9 Boys Football v Sidcot

St Katherine’s travelled over to Sidcot with a big squad enabling great opportunities for boys to play competitive football. This was down to excellent numbers of boys who had trained throughout the year.

Sidcot started the better of the two teams and were much quicker out of the blocks, first to every tackle and strong and quick in attack. This put pressure on the St Katherine’s defence who had to thwart a number of through balls. Nathan Mace, Logan West, Kaie Lawrence and Felix McGovern stifled the Sidcot attack despite the pacey attacking play of Sidcot.

Eventually this pressure paid dividends as Sidcot scored two good goals as their pacey striker ran through and slotted the ball home past the goalkeeper Josh Songer who had no chance. This spurred St Katherine’s into life and they eventually started to put some attacks together of their own. Charlie Saunders was unlucky to see his shot cannon off the crossbar following a corner. Despite this improvement from St Katherine’s, Sidcot managed to score another goal just before half time.

Half time brought a stern team talk and an emphasis on working harder to retain possession which St Katherine’s had struggled to do in the first half. Four changes were also made to ensure all of the squad had an opportunity to play a part in the game.

St Katherine’s made an immediate breakthrough as the substitute Brodie Storer scored a wonder goal as he mazily dribbled through the Sidcot defence and snuck the ball under the advancing goalkeeper. Despite this Sidcot stuck to their task well and scored another goal against the run of play to make the score line 4-1. This, you would have thought would have caused the St Katherine’s boys to put their heads down and crumble. This was not to be the case!!!

The boys rolled up their sleeves and the midfield pairing of Eli Smith and George Hardwell managed to start getting other team mates such as Reece Palmer and Ethan Eggleston into dangerous positions. This pressure paid off when Reece Palmer ran onto a through ball to score with a finish after the goalkeeper had parried his first shot. A third goal for St Katherine’s soon followed when Eli Smith slotted the ball past the goalkeeper from the edge of the box. This made the score 4-3 and an opportunity for the boys to get back into the game.

The resilient approach of St Katherine’s allowed constant pressure on the Sidcot defence and the equaliser soon came with 15 minutes to go when Eli Smith scored with a fantastic finish from the edge of the box and into the top corner of the goal. With 10 minutes to go St Katherine’s finally managed to go ahead in the game when Reece Palmer scored his second goal of the game and as it turned out the winner with a fine finish after being put through from Eli Smith.

St Katherine’s managed to hold out for the rest of the match despite a number of chances from Sidcot; St Katherine’s winning the game 5-4. A thrilling game which was a credit to both sides in their approach to the game. What was great to see was the resilient approach from the Year 9 boys who at 4-1 down were able to work together as a team to overcome this huge barrier.

Man of the match – Reece Palmer – a tireless performance and two goals which epitomised the determination of the whole team.

Special thanks to Mr Wilson for driving the boys over.

Mr Thomas