Seaside Tournament (Wanderers)

Well, what can you say. It was a fantastic day over at Thornton Cleveleys. Our 3rd Seaside Tournament. 3 teams, our under 11's Woodbank Town, and our 2 under 12's teams Warriors and Wanderers.

My team for the day (Wanderers). A mixture of the established team and new girls. The competition 9-a-side, so new to the Wanderers who have just finished their last season at 7-a-side. Next season we will be playing 9-a-side, on a bigger pitch, so something to get used to.

We were in the opposite group to the Warriors, (no difference in ability) on different pitches. With 4 new girls in the mix, and only really seeing them play during training, this was an opportunity to see how they coped for real. And I wasn't dissapointed. We played against some good opposition, and the first 3 games saw 0-0 draws. The last game being our only defeat. This put us in 3rd place, out of reach of the main cup, but in a good position for the "Plate"

All the girls had played well, and were playing well as a team, a little strange in the begining, getting used to the bigger pitch and space that created. But by the semi-final stages something happened...

The team had played well up to this point, if we had gone home at this stage I wouldn't have been dissapointed, but they had held something back just to surprise us all.

Semi final, we went a goal down from a free kick, good goal. But 5 minutes later we replied with an equaliser, and then with a wonder goal from Ell, that was us through to the final, against Radcliffe Girls. Already beaten by our Warriors, could we do the same and send Radcliffe home empty handed for a 3rd year running.

Final. A good close game to start with, but again the Wanderers found their feet, and didn't seem to get tired. They started to pass the ball around really well, and really started to look like they were going to win, half time and 0-0. Second Half saw one of the best goals of the tournament from our very own Jenny Todd. The sideline went crazy, we could see the silver, it was ours. Just a few minutes to go, they seemed like forever, but eventually the whistle went. We did it. The plate was ours.

I have to say, I am very proud of all the girls who played, Beth, Jenny, Ell, Megan, Amy Jennings, Amy, Beth, Liv, Becks, Mya and Leah. You played fantastic and deserved to win. I hope you all had a daft smile on your face for the rest of the week, I know I did. See you all Friday at training.

Dave