We went into unfamiliar territory for our first tournament of the season, the Hailsham Six-a-Side Tournament. We had previously played teams from Hailsham in mini-soccer, but we hadn't even heard of the other teams in our group.
In many ways this tournament reflected our season - we dominated games, but couldn't put the ball
in the net. We had a very strong team and for the first time in a
tournament I actually felt we had a chance of reaching the semis. There's no
doubt that we could have if we'd put our chances away.
Our first match was
against Hassocks Juniors, who eventually came 2nd in the group - the match was very even and finished
0-0.
Our second match was against Rustington who won the group. We dominated the match from
start to finish, playing probably the best passing football of the season, but Rustington scored a breakaway goal in injury time.
Our next match
against Ridge Rangers was probably our worst. Again we created chances, but after Michael Ide missed a good opportunity Ridge Rangers came straight up
our end and scored. We continued to miss chances in the 2nd half.
We put together another solid performance against Halsford Lions, who had won their previous two games, but a 0-0 draw left us no chance of qualifying.
As I knew we couldn't qualify for the semi-finals, I thought we'd have a bit of fun for the last game, against Hailsham B. So top scorer Jamie Wickham (playing less than four weeks after an appendectomy) played in defence, goalkeeper Jamie Hards played in midfield and Tom Ryan, our best defender, played up front.
We took the lead in the first half through makeshift striker Tom, who was first to react to a corner. In the second half Jamie Wickham was in his own half and he decided to try a shot from about 40 yards. It was one of those moments that happens in slow motion, and I can still see the ball leaving his left foot and the ball soaring through the air and seeming to take about 30 seconds to come down in a goal that was only 4 feet high. Everyone anywhere near the pitch stared in utter disbelief. If you can shoot like that it doesn't matter that you're not fit enough to run.
Hailsham got a goal back, but we held on for our first win of the tournament. It may have been too little too late, but it was good to finish on a high, and we showed that we've got the basis of a good six-a-side team.
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