ISFA 6-a-side tournament

Mr Marshall and Mr Bolton, accompanied by Mr Counsell along with the squad of 9 boys ventured down to Chigwell in Essex this weekend for the ISFA 6-a-side tournament. We travelled down on Saturday afternoon and stayed at a Premier Inn which boasted lovely rooms and a very good carvery, Mr M was was most impressed. After a good meal and a round of poker the boys turned in ready for days events. We were drawn into a reasonable group with the exception of Repton who were a solid team. The first game was against Hampton School who proved to be a good side. The game was well contested and maybe with more composure the lads could have snatched a winner from the game. There was chances at both ends and Tyler made one fantastic save in particular to keep the game goalless. The second match was against Westminster, quote from Mr Marshall "if you loose to the team wearing pink I'm going home" The boys knew what they had to do. It looked as if Mr M would be taking the early bath after going one down in the first half. Yet after I converted a pass from Michael we drew level. Only for Michael to score himself after a scramble which saw 4 efforts be blocked before the ball finally rolled over the goal line. The lads then played the passing game well and kept solid at the back to ensure the result. The last group game and last game before the lunch hour, was against strong opponents in Repton (who were the eventual winners of the group). The game started promising and the boys began well only to be shot down with a good goal from the Repton striker who rounded Tyler for an easy finish. A moment of madness from Danny Harrop followed as he ran the ball the full length of the pitch only to be dispossessed in the opposition box, upon which he reacted by kicking out at the player earning himself a red card and a ban for the rest of the tournament. The four outfield men fought well for the remainder of the first half and then into the second half but Repton proved to strong utilising the extra man to win 3-0 overall. Hulme then entered to plate competition and were drawn against St. Columbas school who we played in the ISFA cup last year and were narrowly beaten. It was sadly a similar fate we suffered this year. After a bright start and an early goal from Bradley Ashford the lads began to sink into eleven-a-side football and produced an opening for an equalizer. Late on in the game at 1-1 we had a clear chance to kill the game off which wasn't taken resulting in the ball being spread up field gaining our opponents a corner which they converted sending us out of the tournament and to that early bath Mr M was so keen for. To be fair to the lads it was a hard task going down there expecting big things, they played well and put the effort in. They can take many positives out of today and also try to build on the negatives for the rest of the season. They look forward to a big fixture on Wednesday against Shrewsbury.