Crowned!
After a tense final match, Crowninthians FC become champions!
Our 14th and final week started off a little rocky as The Rebel Alliance were forced to take a 1-0 walk over loss to the Park Arabs due to not raising a team – a controversial moment which meant the Park could claim the league without kicking a ball in the final week. Some questions were raised, and legitimately so, as the result could have been due to a fixture reshuffle but thankfully it mattered not in the end.
Our first game then saw Scouting for Goals lose their final game 6-2 against The Vaders, who had a man over for the full match. It wasn’t easy going for The Vader, though, SFG took a 2-1 lead into half time and looked like they might cause a big upset against the odds. But then Kurt Vincent came alive and took full advantage of Scouting’s tiring legs as he bagged 5 goals to kill the game off. Scouting had a legitimate run at the league title and can put their tailing off at the end to the start of the rugby season. Still, they finish a respectable 4th, just 5 points off the pace. The Vaders finish 5th after also starting brightly but missing a finisher in the team from the half way point.
Our 7.30 kick off saw Olden But Golden go all guns blazing as they looked to improve their goal difference with their outside chance of claiming the shield, finishing 8-2 victors over Borussia Maestegladbach. They may regret not being as ruthless in their other games and will also be disappointed to have thrown away their lead at the top of the table with a run of poor results. Still, they’ve been a great team to have in the league and every one of their games has been great to watch. BMG turned out a mixed bag as they didn’t have a settled team throughout the season, and I’m not sure just how many players they’ve fielded or how Hambone has such a long production line of youngsters he can call on, but they played their part and took points off a fair few of the top teams, so well done.
Our very last game of the season, and maybe the most important, saw Crowninthians FC needing just a draw against lowly Sports Centre United to claim the title of league champions. They entered the game full of confidence, and maybe a little too confident as they found SCU tough to break down. Sam Heffey finally got them on their way with a nice strike, but SCU pulled level and then took the lead with a penalty to put the game on a knifes edge. SCU sat back and provided a wall in defence as Crowninthians desperately tried to get the goal that would clinch the title. Spectators couldn’t believe what they were seeing, could SCU really pull off the biggest upset of all, in the final game of the season?
The answer was no, but not through lack of effort. Crowninthians pulled level and the Sports Centre let up their resistance as their heads went down slightly. A 3rd goal eased the tension for the champions to be and as they relaxed, 3 more goals followed and they closed out the game to comfortably win 6-2.
Above: The moment Sports Centre United’s defence finally give in to the pressure.
Huge congratulations to Crowninthians FC, who, having scored the most goals and conceded the least, are more than deserving winners of the Jay ‘Elvis’ Thomas Memorial Shield. They also embraced the league the best, buying a kit and bringing a strong squad each week so well done for everything.