Chester City Football Tournament

Lesson: Physical education

Class: Year 5 and 6 Kingfishers Year: 2024 - 2025

On a very wet Wednesday morning, our Year 5 and 6 football team went to the Chester City training ground to compete in a Chester schools football tournament. Win this, I you represent Chester in the regionals and if you won that, you play at Wembley!!!!

Our first match was against Blue Coats. It's fair to say that we dominated with the ball and had a host of chances. Toby shot narrowly wide a few time and Keagan leapt like a salmon to head it several times but it went agonisingly over each time. One shot at our goal was expertly saved by Logan, bit other than that, Thomas and Sergio stopped the vast majority of their attacks. With Keagan clean through, their defender somehow got a toe on the ball to knock it out for a corner. A 0 - 0 draw it finsihed. 

Next up was St Clares. Farrah came on to make her debut and what an impression she made! With her first touch, she brought the ball under control and then smashed a lethal shot into the top right corner. But she wasn't finished there. We were dominating possession and their goal was under constant threat. We had a corner and Farrah stepped up to take it. From the front post, Keagan made a clever run forward to pull out the defender and Farrah pinged the ball into the space left behind. Toby ran in to apply the finishing touch! With our tails up, Toby capped off a fine performance with a rocket into the top left corner to make it 3 - 0. 

But we saved the drama to the last match. Win and we were through. Anything else and we were out. We were against a very good Hoole team. They had a few chances but Logan appeared unbeatable. Ollie-Jae was driving the team forward in midfield and we had some half chances only to narrowly miss. Whistles were being blown on the other pitches and time appeared to be running out. As the ref put the whistle to his lips, it all looked over - but Toby had other ideas. He battled through the middle of the pitched, looked up and let fly with a stunning strike into the top corner. A 1 - 0 win and the semi-final was next! 

We met Acresfield and they were a strong team with several academy players. But we held our own and both teachers had chances. A dubious decision for a free kick was given to them. They struck it and the ball went in off one of our defenders so Logan was wrong footed. But their heads did not drop and we drove forward in search of the equaliser. Farrah spun away from her marker to create a chance but we couldn't convert. With just a couple of minutes on the clock, they broke down our left flank and crossed it into a dangerous area. In an attmept to clear, it clipped one of our players and beat Logan at the far post. A 2 - 0 defeat, but I was so proud of the team for making it to the final stages when up agaisnt some very strong teams. They played with confidence and considering it was the first time they played together their passing and movement was outstanding! A brilliant start to the season and we can't wait for the Christleton tournament. 

I'm not going to single out any one player - this was a proper team performance and they all deserve huge credit! Well done everyone.