U13's 2008/2009 win the Faygate Tournament
Its amazing how bad weather can focus the mind. The Tent went up comparatively easily with thick black clouds gathering apace and the rain falling heavily just as the tent was raised. It seemed that a repeat of the previous year was in store when cars only escaped if towed or were of the 4X4 variety. However the skies cleared quickly and sunburn once again was the biggest concern.
The draw that we had been given was quite interesting as we were amongst a number of teams that we had not met for a while or at all such as Marle Place Rangers, Billingshurst Youth who have a team in our Horsham League, Horsham Crusaders and the interestingly named WAB “B”. Apparently named after their coach. I feel this is a little self indulgent and you have my word that we will not be changing our name!
The first game was against the aforementioned WAB “B” who were the beneficiaries of one of Liam’s early strikes, low and hard to the keeper’s right hand. The second was from Ellias, whilst the third was the result of a late cross from Josh and a diving header at the far post from Jerome.
The following match against Billingshurst Youth was frustrating as chance after chance was spurned until a late goal by Ellias off of a low driven corner from Liam.
Our third game was against our old friends TD Shipley and once again we were quickly into our stride a 3-0 win in 10 minutes is an achievement. Sam took a turn at the head of the charge and scored two goals with Josh adding the third.
In game four we met Phoenix Utd, a game that Elliot particularly was looking forward to. Another reasonably easy game resulted in a 2-0 victory.
In the first four games Matt had only touched the ball once and that had been from a back pass. That was to change in the next game against Oakwood in which he pulled off a couple of good saves in an evenly matched game. We appeared the better side in the first half which we played up the slope. The second half changed and Oakwood took the initiative as we lost our shape. Our passing became less accurate whilst Oakwood who are in my opinion physically stronger gained the upper hand. We started to look a little nervous but held out 0-0.
Our sixth game was a little disappointing with the passing and movement that over various tournaments has marked our play eluding us and although we had already virtually qualified a 0-0 draw against Marle Place Rangers was not good enough.
The final group game was against Horsham Crusaders “B” and some form returned thankfully with four excellently worked goals, two from Jerome, and one each from Ellias and Sam. Qualification was to be as runners up to Oakwood who had won all of their other matches.
In theory we would have the harder semi-final against the winners of the other group which was to be against Billingshurst A. Once again our group strength came through and a return to the form displayed in the earlier matches. Liam scored an early second half goal to calm our nerves after having a pass slid between two defenders from Jerome, Liam finished with aplomb. The second came from Josh late on in the second period and came from a break away where he rounded the keeper and finished from a difficult angle with two defenders closing down the shot.
The final beckoned and surprisingly Oakwood could not overcome Ifield Edwards in their semi final. Therefore Ifield Edwards lay as opposition to gain our first Trophy. We did not perform at our best in the final, but our own strength and Ellias muscling through gave us a 1-0 lead. We then withstood a significant amount of pressure and another excellent stop from Matt meant that we were to hold out. Not a great game but the finest result.
Our group effort and will can overcome any individual player that the opposition might have, and if we can maintain our standards then next season which is close now holds much promise.
Group Match Results
Twin Oaks 3 WAB "B" 0
Twin Oaks 1 Billingshurst Youth 0
Twin oaks 3 TD Shipley 0
Twin Oaks 2 Phoenix Utd 0
Twin Oaks 0 Oakwood 0
Twin Oaks 0 Marle Place Rangers 0
Semi Final
Twin Oaks 2 Billingshurst "A" 0
Final
Twin Oaks 1 Ifield Edwards 0