Last Thursday, a team of girls from Hertford St Andrew took part in the Hertford and Ware Primary Schools football competition at Hertford Football club. There were 8 local schools that took part consisting of 16 teams of eager young footballers. In total, 147 girls took part in a very competitive event which was an absolute delight to be part of.

Our six players consisted of Marie, Anna, Gloria, Jessie, Zoe and Olivia. When we arrived at the ground, nerves on edge and hearts racing, we were quickly informed that the event was actually seven-a-side so already we were placed at a disadvantage. However, with the typical Hertford St Andrew attitude of never giving up, the girls were in their team huddle ready for the first match against Hunsdon.

The first match was a very tense affair with lots of goal mouth action on our part but we just couldn’t get the ball over the goal line. It has to be said that this game had the best referee (Mr Moore) but after so much effort against a team with an extra player we still managed a respectable 0-0 result.

After a brief rest, with the girls practising their gymnastics by the pitch, it was brought to my attention that not only did we have a player less but one of our squad had injured her knee and could no longer play out on pitch. Olivia was now, literally, our stand in goal keeper (as she couldn’t do anything but stand in one place!!). Millmead walked onto the pitch ready for the game and the girls were essentially playing with two players down. A great match followed with end-to-end action and with only seconds to go, Gloria scored our first goal of the competition winning the match for Hertford St Andrew.

In our remaining games we managed to beat St Marys 3-0 and Morgans 5-0 with the girls growing in confidence game by game. It’s worth mentioning again that each team we played had 7 players on the pitch compared to our 5 so a fantastic effort by all.

At the end of the matches, the results were collated and the teams were called together to find out who had won gold. We listened to the names of our competitors being called and the points they had until it reached second place……..Hunsdon!! We had won the gold medal!!

A well-deserved result, not just for the quality of football, but for the wonderful attitude even when we went down to five players. As Jessie quite rightly stated, “We win together and we lose together.” A very proud moment for all of the team and a clear statement of their resilience and perseverance.

Thank you to Mr Puncher for taking all of the photos and to Sandy Edwards for organising such a fantastic event for the girls.