QWFC

Quedgeley Wanderers hosted their annual footy tournament at the end of June. The U9’s section was the largest collection of teams that the Tournament had ever attracted and on the day 24 teams took to the field all looking to be crowned champions.

QWFC U9 Reds played with a depleted squad only having 6 players available for the whole tournament:

Goalie: Sam Tandy
Defense: Ollie Odurny
Defense: Will Turner
Midfield: Benji Cronin
Midfield: Ben Tyndall
Striker: Kyle Gibbs

With the sun beating down on them and no substitutes to use only 110% commitment would get them through the day. As the group stages got underway the Red’s played some great confident football passing the ball around and tackling hard. The Red’s stormed their way through the group stages beating the following teams:

Forest Rangers 6-0 (Kyle x2, Ben x3, Benji x1),
Frampton 3-0 (Own goal, Ben x1, Benji x1),
Cheltenham Saracens Blues 1-0 (Benji x1)
Leckhampton Hawks 1-0 (Benji x1).

The Red’s showed great resolve and commitment demonstrating strong defensive lines and good goal keeping to not concede any goals. Through to the last 16 the Red’s got drawn against Tredworth as the knock out stages began. Past performances against Tredworth in the league had gone in the Red’s favor so confidence was again high. Tredworth played well but it was Quedgeley that came away with the win 1-0 scored by Benji.

Whilst the players took a well deserved break from the sun it wasn’t long before it was announced who the Red’s were to face in the Quarter-Finals – Tipton! Tipton had also had a clean run into the Quarter Finals and with their team consisting of only West Bromwich Albion Academy players the Red’s knew they were in for a tough match. Tipton started the better team and it wasn’t long before they scored their first goal, the Red’s battled hard in midfield and in defense to keep the ball away from Tipton. As the time ticked away it was looking like the Red’s were about to go out and with only seconds of the game remaining the Red’s were awarded a free kick just out side the Tipton goalies area. Kyle stepped up and drilled the ball into the back of the net to an amazed Tipton team finishing normal play 1-1. With the game moving into extra time the Red’s had been given a life line which they weren’t going to give back, the team pulled together and got stuck in keeping the Tipton players away from the home teams goal. Tipton did hit the cross bar after a couple of frustrated far out strikes but extra time ran out forcing the game into penalties.

Both teams took their penalties well and both goalies saved 2 penalties each tying the first round at 2-2 (Kyle & Ben). It then fell to sudden death and the fifth player to take a penalty, once again both teams scored equally with Will Turner scoring for the Red’s. The Ref signaled for the goalies to take their turn, Tipton went first which the Red’s goalie stepped up and pulled off a great save putting the advantage firmly in the Red’s favor. Sam then took his turn, he struck the ball with power and purpose and the Tipton goalie didn’t stand a chance – well done Sam great effort!

With a semi final place booked the boys started to dream of a finals place and with only Leckhampton Falcons and 12 minutes of football separating them from it the boys needed to re-focus. Longlevens and Cleeve Colts made up the other semi final places as the tournament was quickly drawing to a close. As the semi’s got underway both games were tight, the Red’s played well and so did the Falcons. Neither team seemed able to score and with the majority of the game being played in the Falcons half the Red’s seemed destined to go into extra time again! As predicted extra time was played, the Falcons used all their subs to try and re invigorate their team but the Red’s 6 held strong and took it into another penalty shoot out.

With some of the guys feeling a little unsure due to their earlier misses in the quarter finals the same 4 players stepped up to take them again. Kyle scored with his penalty as did Leckhampton, the second Leckhampton penalty was saved by Sam leaving Benji to score his to hand the Red’s the advantage. Benji took his penalty with confidence making it 1-2 to the Red’s. Sam saved Leckhampton's 3rd attempt and with the Red’s only requiring one more penalty Ben stepped up and with a powerful shot he scored securing a final place for the boys.

With the other semi final over, 24 teams had been reduced to 2, QWFC Red’s and Cleeve Colts were to make up the final. The Red’s were obviously tired and looked like a team just about to collapse but credit where credits due as the game started they kept their focus and pushed Cleeve hard. The Red’s didn’t waste anytime in exposing some holes in Cleeve’s defense. As the game developed Cleeve made some substitutions to try and counter the Red’s attacks but the home team just dug deeper and deeper. Cleeve kept pushing more of their players forward in an attempt to get a cheeky goal but it was the Red’s that seized their opportunity and broke with a well timed move through the middle of the pitch, Ben took his chance and scored with his first shot of the game. With only a few minutes remaining the Red’s dropped Benji back into defense to help Will, Ollie and Sam keep a clean sheet to secure the win. Cleeve came close on a couple of occasions and with a final push time fell on the Red’s side and the refs whistle blew to finish the game 1-0.

The Red’s were crowned tournament winners and worthy ones at that! The same 6 players that started the tournament 4 hours earlier had endured searing heat, playing in 7 games of which two went to extra time and two penalty shoot outs. As the old saying goes, “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to play the best”! The Red’s certainly earned their place amongst the other tournament age group winners that weekend and having won the Milkwall tournament the previous week this win really did finish off the season in style.

Well done boys what a fantastic end to the season, all the hard work that you put in during the training sessions and games really did show during the last few months. Thank you for making it such a joy to coach you and I hope you are all looking forward to next season when we’ll try and win the league and the cup!! Have a well deserved summer break and I’ll see you all back at training in August.