Chetwynd Junior School, representing Coventry City, will play at Wembley on Sunday...
The Sky Blues will have a presence at this Sunday’s Npower League One Play-off final, with Chetwynd Junior School from Nuneaton representing Coventry City after winning the local and regional Npower Community Cup.
The Community Cup is an annual national schools competition organised by the Football League, which sees the community scheme at every Football League club staging their own Under 11 boys and Under 13 girls tournament. This year over 30 teams took part in the boys competition organised by Sky Blues in the Community, with 18 teams battling it out in the girls tournament.
Chetwynd Junior School romped through the local event, conceding just one goal in six games – which came in the final held at the Ricoh Arena against Frederick Bird School before the Sky Blues match in January against Oldham. Chetwynd then went on to the northern regional finals held in Walsall, representing Coventry City against 13 other Football League clubs. Chetwynd drew two and won five games – including a 3-1 victory over Crewe in the final, with Grigan French, Jack Edwards and Tom Stokes securing the place at the Wembley final.
They are set to line up against Corpus Christi Catholic School who are representing Brentford FC at Wembley before the Bees line up in the League One play-off final against Yeovil Town.
As part of the competition prize the budding youngsters were delighted to see former England international and Head of Elite Development at the FA Gareth Southgate visit the school last week to put the players through their paces. Southgate is an ambassador for the Npower Community Cup and said “I was impressed with the Chetwynd players, who showed genuine skill and positional awareness. Their appearance at Wembley will be a magical highlight and I’ve told them to make sure they remember and enjoy every second, no matter what the result.”
Sky Blues in the Community’s tournament organiser Shaun Pierce said “The community scheme have been running the schools competition for the last 15 years and in three of the last five years we have lost out on penalties in the regional finals. It seemed like we’d never get the opportunity to go to Wembley.
“Chetwynd school is full of talented players and the team have visibly grown in confidence as the competition went on. We at Sky Blues in the Community and all the players, coaches and parents are really looking forward to this once in a lifetime experience at Wembley on Sunday.”