A second half penalty from Seb Perkins was enough to seal a narrow victory in a battle between two of the big names in schools football.
With the step taken to play on a Saturday it was a fairly even first half with clear chances few and far between although Shenfield must still be wondering how they failed to take the lead shortly before the break.
Having seen a close range shot from a rebound cleared off the line they saw a close range header sail over the crossbar from the resulting corner kick leaving the score 0-0 at half time.
Following a foul in the box early in the second half it was the cool headed Perkins who slotted home for what would prove to be the only goal of a closely contested tie.
Whitgift had to see off a late flurry of set pieces from Shenfield as they looked to try and take the game to extra time but the hosts stood firm to advance to the quarter finals. Both sides came away from the game with credit for their conduct and effort with these two sides sure to meet again as their school years advance so we may be back to follow up on their progress.
A big thank you to ThreeFiveThree photography for attending the games! if you want to see more great schools football images head over to their website here.
The National Governing Body for Schools’ Football in England.