St Alban’s College and Hilton claim hard-fought victories
St Alban’s College and Hilton College claimed hard-fought victories over Clifton College and Pretoria Boys’ High School (PBHS) respectively, on Saturday morning in KwaZulu-Natal.
St Alban’s beat Clifton 2-1 at the Riverside Sports Club, while Hilton won at home, on the Mansergh Astro.
Clifton went all out. They had a point to prove to their old boys who were in attendance, celebrating their Founders Weekend. St Alban’s, on the other hand, had different ideas. They hadn’t travelled close to 600 kilometres to serve as the whipping boys.
“We are happy with the result. Calvin Price (the Clifton coach) did his homework on us and his side is well-drilled,” Guy Elliott, the St Alban’s coach, said after the match.
The contest was a tactical battle, which made for a cagey clash. It was more of a chess match than anything else, Elliott reckoned.
St Alban’s has been on an upward curve over the last few years. Their path has not been a trailblazing one, but rather one of gradual improvement. That means that they have had to find ways to compete against the established top schools and that has meant playing with good structure and discipline.
“We pride ourselves on being organised, whether it’s in pressing, central defence, or deep defence. We have such a structure because we go into most encounters as underdogs,” Elliott told SuperSport Schools Plus. “For us to stay in the game against top schools, we have to be organised in defence. If we are organised in defence, we can create opportunities from that.”
The visitors started the game well and worked their way up the Astro until they won a penalty corner in the third minute. Then, Will Hewett converted the opportunity into a goal, beating Clifton goalkeeper Georg Wolhuter low and to his right.
The hosts wrested control of the game after conceding and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession. However, they were unable to do much with it. St Alban’s defended with depth and kept their shape, soaking up the pressure, keeping Clifton at arm’s length in the final third, and frustrating the home team.
However, Clifton’s biggest problem was their inability to transition through the different sections of the field. They were guilty of frequently turning over possession, often going for the long ball when it wasn’t on, and they conceded 42 turnovers to 20 for St Alban’s. That was the primary difference in the game, Clifton coach Calvin Price said.
The hosts kept pushing bodies into the St Alban’s half, but their efforts to find an equaliser left them vulnerable to a counterattack, and the Pretoria school made them pay with a swift counter, which resulted in a penalty stroke when Wolhuter, in the Clifton goal, took out the man and not the ball. Michael Meiring made no mistake from the P-spot.
At the very beginning of the fourth chukka, Nick Northend cut St Alban’s lead in half when he finished off a scything move at the far post. Clifton made it look easy when they scored, but St Alban’s immediately clamped down on them again, keeping the home side at bay until the final whistle.
Up in the KZN midlands, Hilton College’s contest against Pretoria Boys High had much in common with Clifton’s against Boys High’s city neighbours, St Alban’s.
Hilton did most of the attacking, but Pretoria Boys High repelled their efforts time after time, with goalkeeper Owen McMinamin proving to be a rock-solid last line of defence when the home side got shots away.
Hilton ran hard and dominated both possession and territory, on a hot day, but they found little joy. There is, however, only so much defending a team can do.
The hosts’ relentless attacks, at last, reaped a reward in the fourth chukka when they executed a penalty corner with precision. They kept it simple, and Ben Wilson drilled the ball into the left-hand corner to put Hilton into the lead with just 10 minutes remaining in the match.
Had coach Damian Kimfley’s charges not walked away with a victory, McMinamin, in the Boys High goalbox, would have been a worthy candidate for the Player of the Match award. He was outstanding and frustrated all but one of the home side’s attacks.
RESULTS
St Alban’s College 2-1 Clifton
Hilton 1-0 PBHS
