We finished the season with the best tournament performance in the four years that I have been managing the team. The Tonbridge Juniors Fiesta is always very keenly contested - it's the biggest - and everyone wants to win it, and as we move up the age groups there are fewer easy games, so to achieve 2 wins and a draw is a great achievement. That the draw was achieved against last year's winners and this year's runners-up is even more amazing.
We started with an excellent performance against Real 60 FC, taking the lead with a Jamie Wickham goal, but we conceded a goal against the run of play at the end of the first half. We continued to create chances in the second half, but the Real 60 goalkeeper made a number of great saves. With our usual luck we conceded a goal with the last kick of the match - which was too much for some of the players and the parents to bear, having seen it so many times this season.
Our next match was against Langton Green, who were strengthened by borrowing a couple of boys who are on the books of Chelsea and Crystal Palace. We conceded a goal when the ball was (wrongly) adjudged to be over the line, and never recovered.
Our next match was against the 2001 champions Eversley Rangers and the boys worked really hard for a 0-0 draw. This seemed to inspire the team and we achieved victories against Glenco FC and Chevron FC, with Jamie Wickham scoring 2 goals in each match.
A Langton Green victory in their last match meant that we had no chance of qualifying, so we had a bit of fun with the team line up for our last match, but still played well and - guess what? - lost to the last kick of the game.
Loads of fantastic performances, notably Jamie Hards in goal and Man of the Day Jamie Wickham who was on fire and put in his best performance in over a year. Having used up all out bad luck this season, we can look forward to the rub of the green next season and hopefully have lots of victories to report on. |