The last of our qualifying rounds for the East London Panathlon Football Cup took place yesterday at Newham Powerleague. The teams in attendance were from Newham, Redbridge, Hackney, Havering and Barking & Dagenham. Unfortunately the weather was not with us as we experienced rain for the first time during our football competition. Despite this, all the teams were able to enjoy 5 or 6 games of football. The format of enabled many games where everyone played everbody else to maximise the number of matches. A knock out format then took place to decide the overall standings for the day and a Final for the winners. A big congratulations to the teams from Barking & Dagenham and Hackney who now qualify for the Final in February.

Yvonne O’Keefe, Barking & Dagenham, “One of our players – a young Romanian man played in his first ever football competition today! He is a part of our U16 squad and we are really impressed with how he played. He is over the moon that his team is through to the next round! This competition has opened doors for him, to more football opportunities. He will get involved in our newly organised weekly football disability sessions. Super!”