LYONS Hall Primary School's footballers will be flying the flag for Braintree as they battle for a place at Wembley in the regional semi-finals of the National League Trust Under-11s Cup.

The Braintree school's youngsters earned the right to represent Braintree Town when they triumphed in the local round of the competition at the Notley Discovery Centre.

Lyons Hall were joined by fellow schools from Braintree and Witham, including Elm Hall, Cressing, John Ray, Beckers Green, Bocking and Notley Green where the young players battled against each other in a round-robin format.

The Braintree tournament was organised by Community Iron, with Braintree Town Academy students mentoring the young players on the day.

Academy manager Mark Sansom said: "We were extremely impressed on the day.

"It was a mixed tournament with a mixed age range of both boys and girls and everyone enjoyed it.

"The standard of football was absolutely brilliant and it made it a really competitive day."

Cressing finished as runners-up, but no-one could match Lyons Hall as they conceded no goals in winning all seven of their games and they will now go forward to the regional semi-finals at Woking on March 22.

Lyons Hall will represent Braintree Town there, where they will be kitted out in full Iron strip provided by the club's main sponsors Ironmongery Direct.

They will be one of nine schools at the regional round battling for a place at the cup's national final, which will be held at Wembley in May.

Sansom added: "The way Lyons Hall played, you could tell early on that they had something about them and we are confident that they will do Braintree Town proud at Woking.

"And who knows, with the success they had at our tournament, it will take some team to beat them."