Berrygrove Primary and Nursery School represented Watford Football Club at the regional finals of the nPower Kids cup this week and put in an impressive performance to finish third.

The Garston school’s squad of eight qualified for the competition after winning a regional tournament held at the end of last year and despite battling all the way, they lost out in the semi-finals of the competition.

The prize for the winners was a place in the Wembley final but Berrygrove fell just short of a dream day out, losing 3-0 to Portsmouth in the semi-finals.

Coached by Year Six teacher Liam Wanless, the boys were unbeaten in the group stage and even showed the fighting spirit to come from behind and win.

And the coach was delighted with the showing from his team.

“There were two separate leagues of six teams. We won all our games and drew with Southampton, which put us second in the group. We then lost to Portsmouth in the semi final,” Wanless explained.

“To be honest, in the last two league games they came from one goal behind. Against Ipswich we were 1-0 down and won 5-1.”

The squad overcame Coventry City, West Ham United, Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace in their group as well as drawing with Southampton.

Wanless admitted the boys were disappointed to have missed out on playing at Wembley, but stressed what an achievement it was for them to have claimed third place.

“Their dream was to go to Wembley but looking at it from the outside, we were the third best team in the south of England,” he enthused.

“They were excited from the moment they left school. When they lost in the semi finals, they knew they weren’t going to Wembley but they looked at it and realised what they had achieved.”

With the squad made up of three boys from Year Five and five from Year Six, some of them will be moving on to secondary school in September.

But with one more tournament to play in Easter, Wanless is hoping they can end the year in style.

“We have got another tournament in Easter against schools around the Watford area,” he continued. “It will be a nice way to finish if they can win that.”

He added: “We have achieved so much. The boys came together at the start of the year and have played for each other.”

And while they may not have enjoyed glory at the tournament, there was cause for celebration for three members of the squad.

Following impressive displays, Owen Gould, Keiran Topping and Ryan Emmanuel have all been selected for Watford FC’s Youth Player Development Centre.