With all teams having played twice it was FC Miracle and FC Poloboc who lead the way for the home nation on 6 points each. FC Miracle would take to the field in Game 6 as they attempted to maintain their 100% record. In their way stood the team in third place, Polonia Limerick, who could make it a triumvirate of teams on 6 should they take victory here.

FC Miracle were competing for the 9 th time in our tournaments today. Their most recent was at the 2019 Barcelona Fives. They enjoyed a superb campaign in the group phase as they finished top of the group ahead of two time Barcelona champions, Club Esportiu Llefia. They were unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws scoring 11 goals and conceding just 2 along the way. They qualified for the Cup Quarter-Finals where they met the 2018 Gdansk Tournament winners, Northern Town. FC Miracle fell to a 3-0 defeat.

Overall, in their 8 tournaments with us, FC Miracle have won once, finished 2 nd three times, reached 2 Cup Semi-Finals twice and also 2 Cup Quarter-Finals. With 6-0 and 9-0 wins already it looked certain it would be a 9 th Cup qualification and possibly a 5 th Cup Final.

Polonia Limerick proved their toughest opponent yet. The goals were not coming as easily but they still managed one in each half through Janos Gal and Istvan Nemeth. Whilst the goals have captured the headlines it's worth mentioning that goalkeeper Marton Rekli and his defence had now kept 3 clean sheets. FC Miracle marched on.

Match 8 in Group C saw Southgate Ramblers (Eng) versus Polonia Limerick (Pol).

Southgate Ramblers most recently competed at the 2022 Lisbon Veterans Tournament they competed in both the Open Age and Veterans event with some of the Veterans playing for the Open Age teams before the Veterans category kicked-off. It may have contributed to a slow start when they began with a 4-1 defeat to AFC Shooters. They were soon back to winning ways with a 1-0 win over The Maulers. One win became two, by the same scoreline, against ACE & The Swagmen. Their final group game was a repeat of the 2017 Mallorca Veterans Tournament Cup Final against FC Mahou. Sadly for Southgate County it was a similar result as FC Mahou turned on the style to win 5-0. Thy qualified for the Plate competition and drew Santa Maria in the Semi-Finals. It was the Portuguese who emerged victorious, 1-0, to knock out the English team.

So far today it was two defeats from two for Southgate Ramblers but they could console themselves it was against the top two. They could perhaps console themselves that they had two (relatively) winnable fixtures to come and perhaps secure a place in the Plate in the process.

At half-time in this one it was all square at 1-1. A goal from Stefan Perez cancelling out a goal from Tomek Kusior. The second half belonged to Polonia Limerick though with the Polish side scoring 5 including goals from Miroslaw Kurzeja, Marek Zbroja, and Adam Gracz. Spare a thought for Cliff Lovett in goal who did superbly well to save a penalty only to see his defence leave a Polonia forward unmarked to head in from the resulting corner. Final score, 6-1.

The above result meant that Polonia Limerick had secured Plate football for this afternoon. The final two games would be a battle of the top two and a battle of the bottom two.

First up was the top two as FC Miracle met FC Poloboc. Both teams had secured Cup football so could relax in that sense. Up for grabs was the Group C title and the momentum going into the Quarter-Finals. Also, in theory, the winners would have an easier tie in the QF playing the second place team in Group D rather than the winners.

Should the game end in a draw then FC Miracle would win Group C courtesy of their superior goal difference. As we reached half-time there was nothing between the teams and we were level at 0-0.

In the second half it was the Hungarian team who made the initial breakthrough as Janos Gal scored his fourth of the day. FC Poloboc were not to be defeated though as Andriau Cucovei equalised. Final score, 1-1.

Congratulations to both teams for reaching the Cup. Both FC Miracle and FC Poloboc showed they had realistic chances of winning this tournament in probably the best quality Veterans tournament we've ever had.

Last but not least we come to Wafty Crankers versus Southgate Ramblers. We already knew that FC Miracle had won Group C with FC Poloboc second and FC Poloboc third. This was a straight shootout for fourth position in the table and with it the prize of a place in the Plate. The loser would go through to the Wooden Spoon competition in the afternoon knockout phase.

The first team out of the blocks in this game was Wafty Crankers who took the lead through Neill Fraser. It was now three goals without reply (all from Neill Fraser) since the back-end of their game v FC Poloboc. At half-time they looked good for that place in the Plate.

After the break Wafty Crankers extended that lead to 2-0 with James Armitage on target. They couldn't rest easy though as Steve Young pulled a goal back for Southgate Ramblers who went in search of an equaliser. Should the game end in a draw it would be Wafty Crankers who would finish fourth via goal difference so Southgate Ramblers needed to score twice more to avoid the Wooden Spoon. In the end though it finished with a 2-1 win to Wafty Crankers who sealed their place in the Plate. Well done to them.

Veterans

(For Open Age, click introduction and then select the relevant Open Age section)