We Are The Champions .....Almost

Bunbury brilliance shines as the Young Christians football squad take on a tournament for the first time

 

If anyone had thought thar Bunbury YCs couldhave got so far at Moss Farm Football Tournament, they either had ahuge amount of faith in us or wereplain crazy. Nine YCs turned up, fully equipped with three coaches, two referees, three balls and seven well appreciated kits (courtesy of Melissa Slack)

 

We got off to a bad start and thought matters could only get worse - we were wrong. We lost the first match 1-0 to Frankby B, but our second match gave us hope when the score was reversed to 1-0 to us against Weaverham A. ‘Mr. Flame-Man’ (wearing a tee-shirt with flames on) was very mean to us about our third match, against Cheadle B. They claimed they would beat us 11-0 because they had beaten Frankby B 7-0. We proved them all wrong by only losing 6-1; the ‘1’ was the first goal of the match and was scored by expert striker Mr. Nicholas James. Cheadle B, however, lied about their age and should’ve been in the Senior Tournament.

 

That was the trials over. Out of sixteen teams in the Junior Challenge, we got into the lower eight for the Knockout Tournament that followed, which could win us a plate with our names on. The top eight teams went on into the Junior Cup Tournament, with a shiny cup up for grabs.

 

We were going to let substitute Verity Burrows on the pitch for the quarter-finals but, unfortunately, she and our left-winger, Debbie ‘Debs’ O’Neil, had to leave early for a dance concert. So, instead, Sian Sinnot came into play on the left wing for our match against CNK B.

 

In the brilliant game against CNK B, we won 3-1. Nick James got his hat-trick and it was a very close goal from CNK B. The expert defending from Sebastian ‘Bas’ Burrows and Katie ‘Kat’ Crotty lacked a bit in the quarter-finals but still stopped any more goals going in.

 

So we were through to the semi-finals against Alsager B, who nearly had to forfeit the match because they were so late turning up for it. Our goalkeeper, one Charlie Crotty, played very well in this match, not letting in a single goal. We got through to the finals after winning 2-0.

 

The whole team was very tired after that match, but - much to our dismay - we had to play the final straight away because Oxfod’s opposition didn’t turn up for the semis. We started well: our other three upfronts - Sian, Anna Lancaster and Mark Barrie - all put in good shots as well as Nick putting in his all. However, the short, yet speedy, Liverpuddlians managed to just scrape through by winning 4-0.

 

We didn’t win the plate but, thanks to our excellent teamwork, fantastic striking, amazing defending and genius goalkeeping, we pulled through to a stage we never dreamt we’ld get to.

 

Cheadle B and Frankby B went on to play the Junior Cup finals but sadly we didn’t find out the score.

 

Thank you to the adults, especially Teri and Wendy, for making it all possible, and well played to Oxfod. Thank you to Simon D., who gave up a couple of hours of his time to train us. Thank you to our two referees, Church Warden Dennis and Sian’s Dad, who were on the pitches all day. We’d also like to offer our sincere commiserations to those teams that didn’t make it as far as us.

 

Sebastian Burrows and Anna Lancaster