Petroc Men's Football compete in the College Cup at Cobham

The Men's football team from Petroc College, fresh from winning their league, had an early start to travel to Chelsea FC's training facility at Cobham to compete in the College Cup, a competition open to all the Chelsea FC Foundation colleges around the country. 

A couple of late withdrawals meant they travelled with a bare 11 players, which all added up to a tough day.

Arriving at Cobham got the team very excited, the Chelsea Academy teams were training and there was, maybe, a glimpse of first-team training through a gap in the dividing hedges.

After changing, Petroc found they were in a group of three teams, the games would be a straight 40 minutes and the winners would come back at a later date to play in the finals against the other group winners.  There was a quick visit from Chelsea U18 goalkeeper, Max Merrick, who came over to wish everyone well in the competition and then it was straight down to business.

Petroc's first game was against Bexhill College.  A slow start with the journey still in the legs gifted a good Bexhill side the lead, after that Petroc competed well but in the end Bexhill managed a further two goals to leave Petroc on the receiving end of a 3-0 defeat. 

A game off followed, while Bexhill completed their group winning performance with a 4-1 win over Stanmore College and then Petroc were back on, determined to get something for their day, in the concluding fixture. 

Another slow start and Stanmore took the lead but Petroc, with tired legs and no substitutes, rallied and an excellent hat-trick from Liam Martin saw them run out 3-1 winners and finish second in the group.  A day of some great memories to take away, especially for Liam, a hat-trick at Cobham doesn't happen every day!