Our Under 11s for the 2025/26 season secured another trophy at the weekend, continuing their recent remarkable form. The young Eagles entered the Berkswich tournament at Stafford Rugby Club the day after their end of season presentation to celebrate last season's achievements. Team manager, Dan Chell, takes up the story:

"The competition consisted of a group stage of six teams per group, with the top four going through to the quarter finals. Eccleshall won four of the five games and played some fantastic football, beating the likes of Stafford Rangers, Stafford Town, West Bromwich Allstars and Berkswich to top the group by two points.

Into the quarter finals and we faced another Stafford Rangers team. We dominated the match and went through with a 1-0 win. As the temperatures rose, the team faced Berkswich in the semi-finals. In a cagey match, Eccleshall had the majority of the play but couldn't find a breakthrough. This almost proved costly but our 'keeper, Jacob Egan, pulled off a wonderful save in the latter stages of the game. The match ended 0-0, meaning we had to face a penalty shoot-out. Winning the toss, we decided to go first and Eli Richens made no mistake from the spot. Jacob then saved the first Berkswich spot-kick. We missed our second penalty but, again, up stepped Jacob to produce another save. Next up was Freddie Chell and he blasted his spot kick into the back of the net to take us through to the final.

In a quick turnaround, we had five minutes to recover before the kick off for the final. The humidity increased to an uncomfortable level and the format meant that it would be a 26 minute match. Facing West Brom Allstars, we started brightly and took an early lead when Eli Richens fired into the bottom corner. Our young Eagles continued to control the game but the oppressive heat meant that the players were struggling to play at their normal tempo. They continued to work hard into the second half and, in spite of numerous chances, we just couldn't kill the game off. However, with five minutes remaining on the clock, JJ received the ball in the penalty box, turned and fired the ball past the keeper into the net. We played out time to the final whistle to lift the trophy.

After a long day of football, we scored 14 goals and only conceded two. I was proud of them all and they showed their quality throughout the tournament".

Photo shows the team with the trophy after the tournament.