St Leonards school wins 7-0 in national cup final

Claremont School won a national football competition in style with a stunning 7-0 victory in the final.
The Claremont School under-13 boys' football team with the trophy after its 7-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion FCThe Claremont School under-13 boys' football team with the trophy after its 7-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion FC
The Claremont School under-13 boys' football team with the trophy after its 7-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion FC

Claremont’s under-13 boys’ team lifted the English Schools’ FA Boys’ Under 13 PlayStation Small Schools’ Trophy after beating Boroughbridge High School, from the Harrogate & Craven area, at The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion.

The result rounded-off a phenomenal treble-winning season for this talented group of players, who have previously celebrated league and county cup glory.

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See also: * Formidable school team wins county cup* School to play national final at Championship ground* Talented team edged out in national final* Hastings United ace signs for Football League clubClaremont dominated the match from the outset, with Jaydon Fuller scoring a hat-trick in the first 10 minutes.

Fuller, who is on the books of Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion, scored his first goal after just 90 seconds having been set up by Rohan Sharma.

He netted his second in the fifth minute when found by Claremont captain Will de Wilde and his third came after a Sharma pass sliced through the Boroughbridge defence.

Archie McGonigle made it 4-0 following another break from Fuller. A wonderful cross from Aleksandr Rybakov found Marley Neill, who put away Claremont’s fifth goal with 18 minutes of the first half still to play.

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In the second half, a 25-yard screamer from Sharma extended Claremont’s lead to 6-0. Fuller’s fourth goal, with just 10 minutes to go, sealed the victory and he received rapturous applause from the Claremont supporters when he was substituted.

It was a confident, convincing and ruthless performance from Claremont against a Boroughbridge team which had proved itself to be one of the best in the country.

It came as a result of some wonderful one-touch football, skilful ball control, powerful attacking moves and some exceptional supportive play from a team which clearly knows how to exploit Fuller’s pace and quality finishes.

Fuller was overwhelmingly voted player of the match on the ESFA Twitter page and the commentator described his performances as ‘one of the best individual displays I can think of in a schools’ cup final’.

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Claremont’s success in the national competition is even more impressive given that they played almost all six of their matches en route to the final away from home.

They won 5-2 away to Five Acres High School (West Gloucestershire) in the semi-finals, 3-0 away to North Bridge House Senior School (Islington & Camden) in the quarter-finals, 8-1 away to Wetherby Preparatory School (Westminster) in round four, 5-1 away to Bede’s Senior School (South East Sussex) in round three, 6-0 at home to Hadlow Rural Community School (West Kent) in round two and 8-0 away to Spires Academy (Canterbury St Augustines) in round one.

What’s more, the competition is open to schools with up to 65 boys in the under-13 year group and Claremont only has 34.

Claremont coach Jim Colston said: “I’m so proud of the boys. Unbeaten since they were first put together this season, they are a team who really work for each other and I just can’t speak more highly of them.

“Seven different nationalities were represented on that pitch today. I think it’s particularly impressive to bring those different nationalities together and play the game the way we did.”

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