10 Boys Football v Broadoak

On Tuesday 14 March the year 10 boys travelled to WSM for a friendly fixture against Broadoak School. Over the years the boys have had really close encounters; one match in year 8 stands out in my mind where the boys lost 4-2. To this day I still can’t understand how but I have included a quote from that old match report to give you some idea! Determined not to suffer the same fate the boys took to the artificial surface with one intention and one intention only – winning.

‘Throughout the second half I counted at least 25 attempts at goal but a combination of bad luck and some excellent goal keeping kept St Katherine’s out, which began to frustrate them. On 3 separate attempts the boys found the uprights and on another occasion the cross bar. Not to mention the mammoth goal mouth scramble which saw 5 shots on goal, 3 last ditch blocks, one impressive save and a final goal line clearance; quite simply the ball would not cross the line. At one point following the melee in the penalty area almost every single St Katherine’s player had their hands on their head in astonishment at the lack of an equalising goal.’

Matthew CRUTCHLEY, George HARRIS, Bailee HARRISON, Jacob LEBO, Dexter MOTT, Matthew PARSONS, Kieran PAYNE, Caolan PEARCE, Edward POWELL, Paul RICKARDS, Louis STRATTON, Mickey TRENEAR-CHITTEM, Kai WEST, Hao Hao ZHANG

The opening exchanges in the game were frenetic to say the least as neither side really got a hold on proceedings. Playing on the wet artificial surface was akin to playing on a billiards table and the boys were finding it really hard to get the weight on their passes right. On too many occasions the boys looked to play directly and watched the ball skip on through to the goalkeeper without giving the runner any chance at all. The game was turning into a battle of wills and to make matters worse the SK boys were struggling to keep their feet without slipping.

Things went from bad to worse when Broadoak took the lead in the first half playing with the conditions. SK were growing in frustrating and making an increasing number of poor decisions. The game was bypassing the midfield and there wasn’t a huge amount of football being played by the SK boys. In fact for a short period of game the boys had decided to condense the game into one third of the pitch lengthways which was not surprisingly making things a little difficult! There weren’t many talking points in the first half except to say that SK were behind and not playing very well!

At half time we spoke about using the whole pitch – it was huge and a lot wider than the boys had made it during the first half. We also spoke about playing less directly and actually trying to be more patient in their build up. Almost right from the kick off this seemed to have a positive impact. George Harris, Matty Crutchley and Kai West linked up brilliantly down the left hand side each executing some well-placed passes after neat footwork and control. Eventually these boys spurred their team mates into keeping hold of the ball for a period of time which paid dividends. It was Harris, Crutchley and West who combined for the equaliser early in the second half after the ball eventually found Kai in the area who shifted it well to strike low and hard beating the Broadoak keeper.

The year 10 boys had equalised but were still desperately in search of the winner. They wanted to win this game and were playing with the conditions in their favour for the second half. They dominated long spells of the second half playing much better football and creating chances as a result. The winning goal came from Mickey Chittem and at the final whistle the boys were delighted with their win. Man of the match has to go to skipper Pearce who sailed the ship really well through a testing storm. He managed his own frustrations as well as those of his team mates and was able to channel them all into a 2 goal comeback stemming from some sound tactical analysis!

Good work gents.

Mr Cook