Reports

As the 2007/2008 season progresses we’ll be adding reports to tell you how things are going.

Latest Report

BBS VI Football League League Tournament 4 – Loughborough - Saturday 9th February 2008

The VI League moved on in February to pay a long awaited return to Loughborough, home of the reigning league champions, and after the standard set in Telford in January the players had a lot to live up to both in terms of the standard of play and entertainment value.

Division One

The day began with West Bromwich Albion A leading the pack with a relatively healthy gap to Loughborough Lions A, Inter Cosmos and the hard chasing RNC A and Loughborough B sides.  That the day ended with the team at the bottom of the league collecting the most points speaks volumes for the competitive nature of this division.  At the start of the day Loughborough Lions B had it all to do.  They couldn’t afford to lose touch with the sides above them or they’d risk entering the final two tournaments in real danger of being relegated. 

First up were their nearest rivals RNC A, who they managed to despatch with a solid 4-0 score line.  A solid result but not necessarily a surprise from last season’s runners up, especially given that RNC A had a depleted team of just 4 players.  However, Loughborough B’s following match saw them turn the tables on their more illustrious colleagues (and league champions) as they beat a frustrated Loughborough Lions A by 4 goals to 2.

Next came the current league leaders West Bromwich Albion A.  This was the ‘battle’ of the day culminating in a 0-0 score line and a well deserved red card for West Brom’s McDougal following an incident better suited to the boxing ring with the bemused Loughborough number 7. 

All that stood between Loughborough B and an excellent 10 point tally was the three man Inter Cosmos outfit.  Depleted through injury the inter players had battled all day, initially with no reward against West Brom and Loughborough A, but fresh from a thrilling 5 all score line against four man RNC A Inter were confident of another upset.  When they earned a 2-1 lead by mid way through the first half the Loughborough boys were nervous.  Surely their hard work wasn’t going to be undone against 3 men!  By the second half the Inter resistance had to give way and Loughborough finally ran out 7 – 4 winners to cap an excellent day for the home team. 

Loughborough A and West Brom A both stuttered on the day with points dropped when they played one another and against Loughborough B.  However, with Inter Cosmos picking up just the one point on the day these two have an almost uncatchable lead at the top and look set to battle it out to the end. 

All in all another exciting day of Futsal by the first division with some excellent performances on the day.

Division Two

After grabbing the headlines, perhaps unfairly, for the more unsavoury side of the game in January division two had it all to do today.  Given top billing on the main ‘show court’ nearest the spectators the teams were given centre stage.

Again, the results in this division show just what a competitive second division we have in the VI league. 

The team of the day was clearly the QAC outfit with all games won, the majority by at least two clear goals.  Turned out (finally) in their new kit the team played well all day and ran out comfortable winners in most of their games, their closest score line coming against bottom side West Brom B.

After an initial panic as the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation players realised their kit was ‘stuck in traffic’ on the journey from North London the team soon settled (fully clothed!) into some strong performances, picking up maximum points against everyone but the team from QAC.  This included an impressive clean sheet and 2-0 victory against close rivals South Shields who ended the day with two defeats to dent their title aspirations. 

West Brom B battled hard today and although ultimately ending with 0 points they ran teams much closer this time around with new goalkeeper Alan Humphries making a welcome return to the VI league in perhaps the league’s ‘busiest’ position.....welcome back Alan!!

RNC B had some strong performances, but with just 8 players to cover both their A and B squads they had elected to field two teams of 4 so the B team ultimately came up short despite fighting hard all day.

That just leaves Swansea City, who after a ‘nightmare journey’ to get to Loughborough unfortunately began the day by having to forfeit their opening fixture against Tottenham due to their late arrival.  From there though they performed well and picked up some valuable points to see them further establish themselves as a developing side in the VI league, clearly learning fast and seemingly enjoying every minute!

All in all another excellent day.  The new venue was widely viewed as a triumph and as both divisions’ edge ever closer to their nail biting conclusions in Telford we shall look back on the Loughborough event as a success.