PUBLISHED 16 November 2020
The delayed LFA Cup finals held over from the tail end of last season, saw Alfie K in Year 8 travel to the County Ground in Leyland recently, as part of the Lytham Attack U12s, to take on AFC Clarets. Here, Alfie tells us how it went:
On 10th October, I captained my team, Lytham Juniors, in the Under 12 Lancashire Cup Final. We had won six games to make it to the final, two of which had gone to a penalty shoot-out. It was a fantastic run and we really wanted to win.
On the day of the game, our manager took the whole team, by minibus, to Lancashire FA headquarters in Leyland. We had a proper changing room, there was a tunnel and there were big stands. Unfortunately, we were only allowed one parent each to accompany us because of the current situation with Covid-19.
When it came to kick-off, we were all really nervous. We exited the tunnel and lined up on the pitch. Then the game began.
The opposing side were very physical, but we managed to keep them out for the first 20 minutes; however, they finally got a goal. From then on, we started to take control of the game and we felt very confident going into half-time. In the second half, we had a few good chances to equalise, but just as things were looking hopeful, one of our players put the ball into our own net. The opposition then grabbed another goal, but we fought until the end. We had a few more good chances to score, however we could not get a goal. There were a couple of penalty shouts that could have gone either way in the last ten minutes, but they didn’t go our way. The final whistle blew, and we had lost 3-0.
I was very proud to have made it to the final in the first place and it was a fantastic experience. My team will try again next year - hopefully we can go one step further and lift the cup.
As part of these delayed finals, Mr. Bridges, our Head of English, also found himself in Leyland on a very wet October afternoon as part of an officiating team representing the PDPL (the largest local football youth league in the Blackpool area) taking charge of a very competitive U14 boys’ final.