Manchester Tournament
The first summer tournament of the year was accompanied by its usual corollary, the unholy early morning departure. The Dragons squad was led by Sian, the only first team regular, plus Julie, Amy, James and Josh from the seconds. We were supplemented by Ruth, making her Dragons debut plus guests: Jack from Cardiff Uni, Stuart from Bristol City, Kevin from Bristol Uni and Hannah from Horfield, We are equal opportunity ringer employers!
As forecast, the weather in Manchester was glorious, with just enough breeze to prevent us from completely overheating. The pitch was OK, though we soon learnt that the grass was too long to effectively use bounce passes. With 24 teams competing, the group games were only 15 minutes long, meaning that tense, low-scoring games were frequent.
We began with 2 narrow victories over Castle and Manchester Uni, before meeting National League club Nottingham. However it was far from their full strength side, and a 2-2 draw against them ultimately was a disappointing result. Next up were the Choclatiers, who were basically the British Student Squad. They comfortably outclassed us, as we made too many mistakes by trying too hard.
This meant that we had to win our last group game against the host club, Manchester City, in order to reach the quarter-finals. A good start saw us move quickly into a 2-0 lead, but then we stopped taking our chances and Manchester rallied to lead 3-2 with time running out. Stu won us a penalty, turning too quickly for his marker at the post, before right on the final hooter, Jack scored from a free-pass.
Our quarter-final pitted us against International Mongrels, who had a very experienced side, and had won their pool comfortably. We grabbed a quick goal through Hannah straight away, only for them to respond with a runner from one of their girls – a former Czech international. The game then got very tense as Dragons produced their best defensive performance of the tournament, working well as a unit to withstand heavy pressure, while still managing some threatening long shots at the other end. Unfortunately, they finally made the breakthrough, a late goal meaning a 2-1 defeat for Dragons.
Throughout the day, Cardiff City’s results had mirrored that of Dragons, both sides coming second in their pools with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. City had also lost their quarter final, 4-2 to the powerful Manchester Warriors team. And thus, with a certain inevitability, the two clubs were pitched together in the 5-8 playoffs.
The game started slowly, with City’s better teamwork having the better of play but being unable to make clear chances, while Dragons squandered possession regularly. Finally James managed to get far enough out to escape Ceri’s marking and landed a huge long shot. But Dragons were unable to maintain their lead for long, losing concentration passing out of defence, allowing Ramzi to score from close in. The changeover was to be brief though as Dragons scored instantly, Jack feeding Josh for a runner, before Ceri got revenge on James from mid court. Stu and Ramzi then exchanged long shots, before Kevin (on as a sub for Jack) put Dragons ahead once more. Again City responded, Susan turning quickly out of feed to score the final goal in a 4-4 draw.
If the game had been evenly-matched, the penalty shootout that followed was anything but. City put away all four shots that they needed to take, 2 misses from Dragons condemned us to a 4-1 defeat.
The final match was also against familiar opponents, Milton Keynes, who’ve faced us in the last two years in the BKA Cup. In a game dominated by defences, Dragons led 2-0 through Kevin and James, but allowed MK to draw level for 2-2. Again the penalty shootout went the wrong way, this time 4-3. So close had the teams in the 5-8th positions been that all 4 results of their playoffs went to penalties. The tournament was won by Dutch team, SDO Kamerink, who beat International Mongrels in the final.