SKIOLD NO MATCH FOR CHARTERHOUSE:HARROW HEAVYWEIGHTS WIN HiSTORIC MATCH.

Growing in confidence after the roughing up yesterday, the boys made their mark early on this morning on a good grassy pitch at the most northern venue in Gothia. Orlando Allen put away a penalty after Matt Kristensen was upended following a mazey run. Then Louis Clayton fed Hamish McKinnon whose dribble and shot gave Chouse a two goal lead. Next, Clemente Theotakis won the ball in midfield fed Jed Polson who scored confidently. 

Some antics on the edge of our box in the second allowed the less than average opposition back into the game and after a few dodgey moments the school ran out winners 3-1; coming second in their group. This meant a play off against Harrow School at 5.30. Surprisingly his fixture is not as historic as it should be since Harrow took the rugby code early on in their history .

And so to one of the southernmost venues in Gothia at Majvallen and another tram ride across the city. Harrow have brought a fully grown up Under 16 squad using the allowance of over aged players fairly but fully. Charterhouse boys were two years younger in some cases and this made a difference in size. But the boys had the best of the first half on a windy Astro pitch. 

Early in the game Olli Platts scored with a header after a very good move and after that the first half was even with us having the upper hand. This was probably the best we had seen our boys play. Columbus O'Donnell made one particularly good save and overall the boys deserved their lead. 

In the second half, Harrow obviously changed their game plan and rattled Charterhouse. An apparent back pass was picked up by Columbus in goal and the referee, obviously not a schoolmaster, gave the attackers the benefit of the doubt by awarding an indirect free kick ten yards from the goal line. Harrow dispatched this well. Almost immediately Charterhouse was lacking down their left and a low cross was put away, and despite looking offside from my position behind our goal, the ref said goal!

It was then all out warfare by both teams, who gave a fine display of English  knock out football. As the game drew to a close, with Harrow in front, a direct  free kick was taken by right back James Hockley, with Columbus and all other players inside the Harrow penalty area. James' kick was struck well and it evaded all hands and feet to go straight in the net. 2-2 final whistle. WOW.....THEN........

Heart break for the boys who lost the dreaded penalty shoot out 4-2, despite Columus saving one and Louis Clayton, and Jo Jo scoring.

This was their best performance of the week. Hopefully a friendly on Friday will give the boys the chance to end their week in Gothenburg in style. Much has been learned so far his week, by both players and coaches.

I'm off to Oslo tomorrow so I cannot guarantee a Gothia blog over the next few days!