With most of this season’s district football having been lost to the Covid-19 suspension, on Saturday, Islington & Camden Schools FA hosted a three-team festival featuring both the Islington and Camden Primary District teams, along with neighbours Hackney.
Islington and Hackney played each other in the first game of the day in what proved to be a very tight affair, with opportunities for both teams, but neither keeper being tested much.
The game looked as though it would finish in a 0-0 draw, but three minutes from time, Shevin Tchouya broke on to the ball in midfield and played an excellent pass through the heart of the Hackney defence. Samuel Dempfle-Rodriguez raced onto the ball, and with composure, stepped to one side of the keeper to slot the ball home.
However, with just a minute left on the clock, a Hackney midfield player wasn’t closed down quickly enough, allowing them to equalise with an excellent drive from distance, which went in just under the crossbar as it finished 1-1.
The second match was between Hackney and Camden, with the latter starting very quickly and catching the Hackney team slightly off the pace.
Camden stormed into a 2-0 lead, both goals finished well by Tito Castillo, and played some very enterprising football and Hackney were fortunate that their keeper had an excellent game to keep Camden from adding to the score.
Hackney did get a goal back but the game would finish 2-1 to Camden.
That meant that the final game of the day would be the deciding fixture for the McKee Trophy, which normally is an annual match played between Islington and Hackney, but because of the lack of football, Camden were also invited.
This looked like being another game that might go to half-time with no goals, but three minutes before the break Islington’s Tristan Hamann-Chanes drove a left-footed free-kick from distance at goal, which took a deflection off a defender past the keeper to give his side a 1-0 lead.
Just after the restart Islington doubled their lead with Tchouya feeding the ball from a central position out wide to Dempfle-Rodriguez, who crossed for Aidan Morgan, who confidently dispatched his strike for a well-worked goal.
Islington & Camden Schools’ secretary Michael MacNeill said: “We just wanted the boys to get a couple of games so they could finally put this season to rest, which has obviously been disappointing to have missed out on so much football.
“For Camden, it was Bloomsbury Football Academy’s first season running a team at this level so it was a shame they hadn’t got to play more game. And as for the Islington team, they had done well in both the Kay and Lester Finch Trophies and were in line for one if not two semi-finals.
“The boys played some remarkable football, considering it’s been six months since they last played together. But it was a really joyful sight seeing the teams play on a grassy pitch, in brilliant sunshine, on a Saturday morning.”
Islington: Anderson, Ludlow, Rogers, Tuitt, Hamann-Chanes, Duran, Imansouren, Solomons, Goodgame, Tchouya, Morgan, Dempfle-Rodriguez.
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