Warren Mead U11s show England how it’s done

Football fans looking for a team of winners this summer need not look as far away as Germany, because the U11 boys' team from Warren Mead Infant School in Banstead have lifted trophy a lot closer to home, becoming County Cup winners after a thrilling final against Whitgift.

Cheered on by a loud travelling support, the team from Warren Mead, which is part of the GLF schools multi-academy trust, began strongly, as the game got off to a frantic start.

With just two minutes on the clock, Warren Mead’s Arlo hit the post from distance, shortly before the ball went up the other end of the pitch and Whitgift also came within inches of scoring, with a shot against the bar.

The crowd did not have to wait long for Warren Mead to take the lead, however, with Teddy breaking clear on the right to cross for Rico, who had an easy finish.

That lead lasted until just before half time, when Whitgift evened things up, and then threw the half-time team talk plans into disarray when they headed in a second from a corner right on the stroke of half time, to lead 2-1 at the interval.

A challenging task became even more difficult when play restarted, as a mistake in the Warren Mead defence handed Whitgift a chance to make it 3-1, and only a fierce rearguard action led by Alex in defence prevented them stretching the lead further.

Against the run of play, however, Arlo pulled one back with a volley which went in off the underside of the bar, and that seemed to stun the opposition somewhat as all of a sudden, the momentum was with Warren Mead.

They continued to pile on the pressure, and with less than five minutes remaining, they were back on level terms as Yug eluded a couple of challenges on the edge of the box and buried the ball in the bottom corner, to level things up.

Warren Mead had the wind at their backs now, and several times came close to taking the lead in the dying stages of the game, but then with two minutes remaining, and extra time beckoning, the decisive moment came.

Arlo picked up a loose ball outside the box, ran at the defence and shrugged off a challenge to bury the ball in the bottom corner and hand his team the lead, with hardly any time for Whitgift to try and level things up, and Warren Mead held on to win the game 4-3 and lift the trophy.