Closely-fought game sees Corby Town boys just miss out in national cup final

The Corby Town FC Youth Academy U15 team giant-killed their way to the Junior Premier League Cup Final on Saturday (May 12), at Doncaster Rovers’ Eco-Power Stadium.

They went down to a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat against London-based The 8 Academy FC.

Coached by Dave Prati and Darren Earp, the team’s management said the youngsters represented their town brilliantly, even forming a guard of honour for the victors.

The boys also play in the Weetabix league on Sundays, in which they’re coached by Neil Cochrane, whose son Evan is in the team. He said: “Hopefully after the dust has settled, they will look back on an amazing experience and huge achievement in reaching a national final with their club and team-mates.”

Here’s Neil fantastic match report from Doncaster

After an early meet up at Steel Park in new, commemorative match-day kit provided by Impact Recruitment, it was clear the lads were up for it, and they were cheered onto their cup final transport - a luxury coach sponsored by local Escape Room firm Trapp’d that is used by Northampton Town FC for their away travel.

The few nerves on show evaporated by the time we arrived at the Eco Power Stadium, which was a brilliant venue for the boys to play in – all of them showing they belonged on the pitch over the 80 minutes.

After a warmup and a cagey start to the game, The 8 Academy took the lead after about 15 minutes and then shortly after the 20-minute mark the Corby lads found themselves two-nil down, slightly against the run of play.

However, the lads were determined to get back into it and continued to press forward, Fin Richardson rattling the opposition crossbar from a full 30 yards with a shot that will still have the frame of the goal shaking today.

About 10 minutes before half time the boys got their reward after a surging forward run from Luka Lukic, Harvey Payne brought the ball down with an immaculate first touch before hammering the ball into the roof of the net… game on!!

Half time came and the boys were rallied with some stirring words and the 2nd half soon became one-way traffic with the Corby boys launching wave upon wave of attacks orchestrated by captain Seit Hida. But with The 8 Academy goalkeeper in inspired form it was beginning to look like one of those days until about 15 minutes into the second half Toby Whitty got on the end of Evan Cochrane’s through ball, took the ball onto his left foot and smashed the ball into the far corner to give the Corby boys a much deserved equaliser and send the travelling support from Corby wild!

It looked like there would only be one winner with the Corby attacks still coming and being thwarted by the opposition No.1 and a genuine penalty shout being turned down. However, the threat on the break from The 8 was still there with goalkeeper Morgan Delgarno making an amazing save, tipping the ball over the bar from close distance.

Then with 15 minutes to go a rare second half attack from The 8 led to a penalty being awarded and converted to see their lead restored.

The boys were unable to force another equaliser and the ref’s final whistle sounded to bring the curtain down on a great final and a great effort by the Corby lads – The 8 Academy goalkeeper being given the official Player Of The Match award is a telling statistic of how the boys approached the game and Dave, Darren and myself are so proud of how they took the game to the opposition and tried to bring the cup home for their club and the town. They could not have done much more.

We are extremely proud of how far this group of lads have come and how close they got to winning but not only that, we have an extreme amount of pride in how they conducted themselves at the end, forming a guard of honour as the opposition went up to receive the trophy.

They represented themselves, their club and the town brilliantly not just on the day but across the whole season where they have met challenge after challenge to have a shot at this and they are already determined to go one better next year.

The squad is made up of 19 players who play in the local Weetabix League, 15 players from the Corby Town Youth side and 4 from Mawsley Lions and the whole squad have further shots at glory this coming week with the Corby Town representation of the squad playing in the NFA County Cup Final vs AFC Rushden & Diamonds Warriors this coming Thursday (May 17).

Then all the boys will go head-to-head on Sunday (May 19) when Mawsley Lions and Corby Town play each other in the annual Weetabix League Cup Finals day at Raunds Town’s Kiln Park ground.