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Find the latest news here with our weekly match reports from the leagues fixtures.
‘Newport Primary Schools’ Football League’ launch afternoon.
Wow! What an afternoon of sheer determination, grit, excitement and overall team spirit. It truly was a memorable afternoon of sport with over 70 children involved. Even the weather was on our side. On Tuesday 3rd October 2017 St Julian’s Primary school held a football festival to launch the newly created ‘Newport Primary Schools’ Football League. The festival saw 7 local sides, who will compete in both the East and West league, come together to participate in a fun packed afternoon. The festival was made up with teams from St Julian’s Primary, St Patrick's Primary, Eveswell Primary, Charles Williams Primary, Pillgwenlly Primary, Caerleon Lodge Hill Primary and Gaer Primary.
Each school brought along a team of 10 children from years 5&6 with matches being played 8 a-side. It was end to end action all afternoon!
After a brief introduction from Mr Jones, the eagerly awaited tournament was underway. The four pitches, which operated in a ‘round robin’ format, saw teams producing fantastic football skills and teamwork. It was excellent to see schools from across Newport having the opportunity to meet other children in a sporting environment and make so many new friends.
Most games were nail bitingly close, with children hitting the posts on numerous occasions. Scores were kept for each game, however the main emphasis was on the afternoon being FUN!
Many staff who refereed the matches commented on how impressed they were with each team’s performance and sportsmanship.
After a flawless performance all afternoon Charles Williams Church in Wales were awarded winners of the launch. Da iawn team!
When the festival had to end it was evident that the children were desperate to play on. They were all eager to know when their first league match would take place and when they could take part in another ‘league afternoon’. As they left, it was lovely to hear the children congratulate each other and say how excited they were to play again.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the schools who attended today’s launch and to those schools who have shown their support with the league this season.
I wish all schools the best of luck. Please follow our progress and show your support by visiting goo.gl/QwDM5Y
St Julian's Primary School v Ringland Primary School
Wednesday 11th October 2017
St Julian's travelled to Ringland Primary School to take part in their first league fixture. It was a very wet and windy start to the league but this didn't dampen the spirit and determination of the team.
Both teams played very well considering the conditions and it was an end to end match with both teams having many opportunities to score. Just before half time we saw the only goal of the match, scored by Lewis who ran the length of the pitch and accurately slotted the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
The team were very excited to be treated to oranges and biscuits at half time and I'm sure this helped their performance in the second half. Diolch Ringland!
The game finished 1-0, with St Julian's securing the win. The team are now looking forward to the next fixture against Maindee in a few weeks time. Best of Luck to Ringland for the rest of the season and thank you for hosting our first league match.
Rogerstone Primary School v Pillgwenlly Primary
Tuesday 10th October 2017
Rogerstone Primary played Pillgwenlly on Tuesday Night. It was a very close game, Pill went 1 nil up then Rogerstone managed to get a 3 goal lead. Some good attacking play from Pill saw the game reach 5 all. With 5 minutes to play Rogerstone managed to score two more goals and win 7-5.
It was a great game, both teams were excellent and showed great teamwork. Lovely to see both teams fielding a mixture of boys and girls.
St Julian’s Primary v Maindee Primary
Thursday 26th October 2017
Our second league match was an action packed game full of determination, team work and character. Both teams played extremely well and managed to get on the score sheet. The match saw Maindee take the lead early in the first half with St Julian’s managing to score just before half-time. At the start of the second half Maindee took the lead with a fantastic goal which seemed to encourage St Julian’s to pull together. They secured a 4-2 victory with Danny achieving a hat-trick and Archie slotting in the final goal. Congratulations to the team on their win and overall performance.
Pillgwenlly Primary v Caerleon Lodge Hill Primary
Both teams played extremely well today on the 3G pitch at Pill Millennium Centre. The match resulted in an 8-5 win for Pillgwenlly. We are all very proud and pleased with the win.
St Julian's Primary v Eveswell Primary
Friday 17th November
St Julian's last game of the first term saw their first home game being played against regular visitors, Eveswell. The game was a very entertaining encounter with skill, team work and determination on show. The first goal of the game came from our captain Chris who received the ball on the edge of the box and hit a hard, low shot which found the corner of the goal. The goal seemed to fill the team with confidence and encouraged them to play open, passing football, stringing a number of passes together before Archie scored another 2 fantastic goals.
The second half saw Eveswell coming out determined to respond. This resulted in a number of chances, giving our goalkeeper Connor a real challenge in goals. It wasn't long until Eveswell scored and seemed to be getting themselves back into the game. With both teams having another number of chances the game finally finished 4-1 to St Julian's.
Congratulations to our girls team who also won their first match with Jasmine and Mia scoring in a 3-1 victory.
A big thank you to Dan Harvey from County in the Community who attend our match to show his support.
A fantastic end to the first term of matches which has seen St Julian's winning all 3 of their games. The team can't wait for the new year and their next match against Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd in January.
St Joseph's- 7 v Ysgol Casnewydd - 3
Thursday 1st February
St Julian's V Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd
What a better way to restart the league than with a fantastic team performance resulting in a 7-1 win. Despite the cold weather and slippery conditions both teams demonstrated superb team work and ball skills. The team played with confidence linking up with a string of passes moving the ball both across the pitch and going forward. Danny, our current top goal scorer, was very pleased to be back playing after sustaining a number of injuries over the season. He was able to score 5 out of the 7 goals with Archie scoring the other 2. Da iawn to both teams and we look forward to our next match.
