Hornets hit France

After a very successful first season in the Ashford & District League Under 12′s, where they finished in 6th place out of 12 teams, the Hornets had  a fabulous opportunity of going to Escaupont, near Lille in France to participate in a two-day Tournament in May to play 7-a-side Football.

9 of our Players, Coach and 2 Parents took the Ferry and shared a Bus with Ashford Town under 13′s and  drove to Escaupont to take part. We arrived on Friday night, very excited and were warmly welcomed and had a good hearty dinner.

After only a few hours sleep, we made our way to the Venue and it was a very hot day. We played 4 games, we drew 2, lost 1 and won 1. The quality of the football from the other French and German Teams was a very good standard.

On the second day, we had 3 more matches to play, loosing 1 and winning 3. We spent the whole day at the Venue and had a great time.

We finished 5th place out of 16 teams and we were pleased with that, considering it was the very 1st Tournament we had ever played in.

On Monday, we went to the Venue where Ashford Town were playing and we learnt that they were in the final. So, after hanging around all day in the blazing heat, we got to watch the final. Unfortunately, Ashford Town lost and finished 2nd place. We still made them feel like Heroes anyway.

We caught the late Ferry, all very weary and arrived back in High Halden at about 11.30pm.

We all had such a great time and may I say that each and every one of the Hornet Boys behaved impeccably. It was a great experience and we returned with our heads held high.

We have already booked the Tournament for next year, we will be playing 9-a-side. Which means we can take more Players.
Well done Men!! Great weekend, great attitude, great behaviour. We represented not only our Village but our Country impeccably.

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Hornets win Tenterden Tigers Tournament U12

On a hot Saturday afternoon the Hornets prepared to fight their way to the top of the Under 12′s round of the annual Tenterden Tigers Football tournament held at Biddenden Kent.
Things started well with a hard-fought 1-0  victory against Smeeth and Brabourne .  This was followed by an even tougher match against Ashford Borough where the Hornets lost 2-0.

Then followed 2 matches where the Hornets really pulled together and started passing the ball and controlling it-leading to a  2-1  win against  Grasshoppers Yellow and then a 1-0 win against  New Romney  .
This enabled Hornets to win their  group .

What followed was the final against Wye which was a match that had parents on the edge of their seats as  James scored the 1st goal in the first half . However Wye also came back and scored at the end of the 1st half. The second half was controversial as 2 of the Hornets players were sent off for supposedly doing a bad tackle and arguing with the ref.

This left a final score of 1-1 and a penalty shootout !

Alfie, Guven and Ali took the 3 penalties : penalty 1 went in for Hornets and then next Wye failed to score – with Super Goalie Luke (Der Saar)  making a fantastic dramatic  save with his feet .
Penalty 2 and 3  went in for Hornets and penalty 2 went in for Wye – BUT  Hornets stayed ahead finally winning 3-1 on penalties!!  

Well done to the team for a fantastic effort on a very hot and tiring day !

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High Halden Family Bingo Night

Saturday 6pm till 8:30 pm in the school hall  8th May

 Please bring your own refreshments 

Cakes and pop drinks many prizes

 Tickets for books £3 per person

 Additional books £1.50

 Bring the family and have fun!!        

All funds will go to High Halden Hornets F.C.

See Lesley McCarthy for tickets. TEL: 07791949652

Hornets V Mersham 6-0

The Hornets played 2 matches against Mersham today. The first match ended in a win of 6-0 and the second was harder fought with a 2-1 win to Hornets .  A big thanks to our new Professional referee Alan who can hopefully help us out more in the future !

Ashford Town 3 Hornets 0

Fabio would have said ‘valorosi guerrieri’ : brave warriors.  

With only 9 men to play against Ashford, it was always going to be difficult. Not even fair play seemed to come into the minds of Ashford when they insisted in fielding their full 11 with plenty of subs to spare.

So with the game kicked off , play commenced. Hornets got off to a slow start and within the first 10 mins were down 2 goals. But brave hearts and a great commitment saw them go in at half time with no further goals conceded. This was mainly a credit to the defensive three of Sam, Edward and Alfie with Luke between the sticks who were all having a blinder….

At half time the boys were tired after all their efforts on a warm day, but credit to them all. They fought for each other and never gave up, playing fairly with a sense of determination to not give anything more away. They worked their socks off and if it had not been for a very unfortunate deflection, would have kept the second half to nil – nil. Ashford got that goal in the middle of the second half – making it 3-0 to Ashford.

But credit to the whole team, despite the rub of the green going against them at times, they soldiered on and should be proud of what they achieved today – it was not that they only lost 3-0, but what they found in themselves when faced against a very difficult challenge…

Go Hornets!

Hornets V Victoria Dynamo:home: 6-0

After yesterday’s victory, Team spirits were very high but we knew this could be a tough game as this team beat us 4-2 in our last fixture.

