Swindon Town

SWINDON Town’s Under-14s have just returned from a prestigious international tournament in the Netherlands where we finished 12th out of 16 teams, writes Jeremy Newton.

We had a very good first day: we lost by a goal to nil against Feyenoord, drew 0-0 with AZ Alkmaar and 1-1 with FC Twente. We lost 2-0 to German giants, Borussia Dortmund then secured a 1-0 victory against Slavia Prague. We were playing in difficult conditions on the first day where temperatures were up to 92 degrees Fahrenheit so that first day took its toll on the players physically and mentally and we even picked up an injury to striker, Rhys Wells.

Day two started with a 2-2 draw with KRC Genk then a 2-0 defeat to FC Schalke. Of the teams that we played on the first day – Twente got to the final and lost 2-0 to Chelsea and Feyenoord finished fourth so it just shows that it was a difficult day one for our lads.

The final table is below. It’s really exciting to see Swindon Town among all these prestigious European teams:

1st Chelsea
2nd FC Twente
3rd Kashima Reysol
4th Feyenoord
5th Schalke
6th FC Gravezande
7th Borussia Dortmund
8th Red Bull Salzburg
9th Club Brugge
10th Bayer Leverkusen
11th AZ Alkmaar
12th Swindon Town
13th Slavia Prague
14th ADO Den Haag
15th Genk
16th Sparta Rotterdam

READ MORE FROM THE STFC ACADEMY MANAGER IN THIS SATURDAY'S EDITION OF RED&WHITE.