Year 5/6 Cheshire Football Champions

County Champions
On Thursday 28th January, Mossley Primary School entered an u11 boys team into the Jeff Smith Cup (also known as the Cheshire School Finals). The boys had earned a place at the finals after winning the local Datastor Cup against all the other primary schools in Congleton. 
The competition took place at Crewe Soccer Centre and the teams that attended were from all over Cheshire – from Chester to Warrington. Although Mossley had never competed against any of the other schools present, they were soon well aware of the talent they were up against. Mossley were entered into group ‘A’, along with: Stockton Heath, Warrington; Kingsley, Elsmere Port and St Mary’s, Crewe. 
The first group game saw Mossley come out 3 -1 winners after an early scare, after going one-nil down against St Mary’s. Next, they played a very resolute Kingsley side in which Mossley won 1 – 0 after hitting the woodwork on three separate occasions. In the final group game, Mossley came out as 4 – 1 winners against Stockton Heath, again, after conceding the first goal.
 As a result of winning all three group games, Mossley proceeded to the knockout stages. The quarter finals saw the boys come up against Westbrook Old Hall, Warrington. By this point, the team had really hit their stride and were comfortable 3 – 0 winners. 
The semi – final was a much more closely contested game which saw Mossley come up against a very determined Stockton Heath team, whom were out for revenge after their 1 – 4 defeat in the group stages. After the final whistle, the score was still tied at 0 – 0 which meant that extra time was needed. After a further five minutes of football, the score was still level. The penalty shootout caused a little controversy as – after half of the kicks – Mossley were wrongly awarded the win when there were still more penalties to take which gave Stockton a chance to bring it back. After much confusion, The penalties were resumed for Mossley to step up and score the deciding penalty which saw them go through to the final.
Three minutes into the final, Mossley once again went 1 – 0 down and although they raised their game and dominated the play, they still got to the half time interval, trailing the game against a very well organised King’s Chester team. However, what followed can only be described as ‘magical football’. For boys aged 9-11, what they produced on the pitch was breath-taking. Their determination, persistence and team work meant that they recovered from the deficit to cruise to a well-deserved 3 – 1 win. 

Mossley Primary School are extremely proud of the boys who took part in the competition and look forward to seeing how well they do in the North of England finals which are due to take place in Doncaster during the month of March. Ben Heades (team manager) said, “The boys did themselves proud and their attitude and approach to the tournament was a credit to the school. I’m very excited to see what the boys can do against the best teams from the north of England.”