Newbattle HS  Under 15’s returned from their trip to the Dana Cup in Hjorring, Denmark with heads held high reaching the last 16 of the knock-out stages.

The Midlothian school were  the only  Scottish side in the tournament  which is Europe’s second biggest Youth event  with over 900 teams from 27 countries playing in the various age groups, the Under 15 group having 93 teams competing.

In the group stages which decide the seedings for the knockout event  Newbattle drew with Bones/Krakanes (Nor) 2-2 and Frognor IL (Nor) 0-0 before losing to Chivas Sherwood of Mexico 2-0.   Heggerad (Nor) were then defeated 4-0 and Djerv SK (Ukr) 3-0 before bowing out the competition to the beaten finalists Futsampa Sao Paulo (Brazil) by 3-0.

Coach John Frame said: “We did well throughout the event and more than held our own in very good company. To play against Mexicans and Brazilians was a great experience for our players and I am sure they learned a lot from this.  By the time we played Futsampa we were struggling a bit with the exertions of the week  as we had a squad of only 14 some of whom were carrying knocks,  as against the 21 of the South American sides, but we gave them a fright in the opening twenty minutes before running out of steam late on.

Newbattle plan to return to the event for a fourth time next season.