Wheldrake JFC

A good run out in the Poppleton Tournament this season saw us narrowly missing out on wining the plate competition on a penalty shoot out.

Round robin games
Heworth White 0 – 1 Wheldrake
As per usual, a slow start to the tournament saw us sneak past a team that we should have beaten easily – scorer Joe.

Rawcliffe Black 2 – 1 Wheldrake
Our slow start continued, and a team that we looked better than narrowly defeated us. Having said that Rawcliffe did go on to top our group with four victories out of four and they made it all the way to the final of the main competition – scorer Joe

Strensall 0 – 1 Wheldrake
We finally got going and had a good game against the team that looked the best in the group. Unlucky not to get something from the game, but no shame in losing.

Poppleton Panthers 0 – 1 Wheldrake 1
We played well in this game, but the Panthers made a fight of it. We made it through with a single goal victory – scorer Joe.

Two wins and two defeats put us in third place in our group, meaning that we went into the plate tournament. Finishing third gave us a bye in the quarter final and we went straight to the semi.

Semi final
Heworth White 0 – 4 Wheldrake
Having finally got going, this time we put in a performance that reflected the difference in quality between us and the Heworth side. An easy win, that could have ssen us score even more goals had it not been for the Heworth keeper. Scorers – Joe, Aidan, Ben S (2).

Final
Poppleton Tigers 1 -1 Wheldrake (lost 3-2 on pens)
We started very brightly in this game and in the early exchanges we were dominant, creating chance after chance. It looked as though we were on course for a good win. As the first half wore on however, Poppleton found their feet in the game and started to stop our play. We seemed to be running out of energy and ideas, just as our opponents found another gear. We went 1-0 down and at that point the game looked over as Poppleton became the dominant force and we were not offering anything. Late in the second half, we grabbed an unlikely equaliser to take the game to penalties.

We started well in the shoot-out with us Ben S and Sam scoring our first two penalities and Adam saving two of Poppleton’s first three. The luck swung Poppleton’s way however and we hit our next three shots directly at their keeper, whereas although Adam did well to get something on the remaining Poppleton efforts, they managed to sneak in.

It was hard luck on the boys who had played well in the last few games, but in fairness, Poppleton were the better team overall in the final.

Squad: Adam, Jack, Sam S, Ewan, Ben S, Joe, Aidan , Philip