An incredible run of results through March saw HT Lions pick up 4 wins in 4 games, scoring five goals in every game!

They triumphed over Harefield (home and away), Blackstone Spitfires and had a cup win over KCA Rovers.

So, well done to the boys and to the management team of Jones and Jones who won the Manager(s) of the Month award for March.

Here’s hoping the Lions’ roar can lift them to cup victory on 12^th May. 

(Adrian Jones receives the trophy from Secretary Kevin Bennett at the Managers meeting on 20th April)

With it being the end of the Easter school holiday period, there was only one game scheduled for our teams on Saturday 14th April:

Chiltern Church Junior Football League

Under 16s: St Peters Iver Jaguars 0-7 Holy Trinity Thistle (Thistle finish in second place level with the top side, KCA Argyle who will win the league, either by winning or drawing their last game or by virtue of a win and a draw against Thistle in their head to head games.

HT Thistle did however get the better of their league rivals with a 5-3 win in the Jaguars Cup Semi-Final and will take on Harefield United in the Final on 12th May.

England vs Belgium at Wembley on Saturday 2nd June 2012 (ko 5.15pm)

Tickets are available from £30 or you can get a family ticket (two adults, two children) for £60

Click here to book online

Hazlemere Sixes tournament this year will be held on Saturday 26th May (i.e. it will not be at the weekend of the bank holiday which has been moved into June).

All entries must be in by 15th April 2012 please

Hazlemere Sixes invitation letter 2012a

Entry Form for Hazlemere Sixes 2012

Please email hazlemeresixes@aol.com for any further details not covered by the above documents.

Troopers edge the Cougars in an 11 goal thriller!

Saturday 31 March 2012. Mark Smith reports

Having held their own against St James Eagles until Eagles’ stroke of luck in the closing minutes of the previous game, the away fixture against Oakridge Baptist Cougars shaped up to be a test of whether the Troopers could bounce back to their recent winning ways. 

About 20 minutes into the game, it looked like Cougars had borrowed Robin Van Persie for the match as they strode into a 3-0 lead, with three well-taken goals and looked comfortable.  During the latter part of the first half, the Troopers gradually wrestled their way back into the game with some excellent closing down and tackling by Ally, Kyle, Darius, James Lewis and Rhys, backed up by some good, solid defending from Carl and Charlie on the flanks and Tom and Jordan in the middle of defence.  James Smith held things together in the middle of the park and Sam Woolldridge continued to show good discipline in maintaining a wide position and getting into some good potential scoring positions. 

So, 3-0 down at half time.  Not an insurmountable lead, with the benefit of the wind behind, a slight slope and their previous good form in their favour – but the Troopers had never overturned that sort of deficit in their history! 

By the start of the second half, and after some wise words from Gary Watts, Carl and Jordan appeared to have got the measure of Cougar’s centre forward (who it turns out is the league’s top scorer with 37 goals in 13 games!) and that quietened down the Cougars attacking for a while. 

Then the Troopers got a break.  An unlikely, long-range prod from James Lewis – which didn’t look like it would trouble the Cougar’s ‘keeper – squeezed through his legs and trickled over the goal line!  This was just the bit of good luck the Troopers needed and they upped the ante immediately.  The Troopers’ wind-assisted goal kicks in the second half allowed them to immediately attack the Cougar’s defence time after time and it wasn’t long before Darius’s hard work out at the left corner flag was rewarded, when his pass found James Smith near the penalty spot and James was able to steer a shot into the bottom far corner!  This was very quickly followed by James Lewis winning a penalty after the referee judged that he’d been fouled just inside the Cougar’s penalty area, having chased down another goal kick.  Naturally, James Lewis was keen to take the penalty and the opportunity for a bit more retribution for the chest wound Cougars had inflicted on him in the previous match between the two teams.  However, as appointed penalty taker, Troopers’ captain James Smith, stepped up and fired the Troopers level with a great strike into the top left hand corner. 

Well at 3-3 the excitable crowd was baying for more in what was turning out to be a spirited fight back by the Troopers! 

The Troopers didn’t disappoint either.  Ally, who had fought hard and chased down the Cougar’s defence very effectively in the first half, showed even better form in the second half – confidently putting his natural pace to good use and causing the Cougar’s defence no end of problems with every goal kick.  Ally and Darius were starting to link up well in the second half.  Ally’s first goal came from an express-train run at the Cougar’s goalkeeper, his speed allowing him to challenge for the 50-50 ball, which Ally won and coolly slotted home. 

Minutes late the ball spilled from yet another Ally chase and challenge…straight into the path of the advancing Darius who drilled an excellent low shot past the ‘keeper and into the far corner. 

At 5-3, the Troopers were cruising and could afford to take a breather (no surprise really with the effort they had all put in so far!).  However, this allowed Cougars to claw a goal back against the run of play, and then another to level the match again at 5-5! 

This left us all hoping that the Troopers could manage to hold on for a hard-fought draw, with the Cougar’s appearing to get a second wind late on in the second half.  However, any thoughts of a the Cougar’s stealing the win were wiped out when, in the dying minutes of the match, and capping his best Trooper’s performance so far, Ally won the match for the Troopers with a superb strike from the edge of the Cougar’s ‘box, confidently collecting a loose ball and hammering it into the top left corner of the net! 

