MANSFIELD High school girls football team have set their sights on Wembley after winning the area final of a top national knockout tournament.

The girls proved to be too good for the rest as they finished the tournament undefeated and four points clear of their nearest rivals St Christopher's A team.

The school side, made up of girls who mainly play for Burnley Girls football team, lived up to the pre-tournament favourites tag and were never in any danger of losing the tournament - with Danielle Cooper and Hayley Neal in particular in outstanding form.

Mansfield underlined their dominance in the event when they comfortably beat closest rivals St Christopher's A 2-0 in the last game of the tournament thanks to goals from Lisa Thompson and Danielle Cooper.

It gave the school and impressive 100 per cent record of six wins out of six and the girls will now go on and represent the area in the regional finals in Preston next month.

St Christopher's A team can count themselves unlucky because on another day they could well have found themselves in the final instead as they finished with four wins, one draw and just that one defeat against the eventual champions.

And their good showing was largely down to the displays of Faye Ridge and Charlotte Glendinning who ranked among the best players in the competition. Fishermore also gave a good account of themselves just losing two games and winning four as they finished in a worthy third place, beating Ribblesdale A into fourth place by two points as they finished with three wins, two defeats and a draw. There was then a big gap between fourth place and the remaining three sides with St Christopher's B finishing in fifth spot followed by Edge End and Ribblesdale B team. Mark Wardle, from Burnley FC in the Community, who helped organise the event, said: "Yet again the standard was very high and while Mansfield High School were easily the best team all teams must be praised for taking part. For while some of the teams were not as good as others they still competed right until the end and that is what this tournament is all about."

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