Islington’s Primary Schools’ district football team had to share the points in their first Kay Trophy game of the season as they drew 3-3 with Hackney on Saturday.
Islington started very brightly, pressing Hackney in their own third and found themselves ahead only two minutes into the game when constant pressure from Jeremy Antwi forced a defender to pass the ball back past his keeper for an own goal at St Aloysius Playing Fields.
A minute later Islington were 2-0 up when a throw-in from James Smeaton was not properly cleared and Louis Moncrieffe picked the ball up just outside the box and hit a superb strike straight into the net.
Halfway through the half, Islington would go 3-0 up, when Seb Smeaton pounced on a rebound and finished clinically.
There would be no more goals up to half-time but Islington looked very much in control of the game, with Ubaidah Rahman having an excellent game in central midfield.
They still didn’t look in danger when Hackney got a goal back with a good shot from outside the box to make it 3-1.
However, with five minutes to go, they conceded a free-kick on the edge of the box and the resultant cross into the penalty area was not cleared properly, as Hackney scrambled a second goal.
With the game well into injury time, Islington started to become panicky in possession and despite two very good saves from Bobby Burrows as the goal-mouth saw lots of action, Hackney would equalise with less than 30 seconds of injury time remaining, to finish the game at 3-3.
Michael MacNeill, Football Development Manager with the Islington Football Development Partnership, said: “It’s a game we should have won but we started to panic a little bit and not keep the ball as well, which gave them more opportunities.
“We spoke at half-time about not conceding free kicks and ensuring we made our headers in our own box but both of those things led to their second goal which was the one that really gave them hope.
“It was a shame as we’d played well and looked the better side for a good three quarters of the match.”
Islington Primary Schools: Burrows (Hayta), Bell-Lara, Buck (captain), J.Smeaton, Rahman, Moncrieffe, S.Smeaton, Mbachu (Mohammed-Mariche), Antwi (Campbell).
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