An Under-13s Girls football team from Canon Slade School have proved to be the cream of the crop as Area Final winners in a national competition.

Run in conjunction with the EFL, the Utilita Kids and Girls Cup tournaments create one of the country’s largest national football competitions for budding young football stars up and down the country, culminating in exciting finals at Wembley Stadium in front of thousands of fans before a major national final.

It allows schoolchildren to live out their dream and in the latest round of this year’s Utilita Girls Cup, the Canon Slade youngsters have shone so far.

In last week’s event hosted by Fleetwood Town, Canon Slade represented Bolton Wanderers and after topping their table, became Area winners after beating Archbishop Temple High School, representing Preston North End, 2-0 to take the win in the final.

In physically strong games, Bolton showed their strength throughout the competition with their number four controlling everything.

The semi-finals saw a penalty shootout in a derby game that Preston won 3-2 on spot-kicks against their rivals Blackpool.

In the other semi-final, Bolton showed their class against a resilient Carlisle side to triumph 2-0.

The final between Preston and Bolton was a nervy encounter but Bolton controlled the last three minutes of the game where they scored two to see out a 2-0 win.

The Bolton team now head to the Northern Regional Finals in March with the winners of that gracing the Wembley pitch before the Vertu Trophy final in April.