Islington’s Primary Schools’ district team are into the semi-finals of the Inner London FA’s Kay Trophy after beating South London.

A 1-0 win proved enough for them to top Group B and reach the last four on a very blustery day.

The visitors had to defend in the first half, as South London had the wind in their favour, but Louis Buck, Lucas Bell-Lara and James Smeaton dug deep, as Zhaviah Campbell impressed in midfield.

Sebastian Smeaton almost gave Islington the lead midway through the half, but it was mostly a rearguard action by the north London youngsters and occasional counter-attacks from Jeremy Antwi.

In the second half, with the winds at their backs, Islington laid siege to the South London half and created a number of promising opportunities but couldn’t quite get the right chance despite some great passing from Ubaidah Rahman and Seb Smeaton.

Campbell and Louis Moncrieff were breaking regularly through the South London defence and one of these attacks led to a fine save from the keeper.

Said Mariche looked destined to convert the loose ball but the keeper recovered brilliantly to make another save at the foot of his post.

However, Islington made the breakthrough when Moncrieff picked up a clearance from a corner on the edge of the box and fired a shot through the grasp of the South London keeper.

And although they created some opportunities after that they were thankful for a last-ditch tackle from captain Bell-Lara to deny the hosts a leveller.

“It was very blustery and we played some really good football in difficult conditions, particularly in the second half,” said Michael MacNeill, Football Development Manager with the Islington Football Development Partnership (Islington Council, GLL and Arsenal in The Community).

“Although we scored the decisive goal in the second half, it was our performance in the first half that won us the game. The whole team working hard to defend as a unit.”

Islington are away to local rivals Camden in the Lester Finch Trophy this weekend.

Islington: Burrows (Hayta), Buck, Bell-Lara, J.Smeaton, S.Smeaton, Campbell, Mariche, Morgan (Moncrieff), Antwi (Rahman).