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Every trophy available taken by our fantastic futsal students

Season 2017/18 Review- Major steps made.

Franklin College is extremely proud of our fantastic Futsal programme run in partnership with the Grimsby Town Sports & Education Trust. The programme has moved from strength to strength in the last few years with students achieving fantastic destinations alongside their professional level training. This year has seen an unprecedented run of successes with the team winning all of the available trophies.

Full story from the Futsal Team

Grimsby Town Futsal continued to develop their reputation in the futsal world by taking a clean sweep of trophies available in the EFL U19s and going on an unbelievable cup run in the men’s senior FA Futsal Cup.

Town’s U19s campaign began back in November in the newly formed EFL Trust Super Cup. The season opener involved the 2016-17 National League Champions vs the EFL National Futsal Cup winners, a bit like the FA Community Shield in Futsal. This saw Grimsby Town vs Peterborough United at St Georges Park- the home of English football. In a close game that ended 3-3 after normal time the Mariners took the initiative in penalty shoot-out winning 5-4 and claiming their first silverware of the season.

November also so the start of the FA Futsal Cup for the newly formed men’s senior team. The U19s program has been running since 2012 and has seen 4 generations of scholars graduate from the program. A selection of these scholars were added to the current U19s team to create Grimsby Town FC Futsal. Grimsby qualified for the FA Futsal Cup R1 after beating UKFA, Fleetwood and Oldham Futsal.

The U19s Futsal North League started in November and would run until April with weekly fixtures against the likes of Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle United, Bradford City, Scunthorpe United, Rotherham and Middlesbrough. Grimsby Town U19s A and B side would compete in the highest tier (North Championship), while the C team would be in the second tier North League 1, and the Development team in their own league.

December saw the first round of the U19 EFL Futsal National Cup begin at York University. In a round Robin League of 4 both the A and B team qualified for Round 2. The format was the same for Round 2 this time at Birmingham Arena in February. Unfortunately, the B team were knocked out, however the A team progressed to the last 8.

The start of April saw Grimsby Town FC Futsal men’s team return to action in the FA Cup Round 1. In front of a sell-out 220 crowd Grimsby beat Durham Development 5-2 in the clubs first ever home game. A week later Grimsby Town A’ team ended their league campaign and claimed their second silverware of the season by winning the EFL Futsal North Championship. The B team finished runner up and both qualified for the National Playoffs involving top 4 finishers from the Midlands and South Leagues. The C team would also enter the playoffs finishing runners up in League 1. The Development team were also crowned North and Midlands League winners!

It was now into the business end of the season as May arrived. The men’s team were still in the FA Futsal Cup and the Under 19s could still win the EFL Futsal National Cup and the National Finals. First up the U19s A’ team claimed a dramatic treble and retained the EFL Futsal National Cup for the third season in a row. After qualifying from their group of 4 they beat Peterborough United 4-0 in the semi-finals and then beat Southampton 1-0 in the final.
A few days later the men’s team travelled to the South coast the play Sussex Futsal club in the last 16 of the FA Futsal Cup. The Mariner’s made the long trip with it with a 6-3 victory over highly ranked opponents to make the quarter finals.

During the month of May Grimsby Town A,B,C were involved in EFL National playoffs. These were made up of the best 16 teams from the 4 EFL National Leagues (North, Midlands, South East and South West). It would involve a knockout system. Grimsby Town A and B both won their last 16 and quarter final games in the National Championship, however the C team lost their quarter final League 1 game vs Norwich.
This meant that a semi-final between Grimsby Town A and Grimsby Town B would take place in June at St Georges Park to decide who would make the U19s National Final vs either Cardiff or Southampton. Grimsby Town A saw off the B team and booked a place vs Cardiff (the only team to beat Grimsby A’ so far this year). However, Grimsby Town U19s were ruthless and beat Cardiff 10-5 to complete an epic quadruple of U19s EFL Futsal Trust trophies.

A few days later the men’s team were back in action in the quarter finals of the FA Futsal Cup away at Durham Futsal club. Durham will be in the highest level of UK Futsal next season after their promotion this year however in a close game Grimsby came off 4-3 victors to reach the semi-finals of the FA Futsal Cup- a tremendous achievement. Unfortunately a week later in Wolverhampton Town’s FA Futsal Cup journey came to an end against eventual winners London Helvecia. None the less an incredible experience for a young squad playing against internationally capped senior players.

The season of 2017/2018 honours list:

U19s A’ Team
EFL Trust Futsal Super Cup- Winners
EFL National North Championship- Winners
EFL Futsal National Cup- Winners
EFL Trust National Championship- Winners
U19s B’ Team
EFL National North Championship- Runners Up
EFL Trust National Championship- Semi Finals
U19s C’ Team
EFL National North League 1- Runners Up
EFL Trust National League 1- Quarter Finals
U19s Development Team
EFL North and Midlands Development League- Winners
Men’s senior team
FA Futsal Cup- Semi Finals.