Altofts youngsters prepare to take part in national football finals at St George's Park
Altofts Juniors U9s will be representing Yorkshire as county champions when they take part in national football finals at the home of the England team at St George's Park this weekend.
The boys signed up for the Junior Premier League for the first time last August as a grassroots team playing against many academies.
It seemed a tough task to achieve success, but the youngsters have done just that, sailing through their league games and going on to earn the regional title with some outstanding performances.
The games were played each Saturday at Castleford High School’s 4G pitches with the first round non-competitive before the top teams were put into the league that was formed.
Despite the strong teams they were up against Altofts remained unbeaten through the whole of the season.
"The first match came as a big shock as the pace was fast and it meant that the boys had to battle hard,” said Altofts Juniors’ Kirsten Lyons.
"We soon got used to the pace and the boys battled hard week on week.
"They won the league and went onto play the regional final on Saturday, January 4 at Dearne Valley College.”
The first match of the regional finals saw Altofts up against the South Yorkshire League winners, SJR Worksop U9s, and was a close contest. Tensions were high and it ended in a goalless draw.
They went on to play immediately against North Yorkshire winners Horsforth MLFA (major league football academy) U9s and won 1-0 via a penalty awarded when only a handball had prevented the ball going in the net.
Worksop then beat Horsforth so the county title had to be decided in a tense penalty shoot-out, with three shots each.
Worksop’s first penalty was saved by Henry Corbett, but Altofts’s first spot kick was missed.
Another miss by Worksop was then followed by Altofts’ second penalty being saved.
It all came down to the final spot kick and after Henry saved again Altofts clinched their place in the national finals when they put away their third penalty – to the delight of the players and coaches Graham Mills, Ste Jones and Adam Swift.