FA County Youth Cup

For the first time in 51 years the Bedfordshire Football Association has won The FA County Youth Cup and four of our students were part of the successful squad.
Niall Lynch, Danny Howson, Gary Catling and Phil Feakes were part of the squad to win the Cup which was established by the FA in 1944/45 to provide representative football for the best young footballers throughout the country who had not signed up with a professional club. The competition saw the boys travel all over the country with trips as far apart as Cornwall and Kent before culmuinating in a 3-2 Final victory over Durham at Darlington FC. This year the County also won the East Anglian U18 Championship and won all 12 of their representative matches played this season.
All of the boys study on the Football Development Programme run at the College in conjunction with Barton Rovers Football Club, where the boys play their club football. They also achieved further success this year becoming the first team to retain the Allied Counties Youth League Cup and were also part of the successful College team which this year won the South East Students Challenge Plate with a victory over West Herts College, Watford in the final.
Kevin Thoburn, who co-ordinates the Football scheme on behalf of Barton Rovers is also the County Youth Representative manager for the Bedfordshire FA and described the boys’ achievements on the field of play as "remarkable" and one which the College should be "truly proud of".