County champs star in Tesco tournament
Last updated 10:10, Wednesday, 23 April 2008
THREE teams of champions from Cumbria relished the challenge of taking on the cream of the North of England's junior football talent last Saturday, courtesy of Tesco.
Carlisle-based Pirelli represented the county in the Under-13 Boys section of the Tesco Cup's Northern England Regional Finals, held at Wythenshawe Sports Ground in Manchester.
Seaton were Cumbria's flagbearers in the Tesco Cup's Under-14 Girls Northern finals, while Abbeytown were the county's representatives in the Under-16s Girls section, both tournaments taking place at the same venue on the same day.
All three teams had qualified for the regional finals by winning the Tesco Cup for their respective age groups in Cumbria.
Just three days before the Northern England tournament, Pirelli had booked their place with a 4-2 victory in the final against Carlisle City, the goals coming from Ashley Cannon (two) Josh Simpson and Luke Miller.
Seaton had already qualified by taking the county crown for their girls' age group with a 2-0 win over Abbeytown in their Tesco Cup final at Frenchfields, Penrith.
Abbeytown's Under-16s girls will meet Kendal-based Inter Wattsfield at Frenchfields next month in their Tesco Cup final but both teams went through to the regional final, representing the Cumberland and Westmorland FAs respectively.
The standard in the regional finals was incredibly high, featuring 12 champions from counties like Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Cheshire and Staffordshire as well as city winners from Manchester and Liverpool.
The three Cumbrian teams did their county proud , although none managed to qualify for the knockout rounds from their group stages. Seaton recorded the county's only victory with a 1-0 win over Liverpool's Birkdale United. Seaton's other group game saw them beaten by Lancashire champions Preston North End WFC, who went on to win their age group trophy.
The Pirelli Under-13 boys also did well to draw 1-1 with Liverpool's champions Legends Sports. Their age group final saw Reddish Vulcans of Manchester beat the famous Wallsend Boys Club.
Abbeytown lost 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday Ladies, with their final being won by Manchester United Girls.
Helen Aitchison, the Cumberland FA's girls/women's football development officer, said: "This is the first year that Tesco have sponsored a tournament at either county or regional level for girls at under-14 or under-16. I know Tesco were encouraged by the tremendous success of the boys under-13 tournament, which has been running for a couple of years now. It is certainly a major boost for grass roots football when a company like Tesco backs it in such a generous way.
“Their support definitely raises the profile of the game amongst youngsters."
Vince Lydon, manager of Tesco's superstore at Rosehill, Carlisle, welcomed the healthy link-up, which has also seen players in finals in Cumbria each receive a free bottle of water and a piece of fruit. He had presented the Tesco Cup to Seaton after their victory in the Cumbrian final.
Vince said: "It is another part of Tesco's commitment to support our local communities. Our goal is to put something back. In the boys' tournament alone this year there have been over 50,000 youngsters from 2,700 teams taking part across the UK, so it's certainly a winning formula."
