Football News

On Wednesday 21st September, Northallerton School Year 11 boys’ football team took part in the Hambleton & Richmondshire Area Football 7s competition at Bedale Junior Football Club.  After a very successful campaign in Year 10, when the boys won the annual H&R 7s competition and finished as runners-up in the County Cup, Northallerton were hoping to start Year 11 in a similar fashion.

Unfortunately the afternoon did not start well, when despite going 1-0 up through Finn T, we lost to Thirsk 2-1 after a last minute goal. This result meant Northallerton would have to win their remaining two group fixtures in order to qualify for the semi final stages. Although still not finding their best form, we were able to defeat both SFX and Risedale school, with Finn, Riley G and Lennon H all scoring goals. These victories meant we qualified in second place in pool ‘B’ and would face the winners of pool ‘A’ Stokesley in the semi finals.  Thankfully Northallerton finally found some rhythm and should have been 3-0 up inside the first 5 minutes.  However, we were very guilty of missing some clear chances and were punished when Stokesley took a 1-0 lead from their first attack. Northallerton stayed patient though and Lennon H equalised before  Harry B fired in a free kick to send us through to the final.  Here we would play surprise finalists Wensleydale, who defeated Thirsk in the other semi final 1-0.

Northallerton unfortunately didn’t produce their best performance and the rhythm that we had found against Stokesley had deserted us. Although we were dominating possession, we were making mistakes and Wensleydale were able to punish us and took a 1-0 lead. Despite Northallerton searching for an equaliser, the score would stay at 1-0 until the very last kick of the game, when Lennon found some space on the left and was able to fire a shot in past the Wensleydale keeper to equalise and send the final to a 3 man penalty shoot out.

Northallerton went first and captain Harry B put us 1-0 up, before Jack M making his school debut produced a fantastic save. Oscar C made it 2-0, before Wensleydale scored their second penalty. However, Lennon kept his cool to score Northallerton’s third penalty and defend our H&R Area 7s crown.

Although we were certainly not at our best throughout the afternoon, the boys showed great resilience and determination to come through some tricky moments and if we can continue to show these qualities, maybe we can go one step further in Year 11 and become County Champions.

Squad – Luca D, Harry B, Oscar C, Lennon H, Riley G, Jack M, Angus W-M, Finn T, Jack R, Seth B

Well done all – Mr Myers