Ashmount suffer semi-final anguish!

Ashmount’s boys football team could not match their predecessors from last year in winning the Islington Boys Primary Cup, as they went out in the semi-final to St Joseph’s Primary.

With 19 schools looking to be crowned champions, Ashmount went along on their preliminary qualifying day quietly confident they would make the final day, however at half time in their first match against St Marks that looked a long way away as we trailed 1-0 at half time. The second half though we really knuckled down and goals from Jordan and Han gave us the start we wanted.

Next up were St Joseph’s and we started to show everyone else what a good side we are, as Stephane and an own goal secured a 2-0 victory. The third group game saw the boys really turn on the style as St Andrews were swept aside by a fantastic performance. Stephane with 2 goals and efforts from Han and Louis set up a 4-0 win and sealed our qualification for Finals Day.

The final game was against Tufnell Park and with qualification secured we took our foot off the pedal, and went down to Tufnell Park 2-0.

So the boys returned on Friday for the Finals Day which saw the top 8 schools in the borough get ready to battle it out. Our group saw us up against St Mary Magdalene, Yerbury and Gillespie.This time the boys made sure they were not waiting around as we took a two goal lead thanks to goals from Han and Stephane, but with the last kick of the half SMM pulled one back. The points were soon ours though as in the second half Han clinched a 3-1 and a dream start to the group.

With results going our way, the boys knew if they won their second game a semi-final place would be theirs. A resolute Yerbury stood in our way and the first half was stalemate which the only incident to report being an unfortunate injury to a Yerbury player who suffered a broken arm. Yerbury may be fired up the injury took the lead and with three minutes left a win looked highly unlikely, but this team never knows when to give up and Jordan equalised to level matters. With seconds left Yerbury went on the attack and looked to score a certain winner, until Cameron pulled off the tackle of the day to deny a clear goal scoring chance. From here we broke forward, but the ball fell back into our half and at the feet of Djamal-eddine who scored a goal to remember as his shot sailed over the keepers head and into the net to give Ashmount a 2-1 victory.

The final game saw us pitted against Gillespie and we raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Louis and Stephane. Gillespie pulled one back but we had done enough to secure a maximum of 9 points and a place semi-final. The scrap for second place ended with Gillepsie going through on goal difference as the three schools all finished on 2 points each. So onto the semi, and a rematch with St Josephs, who we had defeated in the preliminary stage.

This time though the tables were turned on us, as they scored in the first minute and despite our mounted pressure we couldn’t break them down and St Joesphs deservedly took their place in the final against Gillepsie with Gillespie winning 2 -0.A disappointing end to a week which saw the boys play together for the first time, and in my opinion we were the best team during the whole week, scoring more goals than anyone else and also picking up more points as well.

But as happens sometimes things don’t always go your way, and it’s something the boys are determined to overcome as the season goes on and with so much to look forward to I’m sure they will. There were plenty of positives, with the most notable one being the age of the side.

Half of the team will be able to play next year as they are in year 5, and with the experience they will collect this season we will definitely, looking to go further and hopefully to victory.

Squad – Sid, Patrick, Cameron, Djamal-eddine, Cory, Archie, Han, Stephane, Jordan, and Louis.