U12A at the Denstone College Tournament

v Wolverhampton G S, won 1 – 0 
v Trent College, drew 1 – 1 
v Denstone College B, won 3 - 0
Semi-final – v Denstone A, won 1 – 0
Final v Trent College, Drew 0 – 0, then lost 0 – 1 from golden goal in extra time – 2nd place overall

Players of the Tournament: Lily S and Olivia C

We arrived at Denstone in good time, giving us a chance for a thorough warm-up. The mood of the girls was positive and competitive - we had a good feeling about the day, helped by Mrs M's input and enthusiasm. We were not on for the first match, which gave us a chance for a team talk and watch our oppositions tactics.
Our first match was against Wolverhampton GS, they were late arriving and felt rather rushed getting on to the pitch but had they failed to do so, they would have forfeited the match. Our girls knew exactly what they had to - go all out from the start as we were only playing 10 minutes per match and this is precisely what they did. Emma H played the best she had all season, attacking every ball and was rewarded with a fine goal in the first few minutes. Wolverhampton proved to be tough opposition but we held on and the final score remained 1-0.
We played Trent in our second match. They had beaten us 6-1 at the beginning of the season and had just beaten Denstone 3-0, the odds were against us. However, we were not put off in any way and continued our cracking form. Lily S had really found her form down the left wing and managed to score a fabulous goal to put us 1-0 up. We did not sit back and continued attacking but just could not find the back of the net, due to some great Trent 'keeping. Trent were desperate to score, yet we defended well, particularly Olivia C who played some very intelligent hockey. Unfortunately, in the last few minutes of the match, we let in a relatively easy shot on goal - frustrating but we did well to hold them to a draw.
Our last pool match was against Denstone B and our standard did not drop, meaning we won quite convincingly. Lily S continued her fabulous standard of play, scoring two great goals from the left and Nancy S scored too, making it 3-0. Fran F and Chloe R-S worked particularly hard during this match but collectively it was a confident and impressive team performance.
Once all the pool matches were complete, we were informed by the organisers that we and Trent were equal first but one team had to go through. The positions were decided by the flick of a coin, which Trent got to call and they won the toss! Horrified but never once complaining we went onto play the tougher of the two semi finals against Denstone A (winners of Pool A). The girls remained focused, played superbly and represented S. Anselm's admirably. Lily S aka "goal scorer extraordinaire" scoring again to give us the win and put us in the final.
Guess who our opponents were in the final? Yes, Trent were back to try and make our lives a misery! However, the girls were very fired up by now and keen to win. Despite a number of shots on goal from both sides, the score remained 0-0 at the end of 10 minutes. We played "golden goal" in extra time, where the first team to score would be the winners. It could have gone either way, with some great defending and attacking from our girls but Trent had luck on their side and managed to squeeze the all important goal passed us.
It was an absolute pleasure to have been in charge of the girls that afternoon, they conducted themselves brilliantly on and off the pitch, well done all of you! Thanks to Mrs M and parents that supported us, please be there to help us through to the finals of the IAPS on 27th November.