Hope Cup Semi – Final

Yesterday, Hertford St Andrew met Tower School in an eagerly awaited Hope Cup tie.

Despite the freezing cold conditions, our squad of ten warmed up on the pitch preparing ourselves for the away team to arrive. At approximately 3:45pm, Tower arrived and immediately ran onto the pitch showing an extremely high level of enthusiasm. Lots of shouting and energy had an immediate effect on our starting seven and the tension was high before the first whistle was blown.

As we thought would be the case, the first ten minutes of the game had Tower applying lots of pressure to the Hertford St Andrew team and they took the lead from a well-crafted goal. However, this seemed to be exactly what the home team required and we finally started to play the passing football that we are capable of.

Quite soon after their goal, Devon showed a high level of skill and managed to get a shot on target which took a slight deflection before finding its way into the back of the net. 1-1. Tower tried to respond with some neat passing moves and the ball was heading towards our box. The only person who could stop a goal being scored was Kira and with a calm mind and high confidence she smashed the ball clear. Boosted by this, Hertford St Andrew began to apply even more pressure and just before half-time, Ryan managed to head the team into a 2-1 lead.

After a very positive half time chat, the team returned to the pitch and immediately applied the pressure to Tower with some very quick and slick passing. In a very short period of time, Hertford St Andrew were 5-1 up and looking to cruise into the final. However, a small lapse of concentration, (which happens with a big lead) led to Tower pulling a goal back to make it 5-2. With their spirits lifted, Tower pushed more players forward and left some gaps for us to exploit. Ryan managed take advantage, firing in the team’s sixth goal and ending the match at 6-2 to Hertford St Andrew.

A big thank you to Tower, for such a wonderful game, and also to the parents and teachers who braved the artic conditions to support us. A special mention again to Mrs Garbutt, Miss Raw and Mrs Orton for organising the refreshments for the teams after the match.

Hertford St Andrew are now in the Hope Cup final which will be played at Wodson Park in April. More details will be released nearer to the game being played. At the time of writing the report, we are still waiting to establish the winner of the other semi-final, between Hunsdon and Bayford, to find out who we will face in the final.