Our Under 14’s SKB/BOHS finished off their week in the best possible way this morning by becoming the Gold Trophy Champions at the Oakham tournament.

By topping their group yesterday after eight qualifying games they ensured a play off for the trophy with the second and third placed teams – Shrewsbury Town and Galway United with each team playing one another and the team with most points winning the trophy.

In the first game they repeated their group round victory over Galway United – this time 3-0 with the goals coming from Josh Phoenix, Rhys Cullen and Sam Rooney and a draw – this time 1-1 – led to great celebrations as the trophy was clinched against Shrewsbury Town with Luke Chukwu getting the all important strike

SKB are delighted to be back in Leicestershire at the Oakham football tournament this year with five teams drawn from both our own sides and those teams who represent us as part of the SKB/BOHS partnership.

We have always enjoyed competing in this prestigious tournament having been successful on previous visits.

The first of our teams taking part – the 2008’s – who play in the FAI National Under 14 League arrived early on Monday morning and later in the day played 2 friendlies vs West Brom (1-1 – Tommy Toth) and Northampton (4-0 Luke Chukwu, Sam Rooney (2) and Oskar Keely).

Five more games today (Wednesday) spread over the morning and afternoon started against Dundee FC and ended 2-2 with goals from Christian Coyle and Marcel Schabrowski and a 2-0 win against Galway United with Sam Rooney again on the score sheet and Oskar Keely,
This afternoon’s games saw convincing wins over against Home Farm (3-1 – Luke Chukwu 2 and Chris Coyle) NCE New York (3-0 Marcel Schrabowski, Luke Chukwu and Sam Rooney) and the ISFA representative squad (3-0 Marcel Schrabowski, Sam Rooney and Sam Kierans) – a tough programme but the team are now assured of topping the group and have qualified for the final stages tomorrow.

The competitive element to the tournament started on Tuesday afternoon and the squad continued their excellent form with wins over Nottingham Forest (3-0 Sam Rooney (2) Marcel Schabowski) ,Man United (1-0 Sam Rooney) and a 0-0 draw in the third game against the table toppers at the end of the first day – Shrewsbury Town.

The games are played over 36 minutes duration each in relative quick succession that puts great demands on the entire squad especially as the tempreture was in the high 20’s on Monday and again yesterday.

The full squad is;

Finn Mc Donnell, John Markham, Leon Laban, Zac Kielty, Paddy Brides, Rhys Cullen, Josh Phoenix, Sam Kierans, Christian Coyle, Tommy Toth, Sean Whelan, Bobby Malone, Luke Chukwu, Roan Hickey, Oskar Keely, Sam Rooney, Chris Idah and Marcel Schrabowski.

The squad is excellently led by Paul Doolan and Stephen Lawlor.

Next week from the 8th to the 11th our 2007’s and 2011’s play and the final week the 15th to 18th our 2009’s and 2010’s take part.