In his latest monthly round-up, Academy Manager Michael Hamilton recognised the impressive achievements of Spike Brits with England Under-16s.
Below is Michael's full update, which includes a section on younger Dons playing in tournaments at home and abroad.
Spike Brits
Spike tasted international glory when he helped England Under-16s to win silverware at the Mondial Montaigu Tournament, defeating Japan in the final.
With seven clean sheets from his first eight caps, Spike has transitioned well to international level and the reports we received from him about his camps are really encouraging - offering another indication of his high potential.
Whilst it’s not uncommon for one of our players to be ‘called up’ for an international training camp, he joins a very unique group of Dons to be called up to international squads at school boy level, whilst still with the Academy.
The proud list of Dons Academy players to have been called up for international squads is below:
2016/17
Jack Madelin - Wales
Will Mannion – England
Josef Bursik - England
2019/20:
Leo Castledine - England
Morgan Williams - Wales
Matthew Cox - England
2021/22:
Ben Mason - Republic of Ireland
Abdi Alli – Eritrea
2022/23:
Spike Brits – England
Dons on Tour
The school holidays represent a unique time for us to expose our players to different experiences and challenges via tours and tournaments.
Our Under 15s travelled to Charleroi, Belgium, where they eventually finished second in the CMDB Tournament.
After navigating our way out of our group, we faced a strong RWDN side from Belgium in the quarter finals. A strong 2- 0 win saw us qualify for the semi-finals.
The semi-final was against RFCU Luxembourg and we kept another clean sheet on the way to a 1-0 win to place us against Stade de Reims in the final.
Stade de Reims (France), had beaten Millwall FC in their quarter-finals and R Olympic Charleroi in the semi-finals.
After going behind 1-0, then getting ourselves in front, the Dons conceded a last minute equaliser to take the game to penalties.
We ended up losing the shoot out and although bitterly disappointing it was a fantastic experience for our boys and great to see our boys tested against different styles of players and teams.
Our Under-13s also participated in the same tournament and despite winning their first three group games we eventually lost in the quarter finals.
Both teams displayed the academy values that we pride ourselves on, with Robert Forza Junior winning ‘Best Player’ in the Under-15s tournament.
The Oakham Tournament
Our Under-9s, 10s and 11s took part in the Oakham Tournament against some of the nation’s top academies in Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle and Manchester United.
Under-9s:
After three days of excitement, resilience and hard work, we found ourselves playing Crystal Palace in final.
With nothing to split the sides, with minimal chances created, we headed into half-time level at 0-0 in a very tight competitive cup final. Palace landed the first blow and went 1-0 up through a well worked goal, but our boys failed to let it affect them! We carried on pushing and creating chances, but we just couldn’t find the opening. We headed into the last 20 seconds of the game, and we won a free-kick just inside Crystal Palace’s half.
Up steps Finley again - and it's 1-1! Seconds after the referee blows for full-time and we headed into sudden death penalties! Unfortunately, the lottery of penalties wasn’t to be, and we missed our first penalty which lead to Crystal Palace winning the cup.
Under-10s
After beating St Kevin’s (Ireland) in the semi-final of the shield, we played Shrewsbury in the final.
The final started off very cagey with little chances created by either team. The Dons made the breakthrough halfway through the first-half with our centre midfielder opening the scoring. The second-half felt like hours after a barrage of attacks from Shrewsbury, but the Dons held on for a hard-earned 1-0 win - helped by a great display from our keeper that included a dramatic penalty save - to bring home the shield.
Under 11s
A third placed finish in the tournament was achieved after losing 2-0 to Newcastle United in the semi finals. We faced Shrewsbury in the 3rd / 4th place play off and went two goals down before half-time. However, a spectacular individual goal got us back into the game and a last-gasp equaliser followed.
It went straight to penalties and the Dons slotted all three penalties to win 3-1 on spot kicks and secure third place in the tournament.
Academy Foundation Phase Manager Ben Ewing said: "Overall, these young dons got a taste of tournament football, which can be very demanding physically with tough conditions - and more importantly, a buzzing atmosphere!
"We are extremely proud of the Under-9s, U-10s and U11s age groups over the three days. We most certainly lived up to our values of being the most exciting, hardworking and loudest team there - Vinnie Jones would have been proud!
"What I found tremendous about being on tour was learning about each player outside of football - highlighting what a fine well-mannered group of characters we have! It was an incredible experience for players and staff."