St Hugh’s achieved their first win of the football season in an exciting match at Ottershaw this afternoon. The St Hugh’s team was made up of a mixture of children from Year 6 and Year 5. Both teams wore white shirts and black shorts, so the St Hugh’s team wore bibs to make sure they could be told apart from their opponents!

Played on a big pitch, the game was open, with lots of space to be found, even though the two teams agreed to play 10-a-side instead of the usual 9-a-side. Scoring chances, though, were hard to come by.

The only goal of the match came in the second half, when a long range free kick from Jacob C was directed right towards the centre of the goal, where the slightest touch from Tim was enough to divert the ball past the goalkeeper.

St Hugh’s had the best of the few other chances that there were. Tim had two rasping shots, one in each half, that forced excellent saves from the goalkeeper. Jacob had a goalbound shot blocked by a defender while David came close with an effort that just didn’t have quite enough power.

St Hugh’s defended excellently. Marc, Harry, Ethan and Jacob J were all excellent with their positional sense, decision making and strong tackling. Joseph in goal did not have many saves to make, but he was calm and assured throughout the match. The closest that Ottershaw came to scoring was with only a couple of minutes of the match left. An excellent pass down the right was followed into the corner, where a player crossed the ball across the area. The cross was met at the far post by an attacker, who shot narrowly wide. After that, strong defending from the whole St Hugh’s team secured the victory.

Jacob C, Daniel, Fiach and Noah were strong and competitive in midfield. In the first half in particular, Daniel won the ball on anumber of occasions when he was not the favourite to do so. Jacob ran non-stop, supporting the attackers and the defenders alike. Fiach and Noah played some excellent passes - one from Fiach in the second half in particular was just intercepted before reaching Tim or David right in front of goal.

This was a very good team performance. All eleven players who represented the school did very well.

The squad was: Joseph, Tim, Jacob C, David, Jacob J, Fiach, Noah, Ethan, Daniel, Marc, Harry.