On the road to Wembley

Panathlon have been busy throughout the last week with four football competitions across London involving 399 footballers from 37 schools.

The four competitions took place across London at Gillette Corner Goals (West) Eltham Goals (South), Newham Powerleague (East) and Barnet Powerleague (North)

Emma O’Connor, Panathlon football coach, co-ordinated at all the four competitions’ specialist coaching sessions involving players who are either less confident or with less ability to play competitive football. The coaching sessions involved 55 additional players from seven different schools across London.

Emma said: “We had a range of abilities involved in the coaching this year, from those that are just learning the concept of football and learning to kick a ball towards a goal, to some ex-players in the competition post-16 wanting to stay involved.

“I also delivered some short coaching sessions to teams in between their fixtures, particularly for those that found the competition a faster pace then they are used to. We also had three girls-only teams this year, which was great to see, from Wandsworth, Merton and Newham.”

At the South London competition Thomas Clements (pictured right), Panathlon’s Schools Ambassador, was present coaching the Bromley U13s team from Marjorie McClure school.

Thomas’ team missed out in the plays-off to Kensington & Chelsea and finished fourth. “It’s been another great day,” he said. “Our team had loads of gameplay, seven matches in total. They’ve played like a real team. I’m very proud of them.”

All the teams were attempting to qualify for the two London Finals dates next month at Wembley Stadium Powerleague (adjacent to the National Stadium). Four teams from each regional competition would qualify, the top two in the Champions Final, and third and fourth places through to the Plate Final.

Current champions Hackney made it through to the Champions finals, so have a chance to defend their title. They will need to overturn Islington, who beat them into second place in the East London regional. Haringey, who have won the title twice, are also strong contenders, having qualified from the Northern section.

Darrell King from Langdon School in Newham said: “We had a new team playing today, that hadn’t attended Panathlon before. We missed out on the finals last year, so I’m personally really happy we’ve qualified for Wembley this year.”

The line up for the finals are confirmed as follows:

Plate Finals (Wednesday 22nd November)
Waltham Forest (Whitefields)
Westminster (College Park)
Newham (Langdon)
B&D (Eastbrook & Trinity)
H&F (Parayhouse)
Wandsworth (Paddock)
Kensington & Chelsea (Parkwood Hall)
Lewisham (Brent Knoll)

Champions Finals (Wednesday 29th November)
Haringey (Riverside)
Enfield (Westlea)
Hillingdon (Pield Heath & Meadow High)
Merton (Cricket Green & Perseid)
Bromley (Glebe)
Lambeth (Lansdowne)
Islington (Samuel Rhodes)
Hackney (Stormont)

Congratulations to Lewisham & Westminster who have made it through to the football finals for the first time.

More photos are available here.

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