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- 2022/23 ECFA Women’s & Men’s National Team first fixtures
2022/23 ECFA Women’s & Men’s National Team first fixtures
On 14 and 15 December, the 2022/23 ECFA Women’s & Men’s National Team headed to St George’s Park to play their first fixture together against the Independent Schools Football Association.
Before the matches, both teams had the opportunity to take part in activities, such as ‘Get to know your teammates”, nutrition and welfare, and also the chance to hear from one of our partners, Mind.
It was also the reveal of the new kit for the season that includes all the sponsor and partner logos. For the first time, we saw Mind’s logo on the kit. It is the start of working together to raise awareness of the practical ways students and staff can support their own mental health and that of others and highlight the importance that physical activity can have on mental health.
Hayley Jarvis, Head of Physical Activity for Mind, said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with AoC Sport to improve the approach to mental health in college sports programmes through increasing knowledge, awareness and confidence of students and staff. It’s fantastic that we are celebrating the partnership by having Mind’s logo appear on the backs of AoC Sport’s football, hockey and netball national team shirts. We hope this will play a part in sparking conversations about mental health and that it may even encourage people to take the first step to reaching out for support if they need it.”
The ECFA Women’s team played a strong game, and were putting pressure on the opposition, managing to equalise in the second half with a goal from Maia Clarke. However, a few seconds later, Independent Schools scored their second goal. A competitive end to the match didn’t bring any further goals, with the final score ending 2-1 to Independent Schools.
The ECFA Men’s ECFA team were taking control of the game in the first half but couldn’t manage to find a goal, until the second half which saw a cross from the right from Dan Preece guided in at the near post by Alex Parsons. Not too long after, a deft touch from Lucus Lowery put Ben Aldous through on goal. Aldous shifted it from right to left before finishing it into the top of the net. With the score at 2-0, Independent Schools did manage to score a goal in the 80th minute to ensure an exciting end to the game, though the ECFA Men were able to hang on for a 2-1 win.
Many thanks for our sponsors and partners who continue to support this work programme.