Royals Match Report 2003-04

Meole Brace Tournament a Great Success (Pre-season 31-08-03)

1) Church Stretton "A" 0-5 Meole Colts
2) Meole Juniors 0-1 Church Stretton "B" (Smith)
3) Meole Colts 3-0 Church Stretton "B"
4) Meole Juniors 1-0 Church Stretton "A"
5) Meole Juniors 0-6 Meole Colts
6) Church Stretton "A" 0-2 Church Stretton "B" (Case, Carless-Turland)

The Magpies mixed their 11 man squad for this well organised event held at Meole Brace Junior School, fielding two teams of roughly equal strength. Six matches were played altogether, with Meole Colts coming out top with a 100% record.

Despite the results the teams played very well and after some initial nervousness settled down to play some good passing football.

Match 1 saw Meole Colts start off how they meant to continue and some loose defending at the back and poor marking by Stretton "A" let their strikers run the game, scoring 5 goals.

Match 2 saw Stretton "B" play some of the most attractive passing football to date and they dominated most of this match. Only some top goalkeeping stopped them from building up a large total. Continued pressure by the team eventually resulted in Rory Smith striking home the winner from 7 yards.

Match 3 showed Stretton "B" pull together against the eventual winners of the tournament, and the score didn't do justice to the efforts made. Stretton "B" had their chances and could quite easily have earned a draw from this match. Some strong performances by all players involved.

Match 4 saw the weakest team in the tournament pull off a surprise 1-0 win against Stretton "A". A lapse in concentration at the back let their attacker through and he made no mistake with only the keeper to beat. Despite continued pressure, Stretton were unable to equalise.

Match 5 did not involve Stretton, but saw the strong Meole Colts knock up the highest score of the day against their local rivals.

Match 6 saw the two Stretton sides come together and goals from Jack Case and Harvey Carless-Turland saw Stretton "B" as the winners in this closely fought contest.

Overall, some excellent performances including Hugo Jervis and Michael Brayne at the back and by Jordan Wells, who seems to get better with every game he plays in goal. Jack Case also impressed playing in his more natural role of striker.

We have the makings of what could be a successful team if we continue to play and train with the enthusiasm shown so far.