Strollers 7 Ebbsfleet 0
Strollers 4 Medway 3
Strollers 0 Maidstone 3
Strollers 1 Herne Bay 3

BayCity Strollers fielded a 5 man squad comprising Lawrence, Steve, Jim, Martin and Kev.  In a 5-a-side tournament, captain Kev had to make some difficult team selections but in the end made the right call.

It all started so well against Ebbsfleet who we had defeated in a league game only a couple of days before.  We were on fire – goals mostly from Martin and Kevin with some very good finishing gave us an outstanding win.  I was marking their new centre forward who had not featured in the previous game.  I soon picked up that he was called ‘Magic’.  Well he quickly did a disappearing act for the next match!

Quick break, then on to the next game.  4-3 against Medway was a bit tight but did include comedy own goal of the season with Martin netting at the wrong end.  We managed to keep in front and didn’t give them too many chances.

So 2 wins out of 2 and we were starting to dream of glory and that big money transfer to Herne Bay or a Steve (Hollywood) Rich handshake.  Back down to earth with a bump against Maidstone.  We did not do ourselves any favours by getting involved in a bit of physical stuff with not much protection from our referee (who had a remarkable resemblance to Donald Trump).  To be fair, when we conceded a free kick he did suggest we build a wall…..  Martin in particular was kicked all over the place and instead of trying to play our stuff we lost a bit of concentration and paid the penalty.

So last match: we could still qualify with a win – Herne Bay no problem!  We gave it a good go but quickly went a couple of goals down against a very good side – not a great start.  We stuck at it with Kev getting our goal and it was a good game played in the right spirit.

So we didn’t quite get through despite starting brilliantly but ultimately running out of steam.  We gathered our stuff and put our weary limbs through one last big effort and made it to the bar where a couple of pints quickly eased our ageing, aching bodies.

We all enjoyed ourselves and although there was not an official presentation, I’m pretty sure one of our squad would have got goal of the tournament.

Jim Dobson