Oaklands PE teacher, Mr Paine, recounts a very exciting day of football at the U9 Forest School 7aside Football Tournament:
“Oaklands took a team of 8 boys to the U9 Forest School 7aside Football Tournament on Thursday 16 March. In Group A, they started well beating Avon House 1-0 with a lovely goal from Jimmy!
Next up, we had a tough contest with Loyola School and we had our chances but narrowly lost 1-0. Forest A were in our way in game 3 and they had a good team who passed the ball around really well and created chances. We had chances of our own but just came up short losing 2-0. We had to beat Snaresbrook in our last game and the boys didn’t disappoint, winning 5-0 with some great play from the team. Jimmy got another 2 goals, Denzel with a well deserved goal, and Alex was rewarded with 2 goals following excellent perseverance to get into attacking areas.
We progressed to the plate semi-finals and met Forest B who were very well-drilled in being defensive. Nonetheless, Denzel put the ball into the postage stamp, arrowing the ball into the top corner to send Oaklands through to the final.
We were up against Avon House once again and a close encounter brought a fantastic game to watch. Oaklands were resolute in defence and kept attacking when they could. Eddie making some lovely crosses with Jimmy waiting to pounce. Zack and Thiaan, playing in their first football match for the school did a great job pressing their players with the ball and finding spaces for teammates to pass to them. Alex was everywhere and covered the excellent Archie in defence really well. Archie made some crucial clearances! A free kick behind the half line was no problem for Captain Denzel who found Jimmy with a magnificent pass and Jimmy did the rest! Rufus wanted to get in on the act too and he was assured in goal and managed to save a long range effort, keeping Oaklands in the game! The final whistle went and it brought jubilant scenes and the boys can be very proud of their afternoons’ work! CHAMPIONS!!!”
