Girls Reach Semi Final of Borough Football

Another week, another tournament! For the past 4 weeks Strand has entered a team into sporting competitions and this week it was the turn of the Year 5 and 6 Girls football team to take to the pitch. Jumping in the minibus with bright blue skies the girls travelled to Goals Osterley for the Borough Finals against 23 other schools from across Hounslow. It was clear though as we approached the venue that the weather was changing as the darkest of clouds swept in and the temperature dropped considerably! The girls got off to the perfect start though in their first match against Spring Grove with a 1-0 victory, Lily V grabbing her first goal of the tournament. Next came Southville and we eased past them 2-0 with Lily getting her second and third goals! Still no shots on target for our opposition teams as Abbie, Amna and Eden held firm in defence. The first few drops of sleet and snow started to appear as we waited for our third match against Fairholme. By the time we had beaten them 2-0 the snow was falling very heavily and was settling on the 3G pitches! Still our girls battled on! A 3-0 walkover against Alexandra Primary (who had called it a day and had headed back to school!) meant that the girls had won 4 out of 4 but were still not guaranteed progression to the next round as a very good Isleworth Town team had also won their previous 4 matches. A crunch match in the crunching snow! With only the group winners progressing to the knock out stage, it was a winner take all match as our goal difference was the same too! A tight game with Xois and Lara battling hard in midfield was eventually separated by Lily's sixth goal of the event. A hard fought win meant that we had won our group with a perfect played five won five record. Scoring six and conceding none, Pray Anna in goal achieving five clean sheets in a row! A semi final now against St Michael and St Martins loomed and as the darkness of early evening rolled in we found ourselves in the unusual position of being 2-0 after only a two minutes. Strand fought back and Lily grabbed another goal and would surely have had another if a refereeing decision had been correctly made! It was not enough though as St Michael and St Martins held on for the win. A brilliant effort by the team showing not only great footballing skill but also steely determination and spirit in face of such adverse weather conditions! Well done team.