The squad travelled up to London the night before, courtesy of the Football League, so that they were ready for the biggest competition of their lives.
On arrival at Leyton Orient FC they were drawn in Group 1 along side Luton Town, Millwall, Swindon Town and Leyton Orient.
Despite a good warm up the side were a little overawed in their first match against bigger and stronger boys from Luton Town. G. almost opened the scoring after connecting with a corner from H. His header went like a rocket towards the goal, but unbelievably the Luton keeper got his finger tips to it.
Luton broke away and slotted the ball away at the other end. This gave the bigger boys confidence and they scored twice more before the final whistle. 0-3
The team had to play their second match against Millwall almost straight away. By now they were getting use to playing on third generation astroturf and the players put in a good performance. B. and C. played well in defence with captain L. controlling the midfield. An H. shot hit the crossbar and at the other end T. made a good save. Swansea had more of the possession, but that vital goal eluded them. 0-0
Again Swansea had to play back to back against Swindon Town. This was a very close game which could have gone either way with some good football being played by both sides. Swindon went 1-0 up and E. came on to help the defence. Despite a sterling display by Swansea, Swindon took the three points.In their final game against hosts, Leyton Orient, Swansea played their best football. They went close on several occasions before H. (the only girl playing in the competition) coolly slotted home a well deserved goal against a very tall Orient keeper. H., L. and G. also had several other chances and the defence held out well for Swansea to record their first win. 1-0Swansea ended up with 4pts just being piped to the semi final by Millwall on 5pts.
Brighton were eventual winners of the competition beating Southend with a golden goal in extra time.
This was a once in a lifetime trip for the St Teilo’s team and they proudly stepped up for their medals for being South and West Wales Regional Winners. This was a tremendous achievement for such a small local school.
Thanks to Linden Jones (Swansea City Football in the Community) for coming up to support the team and the dedicated band of parents who made the long journey to the finals.