Sponsored by Gillette for more than 60 years, these championships give young men under 16 years of age an opportunity to gain recognition by playing for their region in a National Competition over the period of the football season.

Counties entering the Gillette Cup play in their own Regional League before going on to qualify for the National Knockout stage of the competition. The final of the competition will usually be held at a prestigious Football League ground at the end of the season.

The competition will start in October. We will play in a Group stage against teams from Central England (last year the teams were Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire, but of course it depends on next years entries). This will comprise of 3-4 group games between October and March. The winners of that group will then go through to the knockout stage where a maximum of 3 games will be played before the finals in May, which will be held at ‘The Valley’, Charlton Athletic’s ground. So the most number of games the lads will play will be 8, even if they win the tournament, and we will arrange games so as not to disrupt their involvement with their local teams.

We receive funding from Gillette, which allows us to pay for the hire of pitches, referees and to pay for a coach to take the team to away games.