NKSU brush the rest aside

NKSU proved to be the winners of "The Match...3" as they won recorded two of the biggest victories ever seen in the tournament's history. They didn't lose once in the whole tournament, failing to win just the once and winning the group.

The afternoon started in less than conveinient circumstances with several members of Team Goob not arriving until after the tournament was supposed to begin, with them being amongst the first to supposed to be playing. However, they avoided the automatic 2-0 defeat due to giving prior notice, but this threw the fixtures into a bit of disarray.

It didn't take long for the two wooden-spoon contenders to become evident as neither the Randoms or Damned United could score to save their lives. The Randoms, made up between players who don't even live in the same county, let alone having never played together, struggled at first with the first opportunities coming in game two when both Jonjo Syson and Nathan Jackson missed golden chances to turn around a game that they eventually lost two-nil.

The semi-finalists were already decided by the end of the third games, it was just a case of the order they finished in and the semi-finals would be contested between the free-scoring Welton Imps and a Goob side that entered the semis with a -4 goal difference, and NKSU would face Skelly's Team, a meeting of the tournament's early favourites.

However, the battle for the wooden-spoon went right to the last game of the group stage with Damned United facing The Randoms. No player from either team had scored in the 60 minutes worth of previous play, but that soon changed as Adam Sycamore opened the scoring for Randoms, followed by a double from Jonjo Syson and individual nets from Nigel Stefanyszn and Ben Grundy.

GROUP STAGE RESULTS

These results are not necessarily in the order that the games happened due to the aforementioned issue with Team Goob arriving late.

Skelly 0 NKSU 0

Skelly 0 Welton 1

Goob 2 Damned United 0

Randoms 0 Goob 3

Welton 2 Randoms 0

Randoms 0 NKSU 2

Skelly 1 Goob 0

Damned United 0 Skelly 1

Damned United 0 Welton 2

NKSU 2 Damned United 1 (goal scored by a loan player)

Randoms 0 Skelly 5

NKSU 1 Welton 0

Welton 4 Goob 0

Goob 2 NKSU 6

Damned United 0 Randoms 5

FINAL TABLE

SEMI FINALS

Due to a slight change of plan, the Semi Finals would see 1st play 3rd and 2nd vs 4th. NKSU dominated their semi final against Skelly's team with a 4-2 victory, but the other Semi Final ended with a 1-1 and penalty shoot-outs and it was two-two going into the final kicks, Will Taylor smashed his in for Goob but Adam Mawer, Captain of Welton Imps, missed the vital penalty, meaning a Goob vs NKSU Final.

THIRD PLACE PLAYOFF

The third placed Playoff proved to be a little bit of a disappointment with teams who scored a lot of goals between them only scoring once in the game, Welton Imps claiming Bronze.

FINAL

The final was a bit one-sided to say the least with NKSU proving their dominance over Goob, following a 6-2 victory in the Group Stage with a 9-2 win in the Final to win the tournament.

See you all next year.