Year 9 Hockey House Matches

The School Year 9 House Matches were played on Thurs 11th Dec down at the Bebington Oval.  With it being the first time of playing for a lot of the boys, it took a little while to organise and to get up the goals, pitch and mainly goalkeepers.  Once ready and with the two umpires in place Walker and Bush (thank you fellas) we started.  There was some excellent Hockey played with the man to watch Wilkinson.  There were some excellent performances from the goalkeepers who in most cases had put on the kit for the first time!!

Barber v Dodds 1 v 1 

Morris McGilloway

Lever v Hodgson 2 v 5

Gouldson Wilkinson (4)

Lamen Burchill

Barber v Lever  3 v 3

Morris Griffiths A (2)

Parsons Lamen

Lewin

Dodds v Hodgson 0 v 2

Wilkinson

Cheung

Barber v Hodgson  1 v 1

Morris Wilkinson

Lever v Dodds 0 v 2

Clegg

Fisher

The results overall saw Hodgson crowned the winners by winning two games and drawing against Hodgaon.  The leading goalscorers of the tournament were Wilkinson (6), Morris (3) and also Lamen (2) and Griffiths Alex (2).

Well Done fells, we will have another go in the new year.

Have a great Xmas

AJM

Hockey this week – 8th Dec

• This week there should be an U16 game on Tuesday evening; this is dependent upon a staff meeting. The game is a League game and the team will go up on Monday. There is therefore no training on Tues night at the Oval.
  
• On Wednesday there is the usual 1^st and 2^nd team fixture against Birkenhead School at Oxton HC. The reports for this game will be up later in the week.
  
• On Thursday we will be having the Year 9 Hockey House matches down at the Oval starting at 4.15pm.

Wirral U14's v St Anselms

In a tense tight affair on a cold wet night down at the Oval.  The Year 9 team just needed to get a result.  With resolute defending by the again outstanding back four of Parsons, Deakin, Dobson and Crane we held strong and a couple of saves by Cartwright were required.  We started well against a dogged St Anselms side who fight like us for everything!  But as the half developed the class of our midfield showed with again workman like performances from Edwards and McGillaway.  The finesse of Wilkinson and at times tonight Roberts created opportunities for us to score.  The attacking play and movement from all of the forwards, Gouldson, Lamen (who had chances), Lewin, Burchill, Sutton and Lee helped all night with chances in the second half for Lewin and Corcoran.  But the winning goal came from Wilkinson's excellent shot at the end of the first half from a short corner!

This tense atmosphere of the game for me, was not being shown by the lads and their effort levels and willingness to learn and improve is excellent.  The 1-0 win ensured that we qualified for the Wirral County Finals on the 11th Jan at Calday Grange .  This is one of the proudest moments of my teaching career, you fellas deserve this guys.  We will have to work hard now so that we get the best out of ourselves and win the final against Calday.  We will have to do some team training over the next few weeks to be in the best shape possible.

Happy days

AJM

Wed v St Anselms

Due to the weather at Kings Chester, we had our day rearranged with the 1st and 2nd teams playing at home against St Anselms.  The bottom line in both games was that we were better in both second halves.  We lost 2-1 in the 2nd team game with Phil Burgess making his 2nd team debut in goal and Alex Smith playing outfield, Crosby also made a welcome return and Shum showing promise in his first game.  In the first team game the missed chances in the second half saw us go down again 2-1.  Annoying and frustrating as we could do so much better.  We live to fight another day.

Next week tough games against Birkenhead, away at Oxton HC. 

AJM

Wirral U14's v Neston

On a bitterly cold Tuesday night the Year 9 team played away a Neston.  It was one of those nights when the win was so important and our performance mattered!!  We started well with the impressive Wilkinson dictating the play.  We played compact and defended stoutly with Deakin and Dobson ensuring their forwards were tightly marked and then Parso and Crane offered us width from full back.

The energy tenacity and guile of the midfielders McGillaway, Edwards, Roberts and at times Lamen supported the forwards of Gouldson, Camp, Sutton.  I was Wilkinson who grabbed the first opportunity with an excellent reverse stick shot that went into the bottom corner.  Further pressure was put on the Neston goal and with chances down the right falling to Roberts and opportunities falling to Gouldson to add to our lead.  It was not until the second half that we scored a second, another reverse stick shot from Wilkinson was saved by the goalkeeper only for McGillaway to steal in and score for 3yards taking a whack from the goalkeeper in the process, 2-0.  Happy Days!!

Well done fellas, a superb performance.

AJM