Senior 1st XI Football:

This year the Shirley Boys' High’ School First XI Football Team looked to continue the success they found last season.

In the first 6 games of the year, all Canterbury teams were split into two pools, with the top 4 from each qualifying for the second round of the competition. The first round of the competition started off with a shocking 2-0 loss to St Thomas. Our boys rallied after this game and went on to win the next five games in resounding fashion. With an aggregate scoreline of 29-2 over that stretch, hope was well and truly back in the squad. This meant our First XI convincingly qualified for the second round of the competition. (2nd, 15 points)

The competition in the Second round was largely different to the first round, as only the best eight teams in Canterbury were now involved. Top 4 is the minimum requirement to make it into First tier nationals, but our teams’ sights were set higher. Four wins from our first five games in the second round had our team sitting 1st with two games to go. The next fixture was against St Thomas who had beaten us earlier in the season. After a tough fought game, we managed to pull off a 1-0 win. This secured our 1st XI the number one qualifying spot with a game to go and won us both the Challenge Shield and the Brentwood Trophy. (1st, 15 points)

Next for this team was the play offs. A semi-final up against old foes St Thomas once again. A penalty in the first half after a terrific run from Luca Marson, teed up Eric Imachi to give us the lead. The game was tense with Shirley dictating play; however, a late deflected free kick saw St Thomas draw level. Unfortunately, no extra time, meaning we had to leave it to chance and go to penalties. 1-1 Fulltime score (4-5) on penalties was a disappointing way to end our hopes in this competition.

The team now looks ahead to Secondary Schools Nationals which starts August 28th and is hosted in Christchurch this year. After already winning the National Secondary Schools Futsal Title this year, the team and the school is eager to be crowned best in the country once again.

Junior 1st XI Football:

Over recent years our Junior First XI has taken massive strides to becoming the dominant force in Christchurch Junior Football. With our record from 2019-2022 being 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, this year we were hoping to remain at the top of the competition.

It was a shorter season this year, only totalling 10 games after numerous different weather-related cancellations. The season started with a convincing 4-0 victory over St Bedes, the boys took a lot of confidence from this and went onto win their next game strongly as well. The third game of the season was our Juniors first and only loss in the round robin period of the competition, going down 1-0 to Papanui in a quite gritty game. The boys lifted after this and went on to win all remaining games before the finals and managed to qualify in 1st position. (1st, 18 points)

Event organisers decided upon a straight final between the two highest ranked teams after the round robin stage. This meant a grand final between us and Christs College at Clare Park.

This was a free-flowing game with chances at both ends. William Sandford opened the scoring for SBHS very early on and the team then lifted again to produce over 10 shots on target in the next 10 minutes. Unfortunately, Christs College’s best player was their goalie, pulling off miracle after miracle to deny us. The game evened out both sides of half time with SBHS always looking the more likely. With 10 minutes to go Christs College knew they had a chance, as we had not secured the game yet. They sent players forward hunting an equaliser and about 1 minute before the full-time whistle one of their players cut inside and found his shot ripple the back of the net.

Another penalty shootout, this time things started off right, scoring our first penalty and Christ College missing theirs. We then held onto this lead cooly placing home 4 in a row, amongst some intimidating tactics from their keeper, which was very impressive from our team. Once their 4th shot flew over the bar our team had done it, another Junior 1st XI title in the books for our talented footballing core.