Sports Results

Football - Under 15's v Bolton Grammar - ISFA Investec Cup

This was a fantastic game of football, where Abbey Gate pushed past national winners to the limit.

The pattern of the game looked set to go to form when Bolton were two up in ten minutes with a great diagonal pass and finish plus a soft penalty. Abbey Gate finally found their feet and a loose ball was slid home by Tom Donald to reduce the arrears after 30 minutes. Bolton stretched the lead just before half time when the centre half smashed the ball home in a scramble after the ball had been blasted against the bar.
 
The second half was completely different as Abbey Gate's pace and desire kept Bolton on the back foot. Every player from the home team stretched every sinew as they bombarded a resilient Bolton defence. The goal the College’s play deserved came when a snap shot from Tom Donald beat the despairing dive of the goalkeeper from 25 yards. Now it was really backs to the wall for a team who had only conceded one goal all season. To their credit Bolton stood firm despite a number of frantic scrambles in their goalmouth.
 
Abbey Gate can be proud of their efforts to upset the form books and for a squad of 14 players from a total year group of 36 boys to push past champions who select from 200 boys to the absolute limit, does every single player great credit.

The eulogy and comments from Mr Hargreaves, a past teacher at the College and ISFA committee member, put into perspective just how good and how unexpectedly close the game was - it helped the boys swallow the bitter pill of defeat!

For the report on the ISFA website, please follow the link below.
 
http://www.isfa.org.uk/boys/news.php?go=fullnews&id=83

Mr Cutler