Manor of victory is satisfying for girls!
SCHOOLS FOOTBALL
NEWCASTLE Schools hosted their Under-12 Boys and Girls ESFA Impact Trophies Five-a-Side Tournament at Soccerworld, Westgate.
The girls’ competition featured six teams playing on a round-robin basis.
All the opening matches proved very tight as Walbottle lost to RGS 1-0 and Sacred Heart drew 0-0 with Gosforth Junior.
Heaton Manor saw off a spirited Walker team in their opening fixture.
Royal Grammar went on to beat Sacred Heart and Walker while Heaton Manor overcame Sacred Heart and Gosforth Junior to set up an intriguing fourth match.
It looked as though the winners of this game would take the title - but it did not pan out that way with the game ending 0-0.
It therefore went down to the last game - and yet again Heaton and Royal Grammar could not be separated as they triumphed in their last games against Walbottle and Gosforth Junior respectively.
This meant they finished joint top with Gosforth Junior and Sacred Heart in joint third place, Walker in fifth and Walbottle in sixth.
A play-off was needed to decide who would go through to represent Newcastle in the Northumberland Finals - Heaton Manor coming out on top 2-0 thanks to goals from Elivia Bruce and Elaf Alasi.
There were more boys’ teams entered, who were divided into two groups with the top four going Heaton Manor School who were winners of the Newcastle Schools’ Under-12 Girls ESFA Impact Trophies Five-aSide Tournament (left) and (right) boys’ winners St Mary’s through to the quarter-finals. In group one, Walker started off with a 4-2 victory over St Cuthbert’s and won their other games to finish top with a 100% record.
St Cuthbert’s took the runners-up spot with RGS A third and Newcastle School for Boys taking the final qualification spot in fourth.
Group two was dominated by Heaton Manor, who finished top of their group with an unbeaten record.
Gosforth Central sealed the runners-up spot with the pre-competition favourites St Mary’s in third.
RGS’s B team beat Walbottle to clinch the all-important fourth spot and qualify for the next round.
There were big shocks in the quarter-finals.
Heaton Manor, as winners of their group, played the bottom team in the other group, Newcastle School for Boys.
Heaton quickly found themselves two down and halfway throughthe second half conceded a third.
In the second quarter-final St Mary’s faced St Cuthbert’s and quickly found themselves a goal down.
St Cuthbert’s tried to increase their advantage - but with two minutes to go St Mary’s created an opening and equalised.
They still could not be separated at the end so it went to penalties.
St Mary’s did not miss a spot kick to prevail 3-1.
Walker saw off RGS B 5-0 and Gosforth Central defeated RGS B 3-0.
Newcastle School for Boys could not repeat their heroics of the previous Girls’ runners-up RGS (left) and (right) boys’ runners-up Walker round when they lost 2-0 to St Mary’s.
It was the same scoreline in the other semi, Walker beating Gosforth Central.
The final also proved a tight affair with Walker doing all the attacking and St Mary’s holding on for dear life.
Just as it seemed as though Walker must surely find the winner, St Mary’s broke upfield and in the last seconds Enock Lakpe Gogoua nabbed the winner.
This meant St Mary’s had achieved what their school counterparts did last season in becoming city champions for a second year in a row.
Both Heaton Manor and St Mary’s will now represent Newcastle at the competition’s Northumberland regional round on Wednesday, January 17 at Blue Flames.