National Cup 1/4 Final
On Tuesday 4th February the Y7 football team took the next steps into Sirius Academy West sporting history as they were the first team to reach the 1/4 final on a National Cup.
The nearly 3 hour drive passed relatively quickly and were soon warming up in very windy and blustery conditions but we were ready to go!
The game was incredibly nip and tuck with the wind making it very difficult to get any sort of flow to the game going. Myself and Mr Gordon agreed it would be a game that be decided on work rate and perhaps a piece of magic.
The first half was a war of attrition with both teams swinging but neither able to hit a knockout blow. 0-0 at half time and this game could go either way.
After a halftime change (Forlow off, Lowthorpe on). The game ebbed and flowed with chances for both teams but again nobody taking a firm control of the game.
DEADLOCK BROKEN! After a well placed corner from Charlie Birdsall and an aggressive aerial challenge from Regan Lowthorpe, the ball landed at Alfie Maskell who hammered it home!
15 minutes to go…could it be 15 minutes until the semi final???
The final 15 minutes was a swashbuckling and exciting affair with yet more near misses for both sides. (Just like previous games my heart rate was spiking).
However, safe passage through was not secure as a long ball took a nasty deflection which saw it spin away from the oncoming goalkeeper and took it towards the St Bede’s striker who bundled it in, in the dying embers of the game.
1-1 to extra we go.
The first 5 minutes flew by and before we knew it we were looking at the dreaded penalties once again.
That was until St Bede’s won a free kick from around 20 yards out, the striker stepped and cleanly hit a dipping effort which nestled into our side netting.
Final score AET St Bede’s 2-1 Sirius West
Heartbreaking to see the faces of the team who had given everything and many of whom were fighting back the tears.
Hopefully, they use this as fuel to spur them on in their round of 16 ‘9 a side’ National Cup game next Thursday.
Team:
Jake Jones-Williams
Kai Clark
Jay Dawson
Alfie Welton
Charlie Birdsall
Clifford Appiah
Alfie Maskell
Lucas Forlow
Filip Szkoda
Jason-Lee Litten
Regan Lowthorpe
Theo Mainprize
Brooklyn Birss
Freddie Dawson