Rainham storm in to area finals...
Congratulations to Rainham School for Girls who’s Under 13 team competed at the Girls Cup and emerged victorious, to progress to the area finals to be held at Millwall in January.On the day 20 teams from across the county came together at PlayFootball in Gillingham, to compete against each other in 4 groups of 5 teams, with the eventual winner of each group progressing to the semi-finals in the afternoon. Our officials on the day were from the Gillingham Youth Team who worked in pairs to referee each game to a high level.
A busy morning schedule would see each team play round-robin games in their groups. The standard was high from the off with plenty of goals being scored and a few very close encounters. The teams were clearly putting in some extra running to keep warm on a largely gloomy and wet day. Some of the Youth Team boys even commented that some of the girls worked harder than they did!
After an intense set of fixtures we were left with four group winners who would move into the semi-finals. These were Rainham Girls, St Simon Stock Catholic School, Westlands School and Aylesford School Sports College, all of whom had played some excellent football so far. In this round, Rainham Girls would take on last years winners St Simon Stock, and Westlands School would face Aylesford Sports College.
Both Semi-finals were close affairs with no team showing the clear difference in quality that had been obvious in a few group games. Rainham Girls claimed victory in a 3-2 against St Simon Stock, and Westlands School had an equally close game that they ended up winning 4-2 against Aylesford Sports College.
The final was played with a great supporting atmosphere as a number of the schools had stayed to watch the game. It was Rainham girls who got off to a flying start, benefiting from early possession in their opponents half, and they found themselves with a 3 goal advantage. Despite Westlands settling the ship and getting back into the game, the final score ended as 4-1 to Rainham leaving them victorious, and to take their place as champions for the 2012/2013 season.
The team from Rainham Girls will now go on to represent Gillingham Football Club at the area finals to be held at Millwall in January, where they will be playing for the chance to play at Wembley at the end of the season in the National Final.
We would like to thank all of the schools who attended the tournament and made the day such fun and we hope to see you all again next year. We would also like to say a huge thank you and well done to Rainham Girls School and we wish you all the best luck for the next phase of the competition.