Some of our keen footballers helped their U14 Lancashire team to a semi-final place in the PlayStation EFSA Inter County Trophy.
Thirteen-year-olds Lucy Valentine, Beth Macdonald, both centre midfielders, and Abby Clarke, attacking midfielder, faced a tough team from Greater Manchester at Belle Vue Stadium in the third round of the competition.
Lucy said: “At first nothing much was happening in the game and suddenly they scored.”
Beth said: “We were fighting back and scored, then they got another and we managed to level it 2-2 by half time.”
At the team talk the managers’ encouraging words worked when, with just 10 minutes of the 35-minutes to go the captain took a free kick from around 32 metres and it sailed past the goalie into the top right hand corner of the net.
The semi-final will be against the West Midlands in February and then the national final will be in May.
For the last seven years Lancashire U14 Girls’ team has been in the final, winning it five times.
Abby said: “After the trials they usually pick 16 for the team, but the standard was so high they selected 23.
Our three star players have played in every competitive match and friendly for the county team since they were selected.
The students all play for the school U14 and U15 teams and Lucy plays for Bolton, Beth for Blackburn and Abby for Everton.