HEREFORD Cathedral Junior School became the third different winners of the Herefordshire Primary Schools football tournament after defeating St Mary’s Fownhope on penalties in the final.

A total of 24 schools took part in the tournament held at Wyeside and such was the closeness of the competition that not one school finished their group with a 100 per cent winning record.

After the groups had finished, the top 16 schools went through to the cup with the rest into the plate.

In the plate, Lord Scudamore progressed to the final after a dramatic sudden death penalty shoot-out victory over city neighbours St Martin’s.

They were joined by Stoke Prior who were more comfortable winners, beating St Thomas Cantilupe 3-0.

The final was a well fought game but it was Lord Scudamore who managed to come out on top, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Harvey James and Cameron Boulton, either side of Bailey Keeton’s equaliser for Stoke Prior.

In the first round of the cup, HCJS were pushed all the way by Our Lady’s before winning 2-0.

St Mary’s Fownhope required penalties to beat Shobdon, as did St Paul’s and Kingsland.

Riverside’s hold on the trophy was ended by Hampton Dene, again on penalties, while there were also wins for Stretton Sugwas, Marlbrook and Trinity.

In the quarter finals, the big game saw Trinity defeat Hampton Dene with HCJS and St Mary’s Fownhope both securing 2-0 wins.

St Paul’s were proving to be the penalty experts defeating Marlbrook 4 -3 in sudden death.

In the semi-finals, St Mary’s Fownhope defeated Trinity 1 – 0 thanks to a goal from Joseph Harwood while St Paul’s penalty run came to an end against HCJS with Matthew Tulacz’s penalty and Joel Wheeler’s saves proving the difference. In the final, both HCJS and St Mary’s Fownhope were very committed and the game swung end to end although both goalkeepers were rarely tested.

Some brave defending from both sides meant that penalties were set to decide the winners.

With Wheeler saving another effort and Tulacz slotting home, it was left to Harry Sockett to score the decisive penalty and give Cathedral the trophy.