Pupils support the Lionesses in Wembley!

First ever school trip to Wembley for BHGS to watch the victorious Lionesses

On Friday 1st December, 87 pupils went by coach to Wembley Stadium to watch the England Women’s Football team – the Lionesses – compete in the Nations League vs The Netherlands.

For a lot of our pupils, this was the first experience of a live women’s football game, let alone an international fixture at the home of English football.

The first half was hard to watch, as despite having lots of possession, England conceded two goals in the 12th and 35th minute respectively to go in at half time 0-2 down.

As England started to use possession a bit more intelligently in the second half, the crowd of 71, 632 fans really found their voices and (to the delight of our pupils) an almost continuous round of Mexican waves! The Lionesses had made some changes at half time and this seemed to pay off as Georgia Stanway scored their first goal of the night on 59 minutes, closely followed by Lauren Hemp a minute later to equal the score at 60 minutes.

A tense half an hour followed with both sides creating chances through exciting phases of play. As the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Team GB for the Olympics in Paris next year, England need to win their Nations League group and reach the final – or finish third if Olympic hosts France make the final – in order to secure a place.

Luckily, Ella Toone saved the day (and the match) when she fired in a dramatic late goal and received a roar of celebration from the home crowd.

The pupils and staff left for the coach ride back to school and were ecstatic, a little worn out(!) and freezing cold after temperatures dropped below 0 during the December evening.

As always, every pupil on the trip was a credit to BHGS and it was a pleasure to organise and run this trip to a live women’s sporting fixture. On the way back to the coach, plenty of pupils asking when the next trip was going to be, so the PE department hope there will be another chance to attend a sporting fixture later in the year.

A huge thank you to the following staff for giving up their time to organise and supervise the pupils at this fixture – Miss Cameron, Mr Griffiths, Miss Nelson, Miss Rollings, Mr Kench, Dr Lota, Miss Andreone and Mrs Martin. The trip would not have possible without you giving up your time, hopefully you have warmed up and can feel your fingers and toes again now!!