Coppleston 2 Harwich and Dovercourt High 6
After being narrowly beaten in the third round last year HDHS Year 10 begun their second attempt at the English Schools FA Cup to Suffolk to play the Unknown Coppleston high school in Ipswich.
With two late injuries to the squad of 14 the team travelled with 12 and the excellent team spirit of Keenan Brown who despite injury wanted to travel to cheer his team on.
The game, played on a very wide pitch begun at frantic pace with Coppleston edging the first exchanges. After five minutes Harwich settled into their stride and begun to play some probing football asking questions of the Coppleston defence.
The first breakthrough came for Harwich when a cross was blocked towards the edge of the area for skipper Charlie Guiezelar to smash home from 18 yards out.
The lead was short lived as hesitation from Harwich allowed the Coppleston striker to break through and finish confidently.
Harwich continued to dominate but quickly went from a 1-0
Lead to trailing 2-1when a individual error allowed a sloppy goal for Coppleston with the striker hardly believing his luck as he tapped home from 1 yard.
Harwich heads did not drop
Despite the setback and very quickly drew level when excellent interplay between several players finished with Max Macdonald crossing perfectly from the right wing for Olly Wright to cooly slot home.
Buoyed by this equaliser Harwich continued to press and were unlucky not to take the lead when Phillip Sebastian hammered a shot against the post but took the lead when he turned superbly from a long throw to score low and hard
Half time 3-2
The second half began the same as the first with Harwich attacks coming wave after wave with good chances falling to Greg Rodger, Max Macdonald, Phillip Sebastian and Olly Wright.
With fifteen minutes to go Max Macdonald hit the post after an ambitious overhead kick but they could not find a 4th goal.
With just under 15 minutes remaining Jack Cheverall replaced the tireless Adam Strange to add some fresh legs and almost scored with his first touch. It was though with his second touch that he battled his way between two
Coppleston defenders before poking the ball into the top
Corner giving the goalkeeper no chance.
This fourth goal didn’t seem to finish off Coppleston who came back with a couple of breaks of their own but Quinn Bird was never threatened behind a fantastic back four of Josh Herbert, Cody Double, Yuki Jackson and debutant Zach Keeley
The fifth goal certainly finished any fight that Coppleston had dug deep for with the marauding Max Macdonald finishing cooly after a mazy run.
With seconds left of the match Phillip Sebastian grabbed a second and Harwich’s 6th goal of the game put the icing on the cake on a very good performance for the first match of the season
Man of the Match was Olly Wright who in the number ten role had a superb game. Intelligent runs, incredible work rate and some delightful incisive passes made him the stand out player
In the next round Harwich travel to Suffolk again to play Thomas Mills or Claydon high.
