Year ends on a high for Saints
HAS ST MARYS ............... 3 HORWICH ST MARYS .... 2
HASLINGDEN St Marys concluded 2021 with a narrow victory against Horwich.
The game had one early goal each.
It was Leon Barker Williams who scored the opener for St Marys who were without their inform Shot Stopper Jennings.
Manager Sean Pearson brought in the experienced Lewis Monaghan who himself will now be hard to remove.
The game progressed and Horwich took the lead but the Hoops fought back when Captain Charlie Holt grabbed the equaliser.
In the 88th minute Top Scorer Lewis Hanley held his nerve to grab the winner for St Marys who finish 2021 sitting nicely in the league table.
The lads will have a break then look to really kick on in 2022 as the committee sits firmly behind the management team and looks forward to an exciting year ahead.
This season has been one of the most exciting in many years both on and off the pitch.
The committee welcomed Karen Berwick who has overseen the dramatic improvement of the club house and hospitality giving the club a genuine family feel. On the pitch, club legend Pearson has installed a real team ethos whilst also progressing and developing players. The balance of youth and experience is fantastic to see with Jack Cain being the latest of many U18s to make his first team debut.
JUNIOR HOOPS U8’S BEARS V CLITHEROE WOLVES U8’S BLUE
HOOPS LINE-UP: Elijah Peet, Daniel Trainer, Mac Jackson, Leo Vincent, Mason Freeman, Ollie Anderton, Charlie Halshaw.
THE Bears, sponsored by MEWP Operator Hire finished off 2021 with a tough match against a very good Wolves side at Blackburn Soccerdome on Saturday morning.
And it was Bears who took the lead early with Mac finishing from close range. It was a highly entertaining first half, the lead changed hands several times with Ollie and Mason getting the Bears’ goals.
At the other end, Daniel made life difficult for Clitheroe’s attack and Elijah
made several good blocks to keep the scoreline even.
The second half set off at a similar pace and after Clitheroe scored, good work from Leo helped Charlie get Bears back on terms. Again Wolves came up with another goal before Mac added his second of the game.
Just when it looked like Clitheroe would pull away with a couple of quick goals, first Ollie and then Daniel got on the scoresheet to earn the Hoops something in what was a much-improved passing display.
MOM: Daniel Trainer.
JUNIOR HOOPS U12 EAGLES
IS been a busy 2 week for the under 12 Eagles. After having a few matches at weekends cancelled due to the typical English weather we managed to get two Sunday games on 3g and a mid week friendly thrown into boot!
Our Sunday match was against a stronger Rosegrove team that tested the Eagles.
We were left without a few of our regulars but the team did not disappoint. They all worked extremely hard with an incredible performance from the defence, but the star of the game had to go to Calum Cliffe.
Calum is a new player to the Eagles having been training with our Friday soccer school, this was his first competitive game and he entered the pitch like he had been with us for months.
Great skills on the ball, unafraid to take people on and found the back of the net with a cracking goal! What a start and what a welcome he got to the team.
Well done Calum...cant wait to see you develop further and grow into our squad.
Midweek we saw a friendly against Blackburn Eagles girls. They are a strong side and gained a draw out of their last visit.
It was a great game full of energy and battles with the ball.
The girls really gave our boys a run for their money showing that a girl team is not to be underestimated.
Both sides battling hard it was a close contest.
But the stand out point of the match had to be when our very own Callum Tuzylak scored his first ever goal for the Hoops.
Callum has been training and playing with the Eagles for over two years now and has slowly been growing in confidence.
The boys were delighted for him and his face really showed his excitement.
Keep going Callum and very well done!
On to our last game of the season we faced Todmorden Tigers.
This is the third time facing this team this year with the first two ending in defeat so the Eagles were very keen not make it a third.
Without our goalie we brought in George Parrot who hasn’t played for us for a while but was a regular part of our team.
The boys were quick from the start dominating the first scoring two cracking goals.
After the half time whistle the boys started a bit sluggish allowing Todmorden back into the game, however this didn’t last!
Finding another gear the Eagles powered through and coming out on top to finish the year off with a bang!
Well done boys, and we all from the Junior Hoops under 12 Eagles wish you a very Happy Christmas and all the very best for the new Year.