Football News
Pebworth 6 Badsey 9
Badsey were the visitors on Wednesday 26 February
for our first football
match of 2003.
Having won the toss Badsey kicked-off but Pebworth
soon won the ball in some fierce challenges and got us off
to a dream start with a Ben Hoskin goal from our first attack
of the game. Pebworth resisted a physically bigger and stronger
Badsey side for a good fifteen minutes, until Badsey's pressure
led to an equaliser. Badsey's clear superiority told, with
a half-time scoreline of Pebworth 1 Badsey 3.
Pebworth might easily have folded when Badsey
struck twice again to make it 1-5. But to their credit, our
players tackled hard with Benjy Platt, George Mallory and Emma
Cranage all taking hard knocks in defence. Kelsey Dykes
made a creditable debut while Sasa Cromack and JoshTreglown made their super-sub
contributions.
Pebworth fought back to 2-5, with Josh Cook,
Ben Hoskin and Oliver Mallory leading the attack. After this,
it was Badsey pressure all the way, including some excellent
long-range shooting.
At the final whistle, with a score of 6-9 in
Badsey's favour, Ben Hoskin had scored a marvellous total of
four goals, the other two being provided by Oliver Mallory,
including an outstanding individual effort, dribbling
past four Badsey defenders. Ryan McGinley stopped numerous shots in goal, including
a particular sequence of three shots in close succession. This caused a Badsey
striker to be overheard to remark that Ryan was "a really
good goalie"!
Pebworth 5 Honeybourne 4
On Wednesday 12 March 2003, Pebworth entertained
Honeybourne in a classic end-to-end encounter. Pebworth applied
the pressure from the start, with a fierce shot from a tight
angle by Ben Hoskin which opened the scoring. Oliver Mallory
bent it like Beckham to hit the crossbar from a free kick.
Josh Treglown went close soon after. After Honeybourne equalised,
Oli immediately restored the lead, with a shot from the halfway
line, leaving the teams having their half-time oranges with
the score at 2-1.
Pebworth forged ahead in the second half, with
Ryan McGinley protecting Pebworth’s lead by saving a
goal-bound free-kick. Ben increased the tally to 3-1 before
Honeybourne fought back to 3-2.
Katie Smith and Benjy Platt gave a solid defensive
performance. Edward Adams and Lucy Hoskin in midfield distributed
the ball well and kept it moving towards the Honeybourne end.
Josh Cook worked hard for the team. George Mallory struck a
clever short-range volley to fool the Honeybourne keeper, but
Honeybourne pulled it back to 4-3.
Honeybourne might easily have changed the course
of the game with a missed penalty kick which hit the post,
but Oli scored by chipping the goalie to make it 5-3, before
Ben Goss of Honeybourne scored a great individual goal for
a late consolation.
In all, the match was hard-fought but played
in a very sporting spirit, and all our players did us proud
once again. Well done everyone! Please come and support us
again at our next match, on Wednesday 26 March, at home to
Forge House.
A word on our selection policy:
The football committee have decided this year
to aim to ensure that as many as possible of our budding Beckhams
of a minimum standard (the squad) participate in a match or
two during the season, balanced with the need to play our strongest
players against the stongest opposition. Our philosophy is
that winning is not everything, but we like it when it happens!
So we ask for the understanding of all our parents and children
in the squad that they may not be selected every week, but
we'll try to give everyone in the squad a fair chance during
the season. |
