No doubting Tomas as St Teresa’s lift trophy

NEWCASTLE East End’s Stotts Roadground again hosted the Newcastle Catholic Primary Schools Under 11 Tournament.

In Group 1, St Catherine’s beat Sacred Heart to take an early lead in the group after St Teresa’s drew 1-1 with St John Vianney.

Both St Teresa’s and St John Vianney then went on to beat St Catherine’s but whilst St Teresa’s beat Sacred Heart, St John Vianney drew with them.

This meant St Teresa’s topped the group with St John Vianney in the second qualifying spot.

In Group 2 both St Alban’s and English Martyrs beat St Bede’s and St Mark’s to set up a deciding match for the top spot.

In the last game, St Bede’s and St Mark’s played out a 0-0 draw. In the deciding group match, English Martyr’s ran out 1-0 victors to finish above St Alban’s.

The first of the semi-finals saw English Martyrs’ taking on St John Vianney, the latter taking an early lead when a vicious shot was parried by Jack Gribbon only for Connor Howe to put the rebound away.

St John Vianney managed to hold on until the very last kick of the game but unfortunately for them, that last kick was a free-kick for English Martyrs’ – and Leon Burke placed it into the top corner to take the game to penalties.

St John Vianney missed their first two kicks and Engish Martyrs’ put theirs away to march into the final.

The second semi-final proved to be just as tight with chances at both ends being missed, a 0-0 draw meaning the match again went to penalties.

Both temas converted their first three penalties to take it to sudden death; St Teresa’s scored theirs but St Alban’s missed, their opponents reaching the Final.

St John Vianney defeated St Alban’s 2-0 in the 3rd/4th place playoff, while the final was another extremely close game.

Marcus Peters and Enoch Lakpegogoua forced Gribbon in the English Martyrs’ goal to make some fine saves to keep the scores level.

English Martyrs’ pressed for the winner but were unable to break through the St Teresa’s defence.

Finally, Tomas Boothroyd found space in the English Martyrs’ box, beating one defender before coolly slotting the ball past the advancing Gribbon to ensure St Teresa’s were champions, Boothroyd winning the player of the tournament award.

The inaugural Newcastle Catholic Primary Schools Knockout Cup Final was held this week at the Newcastle United Academy.

St Teresa’s went into the final as strong favourites after their victory in the semi-finals over St John Vianney.

Their opponents St Charles put in a valiant performance to restrict their rivals to three goals mainly thanks to Arav Mehlawat in goal, who pulled off save after save.

In the second half though St Teresa’s put away another six goals to win 9-0 – although they had a scare when a Precious N’Zumbu hit the bar.

In the end St Teresa’s were worthy champions and Marcus Peters won the man of the match for his team, Arav winning for their opponents.