We put two fairly evenly matched teams into our own tournament: the Tonbridge Juniors Fiesta. Tonbridge Junior Weald, captained by Ben Spring, and Tonbridge Junior Villa, captained by Tom Ryan.
Tonbridge Junior Weald were in Group D, which produced the tournament winners and runners-up. They started playing great football from the kick-off against Ridgewaye and deserved to take the lead through an own goal, but as always happens against our bogey team we couldn't turn our domination into victory, but at least we got a point this time when they equalised. They also dominated the second match, against Horley Town, but couldn't find a goal, and were punished when they failed to defend a free kick properly and conceded the only goal of the game. Heads dropped after that, and the performance against eventual winners Kennington wasn't great, losing 3-0, but a clash against another Tonbridge Team, Invicta, got the team fired up again and they won 1-0, Chris Newble stealing in to convert a cross-cum-shot from debutant Sam Pope. The fifth match was an encounter with a characteristically cynical East Grinstead team. They were runners-up in the tournament, but were lucky to get the three points, winning 1-0, Tonbridge creating the best chances and being denied by a combination of good goalkeeping and foul play. The final match was against Croydon, and the boys had already given up, after three hours in stifling heat, and lost 3-0 to a very good side. Greg Byrne was man-of-the-match for a succession of fired-up performances.
Tonbridge Junior Villa had the great disadvantage of not having a goalkeeper, so Mark Holden was handed the gloves for the first match against Three Bridges. Nothing he could do about the three goals that went past him. The second match was closer, but they lost that 1-0 against Kennington, but the best performance of all was saved for the match against Croydon. Dan Tester had claimed the goalkeeping gloves and produced a miraculous save to keep Croydon out in the first half, assisted by some typically stout defending from Tom Ryan. In the second half Nick Edwards skilfully diverted a cross over the Croydon goalkeeper with his knee to give Tonbridge the lead. They couldn't hold out, but the 1-1 draw was as good as a win. The team struggled in the last three matches against strong opposition, losing 3-0 to Larkfield, 2-0 to a Paddock Wood team that featured Tonbridge Juniors old boys Paul Smith and Dan Fogg, before losing 2-0 to Three Bridges, which was at least one goal better than the first match. Dan Tester was man-of-the-match for his goalkeeping feats. |
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