A JUNIOR futsal team made of of players from the Furness area will be testing themselves against some of the best teams in the country in their age group after qualifying for the finals of the Scottish Youth Futsal Cup.

The players from South Cumbria Academy under-11s, who are part of Carlisle Futsal Club, all come from Barrow, Dalton or Ulverston and use futsal, which is a five-a-side indoor variant of football, to develop their technique.

Their squad of Ethan Harvey, James Darby, Matty Smith, Harrison Roberts, Max Marshall, Alfie Knott, Jaxon Shaw, Lei Ma and Sonny Dutton came through a regional competition in Edinburgh, where they came up against five other teams, all Scottish.

After every team had played each other in a round robin, South Cumbria only missed out on top spot on goal difference after winning three games, drawing one and losing one.

However, coming second was enough to ensure qualification, while they had the player of the tournament in Marshall, who also plays for Walney Island under-11s in the Barrow & District Junior Football League.

South Cumbria coach Michael Devitt said: "The lads did really well because their age categories in Scotland are slightly different to ours - whereas we run traditionally from the school year, they run from the calendar year.

"That meant they were essentially playing the year above them - some of them play under-13s whereas our kids just play under-11s, so they were up against some big lads.

"They actually came joint-first in that age group, but we missed out on goal difference, which was a bit of a shame, but they played really well as a team and also individually."

Devitt's boys are awaiting the date and venue of the national finals, which are scheduled for later in the year.