Editor Rachel Goodwin and sub-editor Iona Mathieson met with three second year boys. Their team have shown outstanding achievements in football by getting through to the third round of the Scottish Shield. Invergordon’s players played their positions outstandingly leading to a win to Invergordon Academy. This is the best progress an Invergordon Academy team has made for 16 years.

They interviewed players:

Gary MacDonald: Right Midfield.

Alex Hercher: Goal Keeper.

Marc Ross: Upfront.

Rachel: Have you all been interested in football for quite a long time?

All: Yes.

Rachel: And are you planning on a career in football in the future?

Gary: Well Messi asked me the other day.

Marc: Well me and him, we’ve played for big teams before.

Rachel: Really? Which teams?

Alex: Caley Thistle.

Gary: I’ve asked to play for County before. Yeah, it was good… Yeah.

Rachel: So are you thinking about professional football maybe?

Gary: If I get the offer, you know.

Marc: I got an offer from Aberdeen, you know.

Rachel: (giggles) Cool. Can you tell me about your most recent games? Were you nervous? Did you think you would win? What was one good moment?

Gary: Well at the start we were playing dreadful.

Marc: Yeah, not that good.

Gary: We got put like 1-0 down but then I got the ball in the wing and played it over and then Lewis scored to make it 1-1.

Marc: You said it wrong.

Gary: No, you didn’t score first – it was Lewis. So I said who scored first. It was Lewis.

Marc: From a corner. Like, the ball came in and the goalie punched it back out to the corner-taker. He put it back in again so I booted it in. But as Gary said, he gave it to Lewis, cause Lewis is one of the best – Lewis is the best in our team. He’s just so quick.

Gary: So he says, like.

Marc: (whispers) He thinks he’s the best but, you know, he’s not. So he put the ball in and Lewis was so quick; he just took it round the goalie and put it in. So yeah, then the last goal…

Gary: Unfortunately Alex let in a goal. It was a terrible goal, to be fair.

Rachel: So, what was the score?

Marc: We won. It was 3-1.

Rachel: So how are you feeling now, after you’ve won?

Gary: Happy.

Alex: It was a sort of relief. We thought we were going to lose.

Rachel: Are you feeling nervous about the next game?

Alex: Uh, yeah.

Marc: Well a team are coming from Dundee. And we need to win.

Rachel: So how many more do you need to play?

Marc: Well we just need to keep on training. Like we have Monday and Wednesday…

Gary: And it’s going to be on Thursday sometimes now.

Marc: We’re getting loads of training and we need to get our fitness back up.

Gary: Some more than others. *cough* Mark.

Rachel: How many games have you done?

Marc: Well we’re in the second round because we won all our games in the first round.

All: It was about seven.

Marc: There were about seven teams in the first round. So we won all of them.

Rachel: Is it true that it’s been 16 years since a team has made it this far:

All: Yes, 16 years.

Rachel: And how does that feel?

Marc: Really good.

Gary: Well, really good actually – it feels good.

Marc: Everyone’s mums are proud – except from Gary’s.

All: (Laughs)

Gary: My mom is very proud actually.

Rachel: So are you proud to be representing the school in this sort of way?

All: Yeah.

Alex: There’s a buzz going out on the field wearing the logo. And it’s good when you have the support behind you.

Rachel: Is there anything else you want to say?

Gary: It was a good game

Rachel: Right okay. Thank you.