We arrived at the Plate Quarter-Final stage and we would shortly see eight teams reduced to four teams. We had a high quality line-up in the Plate with 5 of the 6 teams who had played in our tournaments before having reached the Cup knock-out phase previously in one of our tournaments. This included Cheesecake FC who won the 2014 Mallorca Tournament. We also had 2 teams on debut.

First up was Lucanos Locos who took on Bure Park Old Boys. Lucanos Locos had looked odds on to reach the Cup today until final game defeat against JK Silvertown and a win for Beijing Rockets meant they missed out. We've seen teams miss out this way before and the disappointment has seen them go out in the Plate at the first time of asking. How would Lucanos Locos respond to such disappointment?

Pretty well is the answer but they were made to work very hard for it. Bure Park Old Boys qualified for the Plate in 6 th position with 3 points from Group B. The form book suggested this should be a fairly comfortable home win for the Polish who had 12 points from their group campaign. However, this was an extremely close game.

In the end there was only one goal in it. Pawel Orzechowski hadn't scored today but he found the back of the net just when his team needed him to. The 1-0 win sent Lucanos Locos into the final four. It was a good performance from Bure Park Old Boys but not quite enough.

In the lower half of the Quarter-Final draw it was JK Silvertown versus Mitre FC Vets. It was a team on the up against a team who had seen declining results. JK Silvertown began with 2 draws before going loss-win-loss-win including a sensational 3-1 win over Lucanos Locos who looked odds on to reach the Cup.

Conversely, Mitre FC Vets opened up with a win before taking just 1 point from the next 5 games including three defeats in a row with the last one being a morale crushing 5-0 to FC Miracle. Mitre FC Vets had the final round off so had a little time to recover before the knock-out phase and regroup.

JK Silvertown seemed to be peaking at just the right time though and the catalyst for this was Chris Wright who was knocking in goals for fun. He was the man of the match without a doubt as he scored all 4 goals in a 4-0 win. With defensive solidity and Chris Wright's goals JK Silvertown would be a match for anyone in this Plate competition.

Mitre FC Vets were out for today but it was great to see the guys in action and they still had interest in the tournament in the Open Age section.

The final Quarter-Final saw Dickie Dogs take on Bure Park Seniors. It was the third placed team in Group B (Dickie Dogs) who only missed out on the Cup at the death of Group B taking on the 6 th placed team in Group A (Bure Park Seniors). On paper, the Dickie Dogs were certainly favourites although we all know the game isn't played on paper.

This was going to be an interest contest between teams that had reached no less than 6 Plate Finals between them. The only surprise was there was not one Plate win amongst all those finals. Dickie Dogs collected runners-up medals at the 2014 Mallorca Tournament, the 2017 Mallorca Veterans and the 2018 Algarve Veterans. Bure Park had collected runners-up medals at the 2010 Valencia Fives, 2018 Mallorca Veterans and 2022 Krakow Veterans.

A win here would be the first step to try and redress this issue. Just like the other 3 rd place versus 6 th place game, this was much closer than the two teams league positions would suggest. That also featured Bure Park where the Old Boys put up a good fight. The Seniors also put up a good fight but, like their tour-mates, they ended up empty handed.

It was only a cracking strike that would send the Seniors home. Mike Llewellyn scored his first goal against Bure Park Old Boys and he had his second goal against Bure Park Seniors.

We had to say farewell to Bure Park on the pitch but would see them at the post-tournament social for happy hour drinks and we hoped to see them again in 2024 for tour #14.