Newtown are the pride of Shropshire

It was not meant to be for the north Shropshire school who will take memories for a lifetime from their run to the English Schools FA Danone Nations Cup finals in Birmingham, where they made the final eight from 2,000 schools that entered.

The under-11 team strutted their stuff on Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s Stadium pitch but were unable to qualify for the semi-final stage.

But the youngsters, mostly in year six, shone at Shrewsbury Town’s Montgomery Waters Meadow on their way to claiming the Small Schools County Shield and the John Hatfield Village Schools Shield.

Newtown beat Condover in both finals to end the season on a high.

The side, who are coached by teacher Jon Rowlands, began their long journey to the Nations Cup finals with success in the Shropshire stage of the competition.

They then went on to the Midland stage of the tournament at Nottingham University, where they were beaten finalists.

Nonetheless they still qualified for the St Andrew’s final where they faced rivals from Northumberland, Sussex and Oxfordshire, and picked up a two draws and a defeat.

They started well with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle thanks to a deflected Tomas Parr strike but a defeat in game two meant the goalless draw in match three was not enough to qualify.

Proud grandparent Barry Hawkins said: “All of these lads can hold their head up high. It has been a long journey through qualifying and the Midland region finals for them to get this far in a national competition.

“The school staff, team coach Mr Rowlands and head Andrew Hodgson have been superb in their encouragement of this special group of lads giving up a lot of their time to help them develop and the spirit in the squad has been superb.”

“And they justified their national success back home in Shropshire at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

“Not only are the boys talented footballers - they are also great friends --their support of each other has been heartwarming .”