Humberside Schools Under 16 County Final

December 1st, 2006

2 Goals deny the year 11 Football Team.

Malet Lambert 3-0 Tollbar

Wolfreton 5 – 3 Malet Lambert

Tollbar 2 – 1 Wolfreton

As the under 16s Grimsby and District champions of 2006, the year 11 boys football team were up against their next challenge. A three way competition between Tollbar, Malet Lambert (Hull) and Wolfreton (Hull) which will decide who goes forward to represent Humberside in a national competition.

Our first opponents in this competition were Malet Lambert. This away fixture on the 20^th November meant an early lunch and a long drive over the water to Hull. Arriving at the school for around half past one gave the boys some time to compose themselves for the big game ahead but the kick off whistle soon sounded to get the match underway.

Both teams got off to a slow start finding it hard to play passing football on the uneven surface. It was, however, Tollbar that had the edge for the first 20 minutes of the game making a few striking attempts on the Lambert goal. This Tollbar pressure was not enough to force a goal, and a lapse in concentration from the Tollbar defence saw the home team sneak a goal past after 20 minutes of play.

The goal shook the team up and they knew it was going to be a tough battle from there on. The passing got better for a while and it seemed as though the pressure was helping the team but as a second goal saw the Lambert team take a 2 goal advantage heads began to drop and drastic changes needed to be made by half time.

The captain’s decision to play 3 – 4 – 3 and push for goals looked a promising idea and inspired the boys for the first 20 minutes, but the ball wouldn’t fall nicely for the Tollbar boys. This caused tempers to flare as every player looked for someone to blame for the performance. With the boys getting hot headed there was no wonder a third goal crept in for Malet Lambert and this confirmed their victory over the disappointed Tollbar team.

According to their manager ‘it was the best football he’d seen his team play’ and I have definitely seen the year 11s play a lot better than they played at this fixture.

As we waited for our next match the team were anxious to find out the score from the other fixture so we could decide what we needed to do to get us into the next stages.

Wolfreton beat Malet Lambert 5 – 3.

With knowledge of the previous results the boys were aware that they needed to beat Wolfreton by a 3 goal margin to take them through to the next stage as second place qualifiers. This wasn’t going to be easy as Wolfreton were already known as a good footballing team.

On a bright afternoon on the 29^th of November the Tollbar year 11 team took on the might of Wolfreton. The game kicked off at 2 o’clock and by 5 past the team looked settled and were taking the game to the opponents seeking this 3 goal margin. With every player putting 100% effort into every challenge it was clear of the boy’s intentions and this certainly intimidated the Wolfreton boys making them panic on the ball and look very uncomfortable.

Tollbar’s first goal came after 26 minutes with a cleanly headed goal by S. Smith following a free kick taken by L. Rushby. This picked the boys up and they could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They played with passion and could easily have gone 2 or 3 goals up but with some hearty defending and a bit of luck from the Wolfreton side our boys couldn’t seem to take advantage and soon the Wolfreton side had scored their equaliser taking us into half time.

Keeping the side as it was and playing with the wind and sunlight at their backs the boys felt in control of the game. They dominated the football for around 20 minutes with shot after shot narrowly missing the Wolfreton net. Finally L. Davis struck gold with a clever bit of dribbling and nice finish.

This pressure from the Tollbar boys remained constant and kept the Wolfreton team on their back foot for the remainder of the game but unfortunately the extra goals wouldn’t come.

Well done boys. Yet another great performance but unfortunately not enough goals to see us through.