Over the weekend our U13s JPL side entered the Hyde park Knights 11 aside tournament. It started against a tough Bramley Sunnyside Blacks team who started fast to claim a 1-0 win, the lads soon realised 18 minutes one way isn’t long enough so need to switch on sooner.
We then faced Hyde park who were a big physical team but we started sharply and went 1-0 up, we had chance after chance and couldn’t finish, Hyde got a dubious free kick out wide, and with a hit and hope scored what looked like a peach of a free kick, there only shot! 1-1 Full time.
We got the lads in for a brutally honest chat, which went along the lines of “stop being so nice” Game three saw us face Bramley blues, which are their second team, started fast went 1-0 up, again took our foot off and they snatched an equaliser. However this was different, we pushed on and with the last kick of the game Bellamy slotted in a last gasp winner following great work down the left by a rejuvenated H.
Game 4 saw us face Thornecliffe Jnrs who were no match as the lads sealed a comfortable 5-1 win. Game 5 saw us face South Park rangers, in a game that finished 1-1 after knowing we had made it through the group stage and made a few positional changes we relaxed a lot.
So onto the semi finals and we faced Bramley blues again, The lads weren’t willing to let it go to the last kick of the game this time and dispatched of Bramley 6-1 even after falling behind to an own goal
Onto the final and we matched with Bramley Blacks who had a 100% record winning every game they played, A very physical team who asserted that side of the game against every team, but they came unstuck with that approach against us. They were out fought and out thought and were lucky to see the game reach penalties, Skipper G came up trumps to make a great save from the first penalty, Ponte missed a spot kick too with a great save and it came to the last kick and Bramleys no. 9 sent it over the bar for a deserved win for Ponte!
All lads came away with great credit after superb performances, a shout out for two lads who seems like they’ve played together forever, Alf n Jense who compliment each other really well, also Bellamy and Oli who were solid defensively and always play with there hearts on their sleeves. Liam who swapped positions and played superbly at wing back and in his familiar central role, also Charlie our Mr 100% never gives anything less and Browny who was class with the ball as we all know but has added bite and effort when out of possession they were class in the middle of the park, along with the returning Koal who really grew in to his role and bagged an awesome free kick, Big G the skipper in the net who is the teams voice of reason and is just pure class, Joe aswell who played in a variety of positions and always gives 100% was top class, Seb who’s finishing was fantastic and who’s work rate is second to none! Big credit to H who played an unfamiliar left wing back role and was superb all day, beating men, some unbelievable crosses and assists, and last but not least Blake, played as an attacking no. 10 taking up great positions, scoring, assisting and coming away with our player of the tournament.
