Day 12, Friday 8th August 2014 – Tournament Day

After an 8-30am breakfast we made our way down to the pitches.Portsmouth decided to pull out of the tournament due to injuries so it was restructured meaning we played a round robin event of 40 minutes each game against Birmingham City and Sheffield United with the winners playing each other in the final.We kicked off first against Birmingham City.After a scrappy opening 20 minutes it was Birmingham who opened the scoring.5 minutes later we levelled the game through Reece Webb Foster.No more goals were scored so it ended 1-1.Overall it was a creditable draw against a category 2 club with a budget 4 times bigger than ours.After a 15 minute break we played the 2nd game against Sheffield United who again are a category 2 club with a big budget.We managed to take the lead through Danny Devine who put away the rebound from James Pollards free kick.After having 4 more good chances to put the game to bed it was Sheffield who capitalised on a defensive lapse to make the final score 1-1.Birmingham played out a 1-1 draw with Sheffield meaning all teams were tied on 2 points each so it went to a penalty shoot out to decide the 2 finalists.We ended up winning our shoot out 4-2 against Sheffield United who went on to lose to Birmingham meaning we played Birmingham in the afternoon final.We managed to control the opening 20 minutes and took the lead through Reece Webb Foster.He then had a good chance to double our lead but his shot went agonisingly wide.We conceded the equaliser with 15 minutes to go after a counter attack from our corner.Birmingham went on to score 2 more late goals to make the final score 3-1.Although disappointed with the final result it was a fantastic achievement to reach the final and more than hold our own against 2 strong teams.

In the evening we had a debrief and evaluated the last 2 weeks,after which we had a BBQ and prize giving event organised by League Football Education.

We have had a fantastic fortnight getting to know each other and coming closer as a group also competing against different opposition playing against different formations also experiencing a different culture and way of life.