FOOTBALL NEWS
As
always it has been a very busy football season with all our year groups
involved in league, cup and 5-a-side competitions.
This has culminated in two of our teams reaching the final of the County Cup
- A first in the school's
history!
Under
the guidance of Mr.Moreton, the Year 7 football team have had a
magnificent campaign this year. Before Easter they were crowned Reading
District Champions with a proud record of played 11, won 9, drawn 1 and
lost 1. The team also reached the final of the County Cup this month,
unfortunately slipping at the final hurdle. No Year 7 team from Theale has ever
gone this far in the competition before. The road to the final was immense,
which included victory in a nail biting penalty shoot out against local rivals
Little Heath. Possibly the game of the season followed, away at Edgebarrow
School in the quarter final where a 2-0 deficit at half time was overcome. The
team showed great character to fight back to 2-2 and force the game into extra
time where we eventually came out 6-2 winners. A semi final against many
people's favourite - Charters School - followed, where a superb team
performance through sheer grit and determination saw a 1-0 victory.
With
Mr.Collins at the helm, the Year 8 football season started back in
January with the local schools' 5-a-side tournament. The team successfully
qualified for the finals held at Denefield School but were unable to replicate
earlier form and despite some excellent strikes from Daniel Flower we
finished 4th overall. Our first 11-a side game saw us drawn against
Highdown in the County Cup. Thanks to some accomplished shooting and a superb
hat trick from Josh Helmore we managed to come away with an outstanding
9-1 victory. Strong performances then followed in tournaments at Hugh
Farringdon School and at consecutive events held at Theale. Jamie Eaton's performance
against Hugh Farringdon was of particular note where he almost single handedly
turned around a two goal deficit into a remarkable 3-2 win. Strong performances
in all 3 events secured qualification for the league finals. Our County Cup run
was finally ended with a 5-3 defeat against Prospect School in an action packed
game. Thanks to an excellent early strike from Jamie Eaton we managed to
take an early lead. However, a sloping pitch and a depleted squad made it hard
to sustain despite a stunning performance from James Hawkins in defence.
It
has been a very mixed year for the Year 9 football squad. On paper the
results do not reflect the success of previous years but in spite of this the
boys continued to turn out in force to train and play. It was very encouraging
to see so many new faces at the after school practices, some of whom were
getting their first taster of the game outside of normal P.E lessons. These increasing
squad numbers provided healthy competition for places and added to the
ever-growing selection dilemmas. The year started with a heavy defeat away to
Little Heath in a game that we were leading at half time. The boys bounced back
with a 2-2 draw versus Maiden Erleigh and then there were also close losses
against Prospect, Denefield and Chiltern Edge. In the County Cup against
Edgebarrow the team was given hope as we held a strong opposition to a 2-2 draw
on a very large and fast paced astro-turf pitch. Unfortunately there then
followed a 6-2 defeat in the return fixture at Theale.
The Year 10 season started well with the team reaching
the finals of the District 5 a-side competition. Unfortunately in the league
our progress was hampered by the number of teams withdrawing at a late stage.
Despite this we recorded notable victories against Little Heath and Denefield,
losing to the latter in the cup competition.
For
all those involved in the First XI squad it has been a very difficult and
emotional season, with the tragic loss of one of our players, Nick Moore. He
was a very popular and talented footballer, achieving county selection at the
start of the season. After much deliberation it was felt that the best way
forward was to continue the season and strive for cup success in memory of
Nick. Our journey started in the National Cup where we were drawn against
Marlborough from Swindon. It was a comprehensive victory, running out 5-0
winners. Subsequent victories followed beating King Alfred's Sports College
(Wantage) 2-0, and St.Joseph's (Swindon) 12-1. That's right 12-1!!! In Round 4
we played Wye Valley (Buckinghamshire). On paper this was an extremely
difficult tie with our opponents attracting the best local footballing talent
by offering football related courses in their Sixth Form. Despite a determined
performance the opposition proved to be too strong, winning 4-1. The squads
focus was now on the County Cup. In this competition we played our best
football of the season beating Waingels 2-0, Barts 4-0, Forest -winning on
penalties. This set up a mouth watering final against Charters. Taking a very
large number of supporters we weathered the storm for the first 20 minutes.
After this period we started to take control of the game, creating more goal scoring
opportunities and looking the fitter side. However, midway through the second
half we were dealt a heavy blow with a penalty being awarded against us
following an innocuous looking challenge in the box. Unfortunately this goal
was all that separated the two sides at the end of full time. Despite this
result there is much to be gained from this season's campaign. Three quarters
of the squad was made up of Year 11 students, who have two more years left
playing at this age group. This certainly bodes well for the future.
On a final note congratulations must go to Josh Helmore and James Hawkins (Yr.8), Nick Theophanides, Chris Hatton and Aaron Hodson (Yr.10) who have all achieved Reading honours. In fact the latter were part of a very successful Reading district Under 15 side that won the English Schools Trophy in front of 2000 fans at the Madejski stadium. Nick captained the team and scored an outstanding goal in the final, chipping the goalkeeper from 20 yards. At County level David Stevens, Rhys Edwards, Andy Scott and Matthew Madders received representative honours.
