Hearts U9 Falcons runners-up at Ashridge Park Tournament

The U9 Falcons had a successful day out a the Ashridge Park 7-aside tournament on Sunday 11th, coming runners up in a very close final that went extra time before finishing 1-0

The boys are now well seasoned tournament players, and knew to start with energy if they were to make any impression in the short 10 minute matches. They came straight out of the blocks to beat Wokingham & Emmbrook Tigers 2-0. And it didn’t stop there are they basked in the morning sunshine seemingly dispatching all that was in front of them with a 5 match winning run against Wargrave Wolves (2-0), Woodley Saints Hornets (1-0), Maidenhead Magpies (2-1) and Finchampstead Crusaders (1-0). The game against Maidenhead was the most satisfying, as the boys showed character to dig deep to come from 1-0 down to finally win against a good team who the Falcons last met in the EBFA cup semi-final.

Confident of being through to the semi-finals, we rotated the impenetrable defence to give a few players a rest, losing 1-0 (penalty) to the host team Ashridge Park.

With little time to recover, the boys were drawn against the same Ashridge opponents for the semi final. And back in their normal positions, the boys proved an entirely different opponents to the team that had just beaten them, going through to the final with a comfortable 1-0 win.

The final was against a very strong Finchampstead Cardinals team, the only team we hadn’t played yet, and they proved worthy finalists. Easily the best team we had come across, the Falcons defence proved impenetrable again, but struggled to get the ball away into Finchampstead’s half. Kept in the game by a penalty save from goalie and Falcons Player-of-the-Season Jacob Estall, the match went to extra time. As legs began to tire and now with only one sub, the Falcons finally conceded a goal. It was only the second goal conceded in the whole tournament by defensive partnership Cameron Preston (on loan from the Eagles!) and Louis Middleton. That was enough to win the match, but the Falcons pushed to the very end trying to get the elusive equaliser, but to no avail.

All-in-all a well run tournament with lots of great football and some nice shiny runners-up medals, which the boys enjoyed while re-fuelling with their well earned burgers! Special thanks also to Finley Foster (Hawks) & Cameron Preston (Eagles) for helping keep our numbers up!

Goals: Finely (4), Eadoin (3), Pete (1), Gabriel (1)
Assists: Pete (4), Finley (2), Gabriel (2), Eadoin (1)

Players: Eadoin Brown, Gabriel Chichocki, Marcus Laffan, Jacob Estall, Pete Leyland, Louis Middleton, Stanley Makepeace, Cameron Preston, Finley Foster

Coaches: Andy Leyland, Phill Brown, Paul Laffan