OSA Football Report – 14th November 2015
The weather forecast for this year’s match was not good and unfortunately, the forecast proved accurate. Rain fell for most of the match and the winds increased during the game. But this did not deter the 28 footballers who turned up stating “Well that’s football isn’t it!”
The OSA team got the first opportunity to wear the brand new kit kindly sponsored by Andy Aldridge, an Old Shorehamer and local businessman. The players looked very smart in the new gear…. for about five minutes anyway!
The first half was very evenly matched with opportunities at both ends of the pitch but no goals scored. However, in the second half, as the weather got increasingly worse, the school team came into their own. A much needed goal at 51 minutes injected excitement into the match. The OSA pulled back one goal before the school team quickly took control of the match planting one goal after another into the net. The most memorable goal came from Jacob Thompson, goalkeeper for the school team, who, assisted by a very favourable 45mph wind, scored a spectacular goal from his goalmouth, one bounce then straight over the OSA goalkeeper’s head into the opposite goal!
The final score was 7 – 1 to the school team, finally breaking the three year run of penalty shoot-outs. And judging by the sight of the drenched players coming off the pitch, this was probably very welcome. Marshall Darby accepted the Wynne Statham Challenge Trophy during a presentation at afternoon tea.
I was so impressed that all players turned up for the match and stuck it out to the end, despite the atrocious weather. My thanks and appreciation to them and to our referee, Ty Craker. Thanks also to Mr Shelley and Mr Edlin for helping me organise the two teams, to the spectators who turned out to support the match and finally, to the kitchen staff for the very welcome afternoon tea.
School XI Team (including subs)
Jacob Thompson, Alex Marinko-Maechler, Carlo Leggett, Charlie Inkpen, Kyran O’Brien, Marshall Darby (c), Charlie Knight, Jake Solomon, Louis Rawlinson, Daniel Phillips, Max Walsh, Ted Bloomfield, Jacob Bizzell-Hawes
OSA XI Team (including subs)
Daniel Stoner, James Luto (c), Sam Uwins, Matt Edwards, Ed Middle, Steve Wilburn, Connor Strong, Ethan Crosweller, Ben Thasarathar, Alex Kirby, Ollie Collins, Christian Michael, Matthias Krug, Kian Jafari, Dara Jafari
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