The ‘B’ Team footballers took part in an afternoon of football at Wilshere Dacre School. With a couple of schools pulling out at the last minute, the tournament was redrawn and two leagues of five were set up. The top two from each of these leagues would go through to contest the semi-finals and ultimately the final.
As tends to be the case, there were few chances to score in the group games. The first game was against Ickleford and William Ransom made a good start. Hari hit the post and Taylor had a shot saved by the keeper. Namay cleared the ball from a strong attack, but a great shot from Tommy put the boys ahead and they managed to keep the lead to finish with a 1-0 win.
In the second game against St. Andrews the team took a while to start communicating with one another. Sam and Tommy were both in the same space trying to take the ball forward and luckily Tommy managed to convert the movement into a goal. Communication between the players improved considerably after this and the defence worked well together to keep the 1-0 lead right to the end.
The third game against Offley was a chance for Hari to step up with an attempt that went just wide of the post and one that hit the post before he managed a fine goal. Once again the team maintained the 1-0 lead.
With only Breachwood Green to play the boys could see a place for themselves in the semi-final. However Breachwood Green were a tough team and John made a series of fine saves and Navjot worked hard to keep the ball away from the goal. The attack did not have any serious attempts on goal due to strong defence. The final result was 0-0 which still gave William Ransom 10 points.
William Ransom went through into the semi-final as winners of the group to play Mary Exton. This was an evenly matched team but with a very strong goal keeper who let nothing past. A great goal from Mary Exton gave them the lead that they maintained to the end. They went forward to play Whitehill in the final and were beaten by Whitehill by a ‘sudden death’ penalty.
Well done boys some good football on a very cold afternoon. At least the storms held off until the last William Ransom game had been played.
Thank you to all parents who gave lifts and stayed to support. Next week the ‘friendly’ against St. Andrews is the last of the football for this season. We look forward to seeing the children in years 4 and 5 in the autumn term when we start back to football training.