Teams Entered:

Woodnesborough

Deal

BayCity Strollers

Cheshunt

Chatham

Aylesford

Ethelbert Wanderers

 

BayCity Squad:

Glenn GK

Dave Captain

Rob

Danny

Pete

Michael

Scott

Darren

 

The tournament was based on each team playing each other once and the top two playing the final.

 

BayCity 1 v Woodnesborough 0

First up for BayCity was our arch-rivals Woodnesborough.

BayCity came out strong right from the start, playing some excellent football and denying Woodnesborough very little possession.

BayCity continued to create chances and soon paid off after about 8 minutes with Pete teasing their defence with some lovely moves which enable him to turn the defender and shoot past the keeper. Unfortunately, that was the end of Pete’s match as he took a stumble on his ankle scoring the goal.

However, with Pete off and Michael on, BayCity kept their heads and continued to pressure the hosts.

Woodnesborough didn’t seem to have much to offer throughout the game and it was BayCity off to a flying start.

 

Next up was Aylesford.

 

BayCity 1 v Aylesford 2

Straight onto the next match with very little time to catch a breath. Having beaten Aylesford recently in the National cup, Aylesford were looking for revenge and came out strong from the off with some good one touch football and plenty of pressure on the BayCity goal, luckily Glenn was on hand to prevent them from scoring.

In the meantime, BayCity were finding there feet and putting the pressure on at the other end of the pitch.

It was Aylesford to score first with their number 8 firing in an unstoppable right foot shot which no one saw coming.

Heads up, and BayCity were soon level with a through ball to Darren that he just managed to slide on to the ball and slip it past the stretching keeper. Despite protests of going into the area, the referee overruled it and the goal was given.

With only a few minutes to go, it was Aylesford’s number 8 firing in an intercepted roll out from Glenn. With seconds left on the clock Pete almost levelled things with another clever turn which narrowly missed the post.

 

Next up was Ethelbert Wanderers

 

BayCity 2 v Ethelbert Wanderers 1

Yet again there was no time for a breather and it was onto the grass pitches

The game started of with tensions running a bit high and BayCity were showing a lack of discipline with the running rule and were soon on 3 warnings despite protests which led to a yellow card for Pete.

However, BayCity still continued to lack discipline and were rightly served their fourth warning, penalty to Ethelbert and quite rightly score from the spot.

BayCity had to turn the game around and with substitutions made Pete and Scott with a goal each put the game to bed.

 

Next up was Chatham

 

BayCity 1 v Chatham 4

Knowing very little of our next opponents, BayCity were on the back foot from the start with a barrage of pressing attacks from Chatham which soon became a barrage of goals that basically stunned us in our tracks.

BayCity were wondering how they were managing to press so quickly leaving a loan striker to do the damage just by holding up the ball for as long as he could until he could find space to turn and score. Credit where its due the shots were almost unstoppable at close range. By now Glenn must have been thinking that his goal was purely for target practice.

Four nil down BayCity finally found some form of resilience and a late penalty that was executed by Pete gave BayCity a consolation goal.

 

Next up was Cheshunt who had travelled down from Hertfordshire.

 

BayCity 2 v Cheshunt 4

Once again BayCity went into the game not knowing anything about their opponents, but the two teams seemed pretty well matched with some good end to end football from both teams.

However, Cheshunt were first to score with a great long-range effort that left Glenn with no chance of getting to.

Within a few minutes, BayCity were level with a great effort from Scott who beat 3 players to tuck the ball home.

It wasn’t long before Cheshunt were back in the lead with another well taken goal.

Undeterred by this, BayCity hit back straight away with another well executed move on their defence saw Pete adding to his goal tally.

With two quick goals by Cheshunt, BayCity had nothing left to offer.

 

Final match, Deal

 

BayCity 3 V Deal 0

Final Match was against Deal who we played just less than a week ago in a friendly at Deal.

Fielding a team of borrowed players Deal never really got into the game as BayCity still had some legs left having played five games without a break.

Once again BayCity found themselves piling on the pressure with some good pressing play that saw Scott putting away 2 goals and Dave with 1 goal and very little resilience from Deal, made light work of the final match.

 

Finishing fourth with 9 points BayCity were fairly pleased with the result and came away with some useful things to think about as the new season gets nearer.

 

The final saw Aylesford and Cheshunt go head-to-head which saw both teams producing some excellent end to end football with both keepers producing some amazing saves to keep their respective teams in the game. Although Cheshunt had the slight edge, the final ended goalless.

So, onto penalties to decide the winners. This was one penalty shoot out that was not to be missed. Forget about the penalty shoot out that took place 3 hours later on TV, this was as gripping as any penalty shout out could be.

With both teams matching each other like for like with some great penalties and amazing saves, it was the 37^th penalty that decided the game as the Aylesford keeper became the hero of the day pulling off another a great save.

A great end to a great day’s walking football that was played in good spirits with lots of money raised and new friendships made.

A big thank you to Woodnesborough who were great host and organised the day without any hiccups.