ON the back of excellent league performances, Broms-grove Town Boys under-8's won the Sports Tours South West England International five-a-side trophy.

The three day tournament in Torquay, Devon from April 14-16 attracted teams from thoughout the country, as well as a strong local presence from Devon.

The first objective for the team was to make it to the final and to do this they had to win their group in a round-robin event, consisting of two matches each on Saturday and Sunday.

The firm pitch and dry conditions suited their passing game, and they made the most of the space available to them, scoring 27 goals and conceding only one in the group stage, with wins of 10-0, 4-1, 9-0 and 4-0.

Ross McGuinness, James Ward and Connor Wilson each managed to score hat-tricks and Dan Jones was top scorer with two goals in each match.

Solid

Luke Clark was solid in defence and James Brighton was a master in midfield, adding four goals to the total tally. Goalkeeper Matthew Brunt was rarely called into action, but when he was, he dominated his area.

Town faced Cockington Colts A in the final. A crowd of almost 100 gathered to watch and the tension could be felt on the sidelines by the parents, if not by the players themselves.

Colts had gradually improved through the tournament and had clearly done their homework. By packing the defence they blocked anything that came into the box and hoped to strike on the counter-attack.

Such was the Bromsgrove dominance that their goalkeeper didn't have one save to make in either of the two 15 minute halves.

The hard surface made control difficult but Town still passed well and created wave after wave of attacks, but the ball just didn't want to go in.

Sweeping move

The winner came from a trademark sweeping move starting from the back.

'Keeper Brunt rolled the ball out to James Brighton who passed from defence to Ross McGuinness on the left.

He switched it infield to James Ward who spotted Connor Wilson making a run down the right.

Wilson's cross was chested down by Daniel Jones and the spin took it round the Colt's keeper and into the net for the victory.

Whilst the winning margin could and should have been greater, Colts stuck to their task and defended well, keeping the score down to 1-0.

Bromsgrove received the Sports Tours trophy from former England and Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes.

Manager Darren Ward was overjoyed at the results: "The boys have done Bromsgrove and themselves proud. They did justice to their style of play and can only learn and get stronger from this experience.

"These boys will enjoy further success in the future if they continue to work hard for themselves and one another."

Bromsgrove are looking for an extra striker to bolster their tournament winning squad.

Anyone interested should contact Darren Ward on 0121 453 0750.