Strollers gave another strong showing yesterday in the "Fiducia Trophy” tournament, reaching a second semi final in successive weekends after finishing second in Pool A to Long Bennington.
In a pool of 5 teams, Strollers had a bye in round one. In the remaining 4 rounds we posted two wins a draw and a loss;
Strollers 1 (G Wildsmith)
Rushden & Diamonds 0
In a game dominated by Strollers high pressure man to man defence and good movement when in possession of the ball, Strollers were unlucky not to win by a higher margin. Nevertheless, a good start to the campaign.
Lincs United 1
Strollers 1 (C Barrett-Treen)
A very hard fought came against the “scratch team” organised by Taff Lovesey to even up the pools after three teams pulled out at very short notice. Everyone who came together to represent Lincs in the competition gave a very good account of themselves and really went above and beyond to support the tournament so great respect and thanks to them.
A draw was probably a fair result in a close and competitive encounter.
Long Bennington 1
Strollers 0
Long Bennington sent a very strong team to the tournament and this was always going to be a difficult fixture. Nevertheless, Strollers certainly gave as good as they received and were perhaps unlucky to have lost the game.
Huntingdon St Peters 0
Strollers 3 (G Wildsmith (2) C Barrett-Treen)
On paper this looked like being the easiest of Strollers pool games and so it turned out to be. Strollers dominated from the first whistle to the last, once again applying a high pressure man to man marking system which frustrated the Huntingdon side throughout.
Semi Final
Sleaford Academicals 2
Strollers 0
Not sure if it was the very impressive organisation of the Sleaford side, tiredness due to Strollers having just come off the back of three games in quick succession, or a combination of those two factors, but we really didn’t get into our stride during this match and Sleaford deservedly won the game before going on to beat Boston on penalties in the final.
All in all a creditable performance by Strollers on the day with all players performing well on what was a very enjoyable day.
Many thanks to Colin Barrett-Treen for this report.
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