2011 Prague 5-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report League B Round 5

Results

CIS (Blr)	1	v	1	FC Xaverov (Cze)
Norton Old Boys (Eng)	0	v	5	Saipan FC (Ire)
Zizkov Drunks (Eng)	0	v	6	Dark Horses (Eng)

Round 5 of Group B began with the league table decider. Two teams with 100% records came head to head – for one, or both, of these teams that record would go. In order to claim the Group B title FC Xaverov knew they needed to win as they were behind courtesy of goals scored. A draw or better and CIS would take the Group B win.

By half-time we were no closer to knowing who would go into the Cup competition as Group B victors as we were locked together at 0-0. We expected a tough game and that is exactly what we got. For long periods it looked like it would be just the one goal that would settle this result and when Pavel Tomash put the boys from Belarus 1-0 up it looked like they would make it 5 wins out of 5.

They were to be pegged back though as Robin Vyhnalek's first goal of the day was a crucial one as he equalized for the local team. There was to be no further scoring as the game finished 1-1. Both teams were through to the Cup with CIS in 1st place and FC Xaverov in 2nd . Both teams were playing well.

Norton Old Boys and Saipan FC both sat on 3 points knowing a win would give them an outside chance of 3rd place and an outside (although unlikely) chance of making the Cup competition. At the very least they could secure 4th place and the higher the teams finished up the table the easier the Plate quarter-final tie would be (in theory anyway). The two teams had both gone a couple of couple games without victory so the first goal was likely to be important as a confidence boost.

Saipan FC scored it through Max Halley and they had an important lead. At half-time the score remained 1-0 and it was advantage Ireland. For Norton Old Boys maybe it was a case of tiring legs or sapping confidence but they fell further behind in the second half as Tom Bird made it 2-0. Barry Lysaght added to the tally to make it 3-0 before Halley scored his second of the game and finally Beat Schiffhauer opened his account for the day. Final score, 5-0.

The final game of Group B was Zizkov Drunks versus Dark Horses. The Dark Horses needed a solid victory to finish third and a good goal difference to give them a good chance of being in the top two third placed teams in order to make the Cup. Zizkov Drunks were trying to avoid the Wooden Spoon. They would need to win or draw and look over to Group A to see how AC Lesk were doing in order to make the Plate.

In the end they did not need to worry about what was happening in Group A as Dark Horses would condemn Zizkov Drunks to a 5 th consecutive defeat. The match was all over in the first half as Dark Horses continued their resurgent form. They were 4-0 up by the break and stretched that lead to 6-0 by full time as Chris Bunclark claimed a hat-trick, Richard Walker scored twice and Aled Byron also got in on the act.

As it turned out, Dark Horses had done enough to claim a place in the Cup. It was a remarkable change of fortunes for the English team who since losing their first two games had scored 15 goals in 3 games and conceded just 1. They were certainly living up to their name and were surely Dark Horses to claim the 2011 Prague Masters title.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
CIS (Blr)	5	4	1	0	13	4	13
FC Xaverov (Cze)	5	4	1	0	11	2	13
Dark Horses (Eng)	5	3	0	2	15	6	9
Saipan FC (Ire)	5	2	0	3	8	8	6
Norton Old Boys (Eng)	5	1	0	4	4	17	3
Zizkov Drunks (Cze)	5	0	0	5	4	18	0

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