ISFA National Football Finals at St Georges Park, Burton-Upon-Trent
On Sunday 28th April, the U11 Football Team from St Edmund’s Prep travelled to St George’s Park, the FA’s
new national football training centre, to play in the ISFA National Finals. Eighteen teams from all over
England were there as the respective winners of each region from across the country, with St Edmund’s Prep
representing ‘Hertfordshire And Essex’ as their regional champions. The team stayed the night in the St
George’s Park hotel in preparation for the tournament the next day. In an amazing setting where England’s
national football team train before their home internationals, the teams eagerly awaited their first midmorning matches on Monday.
In the group games, we drew our first match 0-0 against Gateway School from Buckinghamshire before
beating Kings St Albans from Worcester, 1-0, with the crucial goal being scored by Phoenix Healy. This set
the tone as the boys went from strength to strength and won all three of their remaining games to top the
group. Some scintillating football, displaying superior passing and movement, resulted in a 5-0 victory
against Hall Grove School from Surrey with Morgan Davies (2), Phoenix Healy, Freddie Knight and Oliver
Knipe scoring; a 3-0 victory against Denmead from Middlesex with Morgan Davies, Phoenix Healy and Gus
Lawrence grabbing the goals and a 1-0 win against RGS Newcastle thanks to a late goal by Gus Lawrence.
The quarter final against The Hawthorns School from Surrey was won 4-1, with goals from Phoenix Healy,
Morgan Davies (2) and Matthew Kiwanuka, setting up an exciting semi-final match against a very good team
from Milton Keynes Prep. The match was very even, with both sides struggling to create many clear-cut
chances against two well-organised defences. The match went to penalties and our boys won through to
reach the final. Up to this point, in seven games we had scored fourteen goals and conceded only one. In a
great final match against RGS The Grange from Worcester it was a goal by our opposition in the first half
that was to decide the match. St Edmund’s Prep piled forward and went close on a few occasions to
equalising but could not quite find that elusive goal. Second place in the ISFA National Finals was their
ultimate reward. Aside from the aforementioned scorers, the team also included Henry Jonscher and
Edward Hanley who marshalled the defence skilfully to ensure the best defensive record of the day
belonged to our team and to Joshua Brody whose neat touches in the centre of the pitch were key to
maintaining control over the midfield. Please see the ISFA Website for a full tournament reporthttp://www.isfa.org.uk/juniors/68-juniors/isfa-u11-seven-a-side-tournament/224-isfa-u11-seven-a-sidetournament-national-finals
In finally finishing off their season, our magnificent U11 football team have been crowned ISFA Herts. And
Essex regional champions, ISFA National Runners-Up, ESFA District Winners, ESFA County Champions, Wix
District Winners, Chigwell Tournament Winners and Kingshott Festival Winners.
ESFA County Champions 2013
ESFA District Champions 2012
Kingshott Festival Winners 2012
ISFA Herts. And Essex Regional Winners 2012
ISFA National Finals Runners Up 2013