Squad: Olly, James, Jack, Rudy, Dan, Jacob, Harry, Archie, Zac, Thomas.
One of our football teams participated in the Wix Cup Final here at school last night (Thursday 21st April).
We were up against St.Ippolyts who we had faced in two very close fixtures earlier on in the season.
The game was very tense and both teams played their part in a very entertaining match. Chances were at a premium with both teams working hard to try and gain the upper hand. Both teams had half chances with both defences marshalling the attacks well. Our first chance of note came when Jacob did brilliantly to evade two tackles and slip a pass through to Dan who hit well struck shot across goal which just missed the bottom corner. On the brink of half time, St.Ippolyts worked their way through our defence and the ball broke to their attacker. With the shot being lined up, James bravely threw himself in front of the ball and made a fantastic block to keep the game tied.
Half Time: 0-0
The second half continued in much the same way as the first half with both teams looking for that elusive goal. Some excellent passing sent Dan through and he crashed a fantastic effort towards goal. The ball bounced down off the crossbar but unfortunately didn’t cross the line. With time running out, we won a free kick on the right handside of the pitch. Dan put in an excellent cross which was met by a brilliant header from Archie who made no mistake to open the scoring for 1-0!
Time was running out and St.Ippolyts were on the attack to try and find an equaliser. They were awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area. A well struck shot from the attacker was met by a great save from Olly. From the resulting corner the ball was knocked down and bounced around before being fired into the bottom corner for a late equaliser.
Full Time 1-1.
This meant extra time and the possibility of penalties. The team lifted themselves from the late setback and rallied for 10 minutes of extra time. St.Ippolyts hit the crossbar from a free kick and the rebound was brilliantly saved by Olly with an outstretched leg. A long ball forward was met by Jacob who couldn’t quite divert his header on target after a well timed run into the box.
Extra Time 1-1.
This meant the game was to be settled by penalties which is always a cruel way to decide a match. I am very proud of all of the players for how they came together and of course every player wants to score their penalty but the courage and bravery they showed to step up in a pressure situation to take on that responsibility for their teammates and the school is something that they should be very proud of.
Olly saved the first two penalties and Thomas converted his well into the top corner. James also scored his penalty with a well struck effort amongst saves and goals from St.Ippolyts. We arrived at a point where we needed to score to win the match and Zac stepped up and calmly slotted his penalty into the net to win the game!
A huge well done to all of the boys – they have been a real credit to the school and displayed lots of qualities that we work on throughout our school journey. They were resilient, respectful, determined, hard-working and showed that they could find a way to overcome setbacks.
A big thank you to all of the parents, staff and children who turned out to support the team. It showed what a wonderful school community we have!
The team now goes to St.Albans next week to represent Hitchin in the County Finals!
Mr.Smith
