SPL Tournament Summary

It started in Group A where me, Junior, Ludy and Psycho were battling it out. Me and Psycho played out a boring 0 – 0 with Psycho missing an open net from 5 yards over the bar being the highlight of the game. Over in the other game Junior was flexing his muscles by putting a brave Ludy to the sword with his Rangers dispatching ST Mirren 4 – 1. The second round of games saw Psycho score an impressive win against Motherwell unfortunately the player in question pulled out leaving me no Choice, but to wipe him from the tournament. Ludy had to win the next game to keep his hopes alive which was against me. It started badly for Ludy and ended badly too. I was 3 – 0 up by half-time the third being a wonder goal from 25 yards, I eventually went on to score a 4 – 0 victory. Junior dispatched Psycho 2 – 0 which essentially saw his progress through to the semi-finals, the second favourite looking very good. Sadly where Ludy and Psycho are concerned they could not get there match going and it had to be voided meaning nobody got any points, but I was very impressed with Psycho to say he had an awful team and I hope he returns for future tournaments. In the last group game was me v Junior. I took the lead, but he quickly replied to make it 1 – 1, then it really was end to end stuff in the second half with him scoring a last min goal to take top spot, though it is worth mentioning that was not the last time I would see junior.

So Group B now, home of the tournament favourite TopLad. TopLad flopped badly in this group the pressure told on those young Seviar shoulders. After losing to Kent in a highly anticipated match 2 – 1, he also went and lost to Jason 1 – 0 and picking up his only point in a 2 – 2 draw against Andrei, tournament favourite TopLad with Celtic was out. So this left Kent with a great opportunity to qualify and that he did, beating Jason 2 – 1 got him the points he needed to qualify, though he was humbled by Andrei 4 – 2. This left Andrei and Jason fighting it out for the last spot, the pressure must have got to Jason as Andrei romped to victory 5 - 2 and topped the group leaving Jason with a respectable performance overall at the tournament.

The first semi-final saw the current tournament favourite and Group A winner junioramo take on 6 – 1 Kent. The match at first appeared to be going to form in regards to the odds of the players. Junior was 4 – 0 coming to half-time, when Kent suddenly came back with not one, but two goals in extra-time making the second half very interesting. Kent was starting to dominate the match and was rewarded 15 mins from time with a goal taking the match to 4 – 3. The pivotal moment came in the last min with a free-kick which had been the result of a red card for junior as he brought the last man down with a cynical challenge. However it came to nothing and junior the tournament favoruite was through, but not without one hell of a scare, be proud of your efforts Kent!

In the second semi-final saw Group B winner Andrei and pre-tournament third favourite take on me the 6 – 1 outsider. The game started with a false start with the first match being disconnected after 17 minutes, lucky nothing of any note had happened, the first half in the restarted game was pretty much Andrei dominance, but before the half was over I broke away and scored to go one up by the end of the first half. The second half started just as well for me as I went 2 – 0 up with a brilliant strike from Richie Foran. However Andrei showing some decent form got one back in the 60th mins and then another in the 80th mins to tie the game at 2 – 2 meaning golden goal was on. In what was a tense game with both having decent chances a fine crossed from Shinnie resulted in a bicycle kick from Hayes putting me and my Inverness team through to the final, leaving Andrei gutted, but proud of his efforts and rightly so.

So the final was my Inverness 6 – 1 and fourth pre-tournament favourite, take on Junior and Old Firm Rangers, the match started brightly with both having chances and Junior eventually took his with Rangers going 1 – 0 up. Inverness were victims of poor finishing and good defending by the Old Firm team and so half-time saw Inverness with more shots on target and more possession, just could not get that goal. The second half saw Inverness get that goal, that man Richie Foran making it 1 – 1 and Inverness hopes were alive, for 2 minutes. Junior as he did in the last match instantly replied with a goal taking him into the lead. Then a few missed chances from Inverness resulted in a corner for Rangers which they scored to make it 3 – 1, the game was running away from Inverness. A few pivotal chances were missed again by Inverness, when Junior found himself a fourth goal to win the game 4 – 1. A cruel result on Inverness to be fair, but Junior has played well throughout the entire tournament and deserved to win the tournament.