St Albans City Youth
Six-a-Side tournament
This years event was organised by John Seeby who dedicated himself to maximising the number of entries to the tournament. This hard work paid off with 35 Clubs from 5 Counties fielding 96 Teams on 6th June. The event run like clockwork thanks to all the pre-planning undertaken by the team led by John. Indications are that we have smashed last years record profit by a long way. Well done John and thanks to everyone who helped to make the day a success.
A thrilling penalty shoot-out success saw the Under 12’s East give St Albans City Youth something to smile about at their annual Six-a-Side competition.
Having seen their Under 11’s South clubmates lose out to a late goal in their final, the Under 12’s East made sure some of the silverware on offer stayed at home with their nailbiting win.
After topping their preliminary group and defeating Dunstable Wanderers A with a late Daniel McAfferty goal in their semi final, the young Saints met Dunstable Wanderers B in the final.
An evenly-contested game ended goalless and with extra-time unable to separate the sides, it was down to the dreaded penalty shoot-out to see who would win the Joe Horgan Memorial Trophy. Successful kicks from James Brophy, Ben Conrad and Harry Hunt put City in the driving seat, while they finally clinched a 3-1 success thanks to two spot-kick saves from keeper Jack Malin. There was more local success in the Under 9’s tournament, which saw Wheathamstead Wanderers lift the Richard Thomas Memorial Trophy after another thrilling final.
After winning through from their group with three wins and two draws from their five matches, the Wheathamstead youngsters came up against EDRS Stonegrove in the semis and sneaked a 1-0 win. That set up a tough final against Echoes Youth although there was no need for a penalty shoot-out this time as a goal from Kristian Kiff put a seal on success and handed Wanderers the win.
There was no such luck in the Under 11’s tournament, where St Albans City Youth’s South side ended up on an identical scoreline in their final. After three wins and two draws from Michael Langton and Sam Lyon gave them a 2-0 semi final success over Limbury Boys and set up a final clash with Flitwick Town Dynamoes.
But just when it seemed the young Saints had done enough to take the tie into extra-time they were stunned by a last-minute goal that gave Flitwick the Ben Lacey Memorial Trophy. The defeat was even harder to take, given the fact that the Under 11’s South had not conceded a single goal throughout the whole day.
The only final that did not feature a local side was for the Under 10’s Gavin Pendred Memorial Trophy, eventually won by Comet Rangers B after a win over Birchwood Rangers. Of the St Albans City side in the competition, the South B team won their group only to fall at the semi-final stage to two late Comet goals, while the Under 10’s North and South failed to progress beyond the group stages.
With 96 sides taking part on the day, over 3,000 spectators turned up at Sandringham School and after an amazing total of 63 hours of football, the last match of the day started just six minutes late.
The four trophies on offer were named in honour of former St Albans City Youth members who have sadly passed away.
Ben Lacey and Gavin Pendred were both killed in separate road accidents in the latter half of 1995, while another former player Richard Thomas, died of leukaemia recently.
The club was devastated again this season to learn of the death of Joe Horgan, who had known of his illness, but still came back to help manage one of the club’s Under 10 sides.
Terry Edwards Press Secretary