Westover Finish Runners Up

Westover Primary School took part in an 18 team, 6 a side tournament at Goals on Tuesday 8^th October. In each pool, there were 6 teams which meant playing 5 games each before finding out who had made it through to the finals.

In the first match, we played against Ark Ayrton and we were quickly on the scoresheet after careless errors from the opposition’s defence whereby they kept going into the goalkeeper’s area resulting in penalties for us. Hadley, Jude and Finley kept their cool and all scored penalties. We also saw outfield goals from the same three boys including a wonder strike from Finley in his own half.

Westover 6 – 0 Ark Ayrton

After our first game, we were on cloud nine; however, that was short-lived as Arundel Court beat us 1-0 after a close match. Might it have been because our star striker went in goal?

Westover 0 – 1 Arundel Court

We re-grouped and had a team talk as our next two oppositions have proved difficult in the past; St Jude’s and Wimborne. It was St Jude’s first and some of the boys had said to Jude that he had to score as the school had used his name so what did he go and do? He did as he had been asked and scored.

Westover 1 – 1 St Jude’s

Against Wimborne, Hadley and Jude (yet again!) helped us to draw the match which we were happy with and it was tight throughout.

Westover 2 – 2 Wimborne

In the last match of our pool, we really wanted a win as we weren’t sure we had done enough to make it to the finals yet. We showed off our fine passing and Jude squared the ball, in true FIFA Goal fashion, to Hadley who could tap it in for 1-0. Jude then went on to score in this match too after dribbling it past not one, but two players, he then shot with his left foot – this made Miss Snook happy as she had been asking him to shoot with his left foot when he had the chance.

Westover 2 – 0 Corpus Christi

After playing our group matches, we had to sit down with the other schools and wait to find out whether we had done enough to make it to the finals. The schools that hadn’t quite made it were called out and told they could go home if they wished. To our surprise, they didn’t call our name – this meant we were through! We had an even longer wait to find out who we would be playing next in the Quarter Finals – the suspense was killing us as we looked around at the other schools that were left. They were all brilliant footballing schools!

Finally, our name was called out. Then, ‘will be against …. Langstone.’ We didn’t know what to think. We knew they were amazing as we know many of them but at the same time, we were excited to play our local rivals – South Coast derby, who? More like the Baffins derby! We were about to play in our very own ‘El Baffinso’ and a thriller it was! Langstone took the lead and we were devastated but we didn’t leave our heads down as within a second Finley had equalised with a shot into the bottom corner. Hadley made it 2-1. This was where the downward spiral would start for Langstone – their goalkeeper thumbled the ball and it came off him and into his own net. 3-1. Dylan finally got his goal too and Jude made it 5-1. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep it to 1, they did get another but the final whistle prevented them from getting more. Alfie had done brilliantly at the heart of our defence to keep their star player out of the game and Louie made numerous epic saves by being quick off his line and making himself big time and time again.

QF - Westover 5 – 2 Langstone

Buzzing off the back of our last game, we went into the semi-final quietly confident despite us being drawn against Northern Parade who, some would say, are the best team in the area. It was tough and close throughout – it was like watching a tennis match for Miss Snook who stood at the side. Jude came up trumps again and scored two for us but they had also scored two. This meant the dreaded penalties. We had gone out on penalties at this stage last year so were desperate not to have a repeat. Finley, Jude and Hadley were our nominated takers but there was no need for Hadley to take his as Louie, in goal, had put the opposition off and assisted them in missing two. We were through to the final!

SF – Westover 2 – 2 Northern Parade (Westover win 2-1 on penalties)

The final saw us take on Court Lane A team who were the only school there with two teams. We tried our best but unfortunately fell at the final hurdle, losing 0-2 to them. We showed our professionalism by holding our heads high, shaking their hands and receiving our runners up medals with pride.

F – Westover 0 – 2 Court Lane A

Written by Alfie, Finley and Miss Snook