Kepier School Football Academy still hopeful of competing in cup final

The academy, which is located in Houghton-le-Spring, have won five matches to reach the final of the English Schools Elite National Cup, which was supposed to be played in May.

Finals across all age groups are usually held at a Football League ground but have been suspended following the outbreak of COVID-19.

Yet Kepier’s lead coach, former Middlesbrough coach Paul Jenkins, says the English Schools FA still want the finals to be played when possible.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Jenkins told the Echo. “There will be a number of teams who have got that far and I think it would be pretty harsh for them kids not to fulfil the fixture at some point when we can.”

Kepier’s year-10 side, which contains three players from Newcastle United’s academy and one from Sunderland’s, had to come from behind in their semi-final match against Shropshire-based school Thomas Telford.

“They are highly recognised as the go-to school in the Midlands,” added Jenkins. “They get a lot of academy clubs whose players go there.

“They have won this tournament at various age groups multiple times throughout the years.

“For us to win in such a significant manner was a credit to the lads and they were excellent.

“It was a tough game, at half-time it was 3-3, we went 2-1 up, we went 3-2 down but against the wind in the second half they stepped up and ended up winning 5-3.

“They did themselves proud and did the school proud which shows the good work which is going on at the school and the football academy.”

The identity of Kepier’s final opponents hasn’t been decided, with the other semi-final still yet to be played.

“There’s a school from Norwich and a school from Torquay who were still to play their semi-final before they shut down,” said Jenkins.

“But the ESFA have contacted us to say they will make sure they will do everything in their power to make sure the finals go ahead and I believe rightly so.”