Football

James Hargest Football XI travelled to Christchurch to play in the Jim Wishart SSIS Football Competition.
Game 1: Monday saw us face Golden Bay in a fairly dominant game we controlled for the most part. Golden Bay defended well and their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves, preventing us from scoring more than the one goal we scored to win the game.
Game 2: Our second game of the day saw us up against Middleton Grange, It was a competitively contested game. The wind had picked up this afternoon, so we made the tactical decision to play into the wind in the first half, knowing we could defend against it. Middleton Grange did put us under a lot of pressure in the first half and was worthy of their 1 – 0 lead at halftime. However, our boys in the second half with the wind behind them came out fighting, in the rhetorical sense, and forced Middleton Grange back and would not let them out of their half. Luca Hook scored the equaliser, after some fantastic work down the wing and a wonderful cross from AJ Wilson. In the dying seconds of the game, Luca played provider, sending a cross-goal pass for Will Fleming to slot into the corner for the winner. Zachary Tull had a goal disallowed for an alleged handball, which I thought had come off his face.
Game 3: Tuesday, With the wind still blowing quite heavy, we decided to play into the wind in the first half, as we did in the Monday afternoon game. This tactic seemed to work well for us and against the wind we scored twice. In the second half, Burnside were awarded a dubious penalty to make it 2-1, then our boys went up a gear and scored 2 goals to make it 4-1. Burnside managed to sneak a goal in to make it 4-2. Our boys held out and came out winners in a game that the boys played so well and deserved the win.
Game 4: Wednesday, Our first game on Thursday was a quarter-final match-up with Hillmorton. The game was between two evenly matched teams. Hillmorton took the lead after being awarded a very dubious penalty. However, Luca Hook equalised just before half-time with a spectacular freekick. Unfortunately, Hillmorton were awarded another dubious penalty in the 2nd half. We put Hillmorton under a lot of pressure and had a couple of chances to win the game as well as a clear penalty shout that the referee seemed to ignore. Losing the game 2-1 took away the chance of the boys finishing in the top four.
Game 5: Our second game on Wednesday saw us in another fiercely contested match, against Timaru Boys. Timaru scored first after a magnificent save from Sam Sheppard, unfortunately, Timaru reacted quicker than our defence and slotted in the rebound. We managed an equaliser, but we unfortunately conceded a second. Even though we put them under a lot of pressure, we had plenty of chances to win it and if not for a few great saves by their keeper we could have walked away worthy winners.
Game 6: Thursday saw us face Burnside once again fighting for 7th & 8th place respectively. Our first goal came for us, being awarded a penalty for handball. Will Flemming slotted the penalty away to give us the lead. Luca Hook made it two with another spectacular freekick. Burnside managed to get one back but in the second half our boys stepped up a gear and managed a third scored by Jed Muir. To top off the scoring Will Fleming scored the goal of the tournament with some great wing play and a couple of one-twos with Oliver Milne-Wahren, he found himself on the corner of the box and let fly with a spectacular shot that even Christiano Ronaldo would have been proud of. The keeper had no chance and from the celebrations, you could tell all the boys thought it spectacular.
The boys had a fantastic tournament, They played some great football and scored some great goals. The boys conducted themselves wonderfully over the week, both on the field and off it. Thanks so much to the passionate staff of football for helping this sport grow at JHC.