ESFA Internationals, featured

England Schoolboys U18 3 FC Utrecht U17 1- Eindhoven Tour 2020

The England Schoolboys made it two wins from their two matches in the Netherlands with a terrific performance and a well deserved win over FC Utrecht.

The game was played at frantic pace with Utrecht certainly offering a more physical challenge than their opening game 24 hours earlier but the back four marshalled by Thomas Duffy and Joe Lockey  were resolute in an opening half of end to end football.

Brad Santos and Taylor Richardson were giving the Utrecht defence plenty of concerns with their pace and it was the latter who gave England a deserved lead, a neat side foot finish to a cross from the right midway through the half.

The lead was short lived though, the home side drawing level moments later but that did not interrupt the performance level from the visitors and their pressure told shortly before half time when Hans Mpongo bagged his second goal in as many games to have England 2-1 ahead at the interval.

After the break there was no drop off in performance and the home side were grateful to their keeper who made a number of good saves to keep the result in doubt but he could do nothing about Ben Reay’s late shot from outside the box that completed the scoring.

All in all a great performance to round off the trip and set the lads up for their next fixture in early March against UCFB in Manchester.

Photo Credit- 353 Photography

ESFA Internationals, featured

ESFA England U18 Schoolboys’- Official Squad Announcement

The ESFA have announced the 18 players chosen to represent the England U18 Schoolboys’ for the 2019-2020 season!

The ESFA concluded their search for the best schools’ footballers that England has to offer yesterday (Sunday 1st December) with the final England U18 Schoolboys’ trial taking place at Rowley Park, Stafford. The boys have progressed through a rigorous trial process from October until December to be finally selected to represent their country.

The players were first nominated by their county sides to attend regional trials that led to the construction of four regional squads, the North, Midlands, South East and South West. These squads then went head to head in step two of the trials process and formed the North and South Squads that traveled to Rowley Park yesterday for the final step of the process.

With that being said, making the final stage of the trials is a huge personal achievement for all the boys who attended and something they can be very proud of.

A huge congratulations to the following boys:

Name

County

Name

County

Taylor Haddow

Bedfordshire

Kenyatta Bernal

Cheshire

Mathew Wade

Durham

Charlie Dickerson

Norfolk

Carter Lycett

Staffordshire

Michael Olayinka

Greater Manchester

Ethan Warne

Norfolk

Lucas Garbe

Merseyside

Max Blencowe

Sussex

David Pereira

Staffordshire

Thomas Duffy

Essex

Reece Wylie

Hampshire

Brad Santos

Sussex

Cameron Pike

Somerset

Ross Johnstone

Gloucestershire

Taylor Richardson

Durham

Ben Reay

Durham

Hans Mpongo

Hampshire

The U18 England Schoolboys’ squad will start with some friendly fixtures, starting against the RAF on the 12th January 2020 followed by a game against Australia schoolboys’ on the 25th January. They will then play two further friendly games against two different UCFB squads before heading away on preparatory training before their competitive fixtures in the Centenary Shield against Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in April 2020.

The ESFA would like to once more congratulate all the players that were put forward for England Schoolboys’ trials this season and wish those players that haven’t been selected the very best of luck with the rest of their season and footballing careers.