Year 8 Football 5 a-sides Final Heartache
The Sirius Academy Year 8 team played in a tough group this evening, with the National champions at 11 a-side Malet Lambert, Kingswood, Thomas Ferens, Kelvin Hall and Trinity House.
The group was kicked off with a fine 3-0 win over Kingswood, before losing 2-0 to Malet Lambert, and then drawing 0-0 against Kelvin & 1-1 against Trinity. This meant the boys needed to win their final group game by with a healthy score line to stand any chance of progressing.
This pitted us against Thomas Ferens, and with a strong line-up, raced into a 3-0 lead before changes were made to freshen the team up and this worked as another 3 goals came and a comfortable victory. This meant it was down to goal difference!
After realising it was a 3-way tie for 2nd place, Kelvin only had +2, with Trinity having +5 and Sirius +7. We were through!
A tough game against a resilliant St. Mary’s team was frustrating with the 3 glorious chances gone begging. This meant the dreaded penalty shootout. Josh Jarvis was the first to step up after seeing St. Mary’s miss the target, and was unlucky as a good save kept them in it. Further misses down to the shear presence of outstanding goalkeeper Stephen Pougher provided Sirius with the ability to score the next 3 penalties through Alex Appleby, Callum Baker, and Alfie Pougher. This brought Sirius through to the final with a 3-1 penalty shootout victory.
We were then up against our arch rivals Malet, who had beaten us earlier in the group stages 0-2.
Sirius, slow out the blocks meant Malet went 0-1 up through a sloppy defensive goal after trying to play too high up the pitch. But after composing themselves, Alfie Pougher, just under a minute after coming on as a substitute, scored a decisive goal to even the game. Further chances came and went, and dogged defending prevailed up until the last 30 seconds when a rush of blood from goalkeeper Stephen Pougher gifted the ball to the Malet Lambert striker who’s Christmases had all come at once, with Pougher on the floor helpless and an open goal to slot it home and win the game. The fight from Sirius net let up and despite the score line, they chased everything down and pressed hard for the equaliser. The final whistle went and a 1-2 score line set in, knowing it was in their grasp to take it to a favourable penalty shootout showdown. But for all their opponents luck, Sirius were the much better side throughout and deserved much, much more.
