ethan Snow, Tom Lloyd Hughes, Yasir Suleiman, James Godden, Tom Cutts, Roger Bushiri, Owen White and Sam Chubb

Sheffield United girls Under-10s also suffered semi-final heartbreak when they were edged out 2-1 by Leeds United after 4-1 and 4-0 wins over MU Foundation and a 0-0 draw against Nottingham Forest.

Barnsley Academy fought their way through to the final of the Girls Under-14s event but had to settle for the runners-up spot when they went down 4-1 to The Denes High school. They started with a 1-0 defeat against Leeds Futsal Club but then beat St Anne's Rovers 4-0 and St Antony's 2-0 before a 1-0 victory over Bishops Castle Community College in their semi-final.

This was the fourth year that this showpiece event in the FA Futsal calandar had been held in Sheffield and over 60 teams from across the country took part in the two-day event with professional club Academies also sending teams to feature in the Under-10 boys' competition.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com