HOLSWORTHY Year 10 boys’ football team travelled up to Slough on Tuesday, January 5, to stay overnight for the last 16 national small schools’ cup game against St Bernard’s Grammar School.

This was after getting through three previous rounds against Shebbear and teams from Bristol and Stroud.

The bus vibes were fantastic with music blasting, kids chanting, and selfies taken.

They arrived at the youth hostel with spirits high, and decided to promptly leave to have a meal at Wetherspoons.

The team woke bright and early and left the youth hostel as soon as they could to get some breakfast.

They then went to St Bernard’s and, with a good warm up and some bananas on board, they were ready for the big game.

It was a tough game against a strong and pacey team. The boys had to battle all the way through and unfortunately went 1-0 down from a cross which came in low and hard, resulting in Max McDonald turning it into his own net to give St Bernard’s the lead.

In the second half they conceded again to another low and hard cross, which was unfortunately finished by Joel Greening who chipped it over Ty Rowe.

Their last goal came from a lucky cross-shot that ended up in the goal. Even at 3-0 down the boys were playing the better football and didn’t give up and kept pushing.

Finally their pressure resulted in a goal. Ollie Moores slotted the ball in the bottom corner, after a beautiful pass by Henry Rogers, which Ollie finished like a professional.

The final score was 3-1, but they feel they deserved more from the game as they had large periods of possession and, on a different day, the score could have been very different.

The team said: “We had a fantastic run to get this far and are proud of what we achieved.”