Morpeth Town has dominated the Northumberland FA County Cup this season.

With the senior side triumphing at St James’ Park, our under-18 side were in equally sparkling form to claim the junior version of the competition thanks to victory over North Shields Under-18s.

Featuring in the Northumberland FA County Junior Cup, the Highwaymen, a young squad with a range of ages from 15-18, came out on top much to the delight of manager David Jenkinson.

“Both Dave Leightley and myself have been delighted with the lads in the second half the season which we expected as we had a relatively young group. We had been in excellent form before the final, winning eight out of eight games in the Durham John Maley league to finish top, against some very good teams,” said the Under-18s boss.

“So we were very confident before the final but I have to give credit to North Shields, who made it one of our most difficult games of the season.

“They made it very difficult, sitting deep with five at the back and caused us one or two problems on the break. We kept pushing for the goal, missing a penalty in the second half before a moment of quality from Harvey Walsh broke the deadlock.”

Looking forward to another final – on May 19th against New Hartley in the John Maley Cup – it has been a terrific season so far, with one final chance to add to the silverware.

“The squad we had last year was very strong with two lads going on to play for England and the majority of others going on to play in the Northern League or University first teams,” added Jenkinson.

“This squad is just as talented but a bit younger and are a great bunch of lads, who have benefited from Dave Leightley’s experience of managing at Northern League level; he turned down jobs at that level to coach the lads.

“I am looking forward to watching them mature and develop as players. The majority of the lads are available next year and we have already identified players we would like to bring into the group.

“But we are happy to look at anyone who wants to come along to pre-season training.”