Brentwood School - Brentwoodian 2020

51 There were many players that returned for this year's season including the team’s Captain, James Davey, who led valiantly and made the defence a force to be reckoned with. Vice- captain, Ziggy Wamae, as well as Tom Mitchell, Cameron O’Shea and Jack Levy dominated the centre of the field. Speed and power on the wings was provided by Daniel Abebe, Sonny Woodward, Ben Fordham and Bradley Yallop. Goal scoring was the job of our strikers, Will Everest and Adam Richards, who delivered consistently. The defence was gifted with new players such as Alex Chaban, Ross Wilson and Will Manuelsson as well as the unstoppable veteran, Adam Salter. Last but not least, keeping the goal was Alex Watkins who made some memorable saves and without a doubt won the team several matches. With such a large squad that was perpetually changing throughout the season there were many other players not mentioned who also made a great effort and represented the School well. However, it would be unfortunate to forget the team’s fantastic coach, Mr Mickleburgh, who was always supportive and managed well throughout, supported by Mr Warburton and Mr Finch who ran Monday training. Overall a fantastic season delivered by great people. By Ziggy Wamae U15A This football season was quite successful for us as a team. We made large improvements from the previous year, winning 7 games compared to only a few last year. We had a very good start to the season with back-to- back convincing wins against Alleyn’s and John Lyon, scoring 7 goals in them. This was then followed by a rough patch in form with losses against very strong opposition like Whitgift and Bede’s who both made it into the semi-finals of the ISFA competition. Then we had some very intense games with a 3-2 win vs Colne Community School in the 3rd round of the County cup and also a narrow U15B Our season consisted of many ups and downs but eventually we learned to work together as a team and achieved success. By the end of the season we had really improved in attacking and defending as a unit which resulted in a 9-0 triumph. Our season began with a home match against a strong Wilson’s School side. Although we started slowly we managed to build up momentum and through some quick feet from Jasandeep Chandi and a good run from Max Small we nearly scored. However, luck did not seem to be with us as we couldn’t convert - every time we came through on goal we slipped over! We quickly realised that our best attacks were the result of a through-ball played to one of our wingers, Tom Barden or Harry Thomas, and it was from Harry that we found our first goal of the season, resulting in a comfortable win against the U14B team. Excellent defensive performances were found in the physicality of Alex Thomas (never afraid of a tackle) and the leadership of Captain Archie Flashman who was very much the vocal one on the pitch. All three of our goalkeepers (Adam Harding, Daniel Elayaraja and Jack Ridgwell) showcased some great shot stopping throughout the season. Despite some excellent performances, including a great worked team goal (where the ball was whipped across by Miles King) which found the back of the net from SamWalsh, some impressive acrobatics by Nahiyan Islam and consistent composure from Ben Pogson and Toby McBurney, we failed for two matches to finish the game on top, even when we had dominated for most of the match. All of our hard work came together in a deserving victory over Highgate at the end of the season which consisted of three hat-tricks. Goals came from SamWalsh, Joe Ludlow-Gibbon and Harry Thomas (who scored an impressive goal in which he cut inside and curled the ball into the top left corner). Our progress is evident in this final result and I look forward to playing as a team together in the future. By Benjamin O’Riordan 3-2 loss against a strong Sandon School. Although we lost, there were some excellent goals scored by Fiz Jaiyesimi, both free kicks in the same place each time, unsaveable. The best performance this year was our game against Tonbridge U16 with a convincing 8-3 win, with goals coming from lots of the team. Goal of the Season was almost scored in that game as well, George Clark, our centre-back, hit the ball on the half volley with his weak foot. It flew like a rocket towards the top corner but the goalkeeper just managed to save it. All in all I think that this year's football season has been great for us as a team as, even though we won no trophies, I feel we all made excellent progress in our technical ability. By James Webb-Wood