In their first year of entry Rainhill High School has become the first ever St. Helens school to win, in the words of the Merseyside Schools FA Chairman, "The greatest and most prestigious trophy in the county", and became only the 8th School name to be engraved on the shield.
This final was the result of a long hard season, in which 16 schools from across Merseyside competed on a weekly basis in a league format. After 7 months of arduous competition, Rainhill had successfully placed amongst the top 8 schools in the competition and had therefore qualified for a place in the knockout stages. In the quarter final Rainhill had successfully negotiated an extremely daunting tie against Arch Bishop Beck School, in a fixture they had previously lost. In what was a tight affair, Tyler Jefferies rose to nod in a free kick to take Rainhill through to the semi finals.
In the semi’s Rainhill were pitted against another difficult opponent in Alsop High School. Again the boys were vigi-lant at the back, and a goal a piece from Liam Sumner and Adam Campbell saw the boys through. The final could not have been more difficult with Rainhill pitted against one of the oldest and most prestigious foot-balling schools in Merseyside, SFX. The game started lively, with big tackles being put in from both sides. Rainhill’s obvious plan to unsettle and disturb SFXs passing style became more prevalent as the game wore on with the score at 0-0 at half time.
A half of little quality with neither goalkeeper tested. With Rainhill’s game plan consistent throughout the season, play simple, effective, hardworking football, the start again was competitive. On 52 minutes a long throw from Adam Warrener was flicked on at the near post by the awesome Tyler Jefferies and deflected into the net for Tyler’s 9th Goal of the season. An outstanding contribution from a centre half. With the half wearing on, a corner was whipped in by the SFX captain and what looked like a certain hand ball was pushed into the near post where the Rainhill captain Adam Hodgkinson replied in kind with what can only be called a ‘save’ on the line. SFX were awarded a penalty, and Rainhill were lucky not to be down to ten men. The SFX skip-per brushed home the penalty in confident fashion to level it at 1-1.
The remainder of the half was in truth all SFX’s, with pressure consistent around the Rainhill penalty box. Both Liam Sumner and Jack Owen did their best to relieve some pressure with little success. And when the final whistle was blown at the end of full time, a sigh of relief was released from the Rainhill coach. A clear message of back to basics was put across, with Rainhill players asked to fight the heat and tiredness, and bring this trophy home. When extra time began though, it was very much back to an SFX pressure game, with the opponents having all of the ball, and with Rainhill working to limit the space. 2 minutes in however, all plans were thrown out of the window as 2 or 3 of the Rainhill boys failed poorly to clear an opposing corner and the SFX centre half smashed home to make the score 2-1 to SFX. To add insult to injury, Year 11s James Macdonough, the outstanding man of the match for Rainhill, had pulled up with cramp and had to be replaced.
When the half time whistle was blown it was a frustrated and exhausted Rainhill the switched ends. But if there is anything you can say about this group of outstanding young men it’s that they have bags and bags of character. The easy thing to do would have been to play out the 10 mins of extra and roll over to concede another, but in a fashion that had been prevalent throughout the season, the Rainhill lads found it in them to raise the tempo again. High pressure, hard work and togetherness proved effective as a long ball from Adam Warrener was chased through by the team’s top scorer Liam Sumner, and the big man was brought down right on the edge of the 18 yard box. In what was the longest 4 second ever, and in somewhat generous fashion, the referee pointed to the penalty spot, and with 3 minutes to go were Rainhill to equalise? In majestic fashion the team’s penalty taker, their goalkeeper Ryan Williams ran all of 90 yards to collect the ball and stroke it coolly in the bottom corner to take the game to penalties.
Which team had the most quality, and more importantly the most bottle to win it? Ryan Williams again stepped up first to slot home for Rainhill to make it 1-0. Then after the first SFX player blazing the ball over the bar, Liam Sumner stepped up to make it 2-0. The SFX player then replied to make it 2-1, and a con-fident Adam Warrener smashed home to make it 3-1 to Rainhill. With pressure mounting their centre forward scored an excellent penalty to make it 3-2, with Tom Green knowing his next penalty could put a world of pressure on their 4th taker. Tom duly converted to make it 4-2 with the SFX player knowing that he now had to score his next penalty to keep his team in it. In dramatic style the outstanding Ryan Williams dived to his left to push the penalty away and send the Rainhill players and fans into ecstasy. A wonderful end to what had been an unbelievable season.
Well Done lads!!
Mr. McLean – ‘Jose’ to his friends