In the same week as the great success at Torrington, the team travelled to Exeter for another football tournament. The EFL Kids Cup is a magnificent opportunity for the team to test themselves against the best Devon has to offer, with most of the schools at the event coming from the Exeter area the size was significantly larger than us. I am reliably informed that several of the teams had Exeter City Academy players in their sides, showing the height of the standard.

The tournament was set into groups, with 32 teams attending, we had 5 teams in our group, 4 games. 

The group stage results didn't go our way, we finished with 3 losses and a draw, two of the losses coming with really unfortunate last kick of the game goals and the draw was a game we were fully in control of, only to concede to a deflection that our keeper could do nothing about. 

Fortunately for us our day didn't end there, the bottom three teams of each group head into a tournament for the plate whilst the top 2 go through to the cup. The set up was a straight knockout, 4 rounds to the final. 

We won the first round 3-0, the Quarter final 2-0, the semi final 2-0 and then won the final 2-1.

I am so proud of the team for how they played, they really came into their own in the plate competition, we played some magnificent football, the players let the shackles off and showed what they can do, attacking with pace, creativity and power in their shots.

We also scored from set pieces, especially 2 really good headers, the referee commented saying our style was really exciting and that he hadn't seen any other sides try and use the kick in system so effectively and were the only team he had seen brave enough to try and score some headers. 

This tournament is a yearly event and with the majority of our side coming from year 5 I am really excited to see the team try and go further next year. 

Fantastic work everybody, well done!