Friday marked the first fixture of the year for football and the Year 8 boys were in national cup action, making the long trip down to Whitley Bay to play Valley Gardens Middle.
The game started at a rapid pace with the tricky Theo C dancing down the left, firing a cross along the six-yard box and narrowly evading the on-rushing William S. Moments later though Valley Gardens went on the attack and, following a long ball over the left side of defence, a great finish saw HMS fall one down.
HMS rallied from this with a series of great chances, first to Magnus R and then Hugo M fired a difficult chance just over. James MD and Hugo were very impressive as the engine room in the middle making countless tackles. Freddie (Kante) C covered every blade of grass to try and push HMS forward.
Disaster struck though – just before the stroke of half time, with only their second shot of the game, Valley made it 2-0.
After half time, with the introductions of Thomas R, Adam W and CJ BP, HMS again went on the attack. Magnus fired just wide before captain Alex M went on another surging run forward causing chaos in the Valley Gardens box.
Valley then fired in two quickfire goals from a goal mouth scramble and a penalty to extend their lead.
The tides turned though when the dominant pairing of George L and man of the match Callum C won the ball on the halfway line to release Theo C who fired in a perfect cross which Magnus dispatched to get HMS off the mark.
David C made what the watching Mr Foster described as a ‘heroic’ triple save to keep HMS in it. Minutes later Magnus was there again to add a second.
Noah, who provided countless drives forward, came close, then William, then Adam and then Alex again. It just was not to be for HMS today. Good look to Valley in the next round!
