An early cold start to the morning saw the men’s 1st team heading down to the regional seven a side tournament in Plymouth at the Marjon sport and health centre. From recent years of success to last year coming runners up and the year before winning the tournament qualifying for nationals, the expectations were high.
The tournament kicked off to Team BTC vs St Brendans with the game being two half’s of 8 minutes. Team BTC started the tournament with a good first half taking a 2-0 lead through goals from Pat and Doddsy. The second half brought the players up to speed of the tournament where mistakes or lacks of concentration would go punished. With St Brendan’s pulling two goals back. However through good play Noah Coppin scoring the winning goal and giving team BTC the 3-2 win and the three points.
The second game came quickly with team BTC facing a strong Strode college side. The game was even through out with both sides cancelling each other’s attacks out. Unfortunately the lapse of concentration came from team BTC leading to Strode capitalising and scoring making it 1-0 to Strode. The game ended with Strode winning 1-0 with BTC unable to come back in the game. Bridgwater needed to bounce back in order to qualify from the groups.
The third game saw us face Petroc and the squad reacted in the perfect way from the previous defeat. Goals coming from Noah x2, Pat x2 and Callum meant the boys cruised to a comfortable 5-0 win. They showed great passages of play through out the game and looked in good form to face previous champions South Devon.
With team BTC needing a draw to qualify from the groups in second or a win to top the group, the team needed a good performance. Luckily there was no disappointment with goals coming from Pat, Noah and Callum. Seeing us lead 3-0, with a consolation goal from South Devon, the game finished with a 3-1 win defeating the previous champions. Resulting in team BTC topping the group and facing SGS in the semi finals.
The semi finals being knock out meant no mistakes could be made if the team wanted to progress to the final. Team BTC started strong not risking any play at the back and looked dangerous going forward. Again the usual goal scorers didn’t fail to find the back of the net with Noah, Pat and Callum x2 all scoring putting Team BTC 4-0 up. With a final push from SGS pulling back two late goals, the boys pulled through booking themselves a ticket to the much awaited final. Where we would end up facing Strode the only team to beat us.
Even with facing Strode in the final, the players had an air of confidence and belief heading into the game. The match much like the group stages game was a tough contest, however team BTC had a slight edge to there play looking the most likely to score. With constant dangerous attacking play the players were finally rewarded with 2x goals for Noah putting us 2-0 up. With the lead the boys showed great maturity in a high stake game. With Harley, Noah and Harry marshalling the back lines and Nathan, James, Callum and Pat showing great discipline throughout the game with there defensive responsibilities. Not forgetting Noah’s and Doddsy endless work rate holding the ball up top. Team BTC ended victorious winning 2-0 over Strode, heading themselves to the nationals in April for a weekend tournament in Nottingham.
In the end a positive day for team BTC being the second time heading to the nationals in recent years. Special thanks to the coaching staff Tim and Jamie directing the boys to the much deserved victory.
