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The Orange Army crash out of the South London Cup with a heart-breaking 5-3 loss to Bishop Thomas Grant School on Tuesday evening. By Mohamed, with big thanks to Osbert, Muhammed S and Joseph Manzey for the match report.

Our quarter final match against Bishop Thomas Grant School (BTG) started off with wet weather. The boys were ready to bounce back and display their skills again after a recent 4-3 loss against St Dunstan’s.

This match was set to show the hard work and resilience of the players with a change in venue last minute. The game got off to an extremely good start, with Harris Boys' applying early pressure and forcing mistakes out of BTG in the opening minutes of the first half.

Unfortunately, minutes later Harris had conceded a free kick approximately 25 yards away from the goal. The free kick was then lined up by the BTG midfielder, who then sweetly placed the ball in the right hand corner of the goal, leaving Osbert without a chance of saving the ball. 

The goal from BTG resulted in Harris Boys' having a setback with a few minutes left of the first half. This didn’t knock the confidence of the boys. We got back to applying pressure forcing them to make silly mistakes at the back. At this point, the pressure had become relentless and soon we were going to score a goal and without a doubt we did.

This started off with Denzel and Shakih pressing the ball and winning it deep in BTG’s box. Shakih struck the ball low and hard with the BTG keeper getting a hand to it but obviously enough wasn’t done because it left out for Shai to follow up by striking the ball on the edge of the box. 

This had put the scores level to 1-1, but towards the dying minutes of the first half, BTG gave it one last push. They set out on a fast counter attack, breaking the lines of Harris Boys'. They moved the ball with speed and conviction, which then found the feet of their number 10 who then shifted the ball out of his feet striking it taking an unfortune deflection off our centre back Theo K and devastatingly finding its ways into the back of the net. The whistle was then blown for half time with Harris going in 2-1 down.  

We regrouped and got instructions from our coaches Mr Cassels and Mr Weir. Our captain Joseph giving us a motivational talk. The second half kicked off with Harris a whole different side. Patient with possession off the ball. With 35 minutes left of the half, changes were made for Harris. Coming off were Alassane and Joel and coming on were Charlie and Sean.

Charlie got off to a flying start by nearly finding the back of the net with his first touch of the ball.  Harris kept on pushing, persevering and showing a huge amount of work rate especially from the midfield. Maybe their labouring would be rewarded. 

Joseph played the ball to Shai. Shai looked up, saw a darting run from Denzel and played a trivela into the path of Denzel. BANG! Denzel's shot was placed into the top corner. 2-2. Now we had a game in our hands. Possession and more possession for Harris but then the No.10 picked it up blitzed past Sean and our two centre backs leaving Osbert helpless as he smashed the ball into bottom corner. 3-2. Against the run of play, BTG had scored. BTG were starting to dominate forcing Osbert into a couple of world class saves when BANG. the striker picked it up and drove with a curling shot finding it's way into the corner.  4-2. It was looking bleak for Harris until they received a free-kick. Shai stood over the ball. It was a long way out but maybe he would fancy it. BANG! The ball sailed into the top corner stunning the BTG keeper. A glimmer of hope.

Time was ticking when a cross from the BTG LW left our box in a disarray. Knees flying as a knee connected with a BTG's player's head. The referee pointed to the spot. Penalty. BTG No.10 vs Osbert. The whistle blew and an unblockable shot into the top corner as Osbert tried to get a hand of it. 5-3. The whistle blew for full time.

An unlucky result for the boys, who are now looking to bounce back in our next game!