Sunday 5th April - The Caledonian Spring Cup at North Inch
We were delighted to accept Ormond Saints inviation to take part in a four team tournament in Perth, a tournament that had been planned since our Sixes last May.
Appin, FC Scotspurs and the hosts were the other teams in the tournament and the plan was for each team to play against each other in a group format with the games lasting half an hour (fifteen each way). In the event of a draw sudden death penalties would be taken.
Our trip to Whitby had been too much for Raymie who had been struggling health wise ever since having to play in North Yorkshire. Davie the Keeper called off as well whilst Arthur's voices in his head were telling him to "drink Guinness" rather than "play football".
Nowadays when we are short of players we call on our Polish reserves and two more of our Eastern European cousins were brought into the squad. Andrej (Andy) came along as keeper and Pietr (aka Peter Pole) as a centre forward. Sicknote also returned after being missing for a couple of weeks.
On a lovely, but windy, day our first opponents were FC Scotspurs and we lined up as follows:-
Andrej Prybytek, Gary Sutherland, Marcin Szamocki, Paul Joyce, Chris Kobylinksi, Colin McGowan, John Crosbie, Rafal Staniecki, John Kirkland, Pietr Aleksandrowicz and Jordan Walker.
In Raymie's absence Mr C was in charge of picking the team so we went in with a 4-4-2 formation rather than the usual defensive nonsense that the Boss always picks. With only half an hour each game there was no time for defence as it was more important to get goals.
On a fairly big pitch the wind was a factor against Scotspurs and our opponents had first use of the conditions and had the better of the first fifteen. Andy showed some good handling in goals and the teams turned around goalless.
In the second half we gained the upper hand and Pietr was proving a handful up front and eventually broke the deadlock with a shot from the egde of the box which found the bottom corner.
Unfortunately, with only minutes remaining, Pietr fell heavily on his knee and aggravated a long standing problem with his cruiciate. He limped off as we played out the last few moments and gained the points thanks to his strike.
Appin also won by a single goal against Ormond Saints and were our next opponents. Included in the Appin ranks were some familiar faces in Geordie Rab, Tony, Scott, George, Jim, Andy, a semi sober Liam and Stevie.
It would be fair to say that this would probably be the tournament decider and we started with the same team including Pietr who decided to give his knee a try out. It didn't last and Mr C had to come on at left midfield with Jordi going up front (we never got that dream forward pairing of Jordan and Pietr after all !).
It was a hard competitive game which had few chances. We defended well and Andrej again showed good handling but the game ended scoreless and went to sudden death penalties.
Rab took Appin's kick and scored then Jordi tried to place his kick but Jimmy Jackson in the Appin goal saved. No points for us and two points for Appin for a sudden death win.
In the other game Scotspurs beat Saintees 3-0 which meant we had to rely on Spurs beating Appin whilst we would have to score at least three against Saints to have a chance of winning.
None of the calculations mattered though as Appin raced into an early 2-0 lead and that is how their game finished.
For our game against Saintees, Appin's Jim Weir was desperate to pull on the black top and came in at left midfield for Mr C with Pietr sidelined.
Saintees hadn't scored a goal in the tournament and nothing changed in this game as we ran out winners by a single goal from Cuckoo who chipped the ball into the net after the keeper had blocked a shot.
The final table read:- Appin 8pts, QP 6pts, Scotspurs 3pts, Saintees 0pts
Like Appin we hadn't lost a goal (three well deserved shut outs for Andrej) but our loss in the sudden death penalty shoot out put us into second place.
Onto to a busy Ormonds bar for the better part of the day, the food, drink and socialising, oh, and the presentations.
Mr Organiser, Fat Gav Stewart presented the prizes and they went to Ian Strawson of Saintees for Player of the Tournament, Scotspurs for the Fairplay Team Award, our own Jordi for the Fairplay Player Award and the Caledonian Spring Cup went to Rab MacDonald on behalf of the Appin team.
Plenty of good chat, good drink and good food in Ormonds and then a journey home where we made the most of our raffle prizes (cheap vodka and wine, you can take the boy out of Glasgow............).
A big thanks to Gav for organising the Spring Cup which he hopes to make into an annual event. After years of threatening to hold a tournament he finally managed one and it was a big success.
Campbell's Conjurors: Pietr Aleksandrowicz, John Crosbie and Chris Kobylinski
PHOTOS