Newcastle-under-Lyme College (NULC) in partnership with Newcastle Town Football Club entered two football teams into the Keele International Football Tournament held from Wednesday 25 July to Saturday 28 July 2012.
The age groups competing were Under 16s which included students who will be starting at NULC in September and the current Under 18s squad. The competition brings together high quality squads from all over the world and included teams from North America, Europe, Canada, Africa and Ireland to list a few and was played on fantastic pitches at Keele University.
The tournament in itself is a massive success year on year, and something that NULC and Newcastle Town FC were keen for their teams to do well in. That eagerness was certainly rewarded by some excellent performances, with players from all corners of North Staffordshire coming together to play and both Under 16s and Under 18s progressed out of the group stages into the semi-finals.
The semi-finals were two hard fought contests with the Under 16s taking on the Isle of Man and Under 18s matching up against Norton JFC, from Birmingham. The Under 16s had to do it the hard way, with penalties in their favour of 5 to 4 seeing off some very strong opponents, while the Under 18s had to make hard work of their game going behind before beating their opponents to make the final by margins of 5-2.
The finals were evenly matched with the Under 16s narrowly losing to San Antonio Lions from the USA by 2 goals to nil and the Under 18s taking it to penalties in order to settle their final with Abbey Hey, from Manchester. The game had finished goalless, and after near misses, saves and spectacular finishes, the Abbey Hey goalkeeper was the hero as NULC fell 9 -8 on penalties at the final hurdle after a brave effort.
All in all the two teams were a credit to the College and all augurs well for future football at NULC.
To find out more about the NULC Football Academy click here or contact the Academy of Sport on 01782 254269 or email sport@nulc.ac.uk.
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