Key Stage 3 and 4 REED Education County Football Finals

On Wednesday 20^th April 2016, 14 pupils from KS3 and KS4 took part in the REED Education County Football Finals, held at Eastleigh Football Club. The event was also supported by The Hampshire FA, The Youth Sports Trust and Southampton Football Club. The KS4 team arrived at the tournament after winning the county qualifiers back in November 2015. For the KS3 team, it was another opportunity to play in an organised tournament and further develop their teamwork and overall football skills.

The tournament was attended by a large number of schools, with well in excess of 320 pupils from schools across the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. This made the event one of the biggest of its kind in England! The tournament was based on the upcoming Euro 2016 Football Tournament, to be held in France, and all schools were allocated a European team name. KS3 team were Belgium and the KS4 team were Holland.

For the pupils in Key Stage 3 it was their second opportunity in taking part in a structured football tournament. Managed by Stewart Lang, the boys started nervously and tentatively in their first game, but still showed some good football at times. The boys lost the first 3 games narrowly to Dove House (2-0), Mark Way (2-1, goalscorer was Alfie Fox) and Baycroft (4-2, goal scorer’s Alfie Fox and Jamie Moore) but managed to score some good goals. As the tournament progressed the team started to find their rhythm and drew their last game 1-1 (goalscorer, Alfie Fox) with Redwood Park. The team were cheered on throughout the day by parents and it was great so many of them at the event.

All pupils had a fantastic day and received a medal, drinks bottle and free tickets to Eastleigh FC v Tranmere FC on the Saturday. If the team continue to work hard and improve then they will certainly have success in the future

The Key Stage 4 team, managed by Marc Bernard, had been in fine form after winning the county qualifiers without losing a game. However, they knew that this tournament was going to be a lot tougher. In their 1^st game against Mark Way, they played some good football. Tom Williams marshalled the defence well and after periods of domination and a Sam Jameison hat-trick, we came out winning the game 3-1.
Our 2^nd game against Baycroft, came quickly after the first. The boys continued to work extremely hard for one another and at times, the passing was a pleasure to see. With some excellent defending from Jay Purkiss and great link up play between Shea Calder, Sam Jameison and Luke Cole, we won the game 3-1 with some great goals from Shea Calder (2) and Sam Jameison.

 
Our 3^rd game was against St. George’s school from the Isle of Wight. We didn’t know a lot about them, but from watching them in the competition, we knew the game wouldn’t be easy. The game was 0-0 for what seemed a long period. Both teams having chances but not scoring. Then, we broke the deadlock with some great passing and a quality finish from Sam Jameison. Luke Cole sealed the win 2-0 with a lovely individual goal.

 
In our 4^th game, we faced Dove House. We have played them before in previous tournaments, so we knew that it was going to be a tough encounter. Kyle Norman had to make some great saves throughout the early part of the game, with Jay Purkiss also making some very important tackles in defence. Dylan Price marshalled the midfield extremely well and when the ball broke to him just outside the area, he dribbled past 1 defender and calmly slotted the ball in the corner for a narrow 1-0 win.
With 4 wins out of 4 and a check on the tables, we realised that we had already won the competition. However, the boys wanted to end the day on a high, going undefeated and winning their last game. This was against Great Oaks, whose goalkeeper was in fine form making save from Sam Jameison, Shea Calder and Luke Cole. However, once we broke the deadlock with a great finish by Luke Cole, we soon followed up with Luke’s second goal and another for Sam Jameison, winning the game 3-0.

With 5 wins from 5, this meant that the Key Stage 4 team were not only the KS4 MLD County Final Champions on the day, but also went undefeated in 10 games!

Me and Stewart are extremely proud of all of the boys who took part. They represented the school really well and their behaviour was exemplary. Well done to all of you!

We would also like to make a special mention to all the parents who took time out to come and see the boys play. It was great to see so many of you and your support was excellent and certainly helped all of the boys.

Teams:

Key Stage 3 Jamie Moore (Yr8): Captain Connor Coleman (Yr9): Goalkeeper Alfie Fox (Yr7) Domi Csepai (Yr9) Shaun Knight (Yr9) Connor Stewart (Yr8) Josh Batchelor (Yr9)

Key Stage 4 Tom Williams (Yr11): Captain Kyle Norman (Yr11): Goalkeeper Jay Purkiss (Yr11) Luke Cole (Yr10) Dylan Price (Yr11) Shea Calder (Yr11) Sam Jameison (Yr 11)

Results:

Key Stage 3	Key Stage 4
Dove House (Croatia) Lost 2-0 Goals: –	Mark Way (Faroe Islands) WON 3-1Goals: Sam Jameison 3
Mark Way (Republic of Ireland) Lost 2-1 Goals: Alfie Fox	Baycroft (Georgia) WON 3-1 Goals: Shea Calder 2, Sam Jameison
Baycroft (Norway) Lost 4-2 Goals: Alfie Fox, Jamie Moore	St. George’s IOW (Greece) WON 2-0Goals: Sam Jameison, Luke Cole
Redwood Park (Sweden) Drew 1-1 Goals: Alfie Fox	Dove House (Denmark) WON 1-0 Goals: Dylan Price
	Great Oaks (Bosnia and Herzegovina) WON 3-0Goals: Luke Cole 2, Sam Jameison
Played 4 Won 0 Drew 1 Lost 3 Goals for – 4 Goals Against – 9	Played 5 Won 5 Drew 0 Lost 0 Goals For – 12 Goals Against – 2

Marc Bernard – Deputy Head Teacher/PE Coordinator