By Maebel G

On the 8th October, 11 of us went to the GDST sports rally at Northampton High School. Our team was a mix of Year 9s, 10s and 11s. We were all very excited, mostly because we were missing school, and nervous as last time we were here we didn’t do very well. After a quick warm up, we played our first match. Each match was 14 minutes long, with a 2 minute half time, which meant you needed to get a goal in quickly. First, you play 4 matches within your group, and the first team from each group moves up along with the next best 3 teams.

We won our first match 2-0 against Shrewsbury, which boosted our confidence. We had around 20 minutes until our next match against Birkenhead, so we ran some drills and had a
bite to eat. That match ended 0-0, which was ok but meant we needed to win the next one. We sadly also drew that one 0-0 against Northampton, this meant that if we didn’t win the
match we would not be moving on to the quarter-final. We were all quite stressed, especially because the teams got better and better, but we played well and managed to win our last
group match 1-0 against Blackheath. The result was a relief, as it meant we would move up to the next round instead of competing in the cup competition.

Waiting for the quarter final to begin, we refuelled with Doritos and smarties and a grape or two. Our next match was against Croydon, who were a very physical team. We were all
getting a little tired, and it didn’t help that it was pouring rain throughout the entire match. But we didn’t give up and also won that match 1-0 in order to go to the semi-finals! This was
probably the most excitement we had throughout the tournament, we were already picturing ourselves with medals. Our semi-final opponent was Oxford, who we beat 1-0. We were
ecstatic. We were in the finals of the whole GDST rally again, just like 2 years ago. Our most stressful match was the final against Wimbledon, who scored a goal around 5 minutes into
the match. We kept fighting but were sadly not able to even it out and the match ended 1-0 to Wimbledon. It was of course a little disappointing and frustrating as we had only lost by 1
goal, but at the same time we were all surprised and happy that our team had come 2nd throughout the entire GDST in an U16’s tournament. We tried to persuade Mr Bennett and
Ms Dunkley to drive by McDonald’s on the way back, but our convincing very unfortunately didn’t work.

It was a great day and we are very much looking forward to receiving our medals!