The Year 8 Football team travelled to a local school on Thursday afternoon, looking for their first victory of the season following defeat in the first round of the County Cup.
Magna started the game brightly and created a couple of early chances, the best effort coming from Archie Jordan, whose curling effort from outside of the box narrowly missed the top corner and struck the cross bar. Goalkeeper Zak White made some excellent saves to keep the score at 0-0, and Magna continued to have the lion’s share of possession in an end to end first half. However, Magna were undone against the run of play when a fantastic effort from 25 yards left them 1-0 down at half time. Time to regroup and go again.
Magna came out for the second half in dominant fashion. Opposition chances were few and far between due to an excellent defensive effort by Isaac Bello, Alfie Wheeler, Jayden Hirsh and Lloyd Walpole. The game was now being controlled by Magna, who still trailed 1-0 despite creating lots of chances from centre midfield pair Stanley Nicholls and Harlen Rice. With just 15 minutes to play, striker Callum Collier finally grabbed a well-deserved equalizer from close range and the game was on! Magna completed the comeback just 2 minutes later when right winger Riley Martin’s cross looped over the keeper and found the corner of the net (although he has told everyone that it was definitely a shot!). Could Magna hold on to their narrow advantage? The pressure was on and calm heads were kept, with centre back and captain Alfie Wheeler steering the team excellently through this period, leading by example to keep the opposition quiet. The game was finally put to bed when left winger Jack Lane rebounded a powerful shot from striker Alfie Miller to see the boys home at 3-1. Full time, and victory was ours!
I was very proud of the way the boys responded in the second half, and they have deservedly come away with their first win for Magna Academy. Well done to everybody involved, this really was a terrific.
A delighted Mr Ginger