U-15s win Premier League 6v6 tournament

Our under-15s won the Premier League 6v6 National Finals last weekend.

Dan Micciche’s side remained undefeated throughout the tournament, scoring an impressive 27 goals in just seven fixtures, winning six and drawing once.

We kicked off the group stage with a 4-1 win over Leicester City, before running out 6-0 winners over Birmingham and then beating Middlesbrough 4-2. 

Fulham held us to a 2-2 draw in our final game of the day, but we bounced back the following morning with a 5-0 win over Sunderland to ensure that we finished top of our group.

We then went on to defeat Middlesbrough 6-3 in the semi-finals, before securing the trophy with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Fulham. Charlie Patino finished the competition as top scorer with seven goals.

“The tournament challenged the lads in many ways,” said Macciche. “They’re all such high-intensity games because we used rebound boards, meaning the ball basically never goes out, so it challenges them physically during the game and during their recovery. 

“Technically, no one can hide either because there are only six players on the pitch, so everyone’s got to be comfortable on the ball - and that includes the goalkeeper.

“Tactically it’s a challenge too because there are no offsides, so that means you’ve got to change how you defend. The feedback from other clubs was that we challenged them the most tactically, so although we had a lot of individual talent, they said that we were very flexible tactically.

“By the end of the group stage, every player had received equal game-time. We had a squad of 12 and we wanted to be inclusive, so we essentially had two teams and they were always in rotation. We never stuck with a winning team, it was very much a squad effort.”