Islington Boys Yr 3/4 Football

The inaugural running of this tournament saw the boys narrowly beaten in the final against St Joan Of Arc Primary. 23 school from Islington converged at Market Road, full of excitement and enthusiasm for a morning of football.

We were placed in a group of 4, with Canonbury Primary our first opponents. In the second half Amar from year 3 put us a goal up, but Canonbury fought back and equalised. Despite creating chances to score, we couldn’t find the net, until a corner from James in the dying seconds went straight in to give us a 2-1 victory.

The boys really got going in the next game as they won 8-0 against St Andrews Primary with goals for Amar (3), James (2), Seb (2) and Jonah. Our final group game left us needing a win to be assured of top spot and we achieved that beating Rotherfield Primary 4-0, thanks to goals from Amar, Joe, Seb and James.

So onto the quarter finals and we took on Newington Green Primary who had also topped their group. As games go it was pretty one sided with our boys piling on the pressure but not getting past the brave Newington Green goalkeeper. At full time the game was 0-0, and as we went into the second period of extra time it was still goalless. With a minute left though the ball fell to Amar who found the corner of the net, to send the boys wild.

In the semi-final we came up against Christ The King Primary, and a similar pattern developed as in the previous game. Goalkeeper Joe, who had not touched the ball in the quarter final was again a spectator as we created chance after chance but couldn’t break the deadlock. Seb then found the net and another for Amar sealed a final spot.

We started off brightly again putting SJOA on the back foot, and a trip on Amar in the penalty area left the referee with the easy decision of awarding a penalty. Amar bravely stepped up but the keeper made a fine save to leave things at 0-0. The second half was pretty even but again Joe was pretty much redundant.

The game looked as if it would head into extra time, but from a SJOA corner, when one of our players handled the ball on the line with a certain goal possible. The SJOA captain held his nerve to convert the penalty, and seal their victory.

The boys were naturally devastated but can take pride from the fact that having never played before, played some excellent football, and have demonstrated that the future is very bright. Also having three year 3 boys in the squad, compared to the victors who were all year 4, will give them the experience to come back next season and hopefully go one step better.

Squad: - Joe, Tristan, Amar, Seb, Sachin, James, Jonah and Louis.