Playstation Cup 2008 Venue – John Charles Sports Centre Leeds
It was the turn of Year 10 to try and emulate the previous successful Healing team and win their way through to the National 5 a side finals at Crystal Palace with this year’s prize being a weekend in Spain to play the Spanish champions with the second leg taking place in London, all expenses paid by Playstation of course.
So after regular practice and training since October the boys couldn’t be better prepared and travelled to their hotel in Leeds full of confidence.
It was great to be reunited with the Playstation staff led by John Scales the ex Liverpool and England player, who is always an inspiration for the boys. Unfortunately the standard was higher than ever and with teams from all over the north of England as well as old enemies from north London, Healing boys could see they had a difficult task ahead of them.
Ex Grimsby Boys players, Matthew Legg and Ryan Walker along with District player and captain for the day, Jon Mumby, had to call on all their experience to survive their early matches. The boys were finding that they had to work so hard to defend that their opportunities to score were few and far between. Matty Fox came to the rescue with his trusty left foot to save the day with a string of timely tackles but it was the least experienced players, Max Stockley and Aryan Amirbashiri, who rose to the occasion and stole the limelight in many of the matches.
Healing needed to reach the semi final to qualify for London and sadly, although they finished the strongest side in their league, their early defeats proved costly.
Nevertheless the boys enjoyed the experience and were a credit to the school both on and off the field.
Year 8 Boys
Year 8 Footballers are gelling together as a team with great heart led ably by captain Will Peers who has stood out as an exceptional talent in every match. Congratulations go to Danny James and Sam O’Callaghan who are now training with the District squad, who have Mike Brolly as manager. The ex Chelsea, Bristol, Derby and Grimsby player who also represented his country on a number of occasions has a great manner with his teams. Mike is ably assisted by Brian Bagnall a goalkeeping coach whose son was an academy goalkeeper at Leeds and on the first team bench at Birmingham at the tender age of 16.
The Year 8 team are gaining in experience and enjoying their football.
The Year 7 Boys
Year 7 boys have been practising hard in preparation for their John Teanby tournament on the 24th April and it will be very difficult to choose a team from so many talented youngsters.
The PE Department wish them well in their competition.