On Thursday, a mixture of girls and boys from years 5 and 6 participated in the first round of the Hope Cup football competition. The opposing team were Little Munden and our squad were particularly excited and nervous prior to the game starting.

After both teams had a quick warm up and were reading to kick off, the whistle blew and the game started. Very quickly, Hertford St Andrew took control of the game. With some slick passing and dynamic movement, we took an early lead with a great finish by Ryan. Taking advantage of our positive start and applying more pressure to the Little Munden team, Eric quickly made it 2-0 with a third being scored quite soon after. At 3-0 we made some changes to our positioning and players.

Little Munden pushed more players forward after our explosive start and managed to get a goal back making it 3-1 and rather surprisingly added to this to take the score to 3-2 before half time. We were still confident in our abilities and at the half time talk we were looking forward to string the second half with renewed energy and a return to some slick passing.

Hertford St Andrew immediately put the back line of Little Munden under pressure and a fourth goal was scored but we still felt that another was needed to ensure the game was ours. Pressing forward and showing lots of perseverance, we managed to get a fifth goal which lifted any doubts about the result. Three minutes from the end Little Munden scored from a penalty but the result was never really in doubt.

The win means that Hertford St Andrew is now through to the semi-final which is against Tower school. This tie will be played at home on either 1^st or 8^th February.

Finally, a big thank you to all of our wonderful support and to Mrs Garbutt and Miss Raw for organising the refreshments.