Today’s football activity continued with the second match of the college cup between James 1sts and Vanbrugh 1sts. Both sides are widely considered to be among the strongest teams in the competition, so tempers flared as play was fast paced and competitive. A corner was given to Vanbrugh in the opening minutes but narrowly missed and went over the bar. Just after the game had passed the ten minute mark, James Offord scored for James , with a finish just like Messi’s at the Bernabeu last Wednesday, slipping it to the keeper’s right.
Soon after, Offord made another break but Vanbrugh responded with an equalizer within three minutes; after a throw-in from John Gill, the ball was received with a header which was passed to Ziggy Heath, who headed the ball into the bottom corner of the goal. Towards the end of the first half both teams started to play some beautiful football, with perfectly timed passing and lots of communication between players. Generally, Vanbrugh’s play was more panicked than their opponents and they gave away many throw-ins from emergency clearances. James hit the post and cross-bar on countless occasions but just weren’t able to take the lead, the score stayed at 1-1 for the rest of the first half.
At the beginning of the second half, play lost all the previous momentum and looked scrappy, but it was James that went ahead after a free kick, when Mark Mcleod (who was later awarded man of the match) curled the ball into the bottom right corner. Although James had a 2-1 lead at this stage in the match, Vanbrugh did not back down. They created many goal-scoring opportunities, one noticeable effort by captain Phil Taylor, who slipped the ball past countless James players and made a fighting sprint down the right. Later, Kieran O’Dwyer booted a shot on goal from the 25 year line causing James keeper Sam Clitheroe to make a spectacular diving save. Vanbrugh made many substitutions during the match but it was John Gill, who was essential to his team’s line up, received an enthusiastic round of applause from both players and supporters as he walked off the pitch. But their efforts were not rewarded. Instead, it was James who got the final goal, with Offord scoring his second of the match, bringing the score up to 3-1 with five minutes still to play.
An exciting battle between two well-matched sides, but it was James who conquered.
Cracking article, I enjoyed the 25 year boot towards goal, loads of “fighting sprints” and Messi-like finishes. This is a staggering portrayal of the biggest match of week one. Congratulations for the continuing efforts on keeping the sports section of my beloved student newspaper so well regarded. Wow.
This article is awful
This is a terribly written article, I sincerely hope in the future you will have somebody who actually knows a bit about football doing the write-ups! Having been an esteemed journalist and ex first team critic I regret to say I would be far more capable of writing a better article.
Also where is the ’25 year line’ on a football pitch nowadays?
If only Richard Keys an Andy Gray still had their jobs….
poorly written, with little knowledge of the actual game of football shown by the writer
Some of these criticisms are a bit personal… People seem to throw out the window anybody’s previous good work as soon as they write one bad article. If you look back to this girl’s other stuff, such as that Canoe Polo article, it’s got a tonne of “likes” and no bad comments and yet as soon as the very same writer makes a couple of mistakes in one article, people come down on her like a sack of bricks, including some stuff that’s personal and sexist. Perhaps those criticising should sign up to do some reports themselves if they’re so concerned with the quality of reporting.
I am not responsible for slagging off this article, my guess is its at the hands of Simon Mole or Liam Condron. That is all.
Shut up Darling. No one wants to hear your slander.