Football Tournament at Roots Hall

On Tuesday 17th May, 8 pupils were chosen to take part in the Community Games at the home of Southend United, Roots Hall. This was a very unique opportunity as not many people around the local area are able to say they have played on the hallowed turf!

The Community Games was made up of 17 primary schools around Essex, split into 3 groups. Porters were put into Group 3 alongside, Great Wakering, Canvey Juniors, Westborough, Westerings and Jotmans Hall.

The games started well for us with a 2-0 victory over a strong Westborough side, with Kewin Kwiek getting both the goals. The next match saw a 0-0 draw with future semi-finalists Great Wakering. This was a great result for Mr Deadman as Great Wakering is his old primary school. The result was mainly thanks to the brilliance of goalkeeper Ryan Dando who made 5 or 6 outstanding saves to keep his clean sheet intact. Our third match saw us concede our only goal of the tournament which resulted in a 1-0 defeat.

With a 30 minute gap until our next match, we made use of the extra activities that Southend United provided by taking part in a “soccersize” session. This consisted of doing different exercises with a football.

With two matches remaining, we still had hopes of a semi-final place, two wins were vital though. A 1-0 victory in the first match was a good start. The goal coming from Kewin again, picking the ball up in his own half, before rounding every player in the opposing team before placing the ball in the bottom corner. The last match came around and all of the boys still felt confident despite the opposition, Jotmans Hall, winning their previous match 7-0. A fantastic performance from every single player saw us win the match 1-0 again, and you guessed it, Kewin with the goal.

Despite not making the semi-final because of the one defeat, all the players and supporters of Porters felt proud of their team’s achievements and the attitude the pupils showed from start to finish. Perhaps one day, some of those pupils could be stepping out on to the Roots Hall pitch in the famous Southend United shirt!