Written by D Hind, Y10 Football Coach

On Tuesday 19 November it was my pleasure to accompany Mr Bradley and our Y10 football team as they  journeyed to Liverpool in the 4th round of the English schools Cup to face St Margaret's.  

The team prepared well and executed the tactics and plan set out exactly.  In the opening 10 minutes we should have been 3-0 up with efforts from Jimmy Fields, Max Atherton and Ben Abbott all being defended well and some excellent saves from their keeper. Soon enough the pressure told and the deadlock was broken through Callum McDonald's persistence in harrying the defenders, driving through and rounding the keeper and slotting it in for a well deserved lead.  Eddies 2nd goal swiftly followed with Callum once again involved in some excellent hold up play and then hitting a well measured switch ball into the path of Max Atherton who like Callum rounded the keeper to put Eddies in command of the tie. 

However Eddies where to made to rue the missed chances and St Margret's scored a breakaway goal against the run of play to make it 2-1 and then where awarded a very dubious penalty which they put away to level the tie.  However the action in the first half was not over there and from a well worked corner Eddies once again took the lead through a Ben Abbott header.

The second half was a arm wrestle and battle at times with the home team pressing and diving into some challenges bringing the referee into showing 2 yellow cards, one which could easily and possibly should had been a red card.  For the final 20 minutes of the game the end of the school day bell sounded for St Margaret's and suddenly the touchline filled with a number of spectators making the already tense atmosphere more hostile. 

The home team rallied and hit the post twice.  However the Eddies team kept their heads, dug in and despite the best efforts of the referee to allow St Margarets back into the game with a number of questionable decisions  against us, one being when the home team struck the post with what should had been the final kick of the game and it going behind for a goal kick he was suggesting to offer a corner until protests made him see sense and somehow finding nearly 5 minutes (4 minutes and 47 seconds to be precise) extra time at the end Eddies held on to the win.  

It was a wonderful tie to be involved in and I am really proud to have had the honor of being involved.  A list of the pupils involved are below, please pass on praise to them as their efforts and the way they conducted themselves and represented the school was tremendous 

  1. Ethan Melia
  2. Noah Hill
  3. Robbie McLaughlin
  4. Joshua Jones
  5. Kian Marsh
  6. Joshua Paul
  7. Cameron Tolly
  8. Kobi Joel Critchley
  9. Isaac Kelsey
  10. Max Atherton
  11. Ben Abbott
  12. Kian Walters
  13. Jimmy Fields
  14. Callum Mcdonald
  15. Josh Preston