Story added: 7th March 2016

First round of the Schools Cup gets off to a flying start

Six primary schools from across Norfolk are on the road to Goodison Park following a successful afternoon of football fixtures last Friday.

More than twenty-five local primary schools took part in the first round of the U11 Premier League Schools Cup at the Football Development Centre in Bowthorpe.

The schools battled it out in a five-a-side format tournament for the chance to represent Norwich City FC in the Premier League Schools Tournament, which will be held at Everton FC’s home ground, Goodison Park, in May.

The inclusive format of the Cup sees girls take to the field for the first-half, with the boys playing in the second-half. Results are decided by an aggregate score of the two halves.

Six schools qualified on the day and will now look forward to the next stage of the tournament, the ‘Champions Day’, later on this month which will see twelve schools compete for a place in the final.

The winning teams included the Community Sports Foundation’s (CSF) partner schools St Williams Primary, Firside Junior and Millfield Primary.

The Schools Tournament was established ten years ago to increase boys and girls’ participation in football. Each of the Premier League clubs stage their own regional competitions and select an U11s mixed team and U13 Girls’ team from a local school to represent them at the finals.

In November, Flegg High School claimed a spot at Goodison Park in the U13 Girls’ category; following in the footsteps of Wymondham High School who came third in the group stage at the Etihad Stadium in 2014.

The winners of the U11 mixed tournament will join Flegg High in May to take on representative teams from the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Leicester City FC.

Joe Harvey, CSF Schools Development Officer said:

“We’ve got off to a fantastic start today, it is brilliant to see so many local schools turn out for the first round of the tournament.

“Our first six schools have done extremely well to get to the next stage, they should be very proud of themselves.”

A further twenty-five local schools will compete this Friday in the second round of heats to decide the remaining six spots.

Qualifying schools:

Catton Grove Primary School

Woodlands Junior School

Rackheath Primary School

St Williams Primary School

Firside Junior School

Millfield Primary School