ON Friday, April 24, 11 girls in Years 5 and 6 of Sully Primary School travelled to Bryn Hafod Primary School, Cardiff to take part in the annual Football tournament hosted by Matthew Normansell.

Sully School won the tournament in 2014 at the first time of trying so went in to this year’s tournament with high hopes of repeating their success.

Apart from Sully, all the teams competing were once again from Cardiff schools. With 16 teams involved, Sully commenced the defence of their title with three group matches that saw them secure comfortable wins against Willowbrook 3-0, Rumney 2-0 and Glan-Yr-Afon 4-0.

Goals came from Zoe Smith, Ellie Gunney, Beth Munro-Morris and Belle Jones. The Sully defence were impregnable, goalkeeper Amy Denton not touching the ball in all three matches but enjoying the spectacle unravelling in front of her.

The girls marched in to the knock out stages having played great passing and attacking football with a keen eye for goal.

Sully faced Pen-Y-Bryn in the quarter final and within five minutes they were already 3-0 up, with two poacher goals from Belle Jones and a long range effort from Zoe Smith. In the second half, two more goals from Rebecca George and Beth Munro-Morris secured a safe passage through to the semi-final.

Up next were Lansdowne in the semi final, who also won their quarter-final match 5-0, thus presented a tougher challenge.

Sully dominated possession from the start and began to build attacks with great runs down the wings by Ellie Gunney and Zoe Smith.

The pressure told as both Zoe and Ellie scored two each with neat passing between Beth Munro-Morris and Belle Jones. Annie Isherwood was very unlucky not to score as she came on for Belle Jones, going close a couple of times. Amy Denton made a fantastic save deep in to the game to secure yet another clean sheet.

The defence remained solid, Lily Frances-Oaten playing in centre back was inspiring the other defenders, Macey Brown, Molly Barlow, Rebecca George and Ffion Ross to yet another fine performance with some big tackles and slick passing out to the wings.

In the final were Sully and Whitchurch with both teams entering the tournament with undefeated records for the season so the final was all set for some fireworks.

Sully took off where they had finished in the previous game, totally dominating possession and simply out playing Whitchurch in every position. Zoe Smith was creating so many chances up the right wing and after four minutes she sent over a soaring cross in to the goal area. The pace of the ball looked like it had too much on it for anybody to control but up stepped Ellie Gunney on the back post to chest the ball in. It was 1-0 and Sully were now on the charge.

The link up play was now beautiful to watch and Ellie Gunney benefited from more neat passing from Beth Munro-Morris, Belle Jones and Zoe Smith, adding two more fine goals in the first half to reach her hat-trick and a pleasing 3-0 lead at half-time.

The girls continued to dominate in the second half and Ellie Gunney capped off a brilliant performance by adding another goal early on to take a 4-0 lead.

Whitchurch began to fight back and Amy Denton made two great saves, tipping the ball over the cross bar on both occasions. The girls were now enjoying their moment and with two minutes remaining seemed destined to go through the tournament without conceding a goal. A brief lapse in concentration and failure to block a long range shot gave Amy no chance as Whitchurch grabbed a late conciliation goal.

So the final whistle went and there were screams of joy as Sully Girls had retained their title in emphatic style to win 4-1, much to the satisfaction of Mrs Waddington (deputy head) who watched on with great pride.

All of the girls play football for Sully Sports FC and if any girls are interested in joining, please visit the club website or contact Steve Gunney (Girls Section Coach) on 07968 561655.