On Friday 5th at 7am Taunton’s Boys 1st team travelled to Cardiff Met University for a 2-day pre-season friendly tournament. The first game of the competition saw us play Monkton and we came away with a brilliant 5-0 win, including a standard Oscar C baseline finish. The boys were then put through some S&C testing with the university to which Alex C walked away with a couple of university records in the vertical jump and 30m sprint – he was overwhelmed with excitement about this. We then played a strong Canford side and Luxor L managed to finish a typical solo effort to give Taunton the 1-0 win. Ben M came away with Man of the Match Day for two faultless, composed performances. Olly H gained Players’ Player of the Day for equally as established performances, whilst Jack P walked away with the Room for Improvement award for forgetting his Astros.

Day 2 got off to a flyer with a dead bus battery, icy pitch and fire alarms left, right and centre, but we managed to fit in our third fixture versus a strong Scarborough side and came away with a 2-0 win with a goal to seal it in the match’s dying moments. This put Taunton top of their group and meant they would play Bradfield for top seed to finish the competition. The boys behaved exceptionally and managed to keep themselves entertained for few hours in between matches.

Bradfield controlled the early stages of the game in possession, but Taunton defended patiently and did not give away any chances. As we grew into the game the boys forced several quality saves from Bradfield’s keeper and seemed to shift momentum in their favour. Will H drew out some large tackles from the opposition and probably deserved to win a card against them… but no one had any. The final whistle went with the score at 0-0 and both teams mutually agreed for a light-hearted penalty shoot-out to which Will H, Logan DP & Lux L all scored, while Tom C made a vital save for the ‘W’.

Alex C walked away with the Man of the Match Day for sheer work rate and good jumping. Ben M made a u-turn and took the Room for Improvement award having flicked the ball out of the pitch straight onto a car.

Alex S lead by example continuously throughout the trip and could have walked away with plenty of awards himself.

Not all players have had a mention, but all could have as they played brilliantly with standout individual and team moments throughout the two days.

A brilliant pre-season trip with valuable lessons taken away from numerous aspects of their game and the group themselves. We come up against Canford again in our first block fixture on Saturday 13th Jan.