Thursday 24th May 2018
St Julian's V St Patrick's
A fantastic fixture which saw both teams getting on the score sheet early on in the game. St Patrick's played with speed and accuracy from the first whistle and played with confidence going forward. A precise cross into the penalty box forced our goal keeper Will off his line to make a save. Due to St Patrick's strikers quick reaction, the ball was shot into the back of the net.
St Julian's quickly responded with Aron making a darting run down the left hand side of the pitch placing the ball in the bottom left hand corner.
With spirits high, St Julian's continued to press forward and passed the ball confidently between mid field and the strikers ahead of them. Chris, our captain soon made it 2-1 with a screaming 'top bin' finish which he quickly claimed was not a 'toe poke'.
Soon before the final whistle our youngest player Seb made it 3-1 scoring on his debut for the school's team. The team are extremely excited to play their last fixture of the season against St Andrew's before heading to the end of season tournament on Friday 22nd June.
Newport Primary Schools’ League end of season football tournament
Sun, fun and football. A perfect end to the first football league season. 11 schools from across Newport came together to celebrate what has been an action packed first season of the ‘Newport Primary Schools’ football league. The sun was shining and the children, teachers and parents were all raring to go.
After a brief introduction from Mr Jones and Dan Harvey, the eagerly awaited tournament was underway. The four pitches held fixtures between both West and East league schools as they hadn’t had chance to play due to the structure of the league.
Each school brought along a team of 10-12 children from years 5&6 with matches being played 8 a-side. It was end to end action all day!
The 11 schools out of the 17 who have competed this season were St Julian’s Primary School, Charles Williams Primary, St Joseph’s Primary, Eveswell Primary, Glasllwch Primary, Maindee Primary, Alway Primary, Ringland Primary, Pillgwenlly Primary, Clytha Primary and St David’s Primary school.
From the first whistle, teams were producing fantastic football skills and teamwork. It was excellent to see schools from across Newport having the opportunity to meet other children in a sporting environment and make so many new friends.
Most games were nail bitingly close, with children hitting the posts on numerous occasions. Many teachers and parents commented on how impressed they were with each team’s performance and sportsmanship throughout the day.
The final
One of the main events of the day was the final between the East league winners, St Julian’s Primary School, and the West League winners, Charles Williams Primary School. The two teams found themselves in the final after their strong, consistent performances throughout the season. The eagerly awaited final kicked off at 12pm with the side lines packed with parents, teachers and other supporting schools who were all desperate to see who would be crowned the first ‘Overall League Winners for 2017-18’
St Julian’s had previously met Charles Williams in a friendly fixture during the launch festival back in September which saw Charles Williams leave with a win.
This helped build excitement ready for the re-match in the final.
The match started with both teams adapting a cautious approach, not wanting to give the other team any opportunity to score. It didn’t take long however for both teams to have opportunities to score, seeing balls narrowly missing the target and even rattling the posts at times. Communication, team work and determination were evident from both teams.
Just over half way through the first half St Julian’s scored with Aron creating a string of passes with mid-fielder Archie and striker Danny, before putting the ball into the back of the net himself.
This certainly lifted the confidence levels amongst the St Julian’s team and saw them create more fantastic opportunities which were quickly stopped by Charles Williams’ excellent goalkeeper.
The second half started with Charles Williams applying the pressure and testing the defence of St Julian’s. With players attacking from the left and right wings, St Julian’s found it difficult to intercept the ball and stop them from scoring.
With the sun beating down and the players becoming tired, the opportunities continued to come at both ends of the pitch. However, with a fantastic save from St Julian’s goalkeeper, Connor, he quickly saw that Danny had space up front with potential to score. He precisely played a long ball into the feet of Danny who carefully controlled the ball and passed it into the feet of Archie. Looking up, Archie decided to play a through ball to Danny who had run into space and finished the series of play by smashing the ball into the net making it 2-0.
Undeterred, Charles Williams didn’t give up hope and still continued to attack putting St Julian’s under pressure. With his goal saving tackles and impressive work rate, Seb, St Julian’s left back, made sure no one got past him in the last few minutes of the game.
The final whistle saw the game finish 2-0 and St Julian’s Primary School crowned ‘Overall League Winners’. It was a fantastic performance from both teams who should be extremely proud of themselves.
If that wasn’t enough football for one day, all schools still had another 2 fixtures to play before the presentation of medals and trophies.
We were very grateful to have Chief Education Officer Mrs Sarah Morgan and the president of Newport Rotary Club Councillor Graham Berry to present the trophies and The Ron Morris Shield.
Each player who has participated this year received a medal for their hard work and commitment to the team. We’d like to thank Macey Sports for supplying the medals, trophies and shield.
We’d also like to thank Newport Rotary Club for their very generous donation of the Ron Morris shield. Ron Morris was once a professional football player for Crystal Palace and Mayor of Newport in 2001-2. He has been very supportive of the league and we are very grateful for this.
Thanks to ‘County in the Community’ and the ‘Newport Live’ team for their support with the league this year and their help with the organisation of today’s tournament.
A final big thank you to all children and teachers. Without your help and participation this would not have been possible. We look forward to next year’s season where additional schools have already joined and I’m sure it’ll be just as exciting!
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