We took a squad of ten boys up to St Andrews in Birmingham over the Bank Holiday weekend to participate in the Precision Pass Tournament which featured 12 teams from Birmingham, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire and as far away as South Wales on what was a very warm afternoon. Apart from the experience itself (visits to the changing rooms, behind the scenes tour, emerging from the tunnel) there was some serious football to be played, and we found ourselves facing two difficult qualifying group games, the first against Carmarthen Town's U11 academy side. But I felt that we were on our game from the very first minute, keener in the tackle, pressing quickly all over the pitch and playing some lovely football in the process.

With just 2 minutes (of 15) on the clock, Daniel Perryment struck for the Hertfordshire side to give them a settling one goal advantage, and when Perryment added a second, from a cross delivered by Teddy O'Brien, we looked comfortable and showed a determination not to concede or get beat. We allowed the Welsh side a bit more of the ball in the closing stages as we defended, but Paulus in the Stevenage goal made a couple of good saves whenever Town had an opportunity. The victory would settle our nerves and allow us to play without too much pressure in the second game.

Up next we faced Redditch-based Mayfly Tigers, but again we started really brightly and when O'Brien's shot was parried by the Tigers keeper, Tanaka Gono was on hand to convert for another early goal that further calmed any anxiety. Gono then turned provider when his perfectly delivered corner from the right found the head of O'Brien who powered his header home for 2-0. Tigers did score to cause some concern for a few minutes before Perryment added to his tally for the day with a third goal for him and for Stevenage as the match ended 3-1 in our favour.

After a short break, we learned that we would face Leafield Athletic (Solihull) in the semi-finals. They were a big strong team, and would give us our toughest challenge so far on the day, but an early goal from Perryment again meant that we had something to fight for. Although we did have chances to have increased the lead, we did also have to manage a bit of an onslaught towards the end as the local side pressed hard and had several efforts well-saved by Jacob Paulus, the best of which was a reaction save after Perryment almost deflected an effort into his own net. I was proud of how we defended in this game, there were a few baffling decisions and awards of some dangerous free-kicks around our goal, and for some reason the referee chose to ignore the stadium hooter that signalled the end of matches on all pitches as he played an additional three minutes of time which had been added from somewhere! But we withstood the pressure and the eventual final whistle brought cheers from the travelling contingent from North Herts.

As the skies darkened, and thunder and lightning began to rage around us, we then faced Kingswood Eagles (Corby) who again had a number of decent players in their side including a very tall and capable goalkeeper who was at Peterborough United FC. Like ourselves, Eagles came into the game with an impressive unbeaten record but when Perryment opened the scoring again before a wonder strike from Archie Harrison, who racedto the corner to retrieve a ball that looked like going out of play and then beat two players on his way to goal where he converted for 2-0. Although Kingswood did reduce the arrears with a goal that caused a few moments of panic, we held on strongly to win the final.

I have to say that all ten boys contributed today, we defended really well all afternoon even though we rotated between Lenny Crowter, Luke Sims, Sonny Gardner and Teddy O'Brien and behind them Jacob Paulus has made a number of outstanding saves just when we needed him. In midfield and attack, we were a constant threat with Ollie Carr, Tanaka Gono, Demi Oladiran, Archie Harrison and Daniel Perryment all looking threatening and capable of causing problems down both flanks and in front of goal.

This was our last bit of football for this years boys, it was a really great way to end the season and picking up the two trophies in May is just reward for the work they have put in this season.