After our Hitchin Wix Cup success earlier this season, our football team qualified for the County finals of the Wix Centenary Shield. The finals evening was held at Colney Heath FC and gave our boys a chance to play on an excellent surface in front of all of their families.
The evening itself was a very tense affair with our team heading into their final group match needing a 4-0 win just to stay in the tournament. We were playing against a very hardworking Stonehill side, who had an amazing goalkeeper. As the game went on things became more exciting as the boys started to build the number of shots on target. Towards the end of the game We scored two great headers to make the score 5-0. This was an amazing achievement and sent us through to the final.
The final was against Garden Fields and was our third game back to back. After 80 straight minutes of football, the boys were understandably exhausted but were still able to defend comfortably and had opportunities to win the game. However, neither team were able to break the deadlock and we found ourselves in a penalty shootout. The boys showed amazing composure and scored 3 out of our first 5 penalties, which was enough to force sudden death, after a superb save from our goalkeeper. Moving into sudden death the drama increased, as our goalkeeper broke his wrist almost saving a penalty from a substitute. When the kick was re-taken, by the correct player, it went wide of the post, leaving our heroic keeper to take the final kick. He showed great bravery battling through the pain of his broken wrist to smash the ball into the side netting, winning us the match.
All staff are incredibly proud of the team. They have; worked very hard in training all year, listened carefully to instructions, shown superb sportsmanship even when it hasn’t been reciprocated and encouraged each other during difficult moments.
This was a particularly special win, as it was the first time our school team has won the Wix at County level and it completed an amazing cup double this season. This adds to the success of our Girls’ treble last season, which also included the Wix Millennium Shield, another County win. We are hoping to have the Hitchin end of season rally, later in the summer term, where the boys will have the chance to play for another trophy.
