Courtesy: The FA.com


Northern contenders taking shape

Friday, 30 March, 2012

Free scoring Myerscough progress into National finals.

Last weekend saw the second of the three regional qualifiers take place in the North for The FA U18s National Futsal Championships. The regional qualifier gave teams from across the north an opportunity to play at the National Cycling Centre, the home of The FA National Futsal League team Manchester Futsal Club.

Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Middlesbrough Futsal Clubs made up a strong contingent of clubs from The FA National Futsal League who submitted their U18s, with further teams from Myerscough, Cheadle & Marple and Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form Colleges. The watching crowd was thoroughly entertained in a series of high scoring games with a total of 84 goals being scored on the day with an average of eight goals a game.

The qualifiers started with teams playing in groups with Myerscough setting the benchmark for the rest of the teams to follow in their opening group game with an imperious display of attacking Futsal to beat Sheffield 17-2. Not to be out done by their college counterparts, Queen Elizabeth also got off to an impressive start with a 5-0 win against national league opposition in Liverpool.

It was now down to both Manchester and Middlesbrough to restore some parity with the early form of the colleges in their opening Group 1 game and it was the team from the North East who showed their watching opponents they were a team to feared in the competition with a dominating display against the much fancied Manchester team to run out winners 4-0.

Two further wins for Myerscough and Queen Elizabeth against Liverpool and Sheffield respectively would see the final group game being the decider on who would progress to the Final. Queen Elizabeth faced an uphill task to progress against the free scoring Mysercough with nothing but a win seeing them book a place in the Final. However it did not take Myerscough long to take a stranglehold of the game racing into an early 2-0 lead to more or less assure their progression into the Finals. It was the impressive Rhys Turner who would be their nemesis, adding to his final goal tally of nine which would see him finish as the competition's top goalscorer. The second period continued in the same fashion with Queen Elizabeth pressing for goals to get them back into the game but Myerscough were able to pick them off on the counter attack to score three further goals without any reply to secure their place in the Final and confirm themselves as the team to beat.

In Group 1, it would be Middlesbrough who would see themselves with the difficult task of trying to stop Myserscough in the Final after booking their place with an impressive fight back from 4-0 down against Cheadle & Marple College to win through 6-4 in the game of the competition and a real Futsal classic.

The final group game again did not disappoint with this time Cheadle & Marple staging a fight back against Liverpool to come back from 2-0 down at half time to draw 4-4 in a local derby full of pride and endeavor.

After the last two group games, the watching crowd were anticipating the Final to give equal if not more entertainment with the two unbeaten teams testing their skills and abilities against each other. The first seven minutes started in the usual game of chess. However this would all change in the following seven minutes seeing Myserscough score four times without any reply. The second period Middlesbrough did all of the running with Myerscough being patient and picking the right time to break clinically and score three further times which would be enough to see them progress into the Grand Finals, alongside Oxford Lions from the Midlands qualifier, scoring an extraordinary thirty seven goals on the way.

Speaking about the Finals, Simon Walker, FA National Manager for Adult Grassroots Football, commented: "The North qualifier has shown how rapidly the quality of Futsal is developing in this country. The standard of this year’s qualifier was even higher than the previous years – showing the commitment by many clubs and colleges to develop the sport.”




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com