The sun was beautifully shining in the sky, as this years St. Edmund's school football team arrived at JMO for round one of our fixtures for this season. Having already been drawn in a tough group, we knew that we would have to play a beautiful game in order to get the results we needed.
Our first game was a challenging one as may of our players were getting used to feel of the pitch at JMO. Our work ethic was there...However, we just did not quite manage to turn this into goals and a win.
During our second game we managed to turn our effort into a goal. Leiam collected the ball on the half way line and danced his way through a number of defenders. This opened up the pitch for him as he raced away from the opposition and calmly slotted the ball into the top corner, past the on-rushing goalkeeper. This was much deserved for our boys and girls although, this moment of magic proved not to be enough as we fell to a second defeat.
Our third game was our most exciting one yet. Faced with a more equal opposition, our midfielders and attackers started to run the show. Kenzie pulled the strings in midfield with some vital interceptions and played some glorious passes through to our attacking trio of Kyle, Thomas and Leiam. One dazzling move saw the boys carve their way through the opposition midfield to have all four of them on the break and hurtling towards the other team's goal. If it wasn't for a slight misunderstanding with their communication I am sure this would have led to a great goal! Football matches are not always won by the attackers though. Some tremendous defending from Adam, Aimee and Lilyrose ruffled the opposition strikers. Niall also played his part with a number of top-drawer saves to keep us in the game. Despite all this effort...We had to settle for a 0-0 draw.
Our fourth and final fixture of this week was one that was affected by our huge amount of effort put in to the previous game. Despite a lovely counter attacking move, in which Leiam found himself on the left hand side of the box. He delivered a pin-point cross for Thomas to tuck away underneath the goalkeeper. This proved to be our only successful attack as we suffered defeat once more.
Despite the results, I was extremely proud of the behaviour and attitude shown by our football team and they continue to be an asset to our school, their families and to the town. I am already looking forward to next week's round of fixtures and hopefully we can get a few more points on the board!
Come on St. Edmund's!
Mr. 'Pep' Brammer :-)