Mixed bag for Westmoreland's d'Cup showing - Tomlinson

President of the Westmoreland Football Association, Everton Tomlinson said that while he is proud of the performances of Frome Technical and Petersfield High School, which both made deep runs into this year's schoolboy football season, he is concerned about the limited number of schools from the parish that competed this year.

The administrator is wary that this lack of participation could affect the development of young players in the region if not addressed.

Frome, who made it to the semi-finals in the ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup, were eliminated on penalties by Cornwall College.

Petersfield made it to their first-ever schoolboy football final, losing 3-1 to Charlemont in the ISSA Ben Francis Knockout Cup final on Tuesday.

"Yeah, it is positive signs for the parish. We had a programme that extends to the lives of these students, and we are grateful that Frome and Petersfield have carried the mandate," said Tomlinson.

"However, I'm very upset and concerned about schoolboy football in the parish going forward - the fact that Godfrey Stewart, who is the hub of schoolboy football in the parish (did not take part)," he added.

"Maybe 70 per cent of this Frome team are players that we would have used in the Under-18 SportsMax Elite team for the parish. A few of them are from Godfrey Stewart because of the non-participation. It, however, added some strength to the Frome and Petersfield team.

A couple of them also ended up at STETHS."

Tomlinson said that something must be done to ensure the football programme in the parish don't suffer at the hands of the principals who make decisions to withdraw their schools from competition without valuable reasons.

Void still evident

"Despite the performance of Frome and Petersfield, we are disappointed not to see Godfrey Stewart and Grange Hill in this year's competition; it left a void.

I don't know if people in Westmoreland are looking into it, but from where I stand as the president, I can say it is not good going forward," said Tomlinson.

"Going forward we cannot make this mistake again.

I think it's a serious detriment on the part of the principal of Godfrey Stewart to withdraw them from the daCosta Cup.

I think it will affect football for a long time in the parish. We cannot sit by and accept these things without valuable reason.

Godfrey Stewart is the footballing machinery in the parish, a lot of big players have come from there from way back in the 70s until now," said Tomlinson. "If Godfrey Stewart had gotten a chance to play, they probably could have performed even better than Frome."

Principal of Godfrey Stewart High, Emily Lawrence Ricketts, could not be reached for comment despite repeated efforts to contact her.