On Saturday West Wiltshire represented Wiltshire at the SW Schools finals at Cadburys in Keynsham. The boys were drawn in the toughest of the two groups with only the winner of the group advancing to the final to play for the opportunity to represent the South West at the National finals. Our first game was against Dorset. West Wilts had lots of the ball and won comfortably 1-0 thanks to a Jordan Young goal. Next up were Bristol and we knew this was the game we had to win to have a chance of winning the group. The game was a tight affair, however a poor pass led to a counter attack by Bristol which resulted in a goal, this led to Liam turning into Gazza with tears from Italia 90. However some late saves from Alex kept the score close but despite some good play, we were outmuscled in the end and could not find the equaliser. Cornwall were our next opponents with the smallest keeper ever seen, Damien mentioned, “We should do ok because the keeper is short.” Actually, this was the kiss of death. Despite having all the possession and shots into double figures, the keeper had the game of his life saving with his head twice and making an excellent save from Gazza in the final minute. West Wiltshire’s final game was against Oxfordshire, the boys knew that a win with lots of goals was needed to have an outside chance of winning the group. Therefore Damian and Shane looked at their coaching manuals and decided to only play Brandon at the back with a 4 man midfield. Like the ‘A Team’ the plan came together and after again dominating possession we went ahead with a goal by Will Norcross. We knew a 1-0 win would not be enough so we kept the same formation, however two breakaway goals led to a 2-1 defeat. Once again managers and members of the ESFA came up to us giving praise for the style with which the boys played, and although it’s nice to hear and will make them better players, a couple of more wins would have been nice.