Warminster Town U16s National Champions
Warminster Town U16s have been crowned FA Youth Futsal Cup Champions following their recent triumph in the National Finals in Birmingham.
The team started their journey in Swindon back in April where they beat other local sides to progress to the South West Regional Finals in Devon on the 27th May. At the South West Finals the team found themselves up against champions from across the South West with Warminster coming out on top.
The South West success saw the team head to Birmingham recently to take on the very best U16 teams from across the Country. The finals saw ten teams split into two groups of 5 and Warminster’s group looked tough with Futsal giants Manchester and Birmingham being the stand out teams.
The draw saw Warminster play Manchester in the 1st game which was a really tough test and Warminster won the game thanks to a Jake Wright hat trick and brother Sam’s well taken strike in an opening 4-1 victory.
The 2nd group game saw the club up against Notley High School and within 5 minutes found themselves 2-0 down. The boys did well and with some excellent defending combined with fine attacking moves turned the game around winning 4-2.
The boys confidence was high as they took on Birmingham in game 3 and despite this they again they fell behind once again. Not deterred a fight back took place with goalkeeper Liam Ashman saving well and with excellent distribution put Warminster on the attack time after time. Max Pollack and Jake Wright scored to make it 3 wins out of 3.
The last group game was a goal fest v Woodbury FC with Warminster controlling the game and running out 3-0 winners with goals from Oli Pease, Jake Small and another from Jake Wright. Warminster topped the group and went into the semi-final full of belief and confidence.
Were FC were the opponents at this stage and put up a brave fight and it was a terrific semi-final. A Jake Small double and Jake Wright saw a tight 5-4 win and a place in the National Final at the first attempt.
The final was against the University of Nottingham who overturned Manchester in the other semi-final and a Jake Small toe punt caught the keeper flat footed and Warminster went 1-0 up. Nottingham stormed back with 2 excellent goals to go 2-1 ahead. The excellent Joel Sisson was outstanding and in the final proved too good in defensive and his quality in attack created the chance for Jake Wright to make it 2-2. Nottingham scored again after a quality strike to beat Liam Ashman and make it 3-2. Jake Small’s excellent individual strike made it 3-3 and Jake Wrights one on one left the keeper scrambling and a fourth and winning goal for Warminster.
A huge congratulations to coach Doug Small and the team of Under 16s for winning the FA Youth Futsal Cup and continuing to put Wiltshire based Futsal on the map.