Six squads through to Danone’s decider
THE Newcastle Schools Under-11 Girls’ Danone ESFA competitions continued this week with the final group stages played at Gosforth Academy.
Both groups went to the last match before being decided.
In Group One, St Alban’s and Ravenswood did all the running, both teams beating Walkergate and West Jesmond.
Walkergate overcame West Jesmond 1-0 to take third spot.
In the deciding game, St Alban’s were too strong for Ravenswood, running out 4-0 victors to top the group.
In Group Two, last year’s champions St Teresa’s started off at a great pace - defeating St Vincent’s 5-0 and Tyne View 4-0.
Gosforth Junior also beat those two teams to set up an intriguing last match.
Tyne View accounted for St Vincent’s 1-0 to secure third spot.
The deciding match proved to be very tight. There were no goals in the first half and then St Teresa’s took an early lead in the second period.
It seemed they had won but with the last kick of the match the St Teresa’s goalkeeper got a hand to the ball but it spun agonisingly over the line for St Vincent’s leveller.
This meant St Teresa’s and Gosforth tied at the top - but St Teresa’s had the better goal difference and took the top spot. It was not all bad news for Gosforth, however, as they qualified as one of the best runnersup along with Ravenswood.
Six teams - St Bede’s, St Mark’s, St Teresa’s, St Alban’s, Ravenswood and Gosforth Junior - now go forward to the Finals Night on Friday at Benfield School (3.30).
Event organiser Ian Beck said: “The standard of play has been very high this season.
“St Teresa’s have won for the past two seasons but the other teams are catching up to them and this could be the most open Finals Night for a number of years.”
THE Newcastle Under 11 Leagues start this week - the Duffy League being the first to play.
Teams are in action on Thursday at Walbottle Campus (4.00).
NORTHUMBERLAND Schools open their season when they take on North Yorkshire in the Northern Counties League at Newcastle’s Cochrane Park next Saturday at both under-16 boys’ and under-18 boys’ levels (11.00).