Football tour to Villarreal, Spain

The four star hotel lived up to its billing, the staff made us feel very welcome and the food was outstanding. The breakfast bar was magnificent: hot, crusty, mini-baguettes, muesli, cereals galore, eggs and bacon, and the infamous fresh orange juice making machine.

Training took place at Villarreal CF under the guidance of their coaching staff. The focus as one would expect, given Spain’s enviable reputation for tiki-taka style football, was on short, sharp, passing and possession. It was a real pleasure to see the skill level of all boys develop exponentially during our stay. The 3G pitches we trained on helped enormously in this area, allowing for true, accurate, passing at all times. We were also fortunate to witness part of a 1st team training session; six versus two in a five metre by five metre grid, one touch play – stunning.

Our first match was against a local club side, “Ripolles”, who kindly agreed to play a match of three thirds, thereby allowing all 36 Coletines a game. We won the first third 2-1 with goals from Ben Wiggins and Miles Farlow, lost the second third 0-1 and drew the third and final third 1-1. This final third was played under floodlights and saw William Emamian net the equaliser with the final kick of the game. Overall a 3-3 draw. Ripolles presented us with a fitting memento, a tile. Apparently this part of Spain is renowned for its magnificent red clay and tile making.

Matchday 2 was Conrad Barclay’s thirteenth birthday and what a day it was. “Racing Villarreal”, another local club side also agreed to allow us to play a match of three thirds. Our strongest side started first and were immediately under pressure, slack defending allowing "Racing" to slide angled balls through the back four. Defending slightly deeper thereafter we began to settle and look more composed in possession, something we had discussed the previous evening. With composure came greater accuracy of passing and we scored three very tidy goals as a result. Ben Wiggins, Tom Barnes and Milo Warshaw the scorers. Louis Pincott produced a breathtaking last gasp tackle to hold us to 3-0 at the break. Teams two and three were rotated in order of play for this match, though the personnel remained the same. Unfortunately team 2 never recovered from an early setback and after the second third we had been hauled back to 3-4 overall despite some brave play from Kalen Patel, Danny Starr and Will Emamian who linked superbly at times, and an amazing save from Tom Chamieh. The third team too started slowly and were quickly 0-3 down but after a few adjustments they rallied magnificently under the stewardship of Edward Elson and dominated the last 10 minutes of play, even managing to score a magnificent last second goal from Karthik Ramesh. Final result CC 4 Racing Villarreal 7, football the winner! The boys were applauded from the field by the parents of the opposition and coaching staff.

Next up, the fifth most intimidating stadium in the world! Only an hour down the road from the hotel, the majestic Mestalla rose up steeply before our eyes on arrival. Finding our ‘end’ quickly, the boys were allowed to bedeck themselves in Valencia scarves, hats and flags. Unfortunately ear-splitting horns, similar to the Vuvuzela were on sale and much to Mr Hall's delight several purchases were made. Valencia's top striker, Soldado, netted twice as Coletines celebrated with a cacophony of noise and scarf waving. And so to bed, midnight. Happy birthday, Conrad.

For our final match day against “Alquires” the games were arranged into one 11-a-side game and two 7-a-side games. On arrival at Alquries the sun was just setting behind the magnificent mountain range that runs parallel to the coast throughout this part of Alicante. The floodlights came on as the boys took to the pitch. The strongest squad played on a full size pitch against a very sharp Alqueries side. Key point before the game was to keep possession and make the ball work. Playing a high line in defence we dealt tidily with anything in front of us and anything hit long found Alqueries offside for the most part. Some beautiful one touch football saw us march into a deserved, though hard fought 2-0 lead, goals courtesy of Felix Pullen Freilich and Ben Wiggins. Alqueries almost stole one back on the brink of half time, hitting the crossbar with a thunderous shot. In the second half our superior fitness and superb passing saw us home comfortably. Goals from Conrad Barclay and Miles Farlow, and a superb reflex save from Max Marshall were highlights. Final score CC 4 Alqueries 1.

In the four 7 a side matches we conjured up two wins, 3-0 and 3-1 and two tight losses 0-1 and 0-2. Goal scorers were Milo Warshaw, Misha Tolchinsky, Big Billy Emamian, Edward Elson, Tom Barnes and Nico Hughes.

During the final evening meal presentations were made to the best player in each squad and best tourist. Lawrence Tray fittingly won best tourist for his invaluable translation skills on the training ground and best squad player awards went to Louis Pincott, Kelan Patel and Edward Elson. I should like to thank the boys for the Villarreal club tie. It will be worn on special occasions at school to remind me of the great company on this trip. Rounding the evening off with a quiz saw the staff table pipped into third place by 1.5 points. Captain Robert 'Bobstopper' Howat's team cruised home though MrHall was adamant that hand held electronic devices had played a part.

In addition to the football the boys had a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of El Madrigal, Villarreal’s stadium, and in Valencia itself took in the ‘Oceanografic’ at the City of Arts and Science. A truly amazing five day break and the feedback from parents and boys has been so encouraging that the tour may become a regular part of our pre-season, winter, football training.