Troopers 6 – 5 Cougars!! 

Man of the Match was Ally Howe.  His two goals obviously helped to win the match but the effort he put in and with his confidence up, he delighted the crowd with his display of speed, strength and battling ability, which really epitomised the Troopers’ spirit in this match.  Well done Ally – keep up the great work! 

For me, this was one of the best performances of the season for the Troopers. Whilst I haven’t added a great amount of detail about individual performances in this report, you should know that winning a game 6-5 requires the whole team to play hard and to play well right up until the final whistle.  Having dived to a 3-0 deficit, recovered to level the match, seen the game potentially snatched away from them only to come out eventual winners – was both nerve-wracking and exciting to watch but also very rewarding to see the satisfaction on the boys’ faces at seeing their hard work rewarded.  I would imagine that mood was still visible when they got home too!

February was a quiet month because of half term but the Knights are February’s best performing team so our congratulations go to Geoff Hutchinson and Sanj Sharma.

The Knights’ 5-0 win away at Blackstone beat their previous best score (5-1) also against Blackstone and takes them to five wins so far this season.

Keep up the good work boys!

It’s been a difficult season for HT Troopers but maybe things are now starting to come together!

Having got their first league win in January, they have now stormed through to the semi final of the Cougars Under 13′s Cup competition.

Click to read Troopers Match Report 25.2.12.

Either Mark has a good memory for detail or does excellent shorthand on the touchline during the game!

England women’s coach Hope Powell (pictured left) is campaigning for girls to be allowed to play the game with boys beyond the age of 13 in this country.

Writing in ”The Times’ on Monday, its Deputy Football Correspondent Matt Dickinson highlights this latest campaign to offer girls here the same rights as their European counterparts.

He reminds us that “the age at which mixed football is allowed in England was raised from 11 to 13 last year after a three year study, including research from Brunel University and in the wake of discussions within the FA that took more than a year. 

However in Scotland, mixed football is allowed up to 15, in Germany until they are 17, up to 19 in the Netherlands and there is no restriction in Norway and Sweden.”

HTJFC ,which has until recently run all-girl teams up to under 16′s and continues to offer mixed football to under 10s, will no doubt monitor this situation with interest but of course be guided by the Chiltern Church League’s rules and those of the Berks and Bucks FA.

January’s Manager of the Month trophy was awarded at the recent HT Managers Meeting.

The deserved winner was Mark Smith (centre of picture) for steering the Holy Trinity Troopers to their first win of the season, a 4-0 victory over St James Swifts that lifts the mighty Troopers off the bottom of the Cougars league.

It is a fantastic reward for Mark and the Troopers lads who have had to contend with low squad numbers all season.  

Let’s hope the Troopers can march on, further up the table!

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Here is Mark’s match report on that award winning victory:

HT Troopers chalk up their first win of 2012!
On Saturday 28 January 2012, HT Troopers ran out 4-0 winners over St James Swifts in a bit of a thriller to chalk up their first win of the season!  In a much improved start to the match, the Troopers were caught offside numerous times.  This was a clear indication that the boys were attacking well and that they were playing with much more confidence than the previous week against KCA. 

It wasn’t a one-sided match though….far from it!  The Swifts, playing slightly downhill and with the wind behind hit the post twice, nearly benefited from a freak own goal that skimmed the top of a post and had two goals disallowed for off-side – as well as numerous chances which were saved by the excellent Sam Wainman.  Somehow, the first half finished 0-0! 

The second half saw the Troopers get a proper grip on the match – making the wind and slope advantage count and seeing several chances either slide wide of the posts or gathered by the Swifts ‘keeper.  Eventually, in a fabulous 20 minutes for the Troopers, we saw goals from Sam Woolldridge, Rhys Bailes, James Lewis and Darius Adl – with two being set up by Tom Roy and the others set up by James Smith.  With the Swifts flagging, the Troopers were looking for more goals towards the end but just couldn’t find the right shot to beat the Swifts ‘keeper. Ally came very close with yet another excellent cross that, with a touch from any player, would have crossed the line.

Overall, it was a very good team performance with all the boys working hard and thoroughly deserving the win.  I had given each player a couple of performance targets before the game – and pretty much all of the boys achieved or exceeded their targets (although thinking back, I didn’t set anyone the target of scoring a goal, which was a bit remiss of me!).  Man of the Match was very, very difficult this week with so many boys playing their best football of the season.  The whole of the Troopers defence (Sam Wainman in goal, Carl, Charlie, James Smith and Jordan – and with help from Tom and Sam C in the second half) worked really hard in the first half and their efforts were epitomised by Charlie who had the best game of his Troopers’ career so far – making really good tackles, showing a cool head when on the ball and tracking straight back on the rare occasions he was beaten by a Swifts player.  So the Man of the Match award went to Charlie – on behalf of the whole defence but also for his excellent individual performance.  Well done Charlie!

In the Chiltern Church Junior Football League, rules have changed to try and eliminate the effect of huge scores, which can have a bad impact on defeated sides.

Therefore if there is a tie on points for any league position, mainly those that impact league titles or medal winning positions, then order will be decided on the results in their head to head games. If these still fail to produce a clear winner, then a play off game will be necessary.