The annual girls' football match against Prince's Mead was played last Friday. The team, skippered by Emily, looked very strong on paper. The dual strike force of Hattie and the formidable Francesca would make any team quake in their boots. Aislinn, Lissy and Alicia as the midfield force built on valuable service from the defencive trio of Emily, "Rocky" Jasmine and Rachel .

The die was cast within 2 minutes as Francesca unleashed a wicked right foot volley just past the post from 20 metres out. Hattie took thinitiative and followed with a powerful shot which was deflected into the back of the Prince's Mead's net. Prince's Mead mounted an attack but Emily cleared cofidently up field for Aislinn to run left and present the ball to Francesca. She in turn took on the opposition defence and knocked the ball forward to have Hattie to slam past a wanting keeper. Two goals up and there seemed more to come as Jasmine "Rocky" harrassed the Prince's Mead midfield constantly to feed either Alicia or Aislinn. Lissy supported the enthusiastic Rachel in her defensive role. Another deflected goal was scored before half time. Alton led 3-0 at the break.

As we greeted Mayville again, Mr King of Mayville smiled and said "It's deja vous again!" Mr H. thought maybe not after yesterday's result. If the truth be known there was a question mark with selection as the majority of Alton's team were from Year 3, but by the end of the match all such thoughts were far gone. The beginning of the match however saw pressure "from the terraces" of comments such as sacking the manager and concentrating on netball if the result was poor.

The catch phrase for this final match of the season was "play with pride and passion". The Alton Convent team did just that with "Captain Commitment", Tom. Alton looked down the barrel of a gun against the League favourites Mayville. A quick reshuffle of personnel: with Ollie sick Henry became No.1 keeper and Tom moved to chief central defender. The match began with Mayville taking an early lead. Alton did not buckle and after a few minutes of robust defending by Tom and gallant goal keeping by Henry, Alton mounted their attacks by Francesca and Josh. Alton kept the pressure throughout the first half. Joel playing his typical terrier like role, snapping at the heels of the opposition. Mayville were not expecting this match to be tough, just a walk on the pitch to gain the League title. So they find themselves holding on to a very tender lead.

Managerial crisis averted as Alton Convent played as a team.

Alton were playing with widespread positional changes including a new goalie Oliver. Ollie admitted that he did not feel well at the prospect of the responsibility, however he, like all the others in different roles, played their part in this monumental match. Alton began to play with great authority and purpose with Joel, playing midfield sweeper, hitting a shot from wide out only to see it sail over cross bar. Attack after attack of excellent passing and communicating saw Alton have over a dozen clear shots at goal. These attempts were either deflected at the last moment by defenders or by Dunhurst’s superb goal keeper. Dunhurst had only one attacking move in the first half. Alton was firmly camped in the opposition’s half. Finally Josh R broke the deadlock and Alton went into halftime with that lead of 1 goal.

vs St Margaret's, 7th November

The weather looked grey as the team took to the field of battle. There was an air of confidence that Alton would be the victors as St Margaret's were at the bottom of the league. Alton had their secret weapon, Harriet Edwards, playing up front, who had displayed consistently good practice in the football club. She did have a clear shoit in the early stages of the match, but this proved our only glimmer of hope, as St Margaret's routed Alton four goals to nil. St Margaret's played the better football and communicated throughout the match, whilst not a squeak was heard from Alton. Josh R deservedly was player of the match, as he had tried hard from start to finish. Hopefully with Ollie and Tom back on board, the team will show more heart against a strong Oakwood team.

The atmosphere was sobering on the minibus as we journeyed to Fareham for the Meoncross clash. In the pre-season match, Alton did not fire against an adequate Meoncross team. Although missing our influential skipper Tom through injury, the tea had the potential to make a good game of it.

Playing on Astroturf for the first time seemed daunting to Alton as they took to the field. However, to their credit they created a couple of good chances in the opening minutes, with stand-in captain Oliver rallying the troops well. The team knew that if they left their guard down a good team would capitalize on this, which alas Meoncross did, and scored twice before the break.

The afternoon air was filled with shrills, skills and thrills on the football pitches as the six teams battled trough their games. Each House had two teams in different pools. The top team from each pool played in the final. Prior to that match there was ch activity on and off the pitches as the 'ground staff' (5B) made final goal adjustments amid the buzz of the crowd of spectators (Year 4 and others).

This football gala is well organized and the standard always high. This year was no exception with twenty schools participating. Most of these schools had greater numbers and therefore better choice for team selection. However to Alton's credit, the team, ably led by Tom, did not disgrace themselves.

The team were pooled in a tough group with last year's winners, St Benedict's, Hawley Place and LVS. All games were tight, but in most of the games, with one slight loss of concentration, Alton found themsleves behind by a single goal.

Sandy was resolute in defence and Joe made many darting runs, turning defence into attack. Tom played with authority throughout and was unlucky not to have scored a couple of times. Chris was not overawed by the occasion and played with purpose. Max and Henry are consistently improving in goal. Ollie battled hard with his injury. Jim gave good support when defending.