Falcons bossed their way to the semi finals of the annual Leicester Wildecats Tournament but were defeated by deserved competition winners, National Grid.
Commitment to the team has perhaps never been better demonstrated than to get nine players at Victoria coach station for 0730 in the morning. The boys utilised the 2.5 hour journey to catch up on some sleep, although the entire coach was disrupted on the approach to Leicester as Dean cooked up a stink in the toilet so foul that there was a very real danger of the driver passing out and crashing.
Fortunately the team recovered to make the short walk to St. Margaret's Pastures and meet Tom who made up the 10 man squad.
Things started comfortably enough with a 3-0 victory over one of the host teams before Titans expertly parked the bus to frustrate us in a 0-0 draw.
It's fair to say the luck of the draw was on our side when we faced teams minutes after their previous games. Nottingham Lions, Leicester Helsinki and Mersey Marauders were defeated 6-0, 5-0 and 2-0, respectively, as the goals began to flow.
At the quarter final stage there was a comfortable 2-0 win over Foss Legends before we met the formidable National Grid team in the semi-final. Sadly we succumbed where every other team did on the day, conceding our first goals of the tournament to lose 2-0.
National Grid went on to wrap up the competition with a commanding 4-1 win over Romans in the final.
So, not quite champions but a very strong showing from the Falcons boys who certainly gained the respect of a number of opposition teams who were impressed to see the recent turnaround in the club's fortunes.
After a swift pint and munch on the excellent BBQ at the Rainbow & Dove it was back on the National Express for the journey home and a lot of excited talk about the new season which starts on the 11th.
Thanks as usual to Leicester Wildecats for another well-organised tournament and well done to everyone who took part.
Team: Ritchie, Olu, Dean, Dave, John, Tom, Brady, Pete, Kieran, Chris