U11 School Teams 7-a-side 24/25 Autumn Tournament

In what was probably the best and certainly the most keenly contested for many, many years, Nottinghamshire Schools’ FA’s annual County 7-a-side tournament ended in another first when, Middleton, representing the City of Nottingham, took the Champions title in a penalty shootout.

Seven District winners took part in the tournament played with a round robin format. Goals were difficult to come by in the early games with some fine defending and brave goal keeping. The first three games on Pitch Two involving Abbey representing Mansfield, Dalestorth from the Kirkby District, Richard Bonington from Gedling, Bassetlaw’s Prospect Hill and Middleton all ended in 0-0 draws. Pitch One also saw a 0-0 draw in the first game between Middleton and Dalestorth but in the next two games, Barnby Road from Newark and Abbey beat Rushcliffe’s Heymann and Dalestorth respectively.

Three more 0-0 stalemates followed on Pitch One before a 1-1 draw between Dalestorth and Prospect Hill. On Pitch Two, a 0-0 draw for Prospect Hill and Heymann was sandwiched by a 2-0 win for Dalestorth over Richard Bonington and a 1-0 win for Middleton against Heymann. Pitch One saw a string of five draws before Richard Bonington beat Prospect Hill 1-0 followed by a 1-0 win for Middleton over Prospect Hill.

In the penultimate game, a 1-0 win for Middleton against Prospect Hill and a 1-0 win for Barnby Road against Abbey meant that going into the final round of games there were still three teams in with a chance of winning the competition – Dalestorth, Barnby Road and Middleton. Intriguingly, Dalestorth and Barnby Road were to play each other and a win for either side would secure the title. Sadly for them both they could only manage a 0-0 draw which left Middleton and Barnby Road on top of the table on 10 points. In the deciding penalty shoot out with an initial five shots each, Middleton scored all three of their first attempts whilst unfortunately Barnby Road failed to find the back of the net at all in their first three attempts leaving Middleton as the Nottinghamshire 7-a-side Champions.

Congratulations to them and they will now take part in the Regional 7-a-side Finals probably sometime in late March, early April to compete against the winners of the other eleven Midland Counties.