PUBLISHED 24 November 2023
AKS 1st team played in the last 16 of the National Schools competition and faced a strong unbeaten St Peters School , York.
St.Peters started strongly and put AKS under intense pressure from the first whistle and dominated the first 10 minutes but the AKS defence stood firm and great tackling from Lisa P, Olivia M, Lucy W and Jess A, along with several great saves from Danni H in goal kept the scores level. Having weathered the storm AKS started to enjoy some possessions of their own and put St. Peters under pressure with Lucy W, Kirtika S and Laura A linking well on the right and it was St. Peter’s that had to defend well to prevent us taking the lead. We came close to breaking the deadlock in 20th minute when a great driving run and hit is the circle from Lucy B was deflected by Beth R but her effort flew just wide. St. Peter’s were always a threat and they went ahead in 25th minute when a well struck corner found the corner of the goal to make it 1-0. AKS however, came straight back and thought they had equalised minutes later when a superb strike into the circle by Laura K found the back of the net but was disallowed as it had not been touched in the circle by an AKS stick. Lifted by this we enjoyed a lot of the ball and created a number of chances but we went into the break a goal behind but still with everything to play for in the second half.
St. Peter’s again started the half on the front foot and with AKS not up to speed they capitalised on our tentative defending to score in only the second minute. Lifted by this and with AKS on the back foot St. Peter’s started to play some great passing hockey and with the AKS defence struggling to keep up with the quick, skilful St.Peters forwards they scored again only minutes later to make it 3 - 0.
Low on confidence and with us struggling to keep possession St. Peter’s started to dominate the play and they scored another brace of goals in quick succession to make it an uphill task for the AKS team. To the team’s credit however they lifted their standard of play and regained some control of the game playing the quick passing game they are capable of. We then put the St.Peters goal under huge pressure and only great scramble defence from the keeper kept the ball out of the net with Kirtkika S seeing two of her efforts somehow cleared. Now playing with confidence again we attacked with more purpose and won several attacking corners and deservedly got on the score sheet in 25th minute when a well worked routine saw Laura K slip the ball to Olivia M who found the net . A great final 10 minutes saw us again dominate the game but unfortunately we were unable to get back on level terms and it was St.Peters who progress to the quarterfinals of the competition.
Overall we played some great hockey for large parts of the game but were punished by a strong skilful and physical St. Peter’s side who capitalised when we were not at our best with clinical finishing but the scoreline does not reflect the closeness of the game and at half time the game could have swung either way. The team now have to brush themselves off and will hope to get back to winning ways when they play Bradford Grammar in the next round of the Independents Schools Cup next week.