There's a youth football feast at Meadow Park, 6:30pm, Thursday, 15 March as Durham County Schools FA U18s meet Merseyside in the semi-final of the Northern Counties Championship, looking to gain revenge for their only defeat of the season at the hands of Merseyside in the ESFA National Trophy.
Merseyside have since booked their place in the final of the National Inter-County Trophy having defeated Durham, South Yorkshire, Lancashire and Northumberland on their way and they will meet either Hertfordshire or Essex in the final in April.
Durham meanwhile have had their own success this season having qualified for the semi-final by finishing top of the Northern Counties East League with a 100% winning record. Twin strikers Michael Sweet and Luke Carr have seven goals each for Durham and will be looking to add to their tally to help Durham to the final.
Both squads have highly motivated and talented players and are worthy of their success this season and this tie promises to be an exciting encounter. No fewer than seven of Durham’s squad were nominated for England trials this season with goalkeeper Michael Hughes and midfielder David Luke along with Sweet and Carr making it through to the later stages. Sweet was lucky enough to make the squad and has represented England SFA U18s this season against Australia, Poland, Valencia, Benidorm and Wales. He is also part of the squad who will face Scotland at the Sports Direct Arena on Thursday, 12 April, which will also be televised live on Sky Sports.
Durham will be looking to bring their league form into this game where they have scored a total of 28 goals and conceded only six and add to the Derek Watson Memorial Trophy which they won in November. They will also be looking to gain revenge for the only blemish on their record this season.
The Durham squad from: Michael Hughes (Framwellgate Moor) Lee Burrell (St Joseph’s) Spencer Shevlin, Luke Richardson, Callum Mordey, Steven Callen, Thomas Alderson, Jack Stanger, Andrew Jameson (Sunderland College) Thomas Iley (St John’s) James Davies (St Robert’s) James Stephenson (St Aidan’s) Luke Carr, Nick Doyle, Jack Lilley, Nick Ling, David Luke, Chris Raffo, Michael Sweet (Gateshead College)