We played a 3-1-4-1-1 Formation, with Tom as sweeper in front of the back 3 and Declan being our linker-man and Jim shadowing our striker Guven.

We took possession of the ball, recovering well and playing strong. Defence was great and closing down was much better.

The 1st goal was scored by Jim, set up from Sam and 2nd and 3rd goals came shortly after  from Guven.

In the second half the  Hornets were ready and able!

Tom did some fantastic passing and great defending  when he took over some of Edwards tasks as Edward wasn’t feeling too good.

Tom played a very active part in sweeping and clearing all loose balls away from the defenders, this was some great football Tom.

 Declan made some great passes up to mid-field but, as he was still unwell, Tommy Smith took over as link man and worked very hard passing the ball up the field and doing a great job of tracking back and defending.

Sam, Cameron, Jim and Guven all made some great passes and managed to score another 2 goals.

The Referee witnessed a hand ball from one of the dynamo players and a penalty was then  given to the Hornets.

Between them, the Team decided that Guven was the best man for the job and with a swift, powerful and low kick, the score became 6-0.

Superb performance from all the Hornets. We have now earned ourselves 5th place in the league table and deservedly so. Well done Guys.

Your coach is absolutley stunned by your performance over the weekend.

Hornets V Folkeston Cantera:10-2

Team spirits were high knowing that Folkestone Cantera were holding a low place in the table and that in our last meeting we won 8-0 . Nevertheless, we had to remind ourselves not to be complacent.

We had 3 players sick and another who couldn’t make it, so a 9-a-side match was agreed. Leaving us with no subs at all!

First half and F. Cantera scored within the first 6 minutes!  Hornets were stunned and it showed. We seemed to have no passion or commitment and our performance was affected. However  F. Cantera were looking strong and it was obviously time for some serious coaching!

Some minutes later  the Hornets started to take a stronger hold of the game with Jim scoring the equaliser and Guven, Jim and Sam going on to end the first half at 4-1.

Second half our Boys were told to play strong and determined and  that was exactly what they did.  F. Cantera then scored a lucky goal when our keeper Luke made a save but the ball slipped from his hands and a F. Cantera player followed it up and shot the ball in the back of the net.

Now the score was 4-2!

Hornets came back stronger and scored 5 more goals, Guven 4, Sam 1, Jim 4.  Now it seemed we had the game sewn up !

Tommy Smith was pushed up and then scored making it 10-2.

Another goal from F.Cantera shot through our defence almost unawares, come on defenders!

Tommy dropped back and Alfie was pushed up and he scored a fabulous goal set up from Jim and Guven making it 11-3.

Well done hornets, this was another 3 points under our belts.

Hornets v Ashford Town A: 10-1

At the last meeting with this team we struggled and so we were very apprehensive about this match. We have spent many weeks all working on our defence and today all that hard work finally paid off!

Ashford did not seem very strong and their defence was very poor . Ours in comparison was strong and determined .

Many times in the match Jim passed the ball through to Guven and he then had a straight undefended run at goal , managing to score four fabulous goals!

On one occasion Tom (our last man) managed to pass the ball all the way up to Guven ending with a goal .

Luke was keeper in the first half and made some great saves. Piers was on field as defender and made some strong lofty passes to our mid-fielders.

Second half Luke got injured in a collision with an Ashford player  and so Piers went back in goal and we tried George in attacking midfield, working opposite Jim and Guven. Knowing that George had never scored before , the other two set George up twice and twice George scored – once with a great sliding shot into the back on the net !. This is a memory George will no doubt never  forget and we knew he had it in him!

That’s what teamwork is all about lads -well done!. We knew that we were safe and made an opportunity for someone else to have some glory.

Jim managed to score 4 great goals working with Guven , George and Tommy and we should not forget our very hard-working “link-man”  Declan who made a great job of fusing the team together, as he does in every match .

We finished with a 10-1 win , playing at our best and lets hope we can keep this up lads – WELL DONE!

Hornets v Aldington Sports: home: 8-1

We had great expectations of winning this match and we did!
There were some great goals from Guven, Jim and Sam. Piers wasn’t very busy but our attacking boys were – finishing with an 8-1 win .

We played well,  but we all knew that the performance was not actually our best .

Well done lads .!

Hornets v Great Chart: away: 1-13

Bad weather and poor pitch conditions did not help us but Great Chart seemed un-phased by this.

From the start we were unorganised and didnt seem to have any determination to do well . It was obvious that we play so much better and stronger when on our own turf.

Great Chart played straight through us , with the ball in the air most of the time and we just couldn’t deal with it . “A bad day” for all of us.

In spite of  our keeper Piers fantastic and courageous saves and Jim’s goal it just wasnt enough  and Great Chart had a very well deserved win of 13-1.

“Heads up lads, all teams get days like these !”