In a tightly fought battle at Sheffield Wednesdays Hillsborough. Hertfordshire just failed to become the Under18 National School champions for 2011. Losing out to a well organised Lancashire side.
Hertfordshire trailed 1-0 at half time but came back strongly in the second half to level at 1-1, through a well worked Steve O’Connor goal and in truth Herts were the better of the 2 sides for the remainder of the match.
However despite being on top, they couldn’t find the winner either in the 90 minutes or in extra time and finally ended up losing the penalty shootout 5 – 4.
Boreham Wood PASE coach Luke Garrard said, “Firstly Lancashire must be congratulated but our Hertfordshire schools manager Anthony Smith, his staff and all the Herts boys should be really proud of what they have achieved. They’ve now set a bench mark for others to follow and have shown that with the right selection policy, preparation, aligned to great attitudes, discipline and desire, Hertfordshire schools really can compete for national honours year in year out.” Garrard went on, “ I am proud that Anthony and the Herts schools asked me to coach these talented lads and I’ll look back on my time with them with great affection” He concluded.
