Albion Supports Girls’ Football Tournament

Longhill’s rising female football stars were lucky enough to meet female star players from Brighton & Hove Albion recently when they played in a tournament for local schools.  The tournament, hosted by Albion in the Community, took place at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in Lancing, where several of Albion’s female players offered their support.

Year 11 student, Ezme Tiley, gave us this report from the tournament:

“On Friday 31^st March, after a long school week filled with mock exams, 6 girls and I (Oakleigh, Scarlett, Olivia, Lily, Jess, Anna and me (Ezme) participated in a girls’ 6-aside football tournament, hosted by Albion in the Community.  This involved 10 teams from all around Sussex and was an all-day event.  It started off with a round robin of matches and we played 4 games each of 10 minutes one way; we lost the first, drew the next two and then Oakleigh scored a miraculous goal in the last minute of the last game, which meant we won, going through to the semi-finals.  Unfortunately, the way the tournament worked, the team at the bottom of the table played the team at the top in the next round, so we ended up playing a team that had won all 4 of their matches (and had 2 members who play for England!).  We gave it our all and managed to keep the score at 0-0 for the whole game, until literally the last 30 seconds where there was a break in our defence and they managed to get a goal in, taking the match.

“We then stayed to support the other teams and watch the finals, where Warden Park beat Cardinal Newman.   Tired, but happy, we made it back to school for the end of the day.  Overall it was a great day out and an amazing end to Longhill football for the rest of the girls and I.  Two of our players, Oakleigh and I (Ezme) featured in the Argus in two action shots, one of me receiving the ball and another of Oakleigh’s celebration after her goal.

“What a great end to our football careers at Longhill; we hope others will follow in our footsteps and live up to our standards!”

Well done girls – you did us proud!  Hopefully you will be able to carry on your footballing careers when you leave us for sixth form.

We are lucky enough to have a female coach, supplied by Albion in the Community, who comes into school to coach our female players after school every Thursday from 3 – 4 pm.  Any girls interested in playing football should contact Miss Clark in the PE department to take advantage of this great opportunity.

Pictures courtesy of BHAFC/Paul Hazlewood

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