The 2018 Riga Tournament Plate Final would be contested by Spider Mans 1s and Johnsbridge FC. Let's have a look at the two teams in a little more detail:

Spider Mans 1:

The current Plate holders of the Amsterdam Sixes. The Spider Mans 1s team today features 3 members of that Amsterdam winning team (Ryan Stevens, Sam A'Court and Liam Angel).

They had a record today of 3 wins and 2 defeats. 17 goals scored and 22 against. Won both their knock-out games 3-2 so knew how to win when the going got tough.

Johnsbridge FC:

Appearing in their second Plate Final and aiming for first title. Today's squad features 6 of the 8 players who played in that Krakow final.

They also had 3 wins today and 2 defeat plus also a draw (played an extra group game). They had scored 20 goals and conceded 23 so similar numbers to their opponents.

Johnsbridge FC had already met the Spider Mans sister squad (Ressies) in Group A and that match resulted in a 3-3 draw. With this result and the stats above in mind we expected a close match. If anything, Spider Mans history in our tournaments (qualifying for the Cup on 8 occasions) meant that if we had a tenner to put on at Ladbrokes we'd probably lean slightly towards them in predicting a winner and put it on Spider Mans.

How wrong we would have been! Johnsbridge FC had come flying out the traps in their Quarter-Final going 6-1 up against Colonel Getafe. They made another fast start here. A 3 goal blitz from Ollie Salvesen and Dan Goodwin (2) meant that Johnsbridge FC were in a commanding position after the early exchanges.

The match was by no means over – we have seen teams recover from 3-0 down and go on to win in a Plate Final before. At the 2013 Krakow Trophy Poland's Awiw fought back from such a deficit to draw 3-3 and then win on penalties. In the second half here Jon Crook reduced the Johnsbridge lead to 3-1.

Spider Mans 1s were unable to make further inroad into the Johnsbridge lead in a keenly contested match. Johnsbridge FC did state after the match that if Spider Mans 1s had got another back it could have set up nervy and tense finish. The lads in red & white managed to keep Spider Mans at arm's length though.

We offer our commiserations to Spider Mans 1s. They add runners-up medals to the collection of winners medals they picked up in Amsterdam last year (don't show anyone the engraving on the back, no-one will know they're runners-up ones). We look forward to seeing them in Gdansk later this year for their 10 th eurofootballfives.com tour.

The success and glory of today's Plate competition goes to Johnsbridge FC who collected the team winners' trophy and individual medals in our presentation. It was a great performance from them and a break-through victory in European competition. We trust they enjoyed their celebrations which no doubt went on long into the Riga night.