Northampton School for Boys under-13s are national champions after winning the English Schools FA Under-13 Cup at Chesterfield.
The Billing Road school’s year eight team beat Redditch’s Walkwood Church of England School 4-3 in a thrilling final at the Proact Stadium.
The route to the final was a long and testing one for the two-times county champions, starting in September and including victories against tough opposition from Luton, Peterborough and London.
“This group of lads have achieved something special,” said coach Jamie Wilcock.
“It was the culmination of months of hard work on their part and years of hard work on the part of the coaches at the school.
“Their achievement will serve to prove to all of the other boys who join us at the start of year seven and pull on the school jersey for the first time, that with effort, commitment and the right attitude to training – anything is possible.”
The final was evenly matched throughout, with the balance of play shifting in favour of first one team and then the other.
After the teams traded early blows Walkwood went 1-0 up, part way through the first half only for NSB to equalise through Josh DeMichele within 90 seconds.
Walkwood again took the lead shortly after half-time, with NSB once again equalising within minutes, this time through Glenn Middleton.
Middleton gave NSB the lead with 15 minutes remaining only to see Walkwood cancel this out with a penalty to force extra-time.
NSB started to dominate and with 30 seconds remaining to the break, Lewis Green broke through the centre of the Walkwood defence to slide the ball past the keeper and make the decisive breakthrough. The final period of the game passed without great incident and NSB were able to see the match out for a memorable victory.
NSB under-13 football squad: Nathan Pickworth, Sean Whaler, Harry Cameron, Tom Hughes, Tyrese Parris-Smith, Lewis Green, Fraser Hornby, Shae Grass, David Hunt, Glenn Middleton, Josh DeMichele, Josh Lay, Grant Wilson, Ben Alibone, Joe Heslop, Lewis Beasley, Jack Wilson-Fowler, Josh Hall, Niall Malin, Liam Newman, Giorgio Lazzeri, Joe Shepherd, Tom Whitehead