Year 5 Boys - St Nicks Tournament, 4th June

Another good, but ultimately frustrating day, for the year 5 Foxes at the always enjoyable, and highly competitive, St Nicks Tournament.

We took two squads and both matched up well against opposition that was exclusively drawn from established clubs, mainly from the East/North East of Bristol and all playing regular league football.

Dave and Ewan looked after Westbury Park Foxes Blues (Owen, Seb, Nick, Sonny, Harry, Ollie C, Jack T, Jacob) and it all came down to the last game against Yate for second place. A win would have put the Foxes through to the semi but despite dominating the game and creating a number of good chances we somehow managed to concede two avoidable goals and couldn't convert more than one of our chances. Great performances throughout the team - Owen brave in goal as always, Seb in control at the back, Jack making a series of important tackles, Nick appearing everywhere, Ollie, Harry and Jacob working hard in midfield on huge pitches and Sonny causing problems up front.

Westbury Park Foxes Red (Archie, Danny, Joey, Raul, Max, Harri, Ollie K and Jack C) were slow to start losing to 1-0 to a Thornbury side that we were to meet again in the final but got better and better, storming through the rest of the group games, rounding it off with a 5-1 win over against St Nicks with a hat trick from Joey, a great team goal finished expertly by Jack and an individual effort of quality from Raul.

The boys did their ageing coaches a favour in the semi against the other St Nicks side by removing any nerves by way of a dominant performance from the start and running out 3-0 winners with two goals from Danny (the second a fantastic finish from a great through ball from Joey) and one from Joey.

Then the final.

10 mins each way. Then 6 mins extra time. The wind made it a real game of two halves as first we dominated and then Thornbury took their turn. Neither side scored in normal time. We came close from a series of great corners from Danny. They came close but brave defending and top notch keeping kept them out. Extra time was 0-0 until the last 90 seconds when finally they got past the magnificent Archie. Yet again - so close. Yet again - the boys did the club proud.

The Red squad should be delighted by the way they played throughout but particularly in taking a Hanham League 1 side so close in both games when the opposition scored either 3 or 4 against all of the other teams they played.

Thanks to all of the boys, all of the parents for their great support from very early in the morning and, for the final, the massed ranks of year three Foxes, the year five girls and some former Foxes now in year 7. Quite a day.

Now let's see what we can do at Rockleaze....