Just as the girls did on Thursday, last Friday our Year 5/6 boys’ football team headed to Moulsford Prep aiming to earn a place in the County Finals in January. To do this, we would need to finish in either of the top two places in a seven team mini-league.

Our opening fixture was against the hosts’ ‘A’ team, and we began very well, racing into a 4-0 lead thanks to a hat trick from Louie B and another goal from Levi. Moulsford pulled one back, only for us to reinstate our 4-goal advantage through Louie B. Moulsford did grab a late consolation, but we saw out a 5-2 victory to start the tournament with a great performance and result.

Next, we took on Moulsford’s ‘B’ side, and found ourselves in a much closer match this time around. An assured goalkeeping performance from Teddy, as well as a solid rearguard action from any three man combination of Louie D, Felix, Xander, Donnie and Jack F gave our attacking players a superb platform to go and express themselves. A brace from Louie B and a cool finish from Levi saw us to a 3-1 win. So far, so good.

All Saints from Didcot were our next opponents, and we knew from our matches with them in the league in recent years that they would provide a stern test. An excellent performance from their goalkeeper kept the score at 0-0 for a long time, until some excellent perseverance – especially from the ever-energetic Jonah in midfield- saw us finally break through late on, Louie B grabbing his second brace of the afternoon. The winning run continued, and we were all in great spirits.

However, tournament football is never straightforward, as we were to find out against Goring, another stalwart of our previous league campaigns. For the first time that afternoon, we found ourselves 1-0 down. We threw everything we had at the opposition, with the most notable opportunity falling to Jonah, whose header drew an impressive save from the Goring keeper, but alas, there was no way through and we fell to our first defeat of the day.

Although we knew that qualification – and certainly winning the mini-league – was no longer in our own hands, we were determined to get back to winning ways against another Didcot school, Stephen Freeman. Despite a bright start, two classic counter attacking goals took the game out of our reach, and as their keeper made a string of fine saves – the best coming after an excellent touch and strike from Noah – time ebbed away and our bright start was over.

We went into our final fixture – against St Michael’s of Steventon- knowing that as things stood, a win would be enough to seal second place and qualify for the County Finals.

It is often said that the true desire and character of a team is found when things are not going their way. It is often a true statement.

And it was here.

We gave it everything we had left. Sometimes that isn’t always enough.

But it was today.

We began in full flow, Ben going on a mazy run and only being denied by a wonderful save before Levi opened the scoring, pressing the defenders well before firing the ball into the top corner. He then bundled home from a corner to give us a 2-0 lead, and everything felt better. Louie B then added two good strikes of his own to round off a 4-0 victory that sent us into the County Finals in January.

Overall, a good test for this team in their first matches together, and a promising show of character and determination.

Thanks to those who helped to transport the boys, as well as those who came to support throughout.

The team was: Louie B, Noah B, Levi B, Felix C, Louie D, Teddy E, Donnie F, Jack F, Ben N, Xander O’B-W and Jonah W.