Rovers representatives fall just short of Wembley appearance.
Doncaster Rovers were represented by Kirk Sandall Junior School who just missed out on a Wembley appearance for the second consecutive season.The Football League Kids Cup is a unique and long established national schools’ football competition that gives primary school children the opportunity to play at Wembley in front of thousands of fans.
Each of the 72 League Teams host a competition for the Primary Schools in their catchment. The winning school then adopts their club name and plays in North/South finals. The North/South winners play at Wembley (Play-Off Finals weekend) for the title of Kinder +Sport Champion for their Clubs’ respective Leagues.
The Northern Final (League One) took place at Crewe Alexandra’s Academy Centre in Cheshire with the Kirk Sandall team leaving at 7:00am, arriving at 10:15 and kicking off their Wembley Bid at 11:00.
The 14 teams were split into 2 groups of 7 for a Round-Robin style tournament with the top two teams progressing to the semis. Doncaster’s group comprised of representatives from Oldham Athletic, Chesterfield, Barnsley, Wigan Athletic, Blackpool and Bradford City. A tight group saw Blackpool as winners and four other teams all vying for that second spot in the final round of group games.
A last-kick-of-the-game goal condemned Doncaster to defeat against Barnsley and took Chesterfield into the semis alongside Blackpool, Sheffield United and Crewe. The final was contested by Norton Free School representing the Blades and Crewe – United finished 3-1 winners and have a journey to Wembley to look forward to. The end of a great day had by all!
Kirk Sandall’s eye-catching brand of quick and purposeful football was commended by many coaches from all the clubs and schools and with their Y5’s currently looking very strong and with a little bit of luck, they might just get to Wembley next year!