With 7 cadets and only 6 places on the team (5 with one sub) Cdt Gosset turned into the honorary coach/manager/cheerleader/mascot for the football tournament.
With Cadets dressed in white shirts and blue for the goalkeeper (courtesy of the CO) we were informed our first game would be against Chipping Norton.
Hotly debated beforehand, was the idea of losing the first game in order to go into the plate competition. We decided as a team to judge the competition in the first game and then choose our desired path.
Format of Tournament
After the First Round Game the competitions is a knockout, either win, or go home.
| Win Cup Competition - Quarter Final - Semi Final - Final | ||
| First Round | / \ |
|
| Lose Plate Competition - Quarter Final - Semi Final - Final |
2 minutes into the 5 against Chipping Norton, Biyani calmly finished a well worked move and put us ahead. This lit the touch paper and we went on to score 3 more goals winning the game 4-0.
Quarter Final
The next game was against Kiddlington Squadron. Sporting Have a nice day on their the back of their shirts they proved tricky opposition. Well organised defence from Cdt Biyani and Gyawali however thwarted the attack and after a well struck shot from Cdt Basnet, a pass back led to a sloppy own-goal from our otherwise formidable opponents.
And so we marched on to the semi finals praying that we wouldn’t meet Wokingham or Newbury Squadron. So in classic karma fashion we were drawn against Newbury. Possibly the favourites of the competition we entered the pitch as classic underdogs. After our trademark team huddle (which became the lucky charm) we decided that we should go for it knowing that a place in the final would guarantee silver medals all round.
Semi Final
3 minutes of fought out defending gave us our first chance and having scored the first goal in front of our fan base (the CO, Cdt Gosset and FS Miller) we sat back and defended. Unfortunately taking the foot off the pedal invited pressure and sure enough it came in the form of a Newbury goal.
The game went to extra time. In the dying seconds and with penalties almost a certainty we finally broke through the defence and with a volley into the bottom left hand corner of the net, we successfully secured our place in the final.
Final
Fortunately Wokingham had lost to Bracknell in the semi finals but this led us to face the danger man of the tournament, named by our team as “guy with orange socks”, we had already seen how he had ripped other teams apart. We defended hard and fought for each ball but inevitably 2 goals from Bracknell ended the incredible run we had. We collected our silver medals at the end and morale was still high on the team bus back to Earley.
Earley 4-0 Chipping Norton Goals from; Cdt Biyani, Cdt Basnet, FS Griffin x2
Earley 1-0 Kiddlington Goals from; own goal
Earley 2-1 Newbury Goals from; FS Griffin x2
Earley 0-2 Bracknell
Last Note
Something that hasn’t been mentioned so far was the unbelievable commitment put in by stand in keeper Cdt Mignot, with some fabulous saves he contributed to the wins we enjoyed and was outstanding in all games.
Cdt Biyani was also solid at the back man marking the Bracknell danger man and even scoring himself
Cdt Gyawali was also an amazing partner to Biyani at the back with some good balls to the front men and also some speculative shots himself.
Cdt Basnet was also one of the stand out players of the whole tournament with glorious shots that we felt should have gone in.
Cdt Kemp, although he chose not to play he attended all tactic meetings in the dressing room, and was good support to know we had a reliable man to bring on if one of us was injured.
To conclude it was a very successful tournament with Earley bringing home the silver medals. Thank you to all who attended and it was a pleasure playing with you all. Also thanks to Cdt Gosset, FS Miller and the CO who could be heard cheering the team on and giving the support needed to win the matches we did.