FOOTBALL: 60 teams enjoy Rugby Town's junior festival

The second weekend of Rugby Town JFC’s football festivals took place at Kilsby Lane last weekend with over 60 teams competing in the Under 9, 10s and 11s competitions.

Saturday morning saw the Under 9s take place with Brinklow, FFA Goals, FC Eagles, Harborough Leek Wotton, Hillmorton, Rugby Town Pumas and Athletic going through to the quarter finals.

The two best third-placed teams in the groups Rugby Town Pumas and Athletic both progressed to the semi-finals beating FFA Goals and Leek Wootton, the latter going to penalties.

Hillmorton’s brave effort ended with them missing one penalty out of five and the other semi-finalist was made up with Harborough beating Brinklow 1-0.

It was not to be in the semi-finals for the Rugby Town Pumas as they came across the eventual winners Athletic, who eased them out 2-0 and with FC Eagles beating Harborough Town 1-0, with a goal right on full time, it was two Coventry Minor League A division teams that made the final.

The final itself was a tight affair which burst into life with three goals in a minute, Athletic winning 2-1 to take the Rugby Town Festival 2016 title.

As the Under 9s final was going on the Under 10s kicked off their competition which again proved competitive throughout the afternoon, with some very good players on show watched by a host of premier and championship club scouts.

Incredibly, and that’s how it works out sometimes, the very first game played Norton Lindsey v Rugby Town Lions which Lindsey won 2-1 was also the eventual final.

However, the group games came first and out popped Rugby Town Lions, Rugby Town Eagles, Falcon Stripes and Norton Lindsey to make up the semi-finals.

In two very close games the Rugby Town Lions edged out the Eagles 1-0 and Norton eased out Falcons from Northampton 2-1.

The final saw two evenly matched teams against each other and with the scores level at 1-1, an excellent break by the Lions just on time saw them score the winner to the roar of the RT supporters on the touchline.

It then went all quiet as the RT volunteer workforce set to work on litter picking, changing the goals and making sure everyone left the site safely. The club cannot function properly without volunteers and would just like to thank them for their continued support and help through out the weekend.

The club would also like to thank Nationwide Windows for Sponsoring the Festival.

This is the 10th year and the club are extremely grateful for their continued support of grassroots football. Lastly a big thanks to Jason Husain, who organised the event and then went on holiday! However, there were no blips over the weekend and that was down to Jason making sure everything was in place.

On Sunday, the Under 11s arrived at Kilsby Lane for their festival and again the scouts arrived in their numbers talent spotting.

Lots of goals were scored in the group stages with the Rugby Town Pumas hitting 23 and still not finishing top.

Come the quarter-finals four of the slots were taken up by Rugby Town teams. The others slots were occupied by Soccer Stars Grange Park, Kenilworth and Leamington Hibs.

The RT Pumas and Lions played each other with the Pumas winning 1-0.

The Tigers, Leamington Hibs and Kenilworth made up the other semi-finalists.

The semi-finals saw a gallant effort from the RT Tigers but the RT Pumas were too strong for them, winning 4-0 and the other semi saw Leamington Hibs go through on penalties with Kenilworth missing two.

The final was a no contest really and Rugby Town Pumas were crowed the Under 11s champions after beating Hibs 4-0.