Year 7 County Cup Fixture v Lord Grey

‘Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I’m very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.’ – Billy Shankly.

After their impressive win over John Hampden Grammar School in the opening weeks of September, the GMS Year 7 boys had to wait a long time for their next fixture. It came on the 27^th November when the Year 7 football team played against Lord Grey in the first round of the County Cup.

The team for the game were as follows: Liam Harman (goalkeeper), Alfie Corrick (defender), Kai Tanner (defender), James Threagold (defender), Jonathan Stoddart (midfield), Ted Woodisse (midfield), Will Smith (midfield). The deadly duo upfront were Tom Donovan (striker), Matthew Vaughn (striker).

The game started with both teams being very edgy: mostly the ball was played in the air and not on the floor, which was not the attractive football I had taught my Year 7s.

Thankfully, a brighter time lay ahead when the GMS team began to take chances, giving the opposing goal keeper some work to do: some on-target shots were very difficult for him to save. One of those shots led to our first goal, scored by the Captain Jonathan Stoddart in the 11^th minute. As with his first goal for Great Marlow School against John Hampden, Jonathan negotiated the ball into the 18 yard area, took one touch, looked up, and hit a thunderbolt of a shot into the top corner.

Straight after that magic moment, the action began. GMS took the ball from the opposition and Ted Woodisse ran up the left wing, like Usain Bolt in a 100m race, and kicked an astounding ball across to the edge of the opposition’s 18 yard box. Tom Donovan, with a first time volley, put the ball in the top corner: the goalkeeper had no chance to save it, he stood watching it hit the back of the net, almost as if he had nails in his feet.

With the first half coming to a close, GMS had a corner on the left hand side. The ball was whipped in by Captain Jonathan Stoddart, to find Kai Tanner’s head. From there the ball struck the goalkeeper’s hand. However, the goalkeeper had a calamity and dropped the ball straight back at Kai Tanner’s feet; it took no more than a second for him to whack the ball into the back of the net, making the score 3-0 at half time. The boys came off the pitch with their heads held high.

Now, I’m not sure whether it was my half time team talk, or just that the boys became complacent but when they went back onto the pitch a goal was conceded within the first five minutes: a goal that needs to be erased from my memory. It resulted from a poor cross, which placed the ball into Liam Harman’s hands (well, so I thought), only for Liam to misinterpret where the ball was going and allowing it to fall, straight through his legs.

The boys instantly put their heads down, but fantastic leadership from Jonathan Stoddart ensured that the team kept their heads held high.

Half way through the second half Lord Grey took a corner on the left hand side. A venomous ball was whipped in and was planted straight onto their defender’s head from where it went plumb into the back of the net: Liam had no chance of saving it. Thus making the score 3-2.

I was not worried because Liam was putting in an excellent performance, ensuring we kept in the game. He saved  shots down low in both the left and right bottom corner, which left me full of admiration. As the final whistle came close to the referee’s lips, Liam made one final save and caught the ball.

A big kick down to Ted Woodisse and the counter attack was on, Ted once again ran down the wing as fast as he could and took a shot that resulted in their goalkeeper parrying the ball, leading directly to a GMS corner. The ball was driven in by Jonathan Stoddart and fell to Ted Woodisse’s left foot, from there a viperous first time volley went straight into the roof of the net. The referee blew his final whistle and the game ended in a 4-2 win for GMS over Lord Grey School.