Brentwoodian 2019

59 Football Firstly I would like to dedicate this season and our County Cup victory to the late Mr Killilea, who I and many of my teammates remember fondly as our first Brentwood Senior School football coach. Before I summarise my last season of football at Brentwood School, I’m going to reflect on what has been an amazing seven years of senior school football at Brentwood School. The players and I would like to thank the staff both present and past of the Sports department for their dedication and expertise, which has been a major factor in the 1st XI’s success this season and I’m certain will bring even more success and honours to Brentwood School in the future. Now to the season. The first XI statistics were an impressive 25 Wins, 4 Draws and only 8 Losses; scoring 129 goals. During the season we reached the quarter finals of the London Independent Schools Cup, narrowly lost to Ardingly College in the Elgin League semi-finals having won the league outright and registered an unprecedented 3-0 victory over the Old Brentwoods’ 1st XI. Our season’s finale was in the final of the U19 Essex County Cup against King John School at Aveley FC’s ground. King John were the current Cup holders and we knew that the final would be a stern test. The Brentwood 1st XI had not won the County Cup for 12 years but the squad and management were determined to bring the silverware and title home to Middleton Road. At the start of the season we earmarked the County Cup as a competition that we would try to win. Going into the game, members of the squad were confident and preparations were excellent as they FIRST XI were throughout the season – everyone knew their role and what they had to do to bring victory home. We got off to the start we so desperately wanted within minutes of kick-off. Some good hold-up play from striker Charlie Bacon, found Joe Quick out-wide who accurately picked out Cameron Smith in the box and calmly converted from close range.Although Brentwood dominated possession and were playing the more progressive football, we were unable to convert our chances and went into half-time with a slender 1-0 lead. During the half-time talk we were reminded by Mr Miller and Mr Porter to be wary of King John’s threat on the counter attack. The growing feeling around both the fans and ourselves was that the second goal in the game was vital, to settle our nerves and to ensure that the score reflected our dominance. For a while, it felt like it wasn’t going to come with the King John’s goalkeeper miraculously saving a powerful header from Lewis Arthur destined for the top corner of the goal. The second goal eventually came mid-way through the second half when Joe Quick broke down the left-hand side and slotted home to put us 2-0 up. The game and victory was wrapped up in the last few minutes of the game by Cameron Smith sealing victory with his second of the game. Personally after coming so close in many finals throughout my school football career it was a great feeling to lift the trophy aloft in my very last game for Brentwood School. I would like to thank every member of the team and Mr Miller and Mr Porter for making that possible. By Lewis Arthur