News › Latest News
London Cup round 4 v St Thomas
January 2009
Year 8 Football – London Cup, Round 4
Bow School 5 – 4 St Thomas Apostle (AET)
The boys have performed excellently to get to the fourth round of the Hammer’s Cup with the notable win over St Aloysius in the last round. This time they came up against the unknown quantity of St Thomas Apostle School. The preparation for this game had been a little disjointed and the squad was rocked by the loss of James Holland-Malcolm (injury) and Ruhul Amin who moved schools at the start of this term. However, the boys were able to welcome back Paul Reader who missed the previous game.
A few changes were made before the start of this game with Thomas returning to the midfield and Callum (captain) returning to his more familiar role at centre back. There were also first starts for both Oli Cox and Mitu Miah.
The game kicked off in horrible conditions, the pitch was sticky in places and like an ice rink in others, whilst the wind and rain were both strong to say the least! Things got worse for Bow when a St Thomas player picked up the ball on the left hand side of the box, jinked past two and then chipped Jamie who was helpless, and went on to score a fantastic opening goal. 0-1 St Thomas. The away team continued their momentum and continued to make chances - if it wasn’t for the strikers slipping off-side several times they could have been three up within the first 15 minutes.
Gradually however, Bow started to get back into the game. Callum and Darien were driving the backline forward and Mohammed’s very willing running was starting to unsettle the St Thomas’ defence. His persistence finally reaped its rewards when, after approximately 20 minutes, Mohammed beat his defender and hit a good shot across the goalkeeper. Unfortunately he hit the post but fortunately Oli was on hand to complete a very neat finish. 1-1. Bow were working very hard now, summed up by Mitu’s work on the right side of midfield. The hard work finally reaped it’s reward with Thomas beating two players on the edge of the box and coolly finishing past the St Thomas keeper. 2-1 Bow. With only five minutes to half-time Bow seemed to take their foot off the pedal and this was fatal. With two very similar goals, both cross-come-shots, suddenly St Thomas were back in control of the game – for the first time in this cup run the boys looked unsettled and short of ideas.
Half-time: 2-3 to St Thomas
At half-time Franco was brought on to replace Mitu and the team moved from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 to try and tighten a midfield which St Thomas were controlling, with their number two proving to be the best player on the pitch!
As the second half progressed it became a one-sided affair with St Thomas sitting back and Bow having most of the ball. However St Thomas, now high in confidence, were looking very dangerous on the break. Chances came and went with Thomas going close, Mohammed having two good chances and one falling to Oli too. With 20 minutes left two final changes were made, the injured Oli and tired Harry left the pitch to be replaced with Kayn on the left and Paul in the midfield – freeing up Thomas to push further forward in search of the equaliser. Bow were now firmly in control with Paul and Tyrone dictating the midfield and the majority of the effective attacking play going through Thomas, which is where the equaliser finally came from. Thomas played a through ball to Kayn whose shot hit the keeper but came to the unmarked Mohammed who finally got his goal, something his work rate had definitely deserved! 3-3.
It would make sense from here that Bow would take control of the game; the wind and rain had stopped, the Bow boys looked in control and there weres 15 minutes remaining. But then the excellent Jay Trench missed a long ball by St Thomas, allowing the left winger to go through and (despite the best efforts of Jamie, the forward) finished brilliantly. 3-4 to St Thomas, great goal!
With ten minutes remaining it was back to square one for Bow and the boys looked deflated and St Thomas looked more likely to go on and win the game! This was the first time Bow were truly up against it in this cup run and they gradually started to show they were not going to give up without a fight. However, even though the chances started to come, they were unable to finish them. With the left-hand side looking the more dangerous for Bow with Dejuan and Kayn pushing St Thomas back it looked like Bow were going to have to settle for being so near yet so far. Then with only two minutes remaining, the ball dropped to the most dangerous boy on the pitch and with a drive from the edge of the area, St Thomas squared things up. 4-4, by the skin of their teeth.
Full time: 4-4
Extra-time
There was a stop in the game as an agreement had to be made with the grounds-men to leave the nets up before this goal-fest could continue. Extra time proved to be a much tighter affair, with few chances and play swaying from side to side. Finally the Bow defence looked tight and resembled the defence of previous rounds but the goal just would not come.
Extra time, Half-time
With only 10 minutes until the dreaded penalties, it looked like this was going to be the only outcome. Bow continued to press and as the sun finally shone down it looked like St Thomas would not break. With only minutes remaining, a lovely ball from Paul put Kayn clean through on goal from the left. Surely this was the final chance for Bow, as the keeper came running out. Kayn set himself, held off one defender and calmly slotted the ball, with just enough power, into the back of the net. 5-4 to Bow, surely that was it?! Well, St Thomas were not going to give this game up and went straight on the attack, pushing and pushing. Their determined play earned them a corner and as they prepared to take it, the referee called that this was the last attack and with it the last chance for St Thomas. With 20 players in the Bow six-yard box, nobody could see the goal let alone put the ball in it! The corner was taken: one shot, blocked; a second shot, blocked; a third shot, through Paul’s legs, deflected and then… cleared off the line (well we think so!). Final Whistle, 5-4 Bow.
A fantastic game finished in the most controversial fashion with the referee being surrounded by St Thomas players asking if the ball had gone in. In defence of the referee and in agreement with the St Thomas coach, nobody could tell if it had or hadn’t crossed the line. My gut reaction from the side was that it hadn’t. On to the quarter finals for Bow and a big thank you to St Thomas for an excellent game.
Star Man: Thomas Gogo
He covered every inch of the pitch and scored twice, one being the fourth goal which kept Bow in the tie.