FORMER West Brom and England legend Cyrille Regis hailed the performance of Barbourne Royals at the Tesco Cup Under 13s Central final.
But the Worcester side, who play in the Stourport Youth League and qualified for the Birmingham event after beating Broadway Juniors, suffered pool-stage heartache.
Mark Wood's team, who represented Worcestershire, beat Albrighton Juniors and Stanground Juniors but suffered a reverse against Binbrook FC as they missed out on a final berth.
"It's great to see so many players enjoying football," said Regis. "You can see the ability of some of these youngsters and hopefully a few will turn out to be pros. A lot of kids get picked up by academies but there are a lot of late developers so we could see some of these make the grade."
Royals' coach Wood beamed with pride after a time never to forget for his team in Birmingham.
"The club has only been together for two years and this is the biggest tournament we have ever played in," said Wood.
"It's good for the boys to test themselves against the top teams in the area and I'm sure they'll learn from this experience.
"The boys have done really well this year.
"They've won the county cup, the first year we've entered it, and we're also on course for the league."
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