League Cup Semi Final Win over John Spence
It was a great night for a game of football and none more so than the semi-final of the schools league cup. Churchill have played some sublime football over the past few games and the hope from Mr Collingwood and Mr Jennings was to carry that confidence into this game. The question was which Churchill side would turn up, the one that beat Ponteland to get to this stage or the one that lost to today’s opponents 7—2 in the league earlier in the season. Mr Jennings arrived early with the water bottles and did the prematch introductions awaiting the arrival of the team in the school bus. A police escort made the arrival go without much problems and the crowd was growing with anticipation.
The game started and within the first five minutes Churchill won a corner. The result of which saw Liam Burns rise like a salmon and open the scoring with a tremendous header. It was all Churchill pressure and the few times that John Spence broke through there was Ryan Kirtley (in goal) sweeping and clearing everything that came his way. Then halfway through the first half the ball broke to Rhys Evans, who must have been about 30 yards from goal, he looked up and then released the trigger on what must surely be the goal of the season. The shot dipped just under the crossbar giving the keeper no chance. Churchill 2—John Spence 0. To be fair, John Spence were playing some good football but they couldn’t cope with the pressure from Churchill, mainly Rhys Evans and Callum Roberts controlling the midfield. As half time was approaching the ball broke to Aaron Lyons on the left, he took a touch and delivered a cross into the box. The centre back from John Spence tried to clear but the ball spun off his boot giving the goalkeeper no chance. Half time 3—0
The second half started but the pressure dropped, Churchill seem to have taken the mind off the game and were thinking about the final. John Spence came back very strong in the second half and they increased the pressure, which culminated in Jake Stephenson showing his class to break free from the shackles of Liam Burns (giving and outstanding Captain’s display) and slotting the ball home to cut the deficit to two. The next goal would surely be the decider. If John Spence got it then the Churchill heads would drop, creating a nervous last fifteen minutes. A few substitutions were made to freshen things up and the game was end to end with John Spence just shading it. The pressure was still mounting on the Churchill goal and a clearance went to Callum Roberts on the right, he took it to the byline, cut inside took it past two defenders and delivered an exquisite chip over the keeper into the back of the net. 4—1. A huge sigh of relief. Churchill held out for the remaining few minutes and saw the game out.
Celebrations all round and hopefully we can do something special in the final.