Kick off: 15:00

Venue: Offsite sport facilities, Blagdons

Result: 1-4 Loss

We started our warm up drills under the direction of Mr Martin around 14:00 and we were looking sharp. The weather was humid and warm, but the pitch was fairly dry underfoot. Farringtons arrived and shortly after they kicked off whilst we were defending uphill. This was a significant moment for Emanuel sport as the first 1st XI football game in 20 years. From kick off we put Farringtons under pressure and they are forced to kick the ball backwards and to their keeper, whose ball distribution they use and continue to rely on for the rest of game. Their keeper gives a good long ball to their attack but Rory (RB) makes a good tackle to disrupt their attack. We fail to regather however and Seb (GK and Captain) makes a save, just 45 seconds into the game. We are quite shaky and clearly not very comfortable, we are a team that has not played together before with many boys having never played football for Emanuel, and fail to hold much possession and Farrington capitalize putting our defence under pressure, but good work by Edgar  (CB) disrupts them. We again fail to regather and Farrington take another shot which drifts wide of the post. We then manage to get the ball to the feet of Koray (RW) who does the first of many outstanding dribbles through their defence and he forces a corner. The ball is good from Zach (midfield) but Farrington manage to clear it and the ball changes possession repeatedly until we have a throw in by Farrington’s right corner flag. The attack is messy and they gain a goal kick. However, we manage to gain possession of the ball and  good work by Koray gives the ball to Theo (ST) who takes a shot, and a very good save is needed by Farrington to stop it. We keep them under pressure and more good work by Koray gets the ball to Nick Abreu (LB) who takes a shot and another good save is needed to stop the ball by the Farrington keeper. We have the corner but lose possession and end up under pressure in our own half but another good tackle by Rory gains possession and he gets the ball to Koray who dribbles through their defence. It gets a little messy but James (LW) manages to regather and forces a throw in for us near Farrington’s right corner flag. We get it into the box and Theo does well and draws the penalty from an illegal tackle. He takes the penalty and scores in the bottom right corner. 1-0 lead to us. We kick off and get a good ball to Daniel (CAM) who strikes the ball early but the keeper makes a save. The Farrington keeper gets the ball up the pitch but good defence by Rory who then passes to Koray puts Farrington under pressure again. Koray gets the ball to Theo and James who work together well and Theo’s shot goes just right of the posts. More good ball distribution from their keeper puts our defence under pressure and Seb makes a save, stopping the ball along the grass. Farrington have a period of possession and we are under lots of pressure but Seb does well to deal with the shot. Good work by Zach Assucena  in the midfield gets past two and strikes the ball 35m out with an absolute screamer which hits the top of the left post and stays in play. Very close to being one of the greatest Emanuel school goals of all time. We keep their defence under pressure but lose possession eventually. Another great run by Koray from the halfway line to the box and he manages to draw the penalty, whether he was touched or not is unclear but Mr Martin says he was “cleared out” by the tackle. Theo misses the pen which passes over the crossbar and through the rugby posts behind for a conversion. The score remains 1-0. Farrington have another chance but Seb gets the ball in his hands and we work our way up the pitch until Prudie (midfield) gives a good ball to Koray but the ball goes out of play and it is half time. Mr Martin’s half time word are encouraging. We kick off and Koray makes another good run but we lose the ball and the keeper gives another good ball up the pitch which their striker manages to get on. It is a bit messy at the back with a few deflections from defenders and Farrington score. 1-1. Not the way to start the second half. Hamish (midfielder and Vice-Captain) does some good dribbling and passing in the midfield but we end up losing possession and spend some time under pressure in our own half. The ball changes possession regularly with us trying to clear the ball and defence is looking nervous but Daniel (CB) comes on and it looks like we are calming down. Edgar does well dealing with the high ball but we struggle to retain possession. We manage to move the ball into a threatening position and a good run by Koray and cross to Theo is close to being finished. Their keeper gives a ball up the pitch to their striker who is injured in a collision and stays down for a while so Mr Martin takes this as an opportunity to  speak to the team and once the game restarts we manage to put Farrington under pressure, whose discipline is poor. We have a corner which is messy and it ends up as a goal kick. They have a corner and we are under pressure but manage to disrupt and a beautiful ball by Maxi (RW) is received by Koray who gets the ball to the feet of Daniel Reid but he can’t connect well. We are looking dangerous now, with Hamish testing their midfield and defence. Good interplay by Hamish and Koray works the ball up the pitch and Koray crosses to Theo takes a shot and the ball it is stopped but not caught by the Farrington keeper and the second attempted shot flies over the crossbar. Farrington quickly counter attack through some more good ball distribution from their keeper and the ball hits the back of our net and the referee gives the score despite the offside call from the touch judge. 1-2. At this point we all start to realise that we need to get our game together and there is real passion to regain the lead, with us playing high in attack, but this leaves our back field open. Farrington make a good counter attack but a brilliant slide tackles by Nick in front of an open goal saves one. We counter with a good ball up the middle of the pitch to Theo who is taken out by a horrific tackle in the box, and we all thought that we had been given a lifeline by the opposition defence but no penalty is given by the referee. Emotions are flaring and there is some back chat to the referee and Koray receives a yellow card for this. They then score two in quick succession as we don’t have enough back in defence. Mr Martin makes important points in the post-match talk – we can’t change events, conceding a goal or referee’s decisions going the other way, but we can react positively and appropriately to them. It was a match that showed a lot of promise for the future, and there are lessons to be learned and inevitably improvements to be made, but we couldn’t fault the effort.

Alexander (Year 13)