Rugby Town Junior U15’s took part in the inaugural AVC International Cup played between the 6th and 13th of April in Sportillia, Italy and what a great time was had by the players as they had a taste of a footballers life, with a full programme of coaching and matches at the purpose built sports facility high up in the mountains near Forli.

All the age groups played matches in a four-team league format with the top two teams then playing in the final. First up for Town for A.S. Virtus Calcio from Italy, after a nervous start in the first 15 minutes, Town switched into overdrive with a classy free kick from Ben Oliver opening the scoring and that was followed by an Alexander ‘Shillo’ Shilton hat-trick, and one each from Danny Jones, Sam Birtwistle and reserve keeper James Price rounding off to a 7-0 win.

Up next was the Chelsea FC USA Academy and what a game this turned out to be. With the Town lads determined to cause an upset, they gave 150% effort, intensity and commitment and stunned CFC USA Academy with what proved to be their only defeat of the week 4-3 thanks to two from Shillo, one from Michael Glover and one from Ryan Miller all of which were based around set piece work.

Match three was against Stevenage Borough’s Academy, and despite Stevenage having a never ending stream of substitutes to prevent tiredness in the hot afternoon against Towns small squad and the tatic of having several people around the pitch to feed the ball in to keep the pace relentless, Town ensured they qualified for the final with an outstanding team performance on goal difference by holding out to a 1-0 defeat.

The final against Chelsea’s USA Academy went in the favour of Americans 4-0, as they took their chances and thwarted Towns superior aerial power at set pieces that had provided the goals in the previous encounter by borrowing a couple of Stevenage’s taller defenders, never the less the lads did themselves proud in giving everything they had.

The U15’s didn’t come away empty handed though, at the presentations they were awarded the tournament fair-play trophy for displaying a high standard in the ‘spirit of sportsmanship in football’ for their commitment on the pitch, their sportsmanship after each game, their team spirit both on and off the pitch in winning or loosing and for the way have represented their club throughout the week and in doing so, they were congratulated by the organisers for setting an example to the other 11 teams attending, something that they should all be proud of.

A big thank you to the businesses that contributed to the trip - Longhorns Bar & Grill – EON – Premier Sheet Metal - Cummings and McAlpines and to everyone who helped with the fund raising.

Rugby Town Junior 1 AT7 0
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An abundance of excellent football, effort, commitment, passion, self discipline and determination to win enabled Town to produce what was one of their performances of the season and as usual when these two committed teams meet, it was not for the feint hearted and a fantastic game ensued.

It was always going to be a tough game against the champions elect, but it was made even tougher when on 5 mins Town were down to ten men, however they just got on and re-organised with the incident only serving to motivate them even more. Town clinched the critical goal after 10 mins, the policy of defending from the front lead to Sam Birtwistle creating a terrific goal for himself from closing a defender down a few yards outside the opponents box, getting the required run of the ball from the tackle and then racing in to calmly slot the ball past an advancing keeper. The remainder of the game saw several chances created by fast pace end to end football for which there was no rest for either side, but the commitment of the Town players was such that even on two occasions when their keeper was beaten, someone was there to clear off the line enabling them to hold on to the 1-0 advantage. An awesome performance from every department on the pitch that just shows what ability you lads have.

You all deserve a mention - James Martin, Ricky Smith, Ben Oliver, Ryan Miller, Josh Slater, Kuda Chijeche, James Farrow, Sam Birtwistle, Alex Shilton, James Sweeney and Danny Jones.

Rugby Town U15's entered two teams into the Admirals Tournament on Sunday morning, with both teams working there way through to the final.

Two fine passing moves gave the B team a 2-0 lead as they dominated the first four minutes, then the A team came back with and levelled 2-2. Four minutes of golden goal couldn't separate the teams so it was down to penalties which the B team took on sudden death 6-5. A good achievement to get both teams in the final, great effort lads.

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Injuries and last minute let downs left Town with a 10 men starting line up, but after going 1-0 down in the first half, Town upped the level in the second and pulled things level from a Sweeney penalty, after Farrow was downed in the box. A terrific second half effort, well done lads.

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Town gifted CTK a 2 goal start in the first 4 minutes after a slow start and then struggled until the 20min mark when they seemed to wake up that they were in a match.

They then started to create chances and were rewarded when James Sweeney hit a very well controlled shot from 25metres out just before half time. CTK then added two more early in the second half amongst some great defending by Slater, Oliver and Kassongo. Once again an array of outstaning saves from Keeper James Martin denied CTK and the core midfield of Farrow, Miller and Birtwistle working their socks off in the effort to turn things round. Town were eventually rewarded for their effort and came back to with a goal from Alex Shilton, and two from Danny Jones and had the opportunity to steal the win late on. Once again the commitment and effort was superb in the second half. Well Done lads

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Injury hit Juniors only travelled with 10 players, but turned in one of their strongest performances of the season to take the three points.

Shear determination and effort enabled the Juniors to overcome strong oposition and the dominating high wind, to create some chances and ten minutes from time Darren Webb managed to steer the ball around the keeper for the winner. Well done lads a performance to be proud of.

Droitwich failed to take some early clear opportunities which could have left the half time score very different from 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Shaun Kelly and Nick Hatch. The Juniors then went to work in the second half with another five from Shaun, one more from Nick, one from Sam Birtwistle and one from Ellyu. Keeper James Martin made a couple of great stops preventing any reply.

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Town totally dominated the match after conceeding an early goal.

They played some excellent football and are really starting to turn the training into progress on the pitch and hopefully the next few weeks work on finishing will complete the picture.

Keep playing the way we are going lads, its good football.

Date

H/A

Opposition

W/D/L

Score

10/09

A

Weddington

L

4-5

17/09

H

Bermuda

L

0-2

24/09

A

Coundon Cockerels

W

5-4

08/10

A

AT7

D

1-1

29/10

H

Christ The King

W

2-1

12/11

A

Woodloes

W

4-2

19/11

H

Woodloes

L

0-1

03/12

A

Longford Community

W

1-0

29/04

A

Christ The King

D

4-4

Coaches

Ian Hersey

Roy Miller

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Rugby Town Juniors have a fantastic team of coaches with qualifications to match.  Read more about them here.

Visit the league's website via links.