On Tuesday 5th April 2022, the Year 7 Boys’ Football team created history by representing English Martyrs’ in a County Cup Final for the first time in over a decade. The final was hosted at Harborough Town FC and played against Brockington School at 4pm.

By looking back at the history of English Martyrs’ School football, it appears as though the previous time we won a Football County Cup was back in 1981.

Our current team captain, Callum F (7WA) has a family connection to this previous achievement as his father was on that winning team. Fortunately, team images from 1981 along with copies of the matchday programme were kept and have been shown amongst the current team to show the significance of reaching a County Cup final. We have attempted to replicate the team photo from back in 1981 with our current cup finalists.

At the final, unfortunately the team were beaten by Brockington School, 4-1. The scoreline was not a true reflection of the close and competitive match. However, despite the defeat, all 16 of the students involved in the match displayed great effort, teamwork and sportsmanship throughout and should be extremely proud of this amazing achievement.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the Year 7 students who have been involved in school football this year, both attending weekly training sessions and representing the school in matches. As a team we now look to build on this fantastic start to secondary school football and will be even stronger moving into both local and national football competitions next year!