On Wednesday 17^th April the Year 9 Boys’ football team played in the Leicestershire and Rutland Schools’ County Cup Final. The team’s hard work and dedication to school football this year started back in October 2023, when they began their County Cup campaign by beating local teams in the West Leicester league. Since then, they have gone on to be crowned City Champions and as a result represented Leicester City in the County Cup and made it all the way to the final – a remarkable achievement!

The County Cup Final took place this year for the very first time at Seagrave, the Leicester City Football Club Multimillion pound training centre. This unbelievable opportunity to play at such fantastic football facilities was a great reward for the team who have displayed superb teamwork and attitude throughout the whole of the academic year.

The result of the final unfortunately did not go the way in which we had hoped, as Wigston Academy were crowned Year 9 County Cup Champions, after winning on penalties following a 2-2 draw over 60 minutes. The Final itself was a great spectacle and advertised everything that is so special about school football.

English Martyrs were 2-0 up going into the second half, following some excellent passing and movement in order for Taku and Callum to both score and celebrate in front of the large crowd. Overall, as a team we did perform well and the result could have gone in the favour of either side, and that was largely down to some superb individual performances – and it was Nathaniel who was chosen as Player of the Match.

Thank you to all of the staff, friends and family that attended the match and made it such a memorable experience for our students. We will continue working hard to ensure that we get another opportunity to win the tournament in Year 10.