On Thursday 17 March, the Surbiton U10A team represented the School at the Surbiton Year 5 Girls’ Football Festival, competing against 13 other teams. We were so impressed with how the Year 5 girls represented the School through a series of spellbinding performances throughout the group stages, conjuring up a remarkable record of 3 wins and 3 draws without conceding a single goal! This achievement was all down to a combination of both individual moments of magic and great team play. Notable contributions included Mabel’s brace of goals in a single half of one game (almost breaking the net in the process), and Niamh and Caitlyn’s telepathic link-up play, threading the ball through seemingly impossible gaps to each other, working their way up the pitch before rounding off the move with a visionary through ball by Caitlyn, perfectly into the path of Niamh who casually slotted the ball into the back of the net. Furthermore, Martha and Katherine were terriers on and off the ball with their expert positioning and well-timed tackles snuffing out attacks before they had even begun. Also, Arabella and Jolie contributed a mixture of direct and mazy runs at such incredible speed towards the heart of the opposition; defence was forever causing problems for those unlucky enough to try and stop them. Then, at the other end of the pitch was Noor, a colossus in goal who not only pounced upon any ball in her box, but with her quick thinking and remarkable passing range, started several dangerous counter-attacks. And finally, there was Lauren who, when asked what her preferred position was, confessed that this was her first time ever playing a football match. Nevertheless, after watching her, you would never have guessed due to her expert execution of the fundamentals, consistently playing precision passes, and positioning herself in dangerous pockets of space, almost resulting in a goal in a few instances. This team was simply superb throughout and it had to take a great goal from an excellent opposition team to stop them in a very close-fought, second-round knockout game. Overall, it was an enjoyable celebration of wonderful footballing talent.
