On Wednesday our Y5/6 girls’ football team visited Rotherfield United FC to take part in the South Oxfordshire Finals 5-a-side football competition. As we had never previously finished higher than 4^th place, our aim was to seal a third placed (or better) finish.

We began the tournament with a match against Peppard, a side we knew we needed to be wary of as they had beaten us in the previous round. A tight game saw both Sofia and the Peppard keeper make some good saves, but when the best chance of the game arrived it fell to the feet of Lola.

She took it. And we began our tournament with a 1-0 win.

Our second fixture saw us entertain Fir Tree, the winners of our league and the side who we had beaten on penalties a few weeks ago. This proved to be another close encounter, and despite good chances at both ends, we repeated the 0-0 scoreline from our previous league fixture.

We headed into our third game, against Goring, full of confidence. We had beaten them twice in the league, and after securing two clean sheets at the tournament so far, we had extended our run of not conceding a goal to five matches.

Unfortunately, there was a slight burst to our bubble. As it didn’t rain but it poured, a scrappy and slippery game where both teams struggled to get control of the ball ended in both of the big chances of the match being taken by the opposition, sealing a 2-0 win for Goring and our first defeat of the afternoon.

Throughout the season, the girls have shown time and time again that they can recover from setbacks and perform well under pressure, which is exactly what we did in our final contest against Wheatley Park.

We began the game brilliantly, looking fired up and determined, and kept our opponents inside their own half. Eventually, the breakthrough came when Lola linked up nicely with Elsie and side footed a low shot into the corner. Soon after, Lola doubled her tally for the match, taking a nice pass down the line from Ella-Lily, driving forward and placing a shot nicely into the same corner to secure a 2-0 win and a positive goal difference overall.

We strongly believed that we had done enough to better our previous finishes of fourth place, and when the results were read out to confirm our second place finish, we were all very proud of ourselves.

All in all, a win was a lovely way for these girls to finish their football for this academic year (and, in some cases, finish their primary school football careers). They have been a tremendous team to work with, possessing an infectious enthusiasm for the game and a desire to win that has seen them train consistently well and thoroughly earn their right to call themselves the best girls’ football team that Sonning Common has had, both through their league and county cup achievements.  They have been a superb example to younger girls in the school, and we look forward to seeing girls’ football develop and follow on from this over the next few years.

A big thank you to those who helped transport the children to and from the event, and a final well done to the girls for their efforts throughout the year – producing record breaking finishes in both the league and South Oxfordshire competitions!

The team was: Sofia M-P, Lily-May Y, Evie Q, Ella-Lily B, Sophie A, Eva M, Elsa D, Elsie D, Freya K and Lola B.