Hindsford Bandits Under 15's

Beechfield United U 15's Six a side Tournament Sat 5th June 2004-06-06

I think this is the third time Hindsford Bandits have entered this tournament and we have never been too successful in the past.

This time in our Group stage we faced six other teams mainly from around the Manchester area.

Our first game against Rhodes Villa B ended goalless, with the Bandits having the best of the game and coming close a couple of times.

Unfortunately we lost our next match 1-0 against Timperley Villa D when a deflection from a corner gave Timperley a rather lucky goal.

In these games when you only have six minutes you sometimes need a bit of luck and the scores are usually low and we hoped for a bit of luck in our next game.

The next game in fact was against RadcliffeBoro. who had won all their previous 3 games but, when the going gets tough as they say.

The Bandits showed their true colours and a change of tactics and a goal from Dale Glover gave us our first win.

This put us right back in the running to qualify from our group, but we were still in 3rd spot at this time. A win in our next game against Timperley Villa B, with an Adam Murphy goal kept us in with a chance but it was looking like we would have to win both our last two games to qualify.

Another win against Tempest United B, Dale Glover scoring again, set up an exciting last group game against Beechfield lads, a game we had to win.!

Dale Glover gave us a lead midway through the six minutes but almost straight away Beechfield equalised, but the Bandits battled on and Dale conjured up the winner in the last minute to put the Bandits into the quarter final draw.

Quarter finals

In a strange twist of fate the Bandits were drawn against Timperley Villa D who we had lost to in the group stage. This time we made no mistake and completely outplayed Villa with goals from Matt Langin and Dale Glover again seeing us into the semi's 2-0.

Semi-final

Another twist of fate. This time the Bandits were drawn against Hindsford Eagles, from the same Hindsford club but a completely different team who play in the Bolton Boys Fed.

As all the lads knew each other, there was some rivalry out there but the game was played in a good spirit. Both teams had chances but at the end of the 8 minutes there was no score and that meant penalties!

The first 3 penalties for both teams were saves by the keepers, Lance Heath in the Bandits goal playing the part.

Bandits first scorer was Matt Mcdonald, an ex-Eagles player, and then when Lance Heath saved the next Eagles penalty it meant if the Bandits scored their next penalty they were in the final. Up stepped the Bandits keeper Lance Heath and fired the ball home to put the Bandits through to the final, hard luck to the Eagles.

Final

In the final the Bandits played Beechfield United Boys, the home team, and perhaps still thinking about the semi-final penalty shoot-out we were two goals down in the first 2 minutes.

The lads battled back and for the rest of the game dominated but were unable to score, despite creating a number of good chances.

In the end it was a game to far and the Bandits could not get the goals back after a brave effort.

Summing up, it was a good day overall although it was obviously disappointing not to win the final, but to come Runners up out of 28 teams was not to bad!

All the lads played their part and should take home some good memories.

Lance Heath making some good saves in goal, particularly in the penalty shoot out.

Adam Farnworth and Jonathan Banks for some resolute defending, when often out numbered.

Matt Mcdonald also good defending and his penalty against Hindsford Eagles.

Matt Langin and Daniel Banks working hard in midfield and creating chances for the forwards.

Dale Glover and Adam Murphy getting the goals when it mattered.

Reporter

Alan Banks