Sidmouth Warriors Under-9s won the inaugural Exeter City 5-a-side Futsal tournament at St James Park.

This format of football demands quick-thinking, accurate passing and plenty of intelligent movement, something that suits this group of young Sidmouth footballers very well. The Warriors won six and drew two of their eight group matches, scoring 24 goals whilst conceding just the one.

This was easily good enough to secure a place in the final where they took on Exmouth United.

This match was closely contested, but despite the Warriors creating the better chances, they were unable to convert which left the tournament settled on the outcome of a penalty shoot-out.

The Warriors’ heroes were Louis Silk and Stanley Richardson who expertly dispatched their spot-kicks whilst George Crofts-Wheeler pulled off two incredible saves to win the trophy for Sidmouth. Cue jubilant celebrations in front of the Big Bank at Exeter City’s home ground!

The Futsal triumph capped off a wonderful end-of-season weekend for, the day before the Warriors saw off Moors 5-1 and Tiverton Town 4-2.

Against a Tiverton side that used the long-ball tactic, but that was countered by some splendid defending by Samuel Rice and Joe Ashby.

Saturday afternoon saw the end-of-season awards handed out. The Player’s Player award went to Benedict Teague, whilst the Coaches’ Player was named as Joe Ashby. The Most Improved honour was claimed by Jamie Salter and the award for Attitude was won by Toby Hill. Stanley Richardson was awarded the top scorer trophy whilst Ben Chapman landed the honour of being named the team’s League Player of the Year, a deserved honour in light of his outstanding contribution to the team over the last two years