The squad’s journey started on Saturday 17^th October 2009 with a home tie against Peterborough Schools. After sparsely attended trials at the end of September and a friendly fixture against the Gleed Boys’ U16 Team in early October (which they won 3-1 with goals from Baines, Delorenzo and a penalty from Shailes) the full squad finally came together for the round 2 fixture at The Gleed Boys’ School.

After a fairly even first half the second half introduction of Jordan Nuttell fired South Lincolnshire into life and a cool finish from midfielder James Reed and well worked goal from Nuttell saw South Lincolnshire finish with what in the end was a comfortable 2-0 win.  Peterborough threatened briefly in the second half hitting the bar from a corner, but after taking the lead South Lincolnshire were always in control and also rattled the woodwork through a Nuttell header.

This victory eventually set up an away fixture in round 3 with Great Yarmouth on Saturday 28^th November 2009 held at Acle Recreation Ground, Norfolk.  Leading up to the game one player from the previous fixture was unavailable, one player ill, one player not turning up due to the 7.00am start and another not prepared to travel to Acle if he wasn’t guaranteed a certain amount of playing time new players’ had to be called into squad.  Instead of disrupting the squad this brought the team closer together and within 10 minutes we found ourselves 2-0 up through a smart finish from Josh Shailes and Nuttell following up a parry from the Yarmouth keeper after Shailes had run half the length of the field to see his shot saved.  It stayed this way until 10 minutes from time when Yarmouth scored a breakaway goal after South Lincolnshire had looked very comfortable at 2-0 up for the majority of the game.  With this unexpected goal from Yarmouth, South Lincolnshire upped their game once more and Jordan Lote capped a commanding display in the heart of defence with a precise finish from the edge of the area following a South Lincolnshire corner completing the scoring and giving South Lincolnshire a 3-1 victory.

Round 4 brought a pre Christmas home tie against Coventry Schools.  This was a mid-week fixture and took place at the Sir Halley Stewart Stadium, home of Spalding United F.C. on Wednesday 9^th December 2009.  After a good warm up South Lincolnshire were on the back foot from the start of the game and courtesy of a Coventry penalty found themselves 1-0 down within 2 minutes.  South Lincolnshire gradually got themselves back into the game and equalised half-way through the first half through a rising shot from Reed.  The rest of the first half was a level affair from two evenly matched teams.  At half time Coventry made a change in goal, and the new keepers first job was to pick the ball out of the net after Shailes had shrugged of a Coventry defender to produce a precise finish into the bottom corner of the Coventry net to give South Lincolnshire a 2-1 lead.  South Lincolnshire defended bravely throughout the rest of the second half with Captain Aaron Corby, his centre half partner Lote, right back Harry Johnson and left back Sebastian Bialoskorka being well marshalled by commanding keeper Harry Ashton.  Just when it looked like South Lincolnshire had booked a place in the last 16, Coventry were awarded a last minute penalty.  The big crowd held their breathe as the Coventry striker (having already beaten Ashton once from the spot) ran up to take the penalty.  This time there was no repeat as Ashton superbly guessed the right way and palmed away the ball to safety and rubber stamping the victory.  The final whistle saw great celebrations on and off the pitch for South Lincolnshire.

The new year brought another home fixture in round 5 against Cambridge and District Schools. Again Spalding United F.C. was used for this fixture.  The game was originally arranged for Wednesday 13^th January 2010, but with the weather the way it was it had to be put back a week to the 20^th.  The game again saw two fairly evenly matched teams with chances few and far between, Shailes having South Lincolnshire’s best chance failing to hit the target.  Ryan Leggett, Tom Coaten and Lewis Baines worked hard in midfield and substitutes Sam Howell and Jordan Haw doing good jobs for the team.  Sub keeper James Tranter also helped by warming the substitutes up on the practice pitches before they came on.  The pitch was cutting up badly and South Lincolnshire found it hard to play their passing game.  They did however more than match Cambridge and still looked dangerous on the break with the pace of forwards Nuttell and Shailes.

For the second game on the trot South Lincolnshire had keeper Ashton to thank as he again guessed right to save a Cambridge penalty towards the end of normal time.  The full-time score ended 0-0 and we went into extra-time.  Neither team really deserved to win or lose the game but it was eventually settled in controversial style.  With 5 minutes left of extra-time Cambridge scored what proved to be the winner.  The ball found its way to a Cambridge player who looked to be in an offside position, but he made no mistake to fire past Ashton from 10 yards.  This was hard on South Lincolnshire as the boys’ had worked so hard in all the games and didn’t deserve to go out like that, but as they say, football can be a cruel game sometimes!

It was however a great achievement for the boys’ to get so far in a national tournament and they can be very proud of what they have done.  I’d like to thank all the boys’ in the squad for their enormous effort during all the games, their professionalism and commitment to the team.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with every one of them.  I‘d also like to thank Mr. Nuttell for his local player knowledge, Mr and Mrs Ashton for their generosity and support of the boys’, Mr. Baines for donating numerous raffle prizes, all the boys’ parents/carers for supporting them throughout all the games and Mr. Lakin, Mr. Wainwright and Mr. Brooks for their help during our home fixtures.  Together we had a rollercoaster of a ride, in the end we had to get off prematurely!

All the best boys’ for the rest of the season in school and club football, thanks for your efforts.

Mr. I. Billinghurst

South Lincolnshire U15 Football Manager.