Mill Lane Wizards Win Poppleton Juniors Tournament

Mill Lane Wizards u13’s won their 2nd tournament in a week following up on their York RI success by adding the Poppleton Juniors tournament.

In contrast to the previous week the Wizards started slowly on a bright and breezy Saturday in North Yorkshire but still managed to beat the host team Poppleton Panthers in their first match with a narrow 1:0 victory thanks to a great strike from Matty Blake.

Next up came Pontefract in what turned out to be a very physical encounter. A delay in clearing the ball gave Pontefract an early lead but this galvanised Mill Lane and despite creating some good chances the Wizards couldn’t convert and the match finished 1:0

This put the Wizards under pressure to qualify but with Isaac Adnitt keeping clean sheets and some great play from Ben Gillyon and Danny Wilson, further wins against Malton and another Poppleton side meant the Wizards made the semi-finals as runners up in the league format.

In another hard fought semi-final encounter Mill Lane made the early running but found the Wiggington keeper in fine form to keep the scores level. It was however no surprise when eventually it was Mill Lane who made the breakthrough as concerted pressure finally took its toll and Addison made no mistake from close range. The second half continued in the same vein but with no further scores the Wizards progressed to the final against Heworth.

If the Beverley outfit had started the tournament in second gear they definitely started the final in top gear as they left their best performance till last. With only a couple of minutes gone some great play by Adam Prince and George Addison gave Ben Gillyon a simple tap in for 1:0. More neat interplay between Zac Wise and Wilson put Harry Sadler clean through and he made no mistake for 2:0.

In the second period it was soon 3:0 as Blake fed Sadler on the right and he outpaced the Heworth defence to make it three. However credit must go to Heworth who continued to press and eventually got a deserved consolation goal to make the final score 3:1