06/07/2026
Yaxley Tournament Review ⚽💚
Tournament football is always difficult when you take a mixed-age and mixed-ability squad. You never quite know what to expect, but every single player was a credit to themselves today and made me incredibly proud.
Our first game was a little disappointing. We were slow to switch on and a few silly mistakes made life difficult for ourselves. Tom pulled off some excellent saves to keep us in the game, but the highlight came from our only goal. Loki somehow found the back of the net with an absolute thunderbolt from inside his own half – a goal he’ll remember for a long time!
Our next two games were against stronger opposition and, despite not managing to get on the scoresheet, the team never let their heads drop. They kept battling until the final whistle in both matches and gave a really good account of themselves.
With their never-give-up attitude, they saved their best performance until last. From the very first whistle they were full of energy. Loki won the ball back immediately from kick-off, found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper and calmly slotted home to make it 1-0. Harry’s intelligent movement caused the opposition defence problems all game, creating space for Loki to grab his third goal of the morning with another well-taken finish and put us 2-0 ahead.
We conceded a late goal, but the team dug deep and held on to secure our first-ever tournament win! The celebrations at the final whistle and the smiles on every child’s face said it all.
Although we didn’t progress to the knockout stages, every player should be proud of their efforts. Across our four matches we used four different goalkeepers, and every outfield player received equal game time. That’s something that’s really important to us as coaches. We want every child to play, enjoy their football and continue to develop. Hopefully that first tournament win will give the whole team a real boost in confidence going forward.
Player of the Tournament: 🏆 Harry – for his outstanding work rate, determination and willingness to listen and put the coaches’ advice into practice.
A very close runner-up was Evelyn, who was excellent throughout. She constantly looked for space, worked hard off the ball and did a fantastic job of putting into practice what we’ve been working on in training.
Well done to every single player. You should all be incredibly proud of yourselves. Onwards and upwards! 💚⚽
