Having had their opening game of the season against New College cancelled on Wednesday due to a frozen pitch, it meant the U13s first 7 a side outing of the season was the County Championships at Oxford Hawks on Friday. With 8 teams entered in a round robin format, it was a gruelling schedule of 7 games back to back.
The side started well, beating Moulsford 2 – 0 and followed this up with a strong showing against MCS, but despite numerous entries into the opposing D, Abingdon couldn’t make their pressure and territory count and were left to rue this when they were hit on the break and conceded a late goal. Next up were St Hugh’s, who’d won their opening 2 matches – again Abingdon dominated possession and territory but couldn’t find the net, so had to settle for a 0 – 0 draw. New College were next up – this was another game Abingdon controlled to secure a comfortable 1 – 0 win. The Dragon followed next – an unfortunate own goal gave the Dragon the lead midway through the game, but Abingdon didn’t let their heads drop, first forcing an equaliser from a short corner and then getting a well deserved winner. The penultimate game was against Summer Fields – Abingdon took an early lead, but despite bombarding their goal for the whole game, were unable to add anymore so had to settle for another 1 – 0 win. Bloxham were last up, in what transpired to be a must win game to progress. Abingdon again started strongly, taking an early lead, but looked tired and nervy and struggled to keep hold of possession as they’d done so well in the previous games, allowing Bloxham’s direct, hard hitting approach to put the defence under pressure for the first time all tournament. Unfortunately Abingdon couldn’t hold out and conceded an equaliser with a couple of minutes remaining. With time running out, Abingdon dug deep and pushed forward in search of a winner and were rewarded with one in the dying seconds.
This secured a second place finish overall, just 1 point behind MCS which means both schools progress to the regional rounds in March.
