A report of Homefields Primary School's run in Derby County's qualifying round for the Utilita Kids Cup.
Homefields Primary School suffered an unfortunate defeat on penalties in the semi-finals, following an unbeaten run. Homefields lost 3-2 on penalties to future runners up Cloudside Academy.
Following kick-off, an early threat was posed from Yuvraj, who plays for Homefields; however, after two consecutive corners the scoreboard remained level at 0-0. This game was undoubtably the most challenging for either side. Shortly after, coming from a Cloudside goal-kick, they launched a promising counter-attack, yet it resulted in a meagre goal-kick for Homefields. After that, around the 3rd minute, a substitute was made by Cloudside.
As the five-minute mark approached, a threaded pass by Genis to Yuvraj was played, however his touch was too heavy, which lead to a goal kick; from this, Genis was substituted off for Jake: “We needed fresh legs,” reported Homefields’ joint-manager, Mr Hales.
Immediately, Jake made a swift impact by gaining possession and obtaining a corner which, once again, led to nothing. Near the end of the match, Cloudside earned a corner, which was passed quickly; unfortunately, for Cloudside, it deflected off Ethan. Despite this, Charlie provided an exquisite save. As the match remained level, it was forced to a penalty shootout.
Ethan placed the ball on the spot, and calmly converted bottom corner, Cloudside responded by slotting it home, the goalkeeper had absolutely no chance. Up next, came Yuvraj, who leathered the ball straight into the keeper’s gloves. As Cloudside converted their penalty, by wrong-footing the goalkeeper, it came down to Eoin’s penalty; thankfully he kept them in it. However, Cloudside netted theirs, as Homefields suffered heartbreak!
