SALUTE Hampshire's schoolboy history-makers - Weston Park Boys School.

The Southampton-based pupils became the first ever winners of the national English Schools Under-16 trophy when they achieved something that Harry Redknapp's Saints couldn't do last weekend, writes SIMON CARTER.

And that was to win a pressure game at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park - striker Sam James firing a second-half hat-trick to give jubilant Weston Park a 3-0 success against Blackpool's Montgomery School.

Another hero was goalkeeper Matthew Brown, who produced a superb penalty save shortly after to maintain his side's advantage in front of a crowd approaching four figures.

The victory is a sensational achievement for Weston Park, who won through 11 rounds just to get to the final - of which just two were at home. Many of those victories were against schools with more students and with better facilities - Montgomery, for example, is a school twice as big as Weston's 600-pupil seat of learning.

Weston, who draw most of their pupils from the Sholing area of Southampton, were cheered on by around 450 supporters who had packed into nine coaches which left the school at mid-morning yesterday.

They followed the Park team coach - the same one Saints used for their trip to south London last Saturday - which contained manager Alan Orr and his squad plus VIP guest Walter Smith, none other than the Scottish national team boss! Smith is a family friend of Glasgow-born Orr, who used to play football with Smith's son Neil.

Orr declared himself "very proud" to have been in charge of Hampshire's first-ever national cup winners - and paid tribute to his team who completed their final 90 minutes together with the proud record of having only been beaten twice in five years.

One of those losses was four years ago in the Hampshire Cup final and the other in the quarter-finals of the English Schools trophy two years ago - the tournament is only competed for at Under-14 and Under-16 level nationally.

"The lads have done the school proud," beamed Orr. "Emotions are running high but I am so proud of them, and there were a lot of proud parents and teachers here today as well as their schoolfriends.

"Our supporters were amazing."

Weston's trophy bid was boosted in a goalless opening 45 minutes when Montgomery were reduced to 10 men when their right winger James Aitchinson was sent off for an elbow on Alex Arnold.

"I was disappointed at that," said Orr. "It gave them an excuse which they didn't deserve. We would have won even if they hadn't had anyone sent off.

"We were always in control."

James broke the deadlock in the second half with a superb shot before Brown, who had saved two penalties in a shoot-out success in an earlier round, plunged to his left to pull off a fantastic spot-kick save.

James latched onto two through balls from Jamie Barron to chip the keeper and complete a landmark triple.

Weston were already in the county record books as the first Hampshire school to reach the Under-16 final on two occasions. The previous time had been in 1988 when they drew with St Aiden's School at Sunderland's former Roker Park ground and the two teams shared the trophy.

The only other Hampshire school to ever get to the final was Portsmouth Boys School in 1981, and they lost.

Weston Park: Matthew Brown, Gary Harrington, Alex Arnold, Mitchell Turley, Craig Randall, Joe Prince-Wright, Gary Crook, Jamie Barron, Sam James, TJ Cuthbertson, Liam Crook, Mark Thompson, Daniel Tajeda, Keiran Lewis, Craig Holland.

Call back later in the week for a special online slide show of the game - click on the link to 'Slidesshows' on the home page.