Utilita EFL kids & Girls Cup Local Stage Success!

 

Throughout the last month, Oldham Athletic Community Trust is proud to have delivered and organised the local stages of the Utilita EFL Kids Cup and Girls Cup Competitions. The Utilita EFL Kids Cups is national tournament for junior footballers which offers children the chance to achieve a  once in a lifetime opportunity to play at Wembley Stadium. The competition creates one of the country’s largest national junior football competitions, which culminate in exciting finals at Wembley Stadium in front of thousands of fans before a major national final, as school children live out their dream.

 

23 school teams came to participate across both events in which Oldham Athletic have a proud history in, reaching Wembley 3 times and including a victory in 2019 as South Failsworth ran out 2-0 winners. Recently OACT have also won at Wembley through the National League competition, with pupils from St Herberts running out as champions.

 

For the EFL Kids Cup, we hosted a number of local stage events, 20 school teams participated with the winners of each group from these stages qualifying for a five team finals day held at the end of the month.

 

Across the whole tournament there was lots of fantastic football on show, all played with a great spirit and sportsmanship. In an incredibly tight finals day in which four school teams were separated by just 2 points we would like to congratulate Fir Bank Primary School who will represent Oldham Athletic at the next stage of the competition.

For the EFL Girls Cup, we hosted the event at Brian Clarke, with 27 girls aged 12–13 taking part. The weather was far from kind with heavy rain from start to finish but the girls battled through it brilliantly and put on a great afternoon of football.

A big mention to the two Year 10 students from Brian Clarke who had just passed their refereeing qualifications. They were confident, fair and did a fantastic job officiating the games throughout the day. We are committed to supporting the female game by offering as many opportunities and pathways into the game as possible, including officiating! 

 

After some exciting fixtures, we’re pleased to congratulate Royton and Crompton, who came out on top and now move into the next round of the competition representing Oldham Athletic.