B&DYFL match of the week: Thornton Cleveleys Lions v Fleetwood Town Junior Reds

Thornton Cleveleys Lions and Fleetwood Town Junior Reds will play in the Easter tournament at Bispham JFF Picture: Karen Tebbutt

The Blackpool and District Youth Football League takes a break over the Easter weekend – but U9 teams Thornton Cleveleys Lions and Fleetwood Town Junior Reds won’t be putting their feet up after an exciting match of the week last Saturday.

Both participate in the Easter tournament at Bispham JFF and have plenty more football to look forward to before the season ends next month.

One key date ringed in the Lions’ diary is May 11, when they contest the Hogan Cup final at Bloomfield Road.

They previously featured in our match of the week two seasons ago and have continued to develop well since.

The Fleetwood Town Junior Reds players Picture: Karen Tebbutt

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Manager Lee Morton told The Gazette: “We’ve still got the nine original players from that first season as under-sevens. We’ve added three more when we moved up to seven-a-side this season.

“We are proud of the way we’ve kept the squad together and enhanced it. It’s our third season in the league but I ran the soccer school before that, so it’s our fourth season together.

“It was a good game on Saturday and we’ve had a few tight games against Fleetwood Town this season. This was a really strong performance.”

The Thornton Cleveleys Lions line-up Picture: Karen Tebbutt

It was the Reds’ second match of the week appearance this season and manager Lucy Sewell said: “The Lions are a good team and it was a really good game on Saturday. It’s a derby and we always enjoy playing against them.

“We have really enjoyed the season and we’re looking forward to some tournaments over the summer.

“We’ll look to recruit some more players as well ahead of our second season of seven-a-side.”

The Lions will face BJFF Spartans in the cup final but have a couple more B&DYFL games before then to keep them ticking over.

Thornton Cleveleys Lions and Fleetwood Town Junior Reds met last Saturday Picture: Karen Tebbutt

Looking ahead to the Blackpool FC showpiece, Lee added: “BJFF are another side we’ve played some really tight games against this season. We’ve both beaten each other and the matches have been very close.”

Reds manager Lucy wished both finalists good luck and added: “We didn’t quite reach cup finals day – we lost in the semis – but we’ll see the Lions at BJFF this weekend.”

Spencer was the Lions’ player of the match for an all-action display. He highlighted a brilliant attacking performance with some outstanding long-range shooting.

The Fleetwood player of the match award was shared between the whole side to mark their development as a squad over the course of the season.