Today we look back to an early round of the Boys Under 14 Cup with a Herefordshire derby in October as St Mary’s RC High School and Whitecross Hereford battled the elements in a competitive tie that went down to the wire.
Having taken the train to Hereford we made the walk to St Mary’s in pouring rain with the prospect of seeing the game called off on arrival very much at the front of our minds but the pitch was in excellent condition considering the heavy rain and the game got underway as planned.
The home side took an early lead only for Whitecross to draw level shortly after through Jacob Bray and it looked like we could be in for a downpouring of goals as well as rain.
In fact, that completed the scoring in normal time despite the best efforts of both sides to grab a winner with a close range header for the visitors very late on in extra time the closest the deadlock came to being broken but the ball sailed over the bar much with a gaping goal at their mercy.
And so to a penalty shoot out with Harrison Bentley and Ollie Lloyd on target for the visitors as they edged a place in round 3. Credit to both sides for an entertaining cup tie despite the weather, all that remained was to embark on the soggy journey home to the Midlands!
A big thank you to ThreeFiveThree photography for attending the games! If you want to see more great schools football images head over to their website here.
The National Governing Body for Schools’ Football in England.