North Cambridge Academy (NCA) – A school just 10 minutes away from SW who are always happy to play against us and vice-versa. Their PE teachers are well organised and always take the lead in refereeing at their home fixtures. This is a most undervalued role of the PE teacher and yet a most important role; which can be highly pressurised. Sancton Wood want to take this moment to say thank you to NCA and their PE Dept’ for their hard work in organising teams for us to play against and being great officials.
The Year 8s football team… this was a mighty challenge for the squad of 14 players (11 aside) who faced off against an NCA team twice their size. Un-fazed, SW matched the physical deeds that NCA demonstrated and each SW player was strong and brave in their efforts to succeed.
The first half of the match was a 30 minute learning experience for SW. It is not common for the Year 8s to play on a large adults sized pitch with full sized goals. This is also NCA’s home ground with home support, and after 30 minutes SW were losing 4-2. The two goals coming from Oliver, who demonstrated outstanding football skill, balance, and cross field shots into the goal.
After a half-time team talk, SW set one key performance target for the next half; To ensure that the ball was always kicked down the wings from defence or from goal – as it was previously being kicked straight down the middle to the NCA midfielders. This simple tactical adjustment had a huge effect on the second half.
The second half could have been anybody’s game, with slide tackles, a few dives and handballs, shoulder barges and lots of skill – it was end to end competitiveness. SW made good on their key performance target, and utilised the space that was frequent on the left and right wings. With just literally a few seconds of the match left, NCA chipped the ball over SW’s defence and into the goal; followed immediately by the end of game whistle. Second half, 1 – 0 to NCA.
A very tough and brave competition by SW; it was great to see each player working for each other and looking out for one another in a very physical game.
Team: Oliver, Fraser, Scott, Joseph, Jacob, Tom, Richard (Captain), Noah, Matija, Guy, Theodore, Jack, Zak
