Crawley Town Community Foundation Academy are Sussex Schools champions!

Crawley Town started the game with pace and power, with Sami Zagdouni, Lewis Gould and Harry Stone creating some early chances for the Reds.

​However, despite Crawley’s chances, it was BHASVIC who opened the scoring just before the half-time whistle.

Head coach Rob Semark said: “The message at half time was to relax, and focus on the positives, we highlighted we needed to find a little bit of composure in the final third – we felt confident going into the second half.”

​The Reds had an early response with Freddie Hammond delivering another of his fantastic corners for Lewis Gould to stab home to bring the game level.

The boys continued to work hard for another goal to push them to victory, however the game led to a penalty shoot-out.

​It was Crawley Town who kick started the penalties, however an amazing save from the BHASVIC goalkeeper denied the Reds to take the lead.

Will Heater then followed with two big saves of the opponent’s penalties, and with Josh Clay scoring the for the reds we had an advantage.

Safwan Ahmed, Beau Walters followed suit by scoring their penalties.

It was Jack Hayes who scored the decisive penalty meaning the final score was 4-2 to the Crawley Town Community Foundation Academy.

​Head coach Rob Semark reflected on the win by saying: "The celebrations were fantastic; we may not have been completely at our best, but I feel we thoroughly deserved the win.

"Seeing the lads celebrating in the changing rooms was amazing, we have played some tough opponents during this competition.”

​He added his thoughts on the team’s determination with this season being the first season in the South Premier division: “To handle themselves as well as they have done and rise to every challenge and pick themselves up after setbacks, this was a great way to end the season.

"They are a great group, and it has been a privilege to work with them this season.”

​The Crawley Town Community Foundation Academy is a post-16 education programme.

Operated in collaboration with the Holy Trinity Sixth Form School, offering a Pearson BTEC Level 3 qualification, alongside by an intensive full-time football academy programme.

The coaching at the academy is centred around the principles, and rigour, of professional football, ensuring a high level of training and development for aspiring athletes.

​Our Education Academy programme have limited spaces remaining for the 24/25 season.

To register your interest or to find out more information please go to www.ctcommunityfoundation.com/education