The Anvils U11’s travelled to the Isle of Wight over Easter to participate in the 9 aside tournament organised by Sports Tours UK. With the weather playing havoc to local pitches, the tournament organisers did a great job ensuring a revised mixed U11 and U12 tournament went ahead.

Playing 6, 28 minute matches in 2 days, the boys faced competition from Sutton Coldfield, London, Stevenage and local island teams in a round robin competition to crown the best U11 team on tour.

The tournament started brightly with convincing 5 – 0 and 3 – 1 wins against local Isle of Wight sides before being brought down to earth with a 0 – 4 defeat against a stronger and physical Boldmere St Michael U12s having had to play 3 games back to back.

A tired bunch (including parents) began day 2 with a tough 1 – 0 win against good Explorers FC meant the team needed to win against Stevenage Schools, who had won their previous U11 games plus drawn against the team we lost to on the previous day, to capture the U11’s trophy. A terrific game, against possibly the strongest team this team have played before, was decided with 5 minutes to go when Alex Barker made a world class save to deny Stevenage the chance to break the deadlock, the Anvils broke away and Louis Malone delightfully chipped the Keeper from 20 yards to make it 1 – 0. A frantic final 5 minutes saw Stevenage throw everything they could to find the equalizer but the Anvils held firm to ensure a 1 – 0 and the crown of champions with a game to spare.

The trophy was presented by ex professional John Hartson, and to cap off a wonderful weekend were also awarded the fair play award as voted by the referees over the weekend.

The coaches cannot speak highly enough of this group of players, having only travelled with 9 players and no substitutes, players were asked to play out of position and a tough schedule on heavy pitches. The bond between the boys grew massively over the weekend, and was evident with many players refusing to come off with injuries because they didn’t want to let their mates down.

The squad:
Alexander Barker, Neo Wooster, Louie White, Jacob Todman, George Chandler
Jacob Cresswell, Toby Jenkins, Louis Malone, Zak Hayes