Match Report: The Staff v Year 11 Football match

Final Result: Staff 3 - Year 11 2

Picture the scene: A beautiful Thursday afternoon on the back field of St Peter Port School. Some are pupils running around the edge of the football pitch in an excited frenzy of anticipation. The birds are singing merrily in the nearby trees. These are the days dreams are made of! Unless you were a Year 11…

It was of course the Staff v Year 11 football match. There had been much match build up with the Year 11 squad likening themselves to the England squad. Maybe they should have realised that the England team are not currently a team doing that well. The Staff team had compared themselves to the Italian team. The reigning World Champions. Enough said.

The teams were led out by their captains with the right honourable Mr Clarke refereeing the affair. Both teams seemed eager to start. The crowd was growing restless with many parents and friends filling the stands (well, side of the pitch). The Staff won the coin toss and decided to change ends. This proved to be an omen for the match.

The Year 11 team kicked off and straight away showed that they were a disciplined bunch. They held a rigid formation and used their youthful exuberance to stretch the Staff team. It started off a rather scrappy affair with the first real talking point coming from the referee. A yellow card for Mr Cosnett for coming onto the pitch without the permission of the ref. Harsh, but the rules are rules.

Both teams began to settle into the game with quite a few half chances. Mr Sinkinson, the Staff goalkeeper looked confident in between the sticks even having time to sit down and read the paper. Sam Walden, his opposite number had a few hair-raising moments, but never looked in much danger of losing his clean sheet.

The first goal of the game will be one that lives on in the mind of everybody who was there on that beautiful Spring afternoon. Sam Norris spotted Mr Sinkinson off his line whenever the Year 11 sprung a swift counter attack. Mr Sinkinson dared Norris to shoot, and shoot he did. He immediately wished he had not. He mis-hit his shot and it rolled softly towards Mr Sinkinson. “Pride comes before a fall” is a phrase Mr Sinkinson should remember. As he began to mock Norris for his lame attempt, he failed to focus on controlling the slow moving ball. It slowly rolled into the net. 1-0 to the Year 11.

The game sprang into life and both teams came close to scoring before Mr Clarke blew for half time.

The Staff team came out guns blazing in the second half. Mr Sinkinson had been replaced in nets by Mr Davies. Mr Sinkinson moved into defence and his accurate passes out of defence began to tell. Mr Lawlor went on a mazy run through the Year 11 defence before crossing to Mr Murphy who saw his diving header agonisingly crash off the crossbar. Moments later Mr Lawlor replicated his mazy run again and this time slotted the ball past the oncoming Walden. 1-1.

The Year 11 team were visibly shaken by this. Their talk of a whitewash before the game was now in tatters. The Staff team took full advantage of this lapse in concentration and pushed for a second. The Year 11 team were under a lot of pressure as the Staff started to run through the midfield and defence. During one of the Staff raids into the box Adam Martel was unlucky to handle the ball. Mr Clarke had no choice but to award a penalty. It was time for Mr Sinkinson to redeem himself. He slotted the ball into the net past a helpless Walden. 2-1 to the Staff.

Some Year 11 started to lose their composure and Mr Clarke had to produce another yellow card for several rash tackles. The Staff looked comfortable and stroked the ball around skilfully with some tasty showboating on display. Though the Year 11 team refused to lie down and let the Staff team steamroller them. It was up to the ever vigilant Mr Sweeney and Mr Starbuck to break up the Year 11 attacks. And break them up they did. Although at one stage Mr Starbuck was a little overzealous in his task and received harsh words from the ref for an overenthusiastic tackle. With his head.

However, the Year 11 team simply could not contain the Staff team. A corner kick straight from the training ground broke the Year 11 team further. A short corner from Mr Murphy to Mr Cosnett followed by him beating a few defenders before crossing the ball in. Mr Murphy had arrived in the box now and was able to loop a header over two defenders and, a once again stranded, Walden into the net. 3-1 to the Staff.

The Year 11 team started to threaten and several controversial freekicks peppered Mr Davies in the Staff goal. With moments to go Mr Clarke gave a freekick which some might contest. It was lofted into the box and it was time to see Martel redeem himself was a header which beat the unlucky Davies. Some speculated that he scored through a foul. Regardless, the goal stood.

It was all too little, too late. The Staff comfortably held onto possession for the remainder of the game and even came close to adding a forth goal.

The final whistle was blown and the crowd erupted!! The Staff had made it 2 years out of 2 with victories over the Year 11.

A great game with a result which many had predicted. A lot of people said afterwards that football was the winner on the day. But we all know that the real winners were the Staff.

Staff Player Ratings:

Sinkinson 9

Starbuck 10

Sweeney 10

Vinecombe 10

Haimes 10

Cosnett 10

Davies 10

Wilen 10

Lawlor 10

Murphy 10

Boorer 10