Jan Barrett-Treen Memorial Trophy -Stamford Reds

Today I had the honour of managing Stamford Strollers Reds in our home tournament, the Jan Barrett-Treen Memorial Trophy. Unfortunately, we could not repeat last year’s heroics but gave a good account of ourselves and were difficult to beat.

We kicked off against our most local rivals, Hampton United. The game was very strictly refereed, which broke up the rhythm of both teams. It ended scoreless although Strollers’ Toni Cammarata had one chalked off for a marginal not-walking offence.

Another tight game followed against Boston United. We had drawn 3-3 with them a few weeks ago in Cleethorpes but this was no goal-fest. A single goal from a free-kick for Boston was all that separated the teams, with Boston going on to eventually win the tournament.

Our first win came against Rutland WF. JT Thompson opened the scoring from a well-worked free-kick, and Colin Barrett added a penalty.

Another goal-less draw followed against Harborough Hornets. The game could have gone either way but we missed a penalty.

Next up were our old rivals Sleaford Academicals. This was the best we played all day with a strong team performance. Toni Cammarata scored the only goal of the game, after which we managed the game well, restricting Sleaford to wild speculative efforts. Strollers’ ‘keeper, David Moore, did bail us out with a few timely saves.

Our final group match saw us take on Northampton Town Clarets for whom it was a must-win game. After a bright opening we faded, and our opponent’s aggressive press caused us a lot of problems; we were harried out of possession close to our own goal to concede the opening goal. We missed the chance to equalise with a penalty given for a DOGSO and then conceded again with another DOGSO penalty given against us. 

Finishing fourth in Group A meant we advanced to the quarter finals to face the winners of Group B - Norwich SOCA Seniors. This was a one-sided game with only a superb performance from David Moore keeping us in it. The game was scoreless after 15 minutes so was decided by a penalty shootout. Rich Talby converted our first, but two further misses saw us bow out of the competition.

Group Stage:

• L0-1 v Norwich Soca Seniors

• L0-2 v Northampton Town

• W1-0 v Sleaford Academicals (Cammarata)

• D0-0 v Harborough Hornets Yellow

• W2-0 v Rutland Ospreys (Thompson, Barrett)

Quarter-Final:

• L0-1 Norwich Soca Seniors

Squad:

• Rich Talby

• Colin Barrett

• JT Thompson (player/manager)

• Nigel Reeve

• Toni Cammarata

• Jason Fulman

• David Moore

• Al Cook